2015 Giro d'Italia Stage 16 Live Coverage
Welcome to our live coverage of Stage 16 of the 2015 Giro d'Italia! Our live profile and commentary are below, followed by a preview of the technical aspects of the route.
Course Preview
It's going to be another day for the climbers on Stage 16. With five KOMs to contend with, look for fireworks as the race reaches its last week. Just 13 km into the stage, the riders will tackle Campo Carlo Magno (Cat.2). Another Cat. 2 climb comes next, the Passo del Tonale, at the 55 kilometer mark. Then 45 kilometers later, the route crests Aprica (Cat.3), and then itâs on to the infamous Passo del Mortirolo ( Cat. 1). Finally, the riders will be relieved to see Aprica (Cat.3) again for the finish at km 174. As always, two chances for intermediate sprint points will be on offer in Corteno Golgi (92.8km) and Tirano (119.6 km).
Laghi said this is a uge stage and a stage for champions.
âIâd expect to see Contador make a real difference here, because heâs the outstanding rider in this Giro,â he predicted. âOn some mountain stages you can get away with it by being clever, but thereâs no hiding place on days like these."
âI donât know the Mortirolo, because they didnât start riding it until 1990,â Laghi said. âIt would have been impossible with the bikes we had. When I started we had 53/44 on the front and that was it. You had five gears on the back, from 13 to 25. So when we rode up Tre Cime di Lavaredo in a blizzard in 1968, I would have been on 44x25. To be honest I still donât really know how we made it up there. For ânormalâ riders like me it wasnât a race in the traditional sense. We were just hauling our bikes up as best we could and the public helped by pushing us.â
Moment in time
As the bicycle evolves, so too does the Giro percorso. These days bikes have very light frames and an infinite choice of gear ratios and as a consequence they can get over climbs that were hitherto unthinkable. When the race organizers introduced the Stelvio in 1953 there was genuine concern theyâd lost their marbles. It was the same with the Gavia in 1960 and again with Tre Cime di Lavaredo in 1967. Ditto the Fedaia, the Nigra and latterly todayâs beast, the Mortirolo.
It was absolutely hateful when Franco Chioccioli rode over it on 42x26 gears, but nowadays club riders hack their way up on 30x28. The Zoncolan, the Giroâs most horrific climb, has subsequently superseded it. All of which leads us back once more to 1933. The Tonale, todayâs anti pasto, wasnât the first Giro climb to exceed 1,000m, but it was a monumental undertaking all the same. The poor blighters who hauled themselves over it had no rear derailleur, much less a granny ring.
What they had was two gears, one either side of a removable back wheel. They therefore switched the wheel round at the foot of the climb and began the long march. And the point of all this? The point is that it was ever thus. To us itâs neither here nor there, but once upon a time getting over the Passo Tonale was a Herculean feat of endurance.\n
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