2015 Giro d'Italia Stage 17 Live Coverage
Welcome to our live coverage of Stage 17 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
In a flat, 135 km stage from Tirano to the Swiss city of Lugano, teams will be looking for a chance to give their sprinters a chance for victory at the finish. Just one Cat.3 KOM will meet the riders in Teglio early in the stage. The two intermediate sprints are in Morbegno (63.5 km) and Menaggio (106.1 km).
Manzoni said the riders shouldnât underestimate that first climb because itâs going to be horrible after a stage like the one theyâve been through the day before.
âItâs 7km and on the surface it might look insignificant,â he said about the stage. âHowever, if youâre morale is low and you lose contact you might find yourself in real trouble.
âThe point is that you donât know if or when the break will go and nor how much time the sprint team will let the break take. For all we know it might be lightning fast for an hour, so focus is key.â
âSo itâs important that they donât take it lightly,â he went on to say. âThey need to have an objective and a responsibility, because thatâs the best way to keep the group united and the morale up. Logically itâs a sprint, but what happens depends on the composition of the break and on the sprint teams. At this stage of the race theyâre extremely tired, so you never knowâŚâ
Moment in time
The Giro paid its first visit to Lugano for the penultimate stage in 1947. It marked a historic moment in the sense that it was the first time the race had alighted outside of Italyâs confines, but also because of what happened on the road. By now Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali were at loggerheads. Bartali had won the previous year but this time Coppi, five years younger, had destroyed him in the queen stage in the Dolomites. Bartali had been humiliated and so, as they crossed the Swiss border, he launched a stinging attack on a tasty little climb. The purpose was to win the points at the top, but Coppi wasnât having it. Four times Bartali surged and four times Coppi, riding within himself, reeled him in. It was classic stuff and the needle between them was palpable.
Later, as they neared Lugano, was another highly symbolic moment. Vito Ortelli, the âthird manâ of Italian cycling, took off in the company of Giovanni Corrieri, a lightning fast Sicilian. Ortelli was so classy that many had favoured him to barge in on the Coppi/Bartali duopoly, but there was no way he could beat Corrieri in a sprint. What happened next, though, was astonishingâŚ
Corrieriâs teammate, a certain Fiorenzo Magni, jumped across the gap. It seemed to make no sense whatsoever, but Magni had a point to prove. Ortelli was a big rival for him and if heâd to tread on Corrieriâs toes to get at him, then so be it. Ruthless, no-quarter stuffâŚ\n
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