Nov 15, 2005
UCI Says No to Semi-Stages
The UCI ProTour has voted against the semi-stage final day of the Giro. The final day was to include an 11km Uphill Time Trial followed by an afternoon celebratory jaunt into Milan. Both the Italian and Pro cycling “unions” were against this saying that you need a superhuman effort to do this especially after the brutal final week that takesin just about every tough climb the Giro Organizers could find. The question now is what will the Giro orgs do for the final day?
I say a semi-hilly time trial that starts in Milan and ends up the Ghisallo. That way you have your visit to Milan and get the final climb challenge all in one. They could increase it to something like 30kms (or whatever distance the Ghisallo is from Milan) and that would make just about everyone happy except for Petacchi of course.
I thought that final 2-part stage was funky. So what’s going to happen? Will the Giro need to change that last split stage into a single race?
Looks like it. They may simply remove the uphill TT and simply have the regular final day sprint into Milan.
Having a 2-part stage at the end of a major stage-race in modern day racing is a bit crazy. The Pro-Tour schedule is hard enough as it is for riders without the return of 2-part stages… There is already too many race-days on the Pro-Tour calender.
Mags
http://roadrace1.blogspot.com/
I don’t think that it would be too tough especially since the uphill TT is only 11km long.
After that, they ride what is usually a parade-style finish to Milan. They only get going
until the last few kilometers to contest the sprint. This is at the end of a three week stage
race which is the highlight of the season for some. Plus, they get to recover for however long they like right after. To me, I think it may be an over-reaction. The main motivation is to keep these
semi-stages from becoming popular.
The Grand Tours used to feature semi-stages
all the time. They were not too popular with the riders then and even now.