Dec 4, 2006
2007 Giro Presentation
The 2007 Giro D’Italia route was unveiled on Saturday in Milan in front of a who’s who of Italian Cycling. The new route is being described as a more “human” tour with fewer mountain stages, but also fewer time trials. The route looks to leave the Giro very much an open race up to the end. With fewer time trials and some tough mountain stages Francesco Moser called the 2007 Giro one for the climbers. Here is a list of climbs from the gazzetta.it site: The climbs
The emphasis of the 2007 Giro is for providing a close battle. After Ivan Basso’ dominant victory in 2006 the Giro organizers probably wanted t keep the race closer and provide less decisive stages. The route is tailored to the styles of most of the top Italian contenders such as Basso, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego and even Danilo DiLuca. Alessandro Petacchi is happy with more sprinters stages than last year. The manageable mountain stages will help Petacchi get to the finish in Milan as long as he does not crash like in 2006.
Uphill Time Trial
One of the time trials is a 13km uphill TT on Stage 13. This climb was last featured in 1999 which was the scene of a dominant win by Marco Pantani. At the bottom of the climb Pantani lost 40 seconds due to a chain problem. Once he was adjusted his Mercatone Uno team paced him up to the peloton. During the climb Pantani passed 50 riders on his way to the win.
Stage 13 13km. Mountain Time Trial BIELLA – SANTUARIO DI OROPA
More Pantani memories are on tap for Stage 12 from Scalenghe to Briancon which features the Cima Coppi climb of Colle di Agnello. The stage is similar to on in 2000 where Marco Pantani helped Stefano Garzelli to win the Giro overall. The stage featured Pantani surging through descents of a previous climb where he was dropped. Il Pirata caught up to the lead group and paced Garzelli.
Two of the most fearsome climbs of the Giro are the Tre Cimi di Lavaredo and the Zoncolan. Both have been featured in the past but riders such as Gilberto Simoni are nervous at tackling both climbs in one Giro.
Stage 15: Tre Cimi di Lavaredo
Stage 17: The Zoncalon is a fearsome climb.
