- It's a special Giro d'Italia themed ask
GCN anything this week on the channel.
We've been asking you for your questions,
and we've got a whole host in and
we'll be answering as many as we possibly can today.
For those of you who don't know
the race is kicking off today, Friday the 4th of May.
In fact, by the time this video comes out,
the first stage 9.9 kilometer individual
time trial around Jerusalem will be done and dusted.
- Yeah, gotta say as well, if you
have access to the Eurosport Player,
then you'll also be able to tune in to
a very special GCN race highlights and analysis program,
which we're super excited about, aren't we?
- We are. Si is hosting that today,
I'm looking forward to watching it myself.
First up though, a few very simple,
but very important questions about the Giro,
starting with this from Maokawaii.
I am just a newbie so what is the Giro d'Italia?
- Well that is an important question, isn't it?
So the Giro d'Italia is a bike race around Italy.
Okay, so it comprises of 21 individual stages,
and the winner of the race is the
rider that completes it in the fastest time.
So, the actual over all leader board
is calculated using aggregate times,
so for each of every one stage added up,
and therefore the person with the
least time at the end is the winner.
Now just to complicate things ever so slightly,
the race also celebrates the winner
of each of those 21 stages, so
at any one time, you could actually
have, a race within a race.
- Yes. It sounds reasonably complicated,
but actually you can get your
head around it reasonably quickly.
And the more you get your head around
the technicalities of cycling the better it is to watch,
I personally find. - Yeah, endlessly fascinating.
- Without wanting to further complicate things,
because there are bonus seconds available
during each stage and at the end of each stage,
you can actually win the Giro d'Italia
without completing the course in the fastest time.
- That has just over complicated things.
Anyway, probably a point that needs pointing out.
Now the person that is in the lead of the race
gets to wear a very special jersey.
As they do basically in every stage race in cycling.
And for the Giro d'Italia it is pink,
Tour de France of course is yellow.
Panos peterpan, what's the story
behind the Maglia Rosa? Why pink?
- Well there's quite a simple reason for this, isn't there?
The people behind the creation of the Giro d'Italia,
all the way back in 1909, was the national Italian
sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Now that paper was, and still to this day,
is printed on pink sheets, or paper, as it's newspaper.
And so they decided in order to promote that newspaper
that they would make the leader's
jersey of the race pink as well, hence La Maglia Rosa.
- That's right, and the pink theme continues to this day,
which explains why Dan is wearing a very natty pink T-shirt,
and my Italian themed T-shirt also has flashes of pink on.
Both of these are our celebratory T-shirts.
They're available for limited edition only in the GCN shop.
- They are indeed. And if you want a few more details on the
pink jersey, and also 17 other interesting facts
about Giro d'Italia - 17 other facts?
- Yeah. Then you should watch this next video,
which is catchily titled top 18 Giro d'Italia facts.
- Did you know there was a jersey that was awarded
to the last place rider on general classification.
It was called La Maglia Nera, or the black jersey.
And quite often there used to be a race
within a race to see who could get the slowest time,
such was the prestige of wearing this jersey.
- Our next question comes in from Marc Jan,
what is the average speed going to be by the
riders in the 9 kilometer Time Trial in Israel?
It must be at at least 55 kilometers per hour, is it?
- Well yeah, you're probably not far off with your guess,
but it is difficult to accurately predict,
because it depends on so many factors, doesn't it?
Like the weather, so for example if it's wet,
how many corners there are in the stage,
what the wind direction is, so yeah
it is hard to predict, but you probably ball park.
- Well I'm gonna give it a go. - Oh, go on.
- I've had a quick look at the map,
and the elevation profile, and the weather conditions,
and I'm going to predict a winning
average speed - Go on.
Of 52.8 kilometers per hour, - Oof.
so 30 miles per hour.
- You know what's cruel about this, Dan,
is that given the stage will already have finished
by the time this video goes up, if you actually
get it right no one's gonna believe that
we recorded it before hand. - Yeah, how can I prove it?
- You can't mate, you can't. Right, sticking to
Time Trial themes, we got this one from Bloomberg.
I'll be at the Time Trial in Jerusalem,
and let me tell you it is gonna be a hot day.
How do you think the heat will affect the race,
both from the technical standpoint,
and on a physiological standpoint?
- Well, teams and riders, especially in the modern era,
are more than adept at coping with extreme conditions,
either in the cold, or indeed in the heat.
And looking at the forecast for the Time Trial today,
maximum temperature of 32, chance of rain actually,
though it's 32 centigrade, that's about 90 Fahrenheit.
So not particularly extreme when you consider
what they have to deal with at races like the
Tour Down Under in January, - Yeah.
where the thermometer notice closer to 40.
Next two days on this sprint stage is
looking more like 25 and 26, which to be honest
is almost perfect cycling weather, isn't it?
- Does sound quite nice where I'm sitting right now.
Now from a technical standpoint,
all the equipment will be absolutely fine, won't it?
The only thing that you might see,
is riders warming up for the Time Trial wearing
an ice vest to keep their core body temperatures cool.
Otherwise it's just the basics, really.
Making sure they stay well hydrated,
rehydrate after the stage, and
cool down as quickly as possible.
- Now you might be wondering why we have got
some snowy pictures whilst talking
about excessive heat, just behind us.
The reason is that you do get some
particularly extreme conditions in
both directions at the Giro d'Italia in May.
I remember the first race that I did there in 2009.
It was extremely hot from start to finish.
Bit too hot for me, to be perfectly honest.
But then, if we look at this from
2013, who can forget that stage?
Where we could barely see Vincenzo Nibali
in his pink jersey, in 2013, as he climbed
up to a stage, Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
That was quite, well, I'm gonna say epic.
- It was epic, and so epic in fact that
we made a video, not about the race per se,
but about the fans that had trekked for kilometers
through freezing temperatures to go and watch at the side of the road.
Brilliant. Worth a watch that video, definitely.
- Looks like it was really cold that day, so...
- It was. You must have been nice and toasty
in the commentary booth. - I was,
in the commentary box at the finish line,
there were heaters. (laughter)
- What's your name and where have you come from?
- My name is Igor, we came from Czech Republic.
- Okay, and how have you got up to
the top of Tre Cime di Lavaredo today?
- We walk.
- And how long's it taken you?
- I don't know, three or four hours.
- What do you want to see on this final
stretch of road of the Giro d'Italia?
- I don't know, of course I wanna see Nibali,
my favorite is also Rigoberto Uran, and also
we are fans of Polish riders Majka and Przem Niemiec.
- Happy memories there, aye Dan?
Alright, next up, we've got this one from Michal Svoboda,
who can surprise us in the Giro d'Italia this year?
- I would like to try and pick out a
few underdogs that might surprise at the Giro.
In our preview show, which we will link
to at the end of this one, I mentioned
an Ecuadorian rider from Moviestar called Richard Carapaz.
After that show, I hasten to add and emphasize,
he went on to take his first pro victory,
winning the stage and the overall classification,
Vuelta a Asturias, though I can't prove it,
once again, because the show came out after he'd done it.
Nevertheless, I am expecting something from him because
most, I haven't really taken a big team leader to the
race this year, so he should get quite a lot of freedom.
- He should, yeah. One rider who won't get freedom,
but still could surprise us, I think,
is Sam Oomen, from team Sunweb.
Now he'll be there of course, in support of
his team leader Tom Dumoulin, but he's
a particularly impressive rider and definitely one to watch.
Second in the Vuelta last year, he looked
super strong, it's unfortunate he fell ill,
but at this years Giro d'Italia he could
well be a surprise super domestique.
As Sunweb go, for Giro number two.
Well, hopefully Tom Dumoulin - Yes.
won't be going for another Giro number two, but
that's another point entirely. - That was terrible.
- Sorry. (laughter)
- Along similar lines to Oomen, I think that
Jack Haig could be a surprise package for
Mitchelton-Scott. - Yeah.
He's a young rider with a mountain bike background,
similar to myself and Si in fact,
although that is where the similarity ends.
- Yeah I was gonna say, he's similar but faster.
Much, much faster. - Yes.
- He's really impressed me so far in 2018,
and I think he's gonna be a real key member
of that squad, who have a two pronged attack,
because they have Esteban Chaves, and Simon Yates,
both going for the overall classification.
So I'm excepting quite a lot from Jack Haig
over the three weeks, especially in the mountains.
What is quite interesting, though, is this tweet
and graphic from Killing Kelly on Twitter,
where he has shown the number of
Grand Tour debutantes at each year of the Giro d'Italia
for the past few decades, and interestingly this year
has the fewest since 1994. - [Simon] Cool.
- We've got just 18 making their debut at the Giro,
and I think that is a side affect probably of the
fact that we've gone down to eight man teams from nine.
- Yes, you're probably right, I see
there aren't you? I would imagine.
Although, you'd expect, I guess, to see a natural drop off
if you'd had loads of debutantes for the past few years.
Then there may be just gonna be getting more experienced.
I don't know. - Yes.
- But I think you are probably right too there.
Right next question, we got this from Yanyan Morrondoz.
What's the fastest recorded time Monte Zoncolan
since it was introduced, excuse me, into the Giro?
That, for those who don't know, is basically
one of the most fearsome climbs in the whole of Europe.
It's an absolute brute, isn't it?
- Well I had to look up climbing-records.com for this,
which is quite an interesting site if you're geeky
and into your climbing stats, and how quick
pro rides have gone up various climbs.
They say that the record time came back in 2007,
when Gilberto Simoni and Leonardo Piepoli
climbed the Zoncolan, which is 9.8k's at 12%,
in a time of 39 minutes and 3 seconds,
which is almost a full minute and a half quicker
than Rigoberto Uran and Nairo Quintana went up it in 2014.
- Interesting, very interesting.
Right, next up we got this from Fusionic_TH.
This year's Giro isn't Tom Dumoulin's preferred profile.
I'd say he's got his best chance to neat Froome at the Tour.
So why doesn't he focus on the Tour only?
Is it really worth it to try and defend his title?
- I'm kind of with you there.
I was quite surprised that he decided to come back
and try and defend his Giro d'Italia title, because
it feels like he can either equal what he's done, or fail.
Those are the only two outcomes, really, aren't there?
And I always think that, at 27 years of age,
that he would have ticked that box,
and head to the Tour de France as
his main ambition for this year.
I mean we don't know, whether he's
not aiming for the Tour as well.
He might well go on and try and do a good GC there,
but I though he would focus solely on that.
- Yeah, he has only got 12 race days under his belt,
though, in the lead up to the Giro,
which is probably quite light,
so maybe he's thinking about the bigger picture.
- Yeah, I hope so, cause I think he could
do really well at this all. - Yeah.
- And I hope that he does focus on the Tour
as well this year, cause I think he could
do really well there. - Yeah.
- Next question is from
Lucky Si. - Aye!
- Not you is it?
- No. - Quite visibly.
- Hi GCN- - He's from the Philippines.
- Yeah from the Philippines, further proof.
I want to know how does the logistic system work?
Like transporting the team bikes from Europe to Israel.
Hope you can make a video about this.
- Yeah. Well I tell you what,
it's really complicated this time,
because normally all the Grand Tours and the races
are within the European Union,
However now, it's the first Grand
Tour to ever start outside the EU.
The teams have had real trouble,
well not trouble exactly, but logistical nightmares,
so every single item that the team takes
into Israel has to be accounted for,
down to the individual energy gels,
which just seems absolutely bonkers.
So all the team trucks, and the team buses,
will be waiting for the riders in Sicily, which is
where the riders transfer to after three days of racing.
So, the riders will effectively just fly with
their race bikes, and that'll be about it.
So yeah, they're very complicated.
- There's been a charted plane,
or a number of them for the rides and staffers,
and there has been another plane,
I think I'm right in saying, just for
the bikes to head over, I think,
I saw a picture of that the other day.
- Cool.
- Okay, a few years ago, in fact just two years ago,
in 2016, I headed over to team Sky's hotel
at the start of the Tour de France
to find out what the logistics are like in terms of numbers.
Bottles, gels, bars, vehicles, et cetera.
And it's quite complicated even when
you don't head outside of Europe.
You can find more details on that in this video.
- 55 bikes.
- They've got 100 rolls of bar tape,
which they will probably use around 66,
because they change that every four days or so, just to
make sure the bikes look spic and span all of the time.
They will also get through 30 bottles
Muc-Off chain lube, 25 litres of Muc-Off degreaser,
and finally they have one kettle.
No spare, what're they gonna do if it breaks?
- Right just to wrap quickly we've
got some nice speedy questions for you.
This one from Matthew Gilster, what's the
smallest margin of victory at the Giro d'Italia?
- 11 seconds apparently. In 1948 Fiorenzo Magni,
beat by 11 seconds, second place finisher Ezio Cecchi.
That, as far as I understand, is the closest ever finished.
Last year was pretty close there
wasn't it? - It was, yeah.
- 31 seconds, I think, separated
Domoulin from Nairo Quintana.
It came down to that very last stage.
- What a race it was.
- Yeah. Let's hope for more of the same on this year's.
In terms of the other classifications,
I'm not entirely sure on that one,
I know that Mark Cavendish really had to fight
on the very last stage for the points jersey
just a few years ago when he was riding the quick step,
but I'm not entirely sure, so let us know
in the comments down below if you do know.
Liam Sangaku has said which GCN presenter will be there?
- Emma is gonna be out there for the first
rest day to make a load of cool videos for us.
And then I believe John Cannings from
the tech channel is gonna be over there
as well swatting out on some pro bikes
and generally stalking mechanics, I think.
So yeah, those two to start with, and then who knows.
It's a long race so maybe one of us
will get to go out to Italy as well.
Always a treat, going to the Tour of Italy.
- Yes, stay tuned to GCN Tech and GCN itself
for many videos related to the Giro
coming out over the next three weeks of racing.
Finally, Si, from Garal, best stages to watch?
- Well the best stage, you probably say,
is gonna be Monte Zoncolan, also at the back end of the race
there's the stage that finishes up Bardonecchia,
that's got the Cardella Finestro,
which is possibly my favorite climb of all time.
So those two will be great, but, you know,
I can't wait just to see the start.
The opening Time Trial. - Yeah.
- Where you get to get a gage of the riders' form.
Brilliant.
- There's one particular stage,
and it's not gonna be very helpful at all,
because I've forgotten which one it is,
but Serrano Idraskial often uses these
roads toward the end of that week long race.
Those incredibly steep, but not particularly long climbs,
because I think they produce some of the
most exciting racing Grand Tours at the moment.
- That'll be the first full week, I would've thought.
Right towards the end of that. - Yeah.
- It's near where the second rest day
is up there in Italy, so if I remember it,
I'll try and remember to put it in the comments below
this video. - Well maybe we could have
a nice graphic after you've- - Yes.
- Probably shouldn't have said that.
Everyone's going to be disappointed.
Right, well that brings us to the end
of this weeks ask GCN anything Giro d'Italia special.
Don't forget you can leave all your questions
for cycling related stuff just
down below in the comments section.
If you've enjoyed the video, there's a thumbs up button,
which we'd very much appreciate you clicking on.
In the meantime, we've promised this all the way through,
but if you've missed our Giro d'Italia preview
you can find that by clicking on
the box somewhere within this box.