- We are back in pink and that's because
starting tomorrow on Friday the 6th of July
is the Giro Rosa, the biggest, toughest, longest
and most prestigious stage race on the women's calendar.
And this is our big GCN preview.
- It is.
Yeah, this arrangement started all the way back
in 1988, with the exception of '91 and '92,
it's been run every year since
which makes this the 29th edition.
It therefore boasts a rather long
and illustrious list of previous winners
and basically you can't lay claim
to being slightly royalty unless
you've won this race at least once.
- Right, yeah.
- I jest of course, cause Em has twice
finished runner-up in the Giro Rosa
behind the cannibal herself Marianna Voss.
In that time, she's won four stages
and won the king of the mountains twice.
But you gotta keep her feet on the ground,
even though she's a climber.
- You're actually right.
This was actually one of the biggest regrets of my career.
But never mind, this year's event sees
the best pros in the world taking part
and it cinches on the toughest climb,
arguably, in the world, the mighty Monte Zoncolan.
And you know what the best thing is?
We have highlights back every day over on our Facebook page.
- We have. Yeah, really exciting stuff.
Alright, let's take a look at the route over ten days.
This year's route takes place entirely
within the confines of Northern Italy.
The ten stages up to a total of 970 kilometers,
and the whole race kicks off with
a short and very fast team time trial in Verbania,
which is right next to the beach called Lago Maggiore.
- The hills begin the next day,
although perhaps not quite in earnest just yet,
with a 120 kilometer running stage,
starting and finishing in Ovada.
Although it may still have been a bunch bit
despite elevations because the latter part
is predominately flat.
- And if it doesn't, the sprinters can rest assured
that stages three and four almost certainly will.
For example, it doesn't get much flatter
than the circle you deal with on stage three into Corbetta,
and then stage four this includes
slightly more elevation gain,
we wouldn't think it would be enough
to trouble the fast women as they head into Piacenza.
- Indeed, and then things get a little more spicy
on stage five
- Yes.
- With the aptly-named Monte Rota, the Pink Mountain,
which is 3.8 kilometers at 8.8 percent.
However, that is just a little foretaste of what's to come
the following day, you see the first
of the real mountain top finishes.
- That's right, this one being Gerola Alta,
which peaks at 1,050 meters above sea level,
which we think is enough to see some
fairly significant time gaps,
although perhaps not quite as big
as we're expecting for the following day,
because stage seven is a 15 kilometer
individual time trial up a mountain.
I bet you wish you were still racing, Emma?
- No, definitely not.
But, back in the day I might've looked forward to it.
This one does look fantastic, it's called the Campo Moro,
15 kilometers average, a little under seven percent,
but it is not steady as there are
plenty of routes over ten percent.
- Hmm. It does look stunning, doesn't it?
We've been looking at it on Google Maps
and street view, etc.
It's really narrow most of the way up,
plenty of tree lined areas, but some areas where you get
a beautiful view, and towards the top there are then
a series of turns, and at the top they reach a dam.
It's a must-watch that one.
- Definitely.
- The following day you get a little bit of respite
from the high mountains and the big climbs,
but they're going to need that
because it precedes the big one.
- Oh yeah, that's right.
Stage nine sees the mighty Monte Zoncolan.
Now you might well remember this climb
from the men's tour this year where Chris Froome
won his first Euro-state.
While the women tackle the same climb,
10.1 kilometers, that's an average of 11.9 percent.
- It was actually the Giro Rosa that was the first pro race
to use the mighty Monte Zoncolan all the way back in 1997.
This year, it makes a welcome return,
or at least it does for us as viewers.
And you've got to imagine that it's going
to be the defining point of this year's race.
- Yeah, I reckon, probably.
However, the final day is also no brave,
fighting to Cividale del Fruili,
if I got that right, the riders will have to tackle
the first category Sun Leonardo climb,
which is six kilometers at 7.1 percent
before descending to the finish
of both the stage and the stage race.
- Yeah, it's a tough one, isn't it?
As ever, we have to say, so let's take a look
at the riders we are expecting to shine.
- Well, let's start with someone who suddenly
won't shine this year, which is last year's winner,
Anna van der Breggen, because she's not
actually starting the race at all,
she's taking a bit of a break from the road
to compete in a mountain bike cross-country world cup!
That does at least leave the door open
for some other riders, then.
- It does, yeah it's an interesting decision.
I'm actually quite interested to see how
she gets on at mountain biking.
Time will tell.
That does mean though there are only two former winners
at this race on the start line this year,
and the first of those that we are going to discuss
is Emma's arch-nemesis Marianna Voss.
Now, she's been in the top ten overall
almost every race this year, and every stage of those races,
but she's not managed to take a win just yet,
so you gotta ask the question,
is the Marianna Voss dominance era over?
- Well I personally would never rule Voss out,
she did suffer a broken collarbone earlier this season,
so she had to take some down time,
we'll see I guess, but it might be the year
for her compatriot over at Mitchelton Scott,
Annemiek Von Vleuten.
The Americans and Dutch have dominated this race
since 2010, and she might well continue that trend.
She's had a very consistent season this year,
she was third overall last year,
and she has the backup of teammate Amanda Spratt
who was fifth overall last year.
- Yeah, dynamic duo there, maybe this is the year
for Van Vleuten, but then, maybe it needs to be.
Times kind of running out for her,
she's getting on a bit, Emma, she's your age,
35 years old now, so maybe it's now or never.
Last year's runner-up though, Elisa Longo Borghini,
will lead in the Wiggle High-five squad,
if she did win the race this year
it'd be the first home winner of the Giro Rosa
for ten years, that was when Fabiana Lucarini
took her fifth title at the race.
- Indeed, and now Canyon-SRAM might go
for a two-pronged attack with
Kaja Neradoma and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot.
Both are extremely strong climbers.
- American hopes will be resting on the shoulders
of the only other former winner here at the race,
that being Megan Guarnier of Boels Dolmans.
Now, she did win the Tour de Yorkshire overall.
That was a couple of months ago, now, but that said,
she also finished runner-up very recently
at the Women's National Championships over in the USA,
so she's clearly still on good form.
- Yep, there's also Ashleigh Moolman Passio,
who's been trying to win the Giro for years.
Her best racing so far is fourth,
but maybe this will finally be her day.
- Yeah, or ten days, it'll need to be, won't it?
- It will.
- That's a pathetic joke, but we'll leave that here.
- No it's very important to be consistent with stage races.
- There are a lot of GC riders aren't there at this race?
I don't think we've even mentioned them all,
but we do need to move on now to the sprinters
because there is an abundance of them too.
We could start with the duo from Ale Cipollini,
because they've got both Marta Bastianelli
and also Chloe Hosking.
There's also Arlenis Sierra of team Astana,
Alexis Ryan will be representing Canyon-SRAM in the sprints.
We then have Mitchelton-Scott Eulin Doorla.
Kirsten Field will probably be the rider to beat
riding from Wiggle High-Five.
Marianna Voss she's been out there at the sprints recently
at the Women's Tour, so she'll be out there
at the sprint stages.
And then we're not sure yet about Carina Vera.
If she's there, she'll be up there in the sprints,
but team Sunweb as we speak are releasing
their line-up one by one.
- And always worth watching out for
Georgia Bullzini from Silance.
- Very true.
- Yeah, we'll watch out for her, of course.
But with that line up, and the stunning route,
this is definitely a must-watch Giro.
So this is a good time to remind you
that you can do just that by heading over
to our Facebook page after each and every stage
where we will have highlights and I'll actually
be on the ground for a couple of the stages
getting some content, so stay tuned to see those videos.
- Yeah, very excited about that.
First time we've had highlights of this race
over on our Facebook page, so as Emma said,
make sure you head across there.
Right then, seeing as how this is
your first big race preview,
I should probably inform you now Emma
that this is the point at which we make our predictions.
Little bit of advice before we get going on this.
If you'd like to stay for a long time at GCN,
make them bad ones.
- Oh.
- Yeah. We don't generally predict winners.
- Right. No, O.K. that won't be a problem,
because I'm notoriously poor at predicting anything.
- Right. 'Kay, let's go.
- Not in cursing or other, but I would go
for Annemiek Van Vlueten, because I mean she's such
a strong climber, last year you saw her at
La Coors, and very consistent, very strong team around her,
yeah I think she's the one to watch out for.
- Yeah, and as we mentioned time's running out for her.
- So rude.
- I'm going for Megan Guarnier.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, she's one of two former winners
as we mentioned on the start line.
Her whole team should be behind her for this race.
The fact that there's a 15 kilometer time trial
that's uphill will play into that fact.
That win at the Tour de Yorkshire,
clearly climbing very well, recently on form too,
she's got what it takes clearly and I think
it's going to be her year again.
- Well let's hope we haven't cursed either of those riders
in the usual GCN way.
- Yeah.
- But if you like this video, feel free to give us
a big thumbs up, and like I said,
watch out for our content over on Facebook.
In the meantime, if you want to see a little bit more
of our previous chat about Women's Cycling
you can check out this ASK with Marianna Voss
quite recently back at the Tour of Britain
the Women's Trial Run.
- Yeah, really interesting stuff there.
Make sure you check it out.