(dramatic music)
(singers vocalizing)
- Whoo! (laughs)
(upbeat pop music)
Not all Grand Tour stages are created equal.
Some are little more than a gentle spin
down some pristine roads, and others are monsters.
- And this is a monster.
Stage 16 of the Giro starts here on the shores
of Lake Iseo, and it's 226 kilometers long
with over 6,000 meters of elevation,
including the utterly bonkers climbs
of the Gavia and the Mortirolo back to back.
I mean, it sounds absolutely brutal, James,
but how hard do you reckon it is?
- Well, I guess we're going to have to ride it, mate.
Come on. - I guess we are.
- Come on.
- In the absence of our team bus and hordes of adoring fans
that are normally greeting us at the start of a big ride,
we're taking the opportunity to have
a nice chilled-out, pre-ride espresso.
And interestingly, for the start of this stage,
the organizers have pushed the start back to 10:30 a.m.,
so it's earlier than normal because it's expected
that the winner will take seven hours,
and you can expect that the gruppetto and sprinters
could take 40 minutes to an hour longer than that.
It's going to be a massive day out.
- You're saying that, Ollie, it's 10:30 already.
- What? - Well, it's 10:30.
We need to get cracking.
- It's going to be a long day, this, innit?
- Well, that's if we can even do it.
- The route of the stage leaves Lovere
and climbs up to the first summit of the day,
the Passo della Presolana, then just 17 kilometers later,
topping out at another climb, the Croce de Salven.
In the shadow of what's to come, they look pretty modest,
but at 1,300 meters, I suspect they will be
tough tests in their own right.
After that, the fun really begins
as the road pitches upwards for 70 kilometers
to what will be the highest point of this year's race,
the Cima Coppi, the Gavia,
which tops out at 2,618 meters.
Then there's the actual fun part,
50 kilometers of descending before the Mortirolo.
Short at only 12 kilometers,
but the average gradient is brutal.
There's even a solid six kilometers in the middle
where the gradient averages over 12%.
After that, it's just a casual 15 kilometers
of gentle uphill to the finish.
(dynamic music)
This first section of the stage
as it goes through the town is actually
the neutralized zone, and that's, well, for safety
and the fact there'll be loads of crowds here.
But it means that we have to ride an extra, well,
a couple of kilometers that don't even count.
- (laughs) Hold on, mate, we are coming up to the start.
- Yeah? - You ready?
Kilometer zero! - What--
- Let's do it! - Oh.
(lively dance music)
- Now I would say the difference between us and the pros
is that we don't have a peloton to show off behind.
So we're going to be pushing the wind all day.
You all right there, Ollie?
- (laughs) We've only just started,
and it's already climbing out of the gate. (laughs)
(mellow dance music)
(dramatic music)
So one of the things about the Giro
and being a pro in general
is that you don't get to pick the weather.
It is what it is.
In some ways, this is one of the things
that's nice about not being a pro
in that if you were to come and have a go at this,
you can just pick a sunny day, and if it was like today
where it's looking like it's going to tip it down,
I mean, it's starting to, then you can just say,
no, we'll do it tomorrow. (laughs)
Well, ah, mate. (laughs)
- It's also worth mentioning
this is where the domestiques will go back,
get the capes from the team car
and bring them back up to the leaders
so the leaders can hold position
and they don't expend energy.
- Generally-- - Do you want a cape, man?
- (laughs) No, I'm all right, dude.
All right in a minute.
But generally speaking, the professionals
are going to be praying that when the Giro comes through here,
it doesn't rain, 'cause on a killer stage like this,
it just makes it exponentially harder
if the weather's terrible.
(mellow electronic music)
Even though this is a three week race and this killer stage
comes 2/3 of the way through that race,
it's not going to be about conserving energy or taking it easy
for most of the riders.
Some of the guys will be flogging themselves
and going really hard, attacking out of the block
just to try and make the day's breakaway
for a chance of glory.
Other riders will be counterattacking that breakaway,
and this attacking and counterattacking could happen
probably up until the top of the second climb.
For other riders, they'll just be going as hard as they can
just to stay in the bunch.
Sprinters, they can't afford to get dropped by the peloton
because doing so will most likely mean
they miss the time cut and get eliminated from the race.
(dramatic music)
- On days like today, all the peloton is thinking about
is trying to stay warm and get into the finish.
No chat, no jokes, just silence.
They're like us, really.
Just five hours to go, mate.
(mellow electronic music)
Just gone over the top of the first climb,
but even for the guys at the back,
there'll be no respite.
If the race is full gas on the front,
there could easily be a split
because there's heavy braking and big accelerating,
especially in conditions like this.
(moves into inspiring music)
- We're not even a third of the way (laughs).
(Hank laughs)
(singers vocalizing)
Don't know about you, mate,
but after coming down that wet descent,
I am glad I've got this race.
What a view.
The scenery on this stage is absolutely breathtaking,
and we're about 45 kilometers into the stage
on the second categorized climb, the Croce de Salven.
And it's about 1,107 meters high, I believe,
and when we get to the top of this,
we just descend into Edolo, where we begin the long drag
up the valley road towards the fearsome Gavia,
but, well, Hank's got to fix his puncture first
before we can crack on.
(mid-tempo dance music) (singer vocalizing)
- Whoo! (laughs)
Wet or dry, the pros will be smashing these descents,
and the speeds they go up to,
it's pretty incredible, really.
All right, do you want the good news or the bad news?
- Good news, mate.
- Well, the good news is we're over the second climb.
The bad news is the profile shows a 54-kilometer drag
all the way up to the Gavia.
- It's misleading, the profile, isn't it?
- Yeah, it is.
- Do you know what, 65K's a big day out for me still,
and like, quick maths, right?
That means we've still got 160K to go.
- 160K? - We've been riding
for like, what, best part of three hours? (laughs)
(Hank sighs)
(dynamic electronic music)
That's not too good, the sign says the Mortirolo's closed,
which means the snow hasn't melted,
but the Giro comes through here in a week (laughs).
- I hope they clear the snow.
- Yeah, I hope they clear it by then,
but it means we might not be able to get over it today,
as well, unfortunately, eh.
- I guess we'll go as far as we can.
- Gutted, I mean, if we can't climb it, gutted. (laughs)
- We'll have to come back when it's a bit sunnier.
(peaceful guitar music)
- Just gone past the sign for Ponte di Legno,
which is nestled down there at the foot of the Gavia,
and that's because once the riders
go over the top of the Gavia,
they loop back 'round over the Mortirolo,
back up the valley and finish here,
so little bit depressing going past the finish
knowing you've still got, like,
100 kilometers to go (laughs).
So the pros might be trying to make the time cut,
but to be honest, I'm just trying to complete it
before it gets dark.
(dramatic music)
- So we've just been through the sign at le Gavia.
This is a 16-kilometer climb averaging 8%
and maxing out at 16%.
This is an utter beast of a climb.
- It is, but it tops out at about 2,700 meters,
and the sign back there said it's currently shut.
This doesn't bode well for us because the Mortirolo sign
also said that was shut, which means if they are,
we might not be able to complete our route today.
But we'll try and get as far as we can
and see what we can do, but (laughs) yeah,
it is a savage climb, this, absolutely killer.
The Gavia has been a decisive feature of the Giro
on several occasions.
Some of you may remember Andy Hampsten
taking the Maglia Rosa up this climb
in atrocious weather conditions, and more recently,
in 2014, the race came over here
and Nairo Quintana took the Maglia Rosa that day,
and it was also atrocious conditions.
So (laughs) the fact that we can't go
all the way up the top, well,
that's just typical of this climb, really. (gasps)
It's deceptively steep up here.
There are a few sections later on,
I know 'cause I've ridden it before,
that it kind of falls flat, sort of, two, 3%,
and so that average gradient is very misleading.
This bit on here on my Wahoo, I mean this is 10,
sometimes ramping up to 12,
and when you get into double digits, it's just hard,
especially after 100-odd K (laughs).
- It's not easy. - I'm feeling it, man.
This is a killer stage, and the other thing
that makes the Gavia especially difficult
is how high it is, because the altitude,
you just can't get the power out
unless you're Nairo Quintana.
- Of which we're not.
(both laugh)
Oh.
(mellow electronic music)
Oh, no, this isn't a good sign.
- No. - My guess,
this is the end of our road.
- Yeah, well, the sign back there
saying that the Gavia was shut wasn't lying (laughs).
- No, definitely not.
- I guess this means, well,
if the Gavia's shut and the Mortirolo's shut,
unfortunately, we can't complete the recon.
We can't ride the full stage.
- No, how long have we done?
- We've done, well, according to the Wahoo,
130 kilometers and 2,700 meters of climbing,
so just over halfway (laughs).
- And it's been absolutely brutal, hasn't it?
- Yeah. - So I don't think
we would've finished it.
- Well, I think we probably would've finished it
in the dark. (Hank laughs)
There's no doubt in my mind that this stage is savage.
- Yeah. - It is
a ridiculously hard stage, and it'll be
an amazing spectacle to watch on TV. (sighs)
I'm quite relieved we don't have to do it today (laughs).
- Yeah, it's been really tough,
and if you've enjoyed seeing us suffer,
then make sure you give this video a big thumbs up.
And for more Giro content, why don't you click on Ollie?
- I think we should go for a pizza now.
I want to get warm (laughs), get pizza.
- This has been a long day, hasn't it?
- And cold (laughs).
(gentle piano music)