After yesterday’s summit finish at Aprica, Andrea and I sat in traffic for a good while (though it was child’s play by Tour de France traffic standards). In order to reach Lugano, Switzerland, we pretty much drove the stage 17 race route and our jaws were on the floor the entire way, admiring the stunning mountains and gorgeous lakes along the way.
Since we were planning to catch the sprint finish in the afternoon, we visited a nearby chocolate factory. Normally, I wouldn’t think of going anywhere other than straight to the finish line, but the Giro has been so laid back that we were confident we could play tourist for the morning and still have a prime view of the arrival.
There was a small museum inside, roughly sketching how a cocoa bean becomes more familiar chocolate and displaying a few antique chocolate-related accessories.
We were both pretty underwhelmed by the factory. It was very small and there were just a few conveyor belts to look at. I think I was hoping for something a little more along the lines of “I Love Lucy” but everything seemed to be running smoothly and efficiently. How un-funny.
So back to the center of Lugano to head to the finish line. After traveling along the shores of Lake Como (and through a surprising number of long, dark tunnels), the route brought the peloton to Lugano where the finish was along the spectacular lakefront.
Five hours flies by when you can stare at the mountains and lake in one direction and watch the final preparations at the finish gantry in the other.
Andrea went to get find us some lunch and grab our Canadian flags while I was left to guard our spot. As you can see, it didn’t require much effort on my part.
Retired from the pro peloton since 1987, former Giro winner, hour record holder, and World Champion, Francesco Moser, was on hand as part of a corporate ride which, due to our nearly nonexistent Italian, may or may not have also been some kind of fund raiser or charity event.
Not until about 40k to go did the announcers start giving periodic race updates. There was a 3 man break which never got more than a couple of minutes ahead of the peloton. After mucking up the time gap too many times already in the race, the sprinters’ teams were not taking any chances on their last shot at a stage victory before Milan.
With 20-odd K to go, Adam Hansen, Patrick Gretsch, and Darwin Atapuma escaped the peloton. They weren’t far up the road before Tom-Jelte Slagter and Philippe Gilbert caught them, shortly after which Luca Paolini made the duo a trio. But with the handful of remaining sprinters desperate for a win, the doomed escapees were reabsorbed and the predicted bunch sprint began to take shape. Lampre’s Sacha Modolo was clearly ahead of the field and despite their efforts, Giacomo Nizzolo and Luka Mezgec couldn’t catch the Italian, who claimed his second win of the Grand Tour. A consolation prize for Nizzolo is that he will wear the red jersey in stage 18 after nabbing finish line points and overtaking Elia Viviani.
No changes to the GC top 10.
Ryder Hesjedal & Davide Formolo
Tom-Jelte Slagter & Giovani Visconti
Marcus Burghardt, Fumiyuki Beppu, & Adam Hansen
Luca Paolini
An excited Modolo prepared to receive his champagne bottle.
As for stage 18, the riders can expect a relatively flat first 120k with the occasional lump before they face Monte Olongo, a 10.4k climb with an average gradient of 9% and maxes out at 13% near the base. There’s a little more climbing to follow but then 10k of descending before a relatively flat final 5k into Verbania to finish off the 170 kilometers. With major climbs also scheduled for Friday and Saturday, I hope the peloton appreciated today’s short and mostly flat stage.