MN Peloton - Giro d'Italia, 9th May Belfast to 1st June Trieste.

[PansBigChainring]

Almost here....how's the training regime going?

The first of the three Grand Tours, Tour of Italy, departs from Belfast with a team time trial from the Titanic shipyard, before a second day riding round the North, and then a third day from Armagh to Dublin centre, and then a flight to southern Italy and few weeks easy riding up through central Italian Apennines, over the Dolomites and a cruise through to Trieste on the Adriatic coast. No problems then...

Some useful links?

Overall route and maps

The understandably excited local Belfast press

and a bit more general fuss

Most of the usual pro-cycling suspects will be competing, and returning for the Tour de France Yorkshire in July.

Before all of this though there's a few 'classic' races to be had, but we can put those to another thread? Nothing else should get in the way of 3 days of professional racing in the Irish sunshine.

Cremola heard it was v busy down at the city hall. My DH and DS were there but I had to go to DDs school play.

We are bearded to Stormont tomorrow but also might do stranmillis roundabout during the warmup in the morning.

I agree too, Pan.

Thank you to Cremola and angel, our roving reporters on the ground, for all the updates . I'm setting off for Belfast in the morning - can't wait

Yay drama hope you have a great time!
I am just home and heading for bed.
Also heading to stormont to meet the caravan about 5pm. Then will wander down to friends on upp n'ards rd for grandstand view from her kitchen window . And pink wine natch.

I was reading the Belfast telegraph and it was saying you have to be in place where you want to watch the race 1 hour 45 minutes before the caravan arrives, so what does this caravan do? I was thinking of standing on the side of the to watch the riders, surely I don't need to be standing there 1hr45min before they whizz past?
I was just going to walk up my road and watch.

Hi vsm the caravan is the multi-coloured procession that comes before the race. The idea is to get everyone in the carnival mood with pink confetti , promo balloons and vehicles and the like. Just a fun and vital part of the race for fans really. It's designed to let you know the peleton is on its way. It will be making a dedicated stop at Carsons statue today at 5 ,

Yeah I was going to wander onto the route sometime tomorrow to let DC see but two have SN so there's no way they would wait for 1 hr 45 mins, surely there must be a way to watch more easily?

They said you have to be in place early because the roads will be closed, but I walk up a road to get to the main road that will be closed as that's the only way out of my house to get anywhere, so my road won't be closed and I was just going to walk up it and stand on the side (of the road the cyclists will ride down) if that makes any sense...it would be nice to get into the carnival spirit but it's not warm out there

No we could walk too if we had some idea of timings?

The actual race leaves titanic buildings at 5.50/6pm/6.30pm

It is expected to finish at approximately 8pm. It is a staged race so actual timings are impossible to estimate. For the most part riders are expected to average 40mph. Much depends on the course itself and the weather. Waiting around is unfortunately unavoidable hence the caravan and build up of atmosphere followed by a thrilling flash of the riders as they whizz past!

Any information about tomorrow? We're in the north of the city, thanks :)

We live over the hill from Haworth (stage 2 of TdF) and me & DH are tour makers for the TdF in July - all this talk from Belfast is making me very giddy! We were on Alpe d'Huez last summer and I keep telling my fellow Yorkshiremen that they have no idea what's about to hit them - a few blokes on bikes? That's only a fraction of it. I can't wait

all here about road closures
Race starts tomorrow again from titanic and Antrim rd up to glengormley affected from 8am ( start)

I am going to be out and about later so will miss much of the TTT, and rely on catch up tv!
Really hope the weather holds and all of the expense and general hassles will be worth it. These things come once a generation don't they?

We're here!Glad to report sunny weather so far. Spent time wandering around the team buses & soaking up the atmosphere, which is buzzing. I've bought myself a Giro t-shirt. Heading back now to catch the start.

And they're off.

^^TTT

Have a great time Drama. Wave an MN flag!

Can you take some snaps and put them on here at all, DA?

Laters...

Ok after sunny interval it has started pelting down. Saxo headed up by Roche on the loop back : awaiting katusha followed by Movistar .
Crowd chanting for Quintana

Here comes Quintana - no stragglers in this peleton.

Lotto bellisol being caught by trek factory. 5 minute intervals being closed in amazing times!
BbcNI coverage starting now

Just tried to explain to a friend on FB how it all works. Teams, nationalities, TTT, overall times. It's quite complex this grand tour business!

Sky in third at this point.

Right now I am having a punch the sofa, 'NO, no that is not fair, poor, poor, man' moment but I don't want to say any more and spoil it for everyone else not watching live! I am proper and I HATE the sadface when used by anyone.

Dammit. Only just noticed I have regional BBC stations on Freesat. Channel 969 is now on and I've seen something really nasty and something really good. Here's to tomorrow. Let's hope it all goes well.

Arrghh, missed it. Found the right channel but thought there'd be a highlights show on later and there isn't.