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.

Have made do with the Guardian update instead:

www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/09/giro-ditalia-2014-stage-one-live-report

Fantastic day here - superb race with plenty of excitement and drama.
Several teams in the middle section were hampered by torrential rain which slowed them down.
Hope the others watching had good fun!
BBC two NI coverage starts at 2pm tomorrow
This will be the most scenic leg of the Irish part of the giro - the beautiful north coast and the causeway .
I'm off marshalling at titanic first thing!

Highlights on Euro at 11 but the Women's now!

We had a brilliant time today, really amazing atmosphere & the noise was incredible. The riders got a great welcome, I hope they enjoyed it as much as the crowds did. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated during the race, but the roads dried up towards the end.

We started at the Titanic Quarter & gradually made our way to City Hall. The speed the teams go is astonishing. We also spent time wandering round the team paddock amongst the team buses. There were lots of fans around & the place was buzzing.

We only heard what happened to Dan Martin later when we bumped into a television tech guy in the hotel. We'd noticed something was up with Garmin because they were short of riders & a couple had torn jerseys when they passed us. Utterly gutted for Dan

We'll be at the start again in the morning.

I'm using an unfamiliar tablet & can't do pics but we got lots so will upload & post when we get home.

That was a great first day - and how great that Orica Greenedge let Svein Tuft have the win, because it was his birthday! Gutted for Dan Martin, though, as you say, Drama.

Big chapeaux to DA and Crem - it's great to hear you had such a good day and it's great having the on-the-spot reports !! But the crowds looked fantastic all the way round too. The speeds are fantastic to witness aren't they?
Dan's crash looked pretty awful and from riding over a metal cover in the wet. Damn.

Here is a 4 min scenic route for

Damn I can't add the image using my iPad but a picture of Sagan doing a team training ride in California and pulling a wheelie for the camera just popped up in my FB feed and it's giving me The Rage for some inexplicable reason. Maybe because I just read the guardian article from yesterday's stage and the picture of lovely Dan sitting on the floor looking sad and sore and a bit bewildered was heartbreaking. I was so upset for him yesterday after he fell in the last few hundred yards of his last race too. He seems so lovely. I was almost driven to some bizarre maternal attempt to tweet him and try and make him feel better. Good job I didn't.

So, after making it obvious that I am turning into a bike race following crazer, it gets underway properly today. I hope our Ireland based correspondents have a brilliant day. Going to take my squad of little U8's footballers to a match this morning and luxuriate in front of the TV for the rest of the day happy I have done my bit!

That crash was nasty. Garmin were lucky to only lose Dan, it could've been a heck of a lot worse. If he were a MotoGP rider he'd have been flown to Barcelona to have a plate fitted and be back on the bike tomorrow. :o I've long thought that those who race on two wheels have a few screws loose...

One of the other team mates (quick google tells me Koldo Fernández) also # his collarbone but limped over the finish of the stage one handed. Poor Hesjedal (?sp!) is miles down before he has even started. Ooh, they could fly to Barcelona with me, I could look after them

A FEW SHOTS ;NOT ALL BY ME

Ooh, Crem! Wel gel!

The sign on & roll out was great, huge crowds despite the rain. We were right on the barriers for the sign on & had a great view. Cadel looked as if he was enjoying himself, big grin on his face. It was great to see all the riders close up & going slowly instead of whizzing past at speed. Some fine muscular legs there

Love looking at those photos. Not sure who the folks are but they seemed to be enjoying themselves!

Can we have a quick conflab to confirm it's fine to post about stuff as the race goes on in the day? eg I have a meeting all afternoon today, and with dd in the evening. (am doing a carbonara dish - well it's the Giro!). If we all (admirably considerately) don;t post, then we'd have a flurry of posts in the evening - and after all it's a live-action show with reporters in the field! Is this okay?

Well after a morning watching my footballers win in great style (I know you've all been waiting with baited breath, 3-0 to us against big rivals, very pleased, they all gave 110% ). I am settled in front of the tv ready for an afternoon of watching so I don't mind who posts when.

Those photos are great, how brilliant it looks, I love all the pink everywhere.

Found you all. Envious of our NI based posters seeing the time trial. Disappointed that there's there's no Cav and no Tony Martin but nevertheless I'll be cheering on Omega Pharma Quickstep

Probably going to fail on reportage today as I'm supposed to be gently persuading the public not to stand on the piste. "F*KING STAND BACK LOVE OR YOULL CAUSE AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT"
Crowds already at city hall for the finish due approx 5pm

At City Hall ready & waiting. Very little space at the barriers so we probably won't see much. At the finish yesterday everyone was banging the barriers as the riders came through & the noise was incredible. According to the announcers here they are on schedule for a 4pm finish.

You are doing a vital job Cremola! Drama, I am so excited for you, it will be amazing, noise and speed and glossy bike boys in a whoosh of colour going past.

I'm only seeing this thread now! I was fortunate enough to have the race pass my house on the way to the north coast.

What a spectacular sight! My ds was at the roadside on his bike and a cyclist chucked him his drinking bottle, talk about chuffed!!

The caravan and pink taxi cabs were a sight to behold! So many locals in Ballycastle/Bushmills/Moyle areas have went giro crazy! Pink horses (Sheans horse farm just up the road from me), pink sheep (a local councillor), a pink baby donkey!!!!!! Tractors, bikes, I could go on all night.

What a day, proud of our beautiful country being beamed worldwide!

Unfortunately I have heard reports that an American tourist is critical after falling into the sea off ballycastle and was pulled out by red bay lifeboat.

1st team back in belfast 4 minutes ago !!! Really really fast

Ooh that was a good stage. And the country did look beautiful, we're going to visit in the summer, hope the weather then will be slightly better than it was today....

Very enjoyable. Loved the pink horse and the guy on the penny farthing... oh and the cycling

Fantastic finish, was great to be there even though we could only see it on the big screen afterwards. We were about 450m from the line & got a good view of the teams lining up for the sprints. All the stragglers got enormous cheers from the crowd, which was great to see.

We met the commentator Matt Stephens in our hotel yesterday then bumped into him again in a coffee shop today. He was lovely & let me have a browse through his official Giro Race Guide, which are only issued to the teams & the press.

We have to decide tonight whether to head to Dublin tomorrow or not, but first we are off to sample some Belfast nightlife