2012 Giro d'Italia, Stage 4 Preview, Part II

As we said yesterday the most difficult part of the the 33.2 km course will be the section between the two intermediate timing points of 9 km and 21.8 km. The first and last sections will be very fast as the course uses the road along the Adige River. From 9 km  to 21.8 km the course will be narrow, twisty, with a slight climb.

In David Cassani's, cycling announcer for RAI, opinion the absolute most critical point will be the rise to Castelrotto at 12.7 km saying, "In the team trial there are no captains or domestiques, and everyone will want to give their best. On the rise to Castelrotto no teammate should be dropped, the team must work together and there must be the ability to keep the right pace for all without losing seconds and without wasting energy."

Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) is predicting Garmin as the stage winner and for Taylor Phinney (BMC) to retain the Maglia Rosa.

Weather today: some clouds, wind: none to very light, temperature: 22 to 23 centigrade.

Trivia: The first of the 21 team time trials in the Giro d'Italia was in 1937, the 5th stage from Viareggio to Marina di Massa (60 km). The fastest TTT was in the 2006 Giro when Ivan Basso's CSC team averaged 56,860 km/h in the stage from Piacenza to Cremona.

Lastly, Ernesto Colnago, who celebrated his 80th birthday birthday in February, shows no signs of slowing down: today he'll be in the team car of Colnago-CSF Inox encouraging his riders.

The TTT gets underway at 1525 with the start of AG2R La Mondiale, the last team to start is BMC Racing Team at 1628.

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