Watch Dan Martin, top Giro riders on brutal Passo Giau that TV missed | Video

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Igor Tavella (@igortavella)

This footage was recorded by cycling fan Igor Tavella yesterday when he took to Instagram and live-streamed the Giro coming over the top of the final climb as the TV coverage had been lost due to the weather


While yesterday's stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia was shortened due to the bad weather it was still brutal. However, fans watching on from home on TV only got to see part of the stage.

The plane and helicopters required to bring us the live TV pictures were grounded yesterday because of the mist in the Dolomites. And so host broadcaster Rai had to bring us TV images using mobile technology.

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And as the riders climbed and then descended the 9.9km Passo Giau before sweeping into the finish town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the TV pictures were lost. The cameras only picked up the riders again when they reached the final 1km, where the static TV cameras were still working.

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It meant we missed a lot of the action, from the moment Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked on the final climb with about 23km remaining until he was approaching the finish.

However, some hardy souls - apart from the riders - braved the cold and mist to cheer on the riders at the top of the Passo Giau. And one of them - Igor Tavella - had the presence of mind to live stream the race on Instagram.

He picked a location just short of the summit of the climb and with his 4G mobile phone he managed to capture some pretty good live video of the riders as they looked freezing and shattered battling to the top of the climb.

You can pick out Ireland's Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) at 12:50 in the video above, battling the upper slopes of the climb on his own and with the team car just behind him. The stage leader, Bernal, features 7:50 into the video and the other riders begin passing shortly after that.