Giro d'Italia
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@williethewaiter That is bloody disappointing and explains why he lost so much time.
I think you wrote something similar about Andy Schleck and chain catchers a few years ago?
They had said earlier that it might be tricky on Zoncolan if anyone had a mechanical because of the narrowness and having to use motorbikes instead of team cars.
I guess the other guys wouldn't have been burying themselves, but George rode up the mountain 3 minutes faster than Gesink (who was probably trying to provide a bit of support) and more than 5 minutes faster than the AG2R rider (Jaguarei) who is in the shot when he takes off.
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George apparently had more bike issues during the time trial, but no-one is saying quite what. Presumably something that cost more seconds than minutes, since his time wasn't appalling - though he lost more time on people he doubtless hoped to narrow the gap on.
So he's back in tenth, but hopefully due some good luck and has several people ahead of him that he should be able to gain time on with three big mountain stages to come.
Yates is still nearly a minute ahead of Dumoulon and more than three minutes ahead of Pozzovivo in third. He's got it in the bag unless he falls off the mountain.
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A sprinters' stage last night, but now there are three more mountain stages. Some pretty sadistic bastard has drawn up this route.
Tonight's one looks reasonably straightforward - a flat stage followed by a long, but not overly steep climb. Dumoulin hoping the gradient might suit him. Even if it does, I'm betting it will suit Yates even more.
If the leaders all mark one another - they might give George a chance to break away near the end and pick up a stage win - if he's got the legs. Not sure he has, really. He's shown capability to grind up the hill with the others, but when the heat has really gone on - from Yates and others, he's not been able to go with the burst. We'll see.
Still, a battle of attrition. My guess is that if George could finish with Yates on the next three stages he'd probably pick up three or four places.
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Really exciting riding last night, which I woke up and decided I might as well watch.
For once, the peleton let a breakaway get to the final climb 15 minutes ahead and those guys battled it out for the Stage win. But, the real excitement was among the GC riders. The climb wasn't brutally steep and about 20-odd top riders made it well up the mountain together before the attacks started.
A couple got decently away and George put his attack in with about 3km to go. Unfortunately, one of the guys close to him in the GC chased him and dragged the remain bunch up and that was a catalyst for other attacks. Most notably, Dumoulin attacking and taking Froome, Pozzovivo and Yates with him. Only one of Yates' lieutenants had stuck in the group and that guy initially wasn't much use to him, while one of Froome's lieutenants had broken away up the road.
Net result, was that when Froome attacked he had a guy waiting for him and things worked out perfectly. Dumoulin and Pozzovivo followed, but for the first time, Yates cracked and those three jumped up the road to where Froome's man was able to help pace them further away.
In the end, those three took away 28 seconds of Yates' overall lead and now he's only 28 seconds ahead of Dumoulin. George faded a bit as well, finished five seconds behind Yates with a few other straggling GC contenders. He gained no time on anyone significant and lost some more seconds on many of those ahead of him - dropped another place to 11th, though only a second behind the guy in 10th. He gets hurt because he lacks explosiveness, but also because none of his teammates can ride up the climbs with him.
So, now everyone is thinking Yates is vulnerable. Even Froome is only 3.5 minutes behind him so if Yates cracked badly, Froome could easily make up that time.
And tonight's Stage is an absolute motherfecker. There should be a significant reshuffling in the GC, because surely not everyone will go over the top of the Colle della Finestre together and after that there's still two more climbs.
George needs to pack his climbing legs and probably play it cool. Just hang on the back of the big guns and let others fall away.
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Wow - Yates has cracked early on the Colle della Finestre. He's already lost a minute. Rohan Dennis is further back. Still 10kms of climbing to come and then probably 70 more kilometres - including two more big climbs.
Froome's Sky team is putting them to the sword.
George is hanging tough in the lead group of fifteen or so riders - at least for now.
....and now Froome has attacked and blown everyone off. Dumoulin is leading 3-4 other riders in a pursuit and George is with Pozzovivo and half a dozen others a little further back.
There's still more than 70kms to ride today.
Yates is 5.5 minutes behind Froome and more than 4 minutes behind George!
A BIT LATER...
....Froome has completed the descent of the Finestre - he's a minute and a half ahead of Dumoulin's Group. Pozzovivo (and George) are in a group of six, another minute back.
Yates is 16 minutes behind Froome now.
George is currently "virtual" eighth in the GC (according to me).
Froome has a 60km solo ride to go. Dumoulin and Pozzovivo also having to do the bulk of the work in their groups - still more sorting out to come.....
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It has certainly been one of the more interesting tours in recent times. The Giro is giving the TDF a run for it's money, that's for sure. When the top riders turn up the variety of the course keeps the pack shuffling which is great for spectators.
I, for one, have been bored with the tdf setting up a leader who then has his lead protected by his team for the rest of the race. -
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@Crucial Yeah - I'm pretty sure he's away from those three. Yates is definitely gone and Dennis cracked even earlier on the Finestre.
The commentators don't know where Konrad is, but he's not among the two groups chasing.
Edit: Actually, unfortunately Konrad has managed to join George's group - but, hopefully he's had to work hard to get there. Pity George couldn't quite stick with Dumoulin's group, because he could have taken the same armchair ride that Carapaz and Lopez have had.
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Still, so far he hasn't crapped out. Deserves a top ten on consistency alone. Gets one more crack to see who has legs left after today (if he has any himself)
TLJ don't seem that strong as a team to do anything other than help work a sprinter up for a crack in a group finish. Cant see them setting up George like Sky did with Froome.
Yates' lack of teammates showed out eventually. He had to put so much into the earlier mountains himself and back it up with a big TT that he finally blew out.
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Um, about 15 years ago Floyd Landis did a similar thing, only he gained a much more spectacular lead.
Of course he was doping at the time.
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@Chester-Draws do you think Froome found his super inhaler at the bottom of his kit bag?
Tell you what though. If Froome wins this and the UCI do him for the Vuelta 'incident' there will be some rather pissed off Giro organisers.
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@crucial Yates has had arguably the best team up to now. The only guy who hasn't really contributed has been Chaves (though he did get a stage win before capitulating). Haig and Nieve have been superb as has NZ's own Sam Bewley.
Yates is just exhausted. He'll win a GT and will learn a lot from this about how to control his energy for the 3 week duration.
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@crucial said in Giro d'Italia:
@Chester-Draws do you think Froome found his super inhaler at the bottom of his kit bag?
Tell you what though. If Froome wins this and the UCI do him for the Vuelta 'incident' there will be some rather pissed off Giro organisers.
I'm only a casual follower of cycling but the first thing I think when I read about this 'amazing attack' is 'he's dirty', which is really sad for the sport. I'm sure the real fans still enjoy watching the racing but will the reputation ever be restored?
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@chester-draws said in Giro d'Italia:
Um, about 15 years ago Floyd Landis did a similar thing, only he gained a much more spectacular lead.
Of course he was doping at the time.
Around the same time there was a Danish guy - Michael Someone, who was having big days out like this. He was doping as well.
An amusing part of the day was near the top of one of the climbs there were a couple of guys running beside Froome dressed as doctors and one carrying an enormous (like bigger than a metre) asthma inhaler.
Edit: here they are:
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Anyway, in summary, a huge day and the standings were given an enormous shake.
Yates eventually finished almost 39 minutes behind Froome and consequently falls to 18th in the standings.
The big winner on the day was, of course, Froome, while Yates was the massive loser. Other big winners were Pinot, Lopez and Carapaz who jumped to 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively.
George was a winner, though it could have been even better if he'd managed to stick with Dumoulin on the Finestre climb. Not sure whether he just couldn't or whether he chose not to bury himself. As it is - he jumps over Yates and Rohan Dennis into 9th overall, but lost time on everyone else ahead of him. Only a handful of seconds to Bilbao and Konrad - but, those could be crucial. He's 16 seconds behind Konrad and 1 minute 27 seconds behind Bilbao. I think if he could jump over Konrad and secure 8th place that would be pretty much what he deserves in the GC. I think he also deserves to be ahead of Bilbao, who just sat on the back yesterday doing no work (as far as I could see) and sprinted at the end. Not Bilbao's job to drag Pozzovivo any closer to his teammate Lopez, but nonetheless fuck that guy! George doesn't really deserve to be ahead of Yates - so 8th would be a good reflection of his efforts. Those are the two he can realistically still beat - anyone else ahead of him will be beating themselves if George gets past them.
The other losers on the day were Dennis (dropped out of the top 10) and Pozzovivo (dropped off the podium). Ben O'Connor who crashed out and Fabio Aru who also withdrew (seven guys were DNFs yesterday).
Dumoulin was a loser on the day, but could yet turn out to be the big winner if Froome has damaged himself too much. A strange day for Tom, who gained the virtual Maglia Rosa (the leader's pink jersey) and then slowly had it prised off his virtual back by Froome. In the end he's lost 12 seconds on the leader but the leader has become Froome and not Yates.
My guess is that Froome is going to be too strong and that both Dumoulin and Pozzovivo, who did lots of work at the front of their bunches will have hard days tonight.
@Crucial - Sky, Movistar, Astana and Michelton-Scott all have really strong teams and have been massive helps to Froome, Lopez, Carapaz and Yates. George has had fuck all help from his team. They actually tried to do something last night and Van Poppel managed to deliver Koen to the foot of the Finestre climb nearly a minute ahead of the peleton. However, once Sky put the hammer down, they caught and passed him like Dan Carter with a dry ball. He had a few seconds to say "gidday" to George before he was spat out the back.
Tonight's stage is yet another motherfecker. Three Category 1 climbs.
I'd imagine that Sky will plan to control the race and I'm not sure who will have the strength (individual and team) and motivation to attack.
I'm doubtful whether Dumoulin's team has the strength to try to make things tough for Froome. Lopez and Astana look happier to defend the white jersey from Carapaz rather than attack Pinot for third. Carapaz and Movistar might try to make things tough for Lopez, but I'm not sure they'll do too much.
I'd guess Sky will ride a pretty quick tempo and everyone else will hang in and hope their target opponents crack.
Hang in there George!
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