Giro d'Italia
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George Bennett isn't riding the Tour de France this year, so this is probably his main event.
They've had four stages so far - started with a short time trial that didn't much suit him and he lost a bit of time. Latest stage had a few smallish hills and a short steep uphill finish.
George did OK in that - 14th as the peleton split a little bit, but made up 10 seconds on Froome and is now only a second behind Froome in 21st place overall. 56 seconds behind the overall leader.
Sam Bewley and Tom Scully also riding but not contenders for the GC.
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Did Froome's little indiscretion get sorted out? or is he racing until a full hearing?
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@sammyc There's a short video in that link I posted.
I'm waiting for a mountain stage to sit up and watch live.
A bit silly if Sky isn't showing a highlights package, because I reckon George is a genuine contender for the podium. I think it's the first time that he's started a Grand Tour as team leader - and he'll be peaking for this, where at least some of the other big guns will be more aiming at the Tour.
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@mariner4life He's still allowed to race while his failed test is slowly swept under the carpet. I think the TDF is the only race he may get banned from entering.
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For tv viewing try Eurosport. You will probably need a VPN but worth a shot. They show the live feed plus a highlights package that usually has the end of the stage entirely.
Second week is meant to be when the gc riders will break clear but still interesting this week as everyone else tries to upset those plans.
I wouldn’t be measuring Bennet against Froome but against Dumoulin. -
@sammyc said in Giro d'Italia:
Been searching sky for daily highlights packages with no luck, has anyone managed to watch any of this?
I get it on SBS (fta tv and online).
Eurosport on Youtube has highlight packages daily:
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I've paid for a monthly subscription to Eurosport on-line. Cheap really for full coverage of every stage which I can watch delayed in the evening (I'm in Europe at the moment -- I actually tried to get to some stages but it wouldn't fit.)
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George's team mate wins the fifth stage.
Not much change in the General Classification - an Astana rider crashed and lost time, so all the contenders below him moved up one spot - George up to twentieth.
Tonight's stage finishes with a 1700 metre climb up Mt. Etna, so there will be a sorting out.
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Pretty good day for George overnight, though the big winner was Simon Yates. He managed to break away from a small group of eight or nine elite climbers inside the last couple of kilometres and catch his team mate 25 seconds up the road.
Those two finished together, with George finishing fourth in the small group. The stage summary I'm reading says he was one of several who launched an attack on the final climb.
Net result is he is up to ninth overall and 1.11 behind Yates. A couple of guys still ahead of him weren't in that leading group of climbers including Dennis the previous race leader, so all going well he'll pick their places up on subsequent mountain stages.
For now, Yates looks good, but his team will have to do a lot of work if he's to keep the lead. Long way to go.
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George saying he rode like a fucking idiot and attacked too much on the climb - three times apparently - and burned himself out. That's played into Yates' hands a bit, though I'd still be pretty happy not to be in the lead at this point (not that George would have been if he'd been more patient).
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If Bennett wants a good Giro he has to attack. Has to.
He's not yet an an ace TT rider. He'll lose time to the likes of Froome and Dumoulin every TT. Lots of time generally.
He won't get time on the flat. You can only lose time on the flat.
If he just sits and comes in with the first group in each mountain stage then he never wins a stage, because you don't win stages by sitting back, and he'll never get to a podium overall because he's never really making time.
He's feeling bad because the attacks didn't work. But that's the price you pay for riding grand tours. The riders are the best in the world and they don't crack easily.
One good break might win a stage or get him on the podium. Never attacking will ensure he gets neither.
If you watched the likes of Pantani he'd constantly be attacking. Usually unsuccessfully when you count. George's problem wasn't attacking too much. Sadly it was that he's not yet good enough to pull away when he does attack.
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@chester-draws The thing I like about George is that he does attack and give himself a shot - even when the odds are against him. He attacked at the Olympics, he was first to attack on one of the big TdF stages last year and he attacked yesterday.
You're right in that he has to attack, but it's also important to choose the right time - the later you leave it on a climb the more drained the opposition are and the better chance you have of breaking them - but, the less chance of really putting time into them. Yates did it perfectly - George needed to have something left so that he could go with Yates. Which is what he's saying - especially if he's right that he was among the strongest.
I think you're also right that he doesn't have the same explosive acceleration as some of the others, which also makes it harder to shake them off his wheel.
Other point is that not everyone has to be cracked on the same day. Yesterday they removed Louis Meintjes from contention. There's likely to be a couple of mountain stages where a group of only three or four elite riders finish together. If you're in those groups both times, you're probably going to do well.
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Anyway - another mountain finish tonight - an 800 metre climb at the finish, so a good chance for George to do something.
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Turns out the mountain wasn't big or hard enough to tempt the big guns to have a crack at one another and they pretty much rode up it in a truce (and in the rain). In the end, Carapaz, who I think was in 11th overall sprinted away to pick up victory and jumped over Froome, George and Aru into eighth place by a few seconds. Only other notable moment was Froome falling off.
Another mountain finish tonight - they will gain 2000 metres over the final 50kms. Apparently it's a harder stage than last night, but the Sky Race Director reckons it will probably be an action replay of last night and the real mountain racing won't happen until the final week. At a glance Stages 14 and 19 look to be the toughest.
Tonight's stage.
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George is climbing well. Especially considering he had no team support.
TT will be whether he can really challenge now.
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Yeah, a good effort by George - unfortunately, he wasn't quite strong enough to go with the final surge to the line. So some minor damage done, by most of the guys still ahead of him - but some major damage done to Froome (wishful thinking by his Director above!) and Aru.
Unfortunate thing for George is that five of the six guys ahead of him did faster time trials than him in the first time trial (Carapaz who is in sixth didn't and Chavez was only fractionally faster) but several were significantly faster - especially Dumoulin and Yates. So he's likely to lose time on most of those guys in the second time trial.
If he's going to finish on the podium he's going to need several of the guys ahead of him to crack in the later mountains - and him not to, of course.
Other bad thing for George is the lack of team mates who can stick with him. Gesink must have been with him most of the way (he finished not far behind Kreuzinger who was making the pace quite late in the piece), but the others were long gone.
