Giro d'Italia
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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.
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http://www.roadcycling.co.nz/bennett-relaxed-about-prospects-heading-to-giro-ditalia/
Quite a good preview article about George and his prospects.
I see the other guy who is supposed to look after him in the mountains is Koen Bouwman. Bouwman had a pretty good ride a couple of nights ago and made a bid for victory riding away from the breakaway, but got run down by the peleton.
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Yesterday was a hilly stage with a lots of up and downs and a couple of moderate climbs, but nothing too big expected to happen (by me anyway) - and it didn't, except to Chavez.
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He got dropped on that first climb - the Fonte della Creta - and the Sky team attacked to distance him. Sounds like the Michelton-Scott team sent several riders back to help him try to get back, but it didn't work and eventually they had to give up.
Net result - Chavez lost 25 minutes and George is up to 6th place.
Michelton are blaming pollen allergies.
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Seems like more exciting riding overnight, however Sky isn't putting together a highlights package (or even a full replay) - instead you can watch replays of the Tour of California.
Most of the excitement over the last few kilometres - some of which can be seen in the video in this attachment.
Chris Froome determined to keep plugging away in Giro d'Italia
Briton loses another 40 seconds but rules out abandoning
In summary, an uphill finish - Yates broke away and the other GC contenders were left to chase him to a greater or lesser extent. Dumoulin chased hardest and lost only two seconds.
George and Carapaz chased least hardest and lost 23 seconds.
Pozzovivo, Thibault and Dennis finished in between. Froome lost 40 seconds.
In that video you can see that when Yates attacks, I'm pretty sure George (in yellow) is right behind him, so well placed to follow if he can. He either can't or is choosing not to bury himself to do so.
Hopefully the latter.
I'd conclude that the only way George will beat Yates in this tour is if Yates collapses on one of the remaining big mountain stages. Yates has looked stronger climbing and is stronger in the time trial (where I'd guess George will lose more than a minute).
If they rode that time trial right now, I'd guess George would lose at least a couple of places - to Dennis, and any of the ten other guys who are within a couple of minutes of him.
None of which will be decisive. No-one's place is going to be safe-ish until they cross the line in Stage 19. That profile looks bloody brutal! There's a couple of other mountain stages to come that look pretty severe, as well!
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http://tiz-cycling.racing/video/giro-ditalia-2018-stage-11-last-30-km/
Video of the last 30kms - last few kms are pretty exciting, especially Yates' final break.
Ads are a bit of a pain.
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Last night was a flat stage designed for the sprinters and tonight is the same thing.
All the GC contenders finished safely together last night and pretty likely the same will happen tonight.
George just clicked over 52 hours of riding - more than anyone ahead of him!
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Everyone still together. That won't be the case after tonight's stage.
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Three Category 3 climbs, a Category 2 and then a 1200 metre ascent of Monte Zoncolan. You can click on the little tabs at the top of that Stage Profile to get the profiles of the individual climbs. Monte Zoncalan has a maximum gradient of 22% and extended periods of 15.4% and 13.9%.
Make sure you've got your good legs on, George!
Expectation has to be that Yates will attack Dumoulin on this last climb and in theory he should be able to bury him. Yates and George are both listed at 58kgs, where Dumoulin has to drag his fat 71kg arse up the hill.
If I were George, I'd get on Yates' wheel and try to stick like glue. If he can do that I reckon he'll be in a significantly higher position than 6th tonight. I haven't seen any evidence that George can crack Yates, but there's been a few worrying signs of the converse.
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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12054433
Pretty good article - the only thing I'd disagree with is, "As a result, he sits two minutes and nine seconds down on leader Simon Yates. Any optimistic hopes of overall victory are realistically over – barring a superhuman performance in the mountains – but Bennett can now have genuine ambitions of a top five finish, and could eye the podium if he reaches his best form.
I think that's only true if you discount the possibility that Yates could crack. There are several brutal stages to come, so anything can happen.
If George is a contender to make the podium then he's a contender to win.
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Pretty disappointing day for George - I stayed up to watch the climb up Mt Zoncolan and George disappeared from view very early in the piece.
I thought he'd just cracked, but apparently he had a mechanical problem and had to change bikes. Consequently lost touch with the lead group and lost a couple of minutes - was at least good to see him arrive a couple of minutes after the winner, so that his chance of a top 10 finish stay alive, but his chances of a top five finish have receded a fair way. He's slipped back to eighth and is four minutes behind Yates, 2.5 minutes behind Pozzovivo in third, and nearly a minute behind Froome in fifth.
Yep - Froome and Yates were the winners of the day and Froome won the Stage as well. Yates chased him all the way and the other GC leaders - Pozzovivo, Dumoulin and Thibault lost 20-40 seconds.
So the big losers on the day were George, Carapaz and Dennis. George at least was unlucky and managed to pick up a few seconds on the other two.
Tonight's stage is through the Dolomites, so several climbs and an moderate climb to the finish, but not a brutal mountain top finish. If George conserved a bit of energy compared to the big guns, maybe it's the sort of stage he could win?
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Another somewhat disappointing day for George. I haven't seen it, but it sounds like he attacked early, got reined in by Yates' domestiques and then Yates rode over the top of him and dragged most of the other leading GC riders with him.
Net result is George lost time an everyone ahead of him, except Froome.
Probably not a bad theory to attack for a stage win, though - I thought Yates might have been happy to let George go since he's no longer a major threat to his GC win. However, seems like Yates is waaaay stronger than everyone else and is going to collect a bunch of stage wins as well as the overall title. He's two minutes ahead of Dumoulin and 5.5 minutes ahead of George in eighth. George is a minute behind the guy in fifth, so that's probably still achievable - can't see him doing better than that.
Rest day tonight then the Time Trial tomorrow night. George is talking tough in the article below.
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some good footage here of what happened on Zoncolan.. feel guttted cause he's obviously got the legs - he would have been close to the fastest up there based on the time he lost and where he rolled in.. BUT the amount of guys who throw away races because they won't put on a 5 buck chain catcher...
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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.
