Road Cycling
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
Yeah - smart ride by Van der Hoorn to give himself the chance - had the luck that Jack Bauer needed a few years back!
I think for Paddy and George it's a matter of continuing to put themselves in the frame and then getting the cards to fall their way. You might be right Willie, that Paddy has more tools to actually win a stage, but George might never get a better chance than somewhere during this Giro.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
Yeah - smart ride by Van der Hoorn to give himself the chance - had the luck that Jack Bauer needed a few years back!
I think for Paddy and George it's a matter of continuing to put themselves in the frame and then getting the cards to fall their way. You might be right Willie, that Paddy has more tools to actually win a stage, but George might never get a better chance than somewhere during this Giro.
By Willie's reckoning the next stage looks ideal for Paddy. Especially the finish.
I was wrong about the GC guys earlier, misread something. Anyway they are still hanging back 40secs away from the leaders.This time next week looks brutal so I guess most of them are biding their time until then.
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
Yeah - smart ride by Van der Hoorn to give himself the chance - had the luck that Jack Bauer needed a few years back!
I think for Paddy and George it's a matter of continuing to put themselves in the frame and then getting the cards to fall their way. You might be right Willie, that Paddy has more tools to actually win a stage, but George might never get a better chance than somewhere during this Giro.
By Willie's reckoning the next stage looks ideal for Paddy. Especially the finish.
This time next week looks brutal so I guess most of them are biding their time until then.
Yeah - I was just looking at that Stage 4 profile and thinking the same thing.
Shouldn't be many sprinters at the finish!!!
After the TT George said something about not reading too much into it, because we still have 3,500 km to go!!
It is a fucking brutal sport!
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@chris-b George’s team mate Foss could potentially ride into pink today. He’s only 16 seconds back from Ganna (and I assume he is a reasonable climber having been a recent winner of the ‘junior tour’ Tour de l’Avenir’). I’m assuming if that pans out it won’t help George much if TJV have to control things for the next few days.
Evenepoel is only 20 seconds back and is probably more likely to ride into the lead though.
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oh well that's George done and dusted after the first stage with a hill in it.
What a shambles. I just don't get it when it comes to pro cyclists. You see them out training in 15 degrees and they're dressed like it's minus 5. See them in a race at zero degrees and they're dressed like it's 25 degrees.
ffs put some clothes on. The risk of losing 5 seconds undoing a vest vs you've finally after years been given the chance to lead one of the biggest teams in the world in a grand tour and you're fcuked after one stage when you got too cold and you admit you struggle when you get cold. Will also cost you dearly in the next contract discussions..
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@williethewaiter Yeah - that's pretty shambolic. As soon as I saw the headline this morning that he'd had a shocker, I wondered about the cold because he's struggled with that before.
This article lists the times of just the real GC contenders, which is quite handy.
Giro d'Italia: Which GC contenders lost time on stage 4
Almeida out of the reckoning as Bernal, Landa, Vlasov, Ciccone and Carthy gain time
I guess if there is one silver lining, George won't be heavily marked if he can make a move late on a mountain stage - they'll probably let him go.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@williethewaiter Yeah - that's pretty shambolic. As soon as I saw the headline this morning that he'd had a shocker, I wondered about the cold because he's struggled with that before.
This article lists the times of just the real GC contenders, which is quite handy.
Giro d'Italia: Which GC contenders lost time on stage 4
Almeida out of the reckoning as Bernal, Landa, Vlasov, Ciccone and Carthy gain time
I guess if there is one silver lining, George won't be heavily marked if he can make a move late on a mountain stage - they'll probably let him go.
he'd have to lose a bit more time yet for that to happen.. and to be honest I don't think he's really got it in him - always been a bit of a diesel climber with no real kick / acceleration at the end of a climb.
I can't imagine the directors would have been too happy with him.. but to be fair the team of nobodies they surrounded him with showed they weren't really too concerned with the giro it's all about the tour.
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@williethewaiter I'm think late in a climb - 3kms to go sort of thing - hopefully, they might just ignore a bit of an acceleration.
The TJV guy telling the story certainly sounds pretty terse about it!
I guess it's not quite as bad as when Roglic needed the guys in the car and they were having a piss in the bushes!
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Stage 6 looks interesting 100 kms of uphill (various gradients) with 1300m elevation followed by 40km back down again then back up 1000m over 15km.
So long grind with an opportunity for good descenders to spread the field but then they have to hold it together for a fairly brutal up again.
Who would fit the bill here? -
@crucial Won't be poor Mikel Landa, who looked the business yesterday, but has crashed and is out of the race.
Good one for a breakaway win, I'd say - if they go over the first climb with several minutes in hand, the big guns in the peloton might not have too many assistants to help chase them down.
Picks for the Top 3 on GC at the very end. I'm going to say Bernal, Carthy, Yates. Despite that he had a pretty poor day yesterday, I'll keep Buchmann as my dark horse.
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Here's what George has to say about yesterday...
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
Here's what George has to say about yesterday...
One thing about the Giro as opposed to TdF is that riders seem to be able to come steaming into contention in the late stages.
I guess it's because team protection isn't as strong . -
@crucial Yeah - the last time George did well in it - 8th - I recall Yates looked absolutely dominant for 9/10s and then fell apart.
Meanwhile Froome, who'd looked extremely vulnerable and got pretty badly dropped on one climb, steamed back to win with a near miraculous solo ride.
Which is heartening for George's top-5 prospects. If he was actually going to be top 5 then the 90 seconds he lost yesterday will probably only cost a place or two - at worst.
Edit: How about Mikel Nieve to win tonight - or someone a bit like him - good climber, a bit down on time - Bike Exchange might let him go in a break.
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@chris-b I just realised that the new UCI rules are in place regarding riding in a supertuck. I wonder how many will get caught on this downhill stretch.
30 secs for 1st offence.
2 minutes for 2nd time you are caught
3 strike is DQMy stage pick is Mollema.
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@crucial Ha - looked at Mollema as well.
He fits my profile, but I thought maybe Nibali will want to keep him close at hand for support.
(You could say the same for Yates and Nieve - but, I figured they let Chris Juul-Jensen have a crack).
I just stumbled across the supertuck ruling a couple of days ago. I'm thinking everyone will know about it, so you'd be a bit thick to get caught!
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Desperately disappointing to see George crack again so early.
This was his big chance and he will not get another I would imagine to lead the team.
I had hoped he would at least stay in amongst it to the final week as it was going to be nice to follow a kiwi deep into a grand tour.
Be nice if he can take a chance at a stage later on. Presumably on a warmer day as it appears the wet and cold are kryptonite to him
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@davesofthunder said in Road Cycling:
Desperately disappointing to see George crack again so early.
This was his big chance and he will not get another I would imagine to lead the team.
I had hoped he would at least stay in amongst it to the final week as it was going to be nice to follow a kiwi deep into a grand tour.
Be nice if he can take a chance at a stage later on. Presumably on a warmer day as it appears the wet and cold are kryptonite to him
Yeah - hugely disappointing.
Something not right, because he was falling off the back on the lower slopes of the final climb when Ganna was still making the pace.
I guess having a little bit of body fat is a good thing in the cold!
Good punt on Mollema, Crucial. If he hadn't had to do so much work to get in the break he might well have won.
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@davesofthunder I just wonder if he has some underlying condition. He’s been top 10 in Grand Tours before, as a domestique. He’s not had to do any real work yet in this race, and he’s cracked twice. He’s shown glimpses of form already this year; he must be desperately disappointed.
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@scribe I suppose all will be revealed. I don't think these two were even classified as mountain stages.
I guess if he got cold enough to be moderately hypothermic a couple of days ago, then riding a grand tour and another icy day probably not the best way to recover.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@scribe I suppose all will be revealed. I don't think these two were even classified as mountain stages.
I guess if he got cold enough to be moderately hypothermic a couple of days ago, then riding a grand tour and another icy day probably not the best way to recover.
Cat 2 climbs. I think the stage was rated 4 star. But yes, nothing compared to next week's real mountain stages.
