Giro Stage 15 *spoilers*

afx237vi

Looks like Baliani is trying to do a Sella. He's just ridden away from the rest of the breakaway on the Passo Giau. Only has 2 minutes on the pack though, so it's gonna be tough.

Norwegian is a really abrasive language to listen to. My ears, they say no. SMS is the same though.

Eurosport's coverage doesn't start until 3 because they're showing a repeat of Greek basketball. You can't make this stuff up.

Edit: Oh right, Sella is in the break too and has now joined Baliani. What a guy.

drenkrom

CSF will have justified their presence on the race this weekend. Where's CSC, though?

blazing_saddles

Get Rai tv. It's been on all day. All free.
2 hours of yesterday's stage to warm up, then deaprt village show, next, the San Pelligrino and now, the monster that is the Giau. It just gets steeper and steeper.
I can't speak Italian, but I understood when Balliani attacked, why the Rai commentators were laughing and talking about " supreme conditioning". :roll:

ESUK are not showing tomorrow's stage, live, at all!
Forcast is for heavy rain in Paris!!!

afx237vi

RAI streaming is really unreliable for me. Keeps breaking up. The Norwegian one is better.

Looks like Bosisio has blown up already.

afx237vi

Kloden has been dropped :shock: NOOOOOOOOOOO.

drenkrom

While Bosisio was blowing, his teammates were leading the charge. Shows their priorities.

I'm surprised to see the favorites' group start breaking up that much already. We could have some big time losers today.

Bigmiksears

could some one please cpost a link to the page for the giro on Rai tv? cheers

drenkrom

http://tinyurl.com/5t322f

That's the tiny, ugly version.

www.cyclingfans.com for all your streaming needs.

drenkrom

yeehaw! fireworks already!

Contador is gooone. No zip at all in those legs.

blazing_saddles

It's now raining heavily at the finish and has started on the course. Could get tricky.
Contador is bobbing well, out of the saddle, but seems to have trouble moving forward. On the rivet and beyond.
Menchov now seems to be number 1 foreign threat. This will probably be sufficient cause for "suspicion" amongst some. :roll:
Italians are intent on inflicting pain, today.

colint

He's back on but looks to have no zip as you say, can't see him having anything left at the finish

drenkrom

Just one Astana barely hanging on there. Contador, I guess. Does that set the conspiracy theories to rest, then?

Iglinsky made it back, but still no Klöden? :shock: There go my PTP points.

Bigmiksears

cheers - so how do i charge drenkrom when i fail my uni exams? :P haha thanks alot tho,

drenkrom

What is that that Nibali has on his knees and thighs?

Bigmiksears

its a tape used by physiotherapists - it can do a range of different things - i had it done on my shoulder in order to encourage a different muscle group to move my scapula to then more my arm. It is probably releaving stress on the ligaments/tendons of the knee with the way that it is positioned tho i could not say for certain. It can also be used for compression purposes - depends what his problem is however.

so...anyone fancy doing switch backs in that!!!?!?!

deltadawn

http://cyclingfans.com/ found a working english audio stream.

drenkrom

Descending in the Dolomites in the rain.... fuuuuuuuun!

:shock: Doesn't seem to faze Nibali. He's flying down there!

deltadawn

drenkrom wrote:

Descending in the Dolomites in the rain.... fuuuuuuuun!

:shock: Doesn't seem to faze Nibali. He's flying down there!

Of course not. I picked Nibali to win in YESTERDAY's PTP stage, not todays. So he'll probably win TODAY'S stage instead!

LOL

Dawn

drenkrom

Ah! finally Ricco gets it and puts in a real one!

I'm actually rooting for Ricco. PTP does strange things to me. He's cracking them all!

donrhummy

Wow, Sella!! Incredible ride again.

These mountain stages are incredible. And the riders are always more cooked than in the TDF. Going across the finish, they look like they're going to fall over.

Ricco has definitely shown he's a force to be feared.

Simoni, being 36, is riding beyond belief. Just incredible to stay with those guys at 36 years of age.

Bigmiksears

sella - MONSTER!

donrhummy

Looks like Kloden was not in the form people thought he was, and some people underestimated Contador.

iainf72

Bit of a snooze fest again.

I guess Bertie is expecting to do a good TT tomorrow. He's not convincing uphill at the moment But then again, neither is Gibo.

afx237vi

Agreed, last two days have been somewhat of a letdown. Very negative riding. Good for riders like Di Luca, boring for the viewers.

BTW iain, CSF are much more ridiculous than LPR. Thought they were gonna get a 1-2-3-4 at one point in today's stage.

blazing_saddles

I find it funny, what constitutes boring around here.
Exactly what was introduced by Indurain and perfected by Armstrong.
You reap what you sow and all that. Seems it has to be a specific colour jersey.
Anyhow, Dertie's got pink and there's a time trial tomorrow.

As for all the small teams being doped and the big ones riding clean!
Thank the team doping programmes for that.
The big teams won't allow riders to fly as close to the limits, to ensure no positive tests,
while the little ones still dope on a wing and a prayer.

phil s

That was all highly believable today wasn't it

blazing_saddles

phil s wrote:

That was all highly believable today wasn't it

Oh no! I feel another Matt Slater article coming on! :shock:

iainf72

afx237vi wrote:

BTW iain, CSF are much more ridiculous than LPR. Thought they were gonna get a 1-2-3-4 at one point in today's stage.

Agreed.

The problem with todays stage was everyone just looked at each other. Fair enough Ricco did attack but not much else. No reason for Contador to waste energy attacking but there is for Gibo and co. Unless they just don't have the legs for it.

dave_1

the GC race looks close so not so boring a race after all...also, I am wondering if Kloeden is at his natural level or does he have more? Likewise, Contador does not seem the same guy as last year...

colint

They've come in at very short notice though, must have something to do with it. None of the other leaders, apart from Ricco maybe, seem to have much zip this year. Think it'll be hard to dislodge Bertie now----

dave_1

colint wrote:

They've come in at very short notice though, must have something to do with it. None of the other leaders, apart from Ricco maybe, seem to have much zip this year. Think it'll be hard to dislodge Bertie now----

Contador looks nowhere near the guy we saw fighting off Rasmussen's superhuman attacks in the pyrenees last summer