Stage 20 *spoiler*

iainf72

Of course they hate him. He makes me look likeable for goodness sakes.

Contador showed some nice maturity today.

ms_tree

But in all that Kerfuffle did you catch the bit where Pellizotti was descending the Mortirola. Wow! Nearly took out a motorbike or 2.

Ciao!

Salsiccia

I was really disappointed with Ricco again today. He looked in good shape but did nothing in the way of aggressive riding except mouth off at a few of the others. I don't particularly want Contador to win, but Ricco has done very little to make me want him to win it. The tifosi are mocking him on Gazzetta:

Where was Riccò today? Obviously yesterday wasted all energies to insult the great Emanuele Sella, the only true phenomenon of this tour.

Ricco - with whom will you be angry tonight? With Sella that won the stage? With Rodriguez who came third? With Piepoli who has retired? Learn how to ride and to keep the mouth closed, you have too many enemies already.

Gazzetta dello Sport

Any chance of Bruseghin making up 2 minutes in 28.5km?

iainf72

Salsiccia wrote:

Any chance of Bruseghin making up 2 minutes in 28.5km?

Over Contador? No chance. But over Ricco very possible.

I like Pricco's comments today

Riccò struggled to unleash the same venom on the bike that he dished out with his stinging attack on Monte Pora on Friday, and the Cobra's bite was ineffectual as his small attacks amounted to nothing. He poured his poison into his words after the stage; "If I had a big team like Contador I would have been in the pink," declared Riccò. "The Giro will finish tomorrow, but it is not over yet. He is defiantly stronger in the crono than me."

moray_gub

[quote="r, but leave Rodriguez just 8 seconds up the road and Ricco finishes 4th!

:[/quote]


Do you think Joaquin Rodriguez did this purely to get the time bonus to keep Bertie in pink a kind of Spanish stick together thing ? After all I dont think he had much chance of catching Sella or Gibo .

cheers
MG

micron

Well, if Ricco hadn't lost 30+ seconds in the TTT and crashed during the first TT, he might have been in pink with a handy cushion. At least he has won stages in this race and attacked rather than riding defensively throughout.

2Fast4Love

When you are chasing the overall leader you have to attack... when you are the leader, it is natural to defend.

I do feel that the overall winner would like to have taken at least one stage victory along the way though.

iainf72

micron wrote:

Well, if Ricco hadn't lost 30+ seconds in the TTT and crashed during the first TT, he might have been in pink with a handy cushion. At least he has won stages in this race and attacked rather than riding defensively throughout.

And if Bertie had ridden a bit faster he might have won a stage.

Bit of a pointless statement really?

Moomaloid

So is it Bertie's team that has kept him in Pink? Coz for me he's nowhere near 100% yet he's still in front. True Ricco doesn't have many team mates in at the death, but if he's not going to make a move he should keep his trap shut, but he doesn't know how to does he lol

micron

Not really iain - Ricco's crash, for example, was pure chance, whereas Contador's ability to ride faster is solely down to him. Remove that one chance incident and Ricco is no longer 4" behind but in the MR.

I must say the hatred for Ricco on this forum - a rider who has done what he said he would do, attacked and won 2 stages - in preference for a rider who has ridden the poorest, most defensive race I can remember is quite strange...

blazing_saddles

By my reckoning, Sella might have won this Giro by 15 minutes.
His crash lost him 18 minutes! :shock: :roll:
Hate Ricco, for trying, love Contador for just being there.
No wonder the quality of the racing is secondary around here.

Must say though, Iain was spot on with his Navigare predictions. What else could they have had on their minds, towing Colom for over 60kms and half way up the Mortirolo, without the Astana man having to do a tap?
Stage payoff for Sella and GC payback for Ricco.

victorponf

When will can The Cobra defeat Contador?

I think never, if he coudn´t in this Giro (lots of mountain stages and Contador not in shape)

Salsiccia

micron wrote:

I must say the hatred for Ricco on this forum - a rider who has done what he said he would do, attacked and won 2 stages - in preference for a rider who has ridden the poorest, most defensive race I can remember is quite strange...

I don't think it's hatred, but Ricco keeps making himself look like a bellend by opening his mouth and ranting about this rider and that, without actually attacking when he needed to i.e. he attacked too late on Friday, and not at all yesterday. I don't think anyone would mind his 'outspokenness' but he hasn't really earned the right to slag other riders off by actually winning a few big races.

FWIW, I don't want Contador to win it either as he has done nothing except hang about the front. Not really in the 'grand manner'. Sella is without doubt the moral victor.