The Giro so far

iainf72

Bit of a wet weekend so far?

it doesn't even feel like the Giro because the mountain stages haven't been brutal enough.

Discuss.

cswebbo

I'm quite enjoying it so far.
After yesterdays time trial, the GC if still fairly open.
There are 5-6 days left for some attacking racing, and a time trial on the last day that could still be interesting for the G.C.

There is nothing worse than having the race over after one mountain stage and time trial (ie Lance's tdf wins). I agree that on paper the stage have not been as hard as previous years. The Sestrier stage ended up better than expected. Very fast and the final smaller climb was great action. At the end of the day, it's down to the riders how good the racing is. They shot themselves in the feet over the Milan stage though!

No super human 'incredible' performances like Sella or Ricco that i can think of so far this year. It has to be said that Garzelli and Diluca have big question marks over previous years performances. CSC are under-performing in giro this year.
The three stages over this weekend should be good.

For anyone who gets annoyed with Eurosport coverage being delayed by tennis again, check out;-

www.steephill.tv

Plenty of options for coverage. The 'rai' site gives you the option of choosing from 3 different cameras.

mididoctors2

no body of note except garzelli has gone down the road. (hardly anybody does a ride in these days of sram Data)

both liquagaz and astana have cards to play if the riders involved are willing to fry themselves.

its a tight race though. and I liked the ITT format which was a better innovation than a 100 mile crit mid race :roll:

the riders let themselves down with that farce in Milan and they know it.

if the racing is hard sat and sun mondays stage should be a brutal death march. somebody needs to turn up the heat

6/10

flattythehurdler

I've just got back from abroad. Could someone please summaeize what happened in Milan?

Kléber

Old man said piano.

blazing_saddles

OK; This is what I think will happen on the Central Italy stages.

Stage 14: LPR for Di Luca and Aqua e Sapone for Garzelli will want to control the breakaway, as both will fancy the finish.
Either way, DDL will get away from the big diesels, for a few extra seconds.
5"-35" depending on breakaways.

Stage 15: Phoney war. A few test the legs attacks, but a breakaway group to go away and stay away.
Have a feeling Gibo Simoni and or his team will try something here. Memories of 2003 and all that.


Stage 16: Basically, this is where Menchov is going to struggle, but it could happen on either of the previous stages, too.
Who does he mark? For my money, it can be no more than two riders; DDL and Levi.
He can't possibly mark Pellizotti, Basso and Sastre, as well.

I look to both Liquigas and Astana to attack and this is where you go wrong.
No way will they wait for Monte Petrano.
All hell will break loose on the Monte Catria, or even as early as Monte Nerone.
There's even a steep ramp in between the two.

Assuming they wait until Catria. That gives them 40kms to race: 21.5kms at an average of 8%, but with ramps of +10%. Plus 23kms of decent.

Basso will go early, I'm almost certain. DDL will sit and wait, playing Menchov at his own game. Sastre might follow.
I only hope Astana attack, not chase down other attacks.

If they do get pulled back, Pellizotti will attack.
DDL will certainly benefit from all of this, as will one of the Liquigas riders and Sastre.

There will be sizeable, race winning time gaps.

Leipheimer's fate is not really in his own hands. They will miss Horner and have wasted a valuable asset in Brajkovic.
He should be patient. Something he is good at. Yet, he must pick his moment.

iainf72

Blaze - Now THAT'S a race!

Monty Dog

Not on a par with the last few years IME. It's good that one team haven't been able to exert their authority on the race - more level playing field? TBH it's a bit too much like the TdF for my liking in terms of the racing tactics - I'm hoping one of the final weeks mountain stages will sort it out - having GC dependant on TT's is dull, dull, dull.

andyp

With a week to go it's good to see that there are 6 or 7 riders left who have the potential to win. The final week, whilst short on super hard stages, has lots of opportunities for attacking riders to prosper too.

It could be a blinder or it could be dull as the remaining contenders neutralise each other. Let's hope it's the former rather than the latter.

Quite Frankly

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Leipheimer's fate is not really in his own hands. They will miss Horner and have wasted a valuable asset in Brajkovic.
He should be patient. Something he is good at. Yet, he must pick his moment.

What do you mean by that?

ms_tree

I always enjoy the Giro so yes it's been good in my opinion. Best thing was seeing them watching TheTwit on first mt stage and next day seeing him go out the back. Of course my pick is in pink jersey at moment, too.

blazing_saddles

Quite Frankly wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Leipheimer's fate is not really in his own hands. They will miss Horner and have wasted a valuable asset in Brajkovic.
He should be patient. Something he is good at. Yet, he must pick his moment.

What do you mean by that?

Great form pre-Giro.
Great ITT, yesterday.
Job Description:- Dolomites: When Lance goes out the back, stay with him, regardless of how you are riding.
Stage 11: Waste energy charging all the way up the 3rd cat, so Lance can ride down it in poll position.

Basically, he's been a general dog's body, given up minutes and he's still only 12 minutes down.
Could have been used better as an outside GC threat, sent up the road, rather than as a majordomo for the ego.

Noodley

andyp wrote:

With a week to go it's good to see that there are 6 or 7 riders left who have the potential to win. The final week, whilst short on super hard stages, has lots of opportunities for attacking riders to prosper too.

It could be a blinder or it could be dull as the remaining contenders neutralise each other. Let's hope it's the former rather than the latter.

Agreed.

I reckon Menchov will throw in a few surprises. And I think Di Luca will have something terrible happen to him - maybe his sunglasses will clash with his hair or something equally bad.

I would have preferred if Menchov had 50-60 secs more on Di Luca.

Oh, and yes I have enjoyed it, cos I was off work unwell for three days this week and it was a fine change to watching repeats of Kojak, Quincy and Miss Marple.

Quite Frankly

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Quite Frankly wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Leipheimer's fate is not really in his own hands. They will miss Horner and have wasted a valuable asset in Brajkovic.
He should be patient. Something he is good at. Yet, he must pick his moment.

What do you mean by that?

Great form pre-Giro.
Great ITT, yesterday.
Job Description:- Dolomites: When Lance goes out the back, stay with him, regardless of how you are riding.
Stage 11: Waste energy charging all the way up the 3rd cat, so Lance can ride down it in poll position.

Basically, he's been a general dog's body, given up minutes and he's still only 12 minutes down.
Could have been used better as an outside GC threat, sent up the road, rather than as a majordomo for the ego.

Look, I enjoy having a dig at his lordship as much as the next man but surely the main reason that Brajkovic is out of the GC picture is due to the 6 and a half minutes he lost on the Stage 10 Queen's stage. All of that time was lost on the 3rd Cat climb and the 12 kilometer run in to the finish. I'm sure you don't need reminding that Lance did in fact finish with the likes of Levi and Basso that day, just 29 seconds down. So what was the reason for Brajkovic's poor performance that day? He's yet to show that he can ''hang'' with the top guys in the mountains so perhaps his performance on Stage 5 when he finished nearly 3 minutes down with Armstrong was in fact very close to his best?

A great TT no doubt but as yet he's shown little on the hilly stuff to suggest he's anything other than a decent climber.

Moomaloid

i would like to have seen some more brutal mountain stages but on the whole i think its been a good tour so far. So nice to have mountain stages early and not have to sit through a week of flat stages.

i do however feel that there is a danger that it could just peter out a little...

Le Commentateur

iainf72 wrote:

Bit of a wet weekend so far?

it doesn't even feel like the Giro because the mountain stages haven't been brutal enough.

Discuss.

But always the tough climbs stack up in the last week. Just because they are not in the traditional arenas of the Alps and Dolomites doesn't mean we won't see some drama next week. A change in the weather from the 30°C temps could be a help.

Looking forward to the forthcoming duel between Pellizotti and Basso -- er, I mean Di Luca and Menchov.

blazing_saddles

Have to say, it is very fast, too fast IMO, but the parcours are not helping.
At the moment those detractors of the route are winning the: "It isn't hard enough" argument, hands down.

What exactly have the favourites done since the ITT?
Almost certainly, another day off again, tomorrow as an early break will be let go.

That leaves what I'd describe as two and a half stages to make this race shine.

So far, the poorest Giro since the San Remo raided 2001 edition.

richard wants a baum

Has seemed a little stop go, would have been nice to have 3 or so days of some really testing mountain stages to get the GC working. Basically stage 16 and 17 are it for the GC guys that are 2:00 plus down then if they cant get any time on Menchov and DLL then its those two, and nothing against Menchov but i think if DLL is any were near him after stage 17 then the Killer will walk it in.

dave_1

it's great..take yesterday...quite exciting racing with the Basso move, the TT I still enjoyed a bit but the rules re motobikes staying behind damages the race a bit...but maybe more fair...getting to see someone from the Indurain era race in the contador era is also interesting, I'd have loved to see Hinault battle Indurain or Herrara vs Pantani...we may get this equal at the TDF......I know you all sneer at livestrong but personally, I enjoy seeing his progress/lack of progress

SpaceJunk

I'll be honest - barring the fact last year I went to Italy for a couple weeks (stayed in Vernazza in Cinque Terra amongst other things), and have absoltuely loved the scenery and reflecting on a great race, the racing itself has been rather ho-hum to date.

I enjoyed Menchov's stage win and (obviously) Gerrans as well. But it better hot up a bit in the final week.