Giro Stage 11 *spoiler*

mididoctors

LIQ are in a position where they can attack..

mididoctors

not convinced its over for all the main contenders just yet...

iainf72

Here's a thought

Today was stage 11

Of 21.

We're just past halfway. Long way to go

timmyflash

As a 'noob' to cycling, can someone explain how do you lose team members? Need to be within certain time of first? Just give up? Drop the last x number of riders every day?

Looked exciting, but only caught the last 3km!

SpaceJunk

mididoctors wrote:

LIQ are in a position where they can attack..

They were the only 'winners' today from the Vino group.

I think Evans, Vino may have missed the boat, but Liquigas could still be a threat. They will be aggressive in week 3.

zippypablo

greeny12 wrote:

Arroyo looks nailed on to win now. Sastre still a bit too far back, I reckon...

PTP bloodbath today!!

I think Tondo looks a good bet.

Kléber

It's not over yet but there will have to be some big attacks and long range offensives. It could work for some but I fear the likes of Evans might have to settle for stage wins or even shift their sights towards July and forget the Giro.

msw

Caption competition anyone?

donrhummy

Oh, I still think Evans, Basso and Vino still will be around the top. but they're all multiple minutes behind Sastre heading INTO the mountains! The top spot's going to be VERY hard for any of them to get close to.

SpaceJunk

iainf72 wrote:

Here's a thought

Today was stage 11

Of 21.

We're just past halfway. Long way to go

That's ok then BMC have only lost just under half their team.


The 3rd week is going to be fantastic. A lot is still to unfold.

donrhummy

timmyflash wrote:

As a 'noob' to cycling, can someone explain how do you lose team members? Need to be within certain time of first? Just give up? Drop the last x number of riders every day?

Looked exciting, but only caught the last 3km!

There's a number of ways:

1. Outside the time limit (based on a % of the time by the stage's winner)
(although if a crash in the last few km causes this, the judges can overrule)

2. Crash out (hurt and can't continue)

3. Pull out (tired, met objective, whatever)

4. Get kicked out for violating rules (doping, pushing other rider into violent crash, etc)

afx237vi

donrhummy wrote:

timmyflash wrote:

As a 'noob' to cycling, can someone explain how do you lose team members? Need to be within certain time of first? Just give up? Drop the last x number of riders every day?

Looked exciting, but only caught the last 3km!

There's a number of ways:

1. Outside the time limit (based on a % of the time by the stage's winner)
(although if a crash in the last few km causes this, the judges can overrule)

2. Crash out (hurt and can't continue)

3. Pull out (tired, met objective, whatever)

4. Get kicked out for violating rules (doping, pushing other rider into violent crash, etc)

Worth pointing out that 2 and 3 are far more common than 1 or 4.

iainf72

donrhummy wrote:

Oh, I still think Evans, Basso and Vino still will be around the top. but they're all multiple minutes behind Sastre heading INTO the mountains! The top spot's going to be VERY hard for any of them to get close to.

This morning everyone thought Sastre was a lost cause. Things change rapidly in this Giro.

Overhauling Porte might not be that easy. He can climb as well as Frank Schleck so he might be tough.

Liquigas are in a reasonable position.

blazing_saddles

I'm with Iain. The fat lady hasn't even entered the building.
The Monte Grappa stage on Saturday will now be a full blown fistfight, rather than a wait for the Zoncolan spar.

These third week ramps could turn any GC on it's head. Attacks won't wait around for the final 3kms.
What more could we want?....
(well I suppose FF wants Valverde and Bertie to cuddle up to, but besides that.....)

alanmcn1

I have a feeling this has cost vino etc the Giro. Much as Zoncolan etc are great to watch and very steep, they are so ridiculously hard that very few race winning attacks go, they all usually struggle up together in near the same time...........................certainly not 8 minutes from a lad who can TT and climb?

greeny12

Blazing Saddles wrote:

What more could we want?....

I wanted Scarponi in that breakaway!

Bakunin

In addition to Leaky, Cervelo has some cards.

Arrayo could be tough.

SpaceJunk

I don't think Vino will win the Giro, but I didn't before stage 11 anyway.

Evans' regardless of today, must be concerned with lack of support.

Basso and Nibali along with Scarponi and Garzelli will be very aggressive in next week.


So yeah, it is far from over.

Kléber

Arroyo has a good team behind him, Caisse will prove hard to dislodge.

Pokerface

alanmcn1 wrote:

I have a feeling this has cost vino etc the Giro. Much as Zoncolan etc are great to watch and very steep, they are so ridiculously hard that very few race winning attacks go, they all usually struggle up together in near the same time...........................certainly not 8 minutes from a lad who can TT and climb?

I guess the question is- can he do it for another 2 weeks.

All good to say he can climb and TT - but that's when he's fresh. Might be tougher after 2 weeks of racing.

alanmcn1

Pokerface wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

I have a feeling this has cost vino etc the Giro. Much as Zoncolan etc are great to watch and very steep, they are so ridiculously hard that very few race winning attacks go, they all usually struggle up together in near the same time...........................certainly not 8 minutes from a lad who can TT and climb?

I guess the question is- can he do it for another 2 weeks.

All good to say he can climb and TT - but that's when he's fresh. Might be tougher after 2 weeks of racing.

As most folk are saying, if he can't Arroyo probably can

frenchfighter

SpaceJunk wrote:

This one's for FF, courtesy of Richard Moore's twitter:

"There's something I need to get off my chest. Vino: hahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha."
about 2 hours ago via web

Do you think I give two hoots what some idiot with access to twitter thinks?

frenchfighter

What's done is done. Some teams and GC big guns messed up big time. As people have said this will hopefully lead to some fireworks, and no defensive riding, although Vino and even Cadel are not two to fall back even when in the lead.

Bakunin

If Nibs and Basso are the guys for Leaky -- was it a mistake not to send the two riders in the break back to help out?

What is the word on the two Leaky guys in the top ten?

bipedal

frenchfighter wrote:

SpaceJunk wrote:

This one's for FF, courtesy of Richard Moore's twitter:

"There's something I need to get off my chest. Vino: hahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha."
about 2 hours ago via web

Do you think I give two hoots what some idiot with access to twitter thinks?

That "idiot" would be the highly regarded cycling journalist Richard Moore, writer for The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richard-moore) and author of:
In Search of Robert Millar, HarperCollins, September 2007, ISBN 9780007235018
Heroes, Villains & Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution, HarperCollins, June 2008, ISBN 9780007265312

Pross

Bakunin wrote:

If Nibs and Basso are the guys for Leaky -- was it a mistake not to send the two riders in the break back to help out?

What is the word on the two Leaky guys in the top ten?

Probably not - they have hedged their bets now and those two dropping back probably wouldn't have made much difference. They are now lucky enough that Basso and Nibali can just follow the moves of the other favourites that missed out with the excuse that they have team mates already up there on GC - perfect position really.

frenchfighter

Thanks, he has written one of the best cycling articles I have ever read so I probably shouldn't have called him an idiot, and meant it flippantly, however I still don't care what he or anyone else thinks of Vinokourov and think that revelling in any misfortune is pretty low grade.

Pross

Misfortune? Poor tactics surely? He didn't crash or anything. He'd gained time by attacking when the bunch split earlier in the race (including following crashes) so was presumably only leading as a result of good fortune and everything balances out in the end

squired

There are enough challenges left in this race that the big boys can still get back on top. Of course it does depend on whether they want to attack and put the new frontrunners under pressure. It could be worse - they could be following the TDF route - if that was the case it would be game over.

greeny12

It's going to be very interesting once some of the post-race interviews are published. We stil don't really know for sure how or why such a crazy breakaway happened.

One thing's for sure, there are going to be some long faces over dinner tonight, and some teams rapidly revising their strategies...