Giro stage 15 *spoiler*

iainf72

Not too long now.

Will it be exciting or will it be a bit "meh"

Hopefully the action will start well before the last climb. Evans admitted he didn't feel great yesterday, so hopefully he'll be up to the task today.

csp

I think today's stage will decide wether or not Arroyo will win the Giro.

iainf72

Cadel says in his diary that on paper today is one of the easier mountain stages

:shock:

DaveyL

He might have a bit of a point - Stage 20 has over 6000 metres of climbing!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/93rd-g ... t/stage-20

andyp

iainf72 wrote:

Cadel says in his diary that on paper today is one of the easier mountain stages

:shock:

It is. There's nothing to trouble the favourites until the final climb.

The time gaps they used the climb last time weren't decisive;

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/200 ... s/giro0717

iainf72

So it's a day for Basso / Nibs / Evans to move up the order a bit but nothing significant to happen.

You never know though, in this Giro

SpaceJunk

iainf72 wrote:

So it's a day for Basso / Nibs / Evans to move up the order a bit but nothing significant to happen.

You never know though, in this Giro

Yeah, I can see those 3 getting a bit of time back on the likes of Porte and maybe another 1 or 2 high placed riders.

Interesting to see if Vino and Sastre lose any time.

I reckon Evans is starting to look tired. I wouldn't be surprised if he lost a little time today to the Liquigas duo.

And as someone else mentioned, we should get a good idea how well Arroyo will defend the pink jersey over the coming days.

Remember, it's been a long time since their last rest day. Very tired bodies.

blazing_saddles

DaveyL wrote:

He might have a bit of a point - Stage 20 has over 6000 metres of climbing!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/93rd-g ... t/stage-20

Plus, the horrendously hair raising descent of the Gavia in the "wrong" direction. Sooo
narrow and that drop!

I wonder how net feeds are going to work for folks on here? It's all chop and change with the various tv stations.

blazing_saddles

iainf72 wrote:

So it's a day for Basso / Nibs / Evans to move up the order a bit but nothing significant to happen.

You never know though, in this Giro

I think all the significant movement will be in the opposite direction.

DaveyL

I think "da rear door" (copyright Sean Kelly) will be seeing a lot of action today.

andyp

I think "da rear door" will see a lot of action this coming week. It's going to be an attritional race isn't it? The rider who manages what's left of his reserves the best will win. I don't see much attacking going on, unless Vino finds his legs.

Cumulonimbus

The main moves will be made on the Zoncolan IMO but i think Liquigas will look to up the pace on some of the earlier climbs. Judging by yesterday its in their interests to make the stage as hard as possible and if they detect weakness early on from someone like Evans and go all guns blazing then it could turn into carnage.

Sastre to do better than yesterday, Vino worse. Gonna go for Basso, Nibali, Sastre, Scarponi, Evans.

Uran finished with the Wiggins group yesterday and being so light (54kg) it would be interesting to see what he could do today on such a steep slope. However, he is probably going to have to shepherd arroyo along.

DaveyL

Any comment from Wiggo on what he was trying to do yesterday?

(iain need not reply "stay upright")

patchy

still can't believe Eurosport UK aren't showing this stage live.

iainf72

DaveyL wrote:

Any comment from Wiggo on what he was trying to do yesterday?

(iain need not reply "stay upright")

Yes, Liquigas had been riding strongly and they eased off the gas. Wiggins saw a couple of guys were in trouble at the back so upped the pace just to bin them.

There, look, I can be serious sometimes.

DaveyL

*faints*

adeyboy

Just realised this isn't on Eurosport - what a rip. Is there anywhere i can see it?

dave_1

Blazing Saddles wrote:

DaveyL wrote:

He might have a bit of a point - Stage 20 has over 6000 metres of climbing!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/93rd-g ... t/stage-20

Plus, the horrendously hair raising descent of the Gavia in the "wrong" direction. Sooo
narrow and that drop!

I wonder how net feeds are going to work for folks on here? It's all chop and change with the various tv stations.

Blaze, the most stable net feed I have found is in Italian and is contained within www.worldlivetv.org but it is not a huge screen, but enough for you to see the action without it freezing up, buffering all the time. I'm grateful as am 6000 miles away with shonky broadband so at least am seeing it, even though I don't know Italian

dave_1

iainf72 wrote:

DaveyL wrote:

Any comment from Wiggo on what he was trying to do yesterday?

(iain need not reply "stay upright")

Yes, Liquigas had been riding strongly and they eased off the gas. Wiggins saw a couple of guys were in trouble at the back so upped the pace just to bin them.

There, look, I can be serious sometimes.

Basso or Nibali? I reckon Ivan was stronger than Nibs on the climb so maybe a Hinault-lemond type duel today. I missed Evans getting dropped at the top of the climb yesterday but...here's hoping for a battle

Sheptastic

Should be on here later http://www.fromsport.com/c-9.html

StefanP

Gazzetta.it are hosting every stage live it normally starts around 1/3 of the way through the stage.

I'd like to see Sastre do well, but honestly, I doubt he will :O

DaveyL

It may be shown online via the Eurosport Player - might be no commentary though.

Very disappointing situation nonetheless. Will they have tennis on both channels?

dave_1

Did Cadel Evans really get dropped near the top yesterday? I missed that...hope not as he'll get it today

iainf72

Dave_1 wrote:

Did Cadel Evans really get dropped near the top yesterday? I missed that...hope not as he'll get it today

Yeah, literally in the last 100 meters. He looked like he was really suffering when Basso was pushing the pace.

RichN95.

Dave_1 wrote:

Did Cadel Evans really get dropped near the top yesterday? I missed that...hope not as he'll get it today

About 100m from the top he was. But that's so close to the summit that he might have dropped back for his own reasons. Who knows?

iainf72

RichN95 wrote:

About 100m from the top he was. But that's so close to the summit that he might have dropped back for his own reasons. Who knows?

I thought that. We've all been there, really hurting and maybe he just backed off as he knew it was the summit and they wouldn't get away.

dave_1

cheers guys...am constantly amazed at how often Cadel climbs out the seat considering how that takes even more out of the body than seated climbing...used to see it on the heart rate monitor...more effort

StefanP

ay, but you can spin a higher gear, Contador climbs out of the seat a lot more too (?)

dave_1

StefanP wrote:

ay, but you can spin a higher gear, Contador climbs out of the seat a lot more too (?)

true, I don't really know which is most efficient... but Contador is rarely hanging on while Evans was hanging by a thread so looks less wise by Evans.

AidanR

I thought they did a study which suggested that climbing out of the saddle was more efficient on the really steep stuff but that you were better off in the saddle for everything else. It probably also depends on the individual though.

dave_1

AidanR wrote:

I thought they did a study which suggested that climbing out of the saddle was more efficient on the really steep stuff but that you were better off in the saddle for everything else. It probably also depends on the individual though.

interesting...for rider about to crack with 1km to the top, seated and lose 5 seconds maybe better than putting himself into oxygen debt from which there's no return during the final part of a stage