Giro Stage 15 ***Spoiler***

rick_chasey

Excellent stage.

For what it's worth, every GT needs one stage like this.

Final week, a few mountains beforehand to soften them up.

My legs were almost stinging just watching it.

It was everything the Zoncalan wasn't.

Tom BB

Over 8 hours in the saddle for Russ and the other final finishers.......very impressive! Good job that we have a rest day today.

MrTapir

RichN95 wrote:

Tusher wrote:

I read that Russ Downing had retired. Vexed for him if it's true, as I'd desperately wanted him to do well in his first GT.

He finished 149th today, 41 minutes down.

what a legend, I too thought he had retired, I think its cos Harmon said that... not sure though. I'm quite impressed that the last guy Wilson was less than an hour behind.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-d ... -mountains

Pross

Rick Chasey wrote:

Excellent stage.

For what it's worth, every GT needs one stage like this.

Final week, a few mountains beforehand to soften them up.

My legs were almost stinging just watching it.

It was everything the Zoncalan wasn't.

+1 best stage of this year's race by a long way. I don't necessarily think the Crostis should have been left in on the previous day but in removing a difficult climb it spoiled the stage for me. I think the organisers can learn a lesson from this and realise that it is the difficulty of the climbs / stage in general and not the danger that makes the race.

I was impressed by Contador but felt he made a bit of an error in attacking which showed at the end. It will be interesting to see how well he recovers, the attack was unnecessary and whilst I like to see aggressive riding it just came across as a bit of an ego thing possibly after getting jeered at the end of the Zoncolan?

frenchfighter

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/ra ... nibali.jpg

frenchfighter

Garzelli 3x elbow to the idiot fans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtlCXSCO ... r_embedded

frenchfighter

Good highlights
http://player.sbs.com.au/cycling#/cycli ... -Stage-15/

Sgt_Pepper

frenchfighter wrote:

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races11/giro11/giro11st15-nibali.jpg

Perhaps next year they'll throw in a few "mountain bottom" finishes to give Nibali a chance.

neil_sheehan2000

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Were I designing a GT, I would always have one stage with a finish straight off a descent.
It is as much of a gift as climbing and sadly ignored.
Best of all, you can see how a great downhiller forces a climber into attacking early.

Action guaranteed.

Isn't there a bit in Tim Krabbe's The Rider where he says that the reason they don't really reward people who are good at descending is basically because they're all mental and would wind up getting themselves in trouble?

Doobz

Sgt_Pepper wrote:

Perhaps next year they'll throw in a few "mountain bottom" finishes to give Nibali a chance.

Stage 17 and 18 should be good for Nibs to get some time on his Rivals.. Should be an awesome two stages

frenchfighter

Maybe this stage