Giro stage 20 ‘Spoiler’

afx237vi

Rick Chasey wrote:

Thomas de Gendt; what a f*cking hero.

'Cos he gave up the sausages.

Been a good Giro though. Undecided until the last pedal stroke.

rick_chasey

He'll never be let off the leash anymore.

He goes for the big breaks and is attacking, but has the legs to back it up and rides breaks smart.

Saw an interview with him a month or two ago. They asked why he's only good in France. Said it was the perfect blend of road surfaces, climbs that are not too steep or shallow etc etc. His DS next to him basically said " we're working hard on this". Also, when they asked "why the big attacks?" he said he wasn't the best at riding the peleton.

Guess they solved the France bit, though this was the most "french" climb there's been this Giro.

afx237vi

Rick Chasey wrote:

He'll never be let off the leash anymore.

He goes for the big breaks and is attacking, but has the legs to back it up and rides breaks smart.

Saw an interview with him a month or two ago. They asked why he's only good in France. Said it was the perfect blend of road surfaces, climbs that are not too steep or shallow etc etc. His DS next to him basically said " we're working hard on this". Also, when they asked "why the big attacks?" he said he wasn't the best at riding the peloton.

Guess they solved the France bit, though this was the most "french" climb there's been this Giro.

The Stelvio, yeah, but he attacked halfway up the Mortirolo, which is the exact opposite.

But I agree about your first sentence. He's never going to be allowed to attack ever again... which, given his character, could provide some future entertainment for us fans anyway.

greasedscotsman

afx237vi wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Thomas de Gendt; what a f*cking hero.

'Cos he gave up the sausages.

Been a good Giro though. Undecided until the last pedal stroke.

Did you not notice, his DS got the lead car changed to this...

tailwindhome

Says something about this race that not one PTPer picked either De Gendt or Ryder for the overall.

Or says something about the PTPers.

rick_chasey

You'd think someone who attacks like de Gendt does would be a bit more bullish about his chances:

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrenn ... dt_reactie

"De Giro ga ik niet winnen", zegt hij aan Sporza. "Ik ga wel proberen om over Scarponi te wippen, maar als ik mijn plaats kan behouden, mag ik al heel blij zijn. Hopelijk heb ik zondag dezelfde benen, maar ik vrees er een beetje voor. Ik ga het parcours een of twee keer verkennen."

Rick Chasey translation:

"I'm not going to win the Giro." "I'll certainly try to beat Scarponi, but if I keep my place [on GC] I'll be very pleased .Hopefully I'll have the same legs on Sunday, but I'm a little fearful. I'm going to recce the route once or twice."

rick_chasey

Also, turns out he knows the Stelvio pretty well. He's been training on it for the last 6 or so years and has done it maybe 20 or 30 times.

greasedscotsman

Rick Chasey wrote:

You'd think someone who attacks like de Gendt does would be a bit more bullish about his chances:

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrenn ... dt_reactie

"De Giro ga ik niet winnen", zegt hij aan Sporza. "Ik ga wel proberen om over Scarponi te wippen, maar als ik mijn plaats kan behouden, mag ik al heel blij zijn. Hopelijk heb ik zondag dezelfde benen, maar ik vrees er een beetje voor. Ik ga het parcours een of twee keer verkennen."

Rick Chasey translation:

"I'm not going to win the Giro." "I'll certainly try to beat Scarponi, but if I keep my place [on GC] I'll be very pleased .Hopefully I'll have the same legs on Sunday, but I'm a little fearful. I'm going to recce the route once or twice."

Maybe just playing down his chances, would look a bit silly if he said he was going to win and didn't.

Don't think there are any mind games going on, everyone in the top 10 or so will go full gas in tomorrow's stage.

ilm_zero7

40 DQ's!
Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini and 3 others were disqualified for slipstreaming cars after the Passo del Tonale. The other three men who saw their race come to a premature end were South African champion Robbie Hunter of Garmin-Barracuda, Dominique Rollin of FDJ-BigMat and Euskaltel’s Ivan Velasco.

greasedscotsman

ILM Zero7 wrote:

40 DQ's!
Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini and 3 others were disqualified for slipstreaming cars after the Passo del Tonale. The other three men who saw their race come to a premature end were South African champion Robbie Hunter of Garmin-Barracuda, Dominique Rollin of FDJ-BigMat and Euskaltel’s Ivan Velasco.

You mean 4, right? And Robbie Hunter claims he wasn't disqualified but pulled out of the race at the feed.

http://twitter.com/#!/RobbieHunter/stat ... 0613057537

Pross

greasedscotsman wrote:

ILM Zero7 wrote:

40 DQ's!
Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini and 3 others were disqualified for slipstreaming cars after the Passo del Tonale. The other three men who saw their race come to a premature end were South African champion Robbie Hunter of Garmin-Barracuda, Dominique Rollin of FDJ-BigMat and Euskaltel’s Ivan Velasco.

You mean 4, right? And Robbie Hunter claims he wasn't disqualified but pulled out of the race at the feed.

http://twitter.com/#!/RobbieHunter/stat ... 0613057537

Surely Guardini should be stripped if his stage win and Cav elevated to winner then?

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

afx237vi

greasedscotsman wrote:

ILM Zero7 wrote:

40 DQ's!
Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini and 3 others were disqualified for slipstreaming cars after the Passo del Tonale. The other three men who saw their race come to a premature end were South African champion Robbie Hunter of Garmin-Barracuda, Dominique Rollin of FDJ-BigMat and Euskaltel’s Ivan Velasco.

You mean 4, right? And Robbie Hunter claims he wasn't disqualified but pulled out of the race at the feed.

http://twitter.com/#!/RobbieHunter/stat ... 0613057537

For how many kms did he spend behind a car before he got to the feed zone?

greasedscotsman

afx237vi wrote:

greasedscotsman wrote:

ILM Zero7 wrote:

40 DQ's!
Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini and 3 others were disqualified for slipstreaming cars after the Passo del Tonale. The other three men who saw their race come to a premature end were South African champion Robbie Hunter of Garmin-Barracuda, Dominique Rollin of FDJ-BigMat and Euskaltel’s Ivan Velasco.

You mean 4, right? And Robbie Hunter claims he wasn't disqualified but pulled out of the race at the feed.

http://twitter.com/#!/RobbieHunter/stat ... 0613057537

For how many kms did he spend behind a car before he got to the feed zone?

I don't know. I wasn't trying to defend him, just pointing out what he said. Do you know?

afx237vi

greasedscotsman wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

greasedscotsman wrote:

ILM Zero7 wrote:

40 DQ's!
Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini and 3 others were disqualified for slipstreaming cars after the Passo del Tonale. The other three men who saw their race come to a premature end were South African champion Robbie Hunter of Garmin-Barracuda, Dominique Rollin of FDJ-BigMat and Euskaltel’s Ivan Velasco.

You mean 4, right? And Robbie Hunter claims he wasn't disqualified but pulled out of the race at the feed.

http://twitter.com/#!/RobbieHunter/stat ... 0613057537

For how many kms did he spend behind a car before he got to the feed zone?

I don't know. I wasn't trying to defend him, just pointing out what he said. Do you know?

No, I don't know, but riding to the feed zone and climbing off doesn't mean anything if the commissaires have already DQed you. You've got about as much chance of a rider admitting to hanging on to a car as you have of a footballer admitting to diving.

frenchfighter

MAJOR FAIL ALERT

iainf72

frenchfighter wrote:

MAJOR FAIL ALERT

Someone who gives some thought to the ladies there!

Crankbrother

Just watched st20 this morning as I went on hols last w/e ....

Ryder put in a fair shift so deserves what he got ... But everyone else was rubbish in reality ... Contador would have won by 10 minutes in the end (which, oddly, would have been more exciting than what we got in the end ... with no white roads or volcanoes it was just a bit vanilla by Giro standards) ...

What were Sky thinking, surely trying to secure red and sacrificing a few meaningless GC places had to be the priority ... even losing the white jersey trying to secure it would have made more sense as Cav would then have won the points comp in all 3 GT's ... Maybe the white jersey comp matters now? (always looks like it is won by accident to me ... and should really go to highest placed debutant under 25 so that there is no real chance of the overall winner getting it by accident) ...

And J-Rod ... Smart, but classless riding, unless of course he was after Red all along and holding Pink was just a lucky co-incidence ...

Dull end to the race ... Didn't even watch the TT ...

frenchfighter

Just found out that this stage was chosen by the fans. RCS asked them to choose.

Mountain looks lovely here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... IqR9Wxzqk#!