Giro Stage 3 - Spoiler Thread

thomthom

Richmond Racer wrote:

Awwww fella, come on then, internet hugs....

If truth be told it was all a bit confusing as to exactly what was happening for at least some of the time. Time checks would have been nice....

Just read the Velonews update which informs me more as to what actually happened, than watching it live
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/05/ ... lia_285262

= is the result of good racing. 8)

Richmond Racer

In other news, Vini Fantini's DS has taken a very dim view of Taborre being chased down.

@albertocelani: "Anglosaxons think they can teach us #cycling but that's not the way a team should ride. Chasing Taborre a nosense"

Italian handbags are a-swinging


Also...Cesar - broken collarbone....no 3 GTs for him this year...

Vino'sGhost

ddraver wrote:

Right, Fair Warning, Frenchie Style, fact poor, opinion high, rant approaching

THAT is how you win a ffffffff*cking race, not by pissing and moaning about power meters or trains or doping or whatever the whiny little bitches have been on about over the past 2 years.

You watch bike races, you identify where teams are weak (e.g on classic type stages) and you hit them as hard as you can on stages like that. That is how you WIN! I'm not JV's biggest fan but whoever orchestrated that from Garmin or Astana deserves a heap of respect.

Heavyweight, True Champion, assorted other meaningless cliches etc...

and breathe...

true

IanTrcp

Richmond Racer wrote:

In other news, Vini Fantini's DS has taken a very dim view of Taborre being chased down.

@albertocelani: "Anglosaxons think they can teach us #cycling but that's not the way a team should ride. Chasing Taborre a nosense"

Italian handbags are a-swinging

Why would he see it that way? "If you hang yourself out to dry you should be allowed the win"??

Pross

Richmond Racer wrote:

In other news, Vini Fantini's DS has taken a very dim view of Taborre being chased down.

@albertocelani: "Anglosaxons think they can teach us #cycling but that's not the way a team should ride. Chasing Taborre a nosense"

Italian handbags are a-swinging


Also...Cesar - broken collarbone....no 3 GTs for him this year...

Yep, God forbid those pesky Anglophones actually race in a bike race rather than let a token home rider take the victory. The GC contenders should just fight it out in the big mountains and TTs. Strange that a British team should criticise Anglos though

ddraver

Richmond Racer wrote:

In other news, Vini Fantini's DS has taken a very dim view of Taborre being chased down.

@albertocelani: "Anglosaxons think they can teach us #cycling but that's not the way a team should ride. Chasing Taborre a nosense"

Italian handbags are a-swinging


Also...Cesar - broken collarbone....no 3 GTs for him this year...

Eh? VF should be automatically granted a win now if they get in a break should they?

Naff off Alberto!

Richmond Racer

IanTrcp wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

In other news, Vini Fantini's DS has taken a very dim view of Taborre being chased down.

@albertocelani: "Anglosaxons think they can teach us #cycling but that's not the way a team should ride. Chasing Taborre a nosense"

Italian handbags are a-swinging

Why would he see it that way? "If you hang yourself out to dry you should be allowed the win"??

Presumably if you're no threat on GC, you're Italian, AND you wear day-glo, you should be handed it on a plate...or something...

EDIT: just seen pithy comments on this subject from Messrs Pross and ddraver...

ddraver

I'm feeling very pithy today....

DeadCalm

Richmond Racer wrote:

In other news, Vini Fantini's DS has taken a very dim view of Taborre being chased down.

@albertocelani: "Anglosaxons think they can teach us #cycling but that's not the way a team should ride. Chasing Taborre a nosense"

Since when did OPQS and Katusha become Anglo-Saxon? For surely it was them that chased Taborre down, no?

jerry3571

I think Wiggo did lose time today, not contesting the sprint and, these days, GCs are decided over only one or two minutes so every second counts. The Giro route, before the Mountains, has similar stages as today so Wiggo better get with it. I thought Sky were all about "marginal gains" which should include bonus seconds. He should get a bit more like Ryder and race like he wants it, unless Wiggo wants to get off his bike half way round so he can ride the Tour. Hmmm...

DeadCalm

Richmond Racer wrote:

If truth be told it was all a bit confusing as to exactly what was happening for at least some of the time. Time checks would have been nice....

I thought the commentary from Quigley was pretty poor which didn't help. I was watching on a really pants internet feed and was still able to identify more of what was going on than he did.

Richmond Racer wrote:

Just read the Velonews update which informs me more as to what actually happened, than watching it live
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/05/ ... lia_285262

That seems to suggest the blame for Scarponi's crash was down to interference from an unidentified Katusha rider trying to interfere with the chase. I didn't see it that way at the time. Did anyone else think it was anything other than the Blanco rider mis-judging the corner and Scarponi following the same line?

Richmond Racer

jerry3571 wrote:

I think Wiggo did lose time today, not contesting the sprint and, these days, GCs are decided over only one or two minutes so every second counts. The Giro route, before the Mountains, has similar stages as today so Wiggo better get with it. I thought Sky were all about "marginal gains" which should include bonus seconds. He should get a bit more like Ryder and race like he wants it, unless Wiggo wants to get off his bike half way round so he can ride the Tour. Hmmm...

You need to get yourself into a team car, Jerry

And yes, Sir Bradley doesnt want to concede too many of them boners to his rivals

jerry3571

Wiggo needs a rocket, mate. He's looking at the scenery.

knedlicky

DeadCalm wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

Just read the Velonews update which informs me more as to what actually happened, than watching it live
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/05/ ... lia_285262

That seems to suggest the blame for Scarponi's crash was down to interference from an unidentified Katusha rider trying to interfere with the chase. I didn't see it that way at the time. Did anyone else think it was anything other than the Blanco rider mis-judging the corner and Scarponi following the same line?

After the stage Scarponi simply said “We went with a lot of tempo into a tight curve. I went too quickly into it, feared crashing and then did slide away. The bike was broken. We’ll see how much time I can make up tomorrow.”

He didn’t make any reference to the incident Velonews mentions. Nor did he put any blame on the Blanco riders or suggest he followed the same (bad) line they took.
In order to finish, Scarponi took the bike of team-mate Stortoni, when he arrived at the scene.

Might well be Scarponi is serious about making up time tomorrow too; the end of the stage could be as turbulent as today. There is a 5.5% climb over 12 km long (max 10%) less than 7 km from the finish. Afterwards there isn't really a descent, just 70 m drop, but the run-in does include a couple of 'bumps'.

Richmond Racer

jerry3571 wrote:

Wiggo needs a rocket, mate. He's looking at the scenery.

Its probably more likely the lambrettas that are distracting him

Tomorrow - as knedlicky says - is going to be interesting....

DeadCalm

knedlicky wrote:

After the stage Scarponi simply said “We went with a lot of tempo into a tight curve. I went too quickly into it, feared crashing and then did slide away. The bike was broken. We’ll see how much time I can make up tomorrow.”

Thanks. Whether he was following the Blanco riders' line or not, it appeared to have been his error and he seems to accept that. I certainly didn't see anything sinister.

knedlicky wrote:

In order to finish, Scarponi took the bike of team-mate Stortoni, when he arrived at the scene.

One of the examples where Quigley completely missed what was going on. Stortoni at the side of the road with Scarponi's broken bike and Quigley assumed that Stortoni had crashed too.

knedlicky wrote:

Might well be Scarponi is serious about making up time tomorrow too; the end of the stage could be as turbulent as today. There is a 5.5% climb over 12 km long (max 10%) less than 7 km from the finish. Afterwards there isn't really a descent, just 70 m drop, but the run-in does include a couple of 'bumps'.

I'm hoping so. I've picked him in PTP.

thomthom

Every stage should have a descent btw.

That's all.

thegibdog

ddraver wrote:

It's the first time I've seen Sky in trouble in a GT for a long long time.

Well, yeah, it is the first GT since September.

Great racing today, didn't expect it to be so animated.

ddraver

I reckon theres 6-8 months to a long...

jerry3571

knedlicky wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

Just read the Velonews update which informs me more as to what actually happened, than watching it live
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/05/ ... lia_285262

That seems to suggest the blame for Scarponi's crash was down to interference from an unidentified Katusha rider trying to interfere with the chase. I didn't see it that way at the time. Did anyone else think it was anything other than the Blanco rider mis-judging the corner and Scarponi following the same line?

After the stage Scarponi simply said “We went with a lot of tempo into a tight curve. I went too quickly into it, feared crashing and then did slide away. The bike was broken. We’ll see how much time I can make up tomorrow.”

He didn’t make any reference to the incident Velonews mentions. Nor did he put any blame on the Blanco riders or suggest he followed the same (bad) line they took.
In order to finish, Scarponi took the bike of team-mate Stortoni, when he arrived at the scene.

Might well be Scarponi is serious about making up time tomorrow too; the end of the stage could be as turbulent as today. There is a 5.5% climb over 12 km long (max 10%) less than 7 km from the finish. Afterwards there isn't really a descent, just 70 m drop, but the run-in does include a couple of 'bumps'.

Here's a clip of Scarponi having a tumble (1minute 30 secs on the clip). I think I mentioned that it doesn't matter if the roads are wet or dry as the riders ride to what the tyres will take. In the rain they might have slid off doing less speed and also probably lose less skin as the wet roads lubricate the skin against the tarmac so leaving less Meat on the Road.
I think Scarponi and Blanco just went in to the corner too quick and they just over cooked it; maybe a bit of panic by Scarponi. I guess all tyres have their limits.
Good job Basso wasn't there as he'll still be coming down the hill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbDMk0VGbyI

deejay

ddraver wrote:

, but god I'm please they re trying

Even iain enjoyed it FFS!

So did Blazing Saddles it seems.

Paul 8v

Just caught up with it, that descent was quite a banzai one. I don't think I can blame Wiggins for not going balls out on it, it seemed very early for the favourites to be going for it.
Made for an exciting stage finish though!

DeadCalm

Paul 8v wrote:

Just caught up with it, that descent was quite a banzai one. I don't think I can blame Wiggins for not going balls out on it, it seemed very early for the favourites to be going for it.
Made for an exciting stage finish though!

Was Wiggins doing anything other than marking Nibali?

Paul 8v

DeadCalm wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Just caught up with it, that descent was quite a banzai one. I don't think I can blame Wiggins for not going balls out on it, it seemed very early for the favourites to be going for it.
Made for an exciting stage finish though!

Was Wiggins doing anything other than marking Nibali?

He seemed to be marking yeah, not taking as many risks as some though, people were really pushing and going off all over the place, I suppose all he was looking to do was to finish with that bunch and not lose any time. He always looks so calm under pressure. (Auto bike parking moment aside!)

rick_chasey

Hej.

Mate. Chill. Did Vaughters put some chipotle up your ass or something?

Also.

Riding near Rabo riders should be given a health warning.

Good fun though. Proper Giro stage. Borderline chaos, and not just the racing.

rick_chasey

Oh and Evans obviously has good form.

Daz555

Rick Chasey wrote:

Oh and Evans obviously has good form.

Agreed. Looks like his team was poorly positioned during the period when they caught the lone breakaway but this was soon rectified.

Having said that. I don't for a moment think that Evans is going to get anywhere near the GC. After he's been smashed up by Wiggins in the TT he'll then implode in the mountains due to the pace set by those trying to get back time on the pink jersey.

I was a times a bit concerned today about where Wiggins was during most of the descent as he seemed absent for most of the TV coverage. It does appear that he was simply marking Nibs.

knedlicky

If Wiggins was marking Nibali, as Paul 8v and Daz 555 think, he didn’t always keep up with Nibali.
He briefly lost contact one time Hesjedal attacked on the descent, when Nibali and Agnoli, Santambrogio, Paolini and 2 others went with Hesjedal. The gap wasn’t large but it took Wiggins and others about 4 mins to close it.

milton50

Descending is Wiggins' weakest link. That's why Nibali takes every opportunity to try and get away from him on the descent. To be fair though every time Nibali has got a gap on the descent Wiggins has always closed it by the finish.

inkyfingers

Wiggins is not the best descender, but he's also far from being the worst. He's just not a massive risk taker, think his attitude is that sometimes it might be better to lose a handful of seconds than crash and lose the race.

Nibali, Hesjedal and Sanchez are very good descenders, but apart from yesterday, the aren't many places where a good descender can make use of his talents. There are no big mountain stages with long descents to the finish and unless they manage to take a decent group way with them I can't see any of them attacking on a decent before a summit finish and staying away.

Very good stage yesterday, not sure how much we really learned about the race that we didn't already know, but it was good viewing.