Giro Stage 12 ITT (41.9km) Barbaresco - Barolo *spoilers*

dsoutar

Bad day for Quintana from a GC perspective

Party Weirdo

Evans putting in the same level of TT as he has in recent GT's, which likely means he has the same climbing legs so expect him to lose 2 minutes nearly every MTF ...

gpreeves

If the GC were to stay this way, would I be right in thinking this would be the first Giro without a single European pink jersey winner?

Give me more

FJS wrote:

meagain wrote:

A near-decisive Stage then? Hell of a time.

The giro hasn't really started yet. All serious mountain stages still to come.

Let's say it started today.

Probably the most fun I've ever had watching an ITT I think.

Turfle

Tremendous TT stage that. Little bit odd, but very entertaining. Probably impossible to design a more perfect course for Rigo, and he certainly took advantage of it.

Anonymous

Amazing work from Uran.


OPQS are amazing. Can't help but think if 4 Sky riders were top ten then it would be...

tuneskyline

Race on. I think Evans went out a bit to slow and underestimated Uran. Quintana a disaster. I just hope we get things nice and close for the mountain TT. Quintana and co are going to have to launch some long ones if they want to do anything. We should now get some aggressive attacks and this race could get blown apart by someone with "good sensations". I think Uran will struggle to control things.

Turfle

José Been ‏@TourDeJose 51s
Brother @Ludvigsson94 reports that Tobias Ludvigsson is okay . No fractures! Hurt back and legs but nothing broken! #Giro

dolan_driver

I was surprised by Evans' relatively poor performance and equally by how strong Uran was. If Uran maintains this form for the rest of the Giro, the race could be over already. Quintana is likely to improve a little with his injury and cold and could play a big role yet. I doubt Evans is finished just yet either. Roll on the mountains.

DD.

blazing_saddles

I don't think Quintana's TT, or Pozzovivo's for that matter, was a disaster.
Uran, so much better than the rest, but the gaps behind are much as expected.
Bring on the OPQS train, the one that goes up hills, not the Cav one.

Turfle

If Petacchi drops Rigo off with 200m to go I will call shenanigans.

calvjones

Turfle wrote:

If Petacchi drops Rigo off with 200m to go I will call shenanigans.

I wish we were on twitter so I could retweet that LOL

Pross

Sounds like a good day and we have a race on our hands. TTs are good things in GTs being contested by predominantly climbers.

milton50

Quintana is a better climber than Uran but I'm not sure he is 3:30 minutes better. Especially as he seems to have a few niggling injuries.

Very good ride by Majka and about what I expected from Kelderman.

I personally don't think Quintana's TT was a disaster but it was slower than what he's capable of on a rolling course.

I didn't think Evans would win. His last win in a GT time trial was a long time ago now..

adr82

Ludvigsson crash video - must've bounced/slid right across that dirt road at the bottom of the hill, lucky he doesn't seem to have been seriously injured.

DeadCalm

Milton50 wrote:

Quintana is a better climber than Uran but I'm not sure he is 3:30 minutes better. Especially as he seems to have a few niggling injuries.

Very good ride by Majka and about what I expected from Kelderman.

I personally don't think Quintana's TT was a disaster but it was slower than what he's capable of on a rolling course.

I didn't think Evans would win. His last win in a GT time trial was a long time ago now..

I didn't stay in to watch as I had a military coup to observe and a curfew to break but it sounds like it has set the race up nicely.

Any of the riders above Quintana are capable of having a bad day and dropping a shed load of time but I think it's unlikely that he will gain the requisite time over all of them. I can't see him winning (it'll surely be a great race if he proves me wrong) but I can see him acting as a stalking horse causing Uran all sorts of problems which might allow someone else to sneak the win. Then again, Uran is looking mighty strong at the moment.

I'd say that Uran must now be the favourite for the win with Evans and Pozzovivo having a reasonable shot. Majka and Quintana are probably long shots and the rest, barring something spectacular, are out of the running.

cal_stewart

Pozzovivo has got to be happy with his position after that. Can see him being 2nd with under a minute to Uran come the rest day

above_the_cows

DeadCalm wrote:

I didn't stay in to watch as I had a military coup to observe and a curfew to break but it sounds like it has set the race up nicely.

Hope all is OK over there?

iainf72

Interesting TT. Uran phenomenal, Evans still pretty good.

I will admit the top 2 in the TT are a big surprise to me, especially the margin and I'm not sure I'm at ease with it. Fair few snidey comments out there too.

tailwindhome

TailWindHome wrote:

Conde-


http://www.c-cycling.com/sites/giro14/stage12.html

It would be a strange race if Omega Pharma Quickstep didn’t have a solid contender for the time trial. The Belgian team is constantly working hard on their time trial performances and they never seem to disappoint. Despite not bringing a strong team against the clock, OPQS still managed to finish 2nd in the opening team time trial. One of the main reasons for this was Rigoberto Uran. According to his teammates, the Colombian put in a huge effort, taking some massive turns. Uran is very strong right now and I would be surprised not to see him fight for the win in Barolo.

Chapeau Conde!

Give me more

and on Quintana watch...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/quintan ... th-my-legs

“It was a long time trial and I tried to hang in there as best I could,” Quintana said afterwards. “I wasn't as good as I had hoped. I had some problems with my breathing, not with my legs. I hope to recuperate in the coming days because the hardest days are still to come.”
...
“I couldn't breath well, it really affected me, and you notice that against your rivals who are in perfect condition,” Quintana said. “I am taking some antibiotics at the moment, but I hope I get through it, and I can be at my best for the decisive days - the idea is to still fight for this Giro.”

Macaloon

TailWindHome wrote:

Chapeau Conde!

He's very good.

As for the margins, it's a poor show from the other GC contenders on such a lumpy parcours. The top GC/TT specialists are absent. Crashes have taken a fair toll on riders targeting the stage like Malori. And Rigo knew hw would have to ride out of his skin today when the route was announced unlike his previous GTs.

With all the imponderables it's hard to assess Uran's performance.

DeVlaeminck

In a way I can see that the result might raise eyebrows but a 37 year old Evans who hasn't shown really good time trial form for years was third - assuming that Evans is legit I can't really doubt the other results beyond the usual caveat that applies to all pro cyclists given the history of the sport.

If Quintana is fit but just suffering with illness then I think this Giro might be set up quite nicely with him and Pozzovivo attacking in the mountains and Evans and Uran trying to limit their losses and one or two other riders still in the mix as well.

On the other hand if Uran is really on form you can make an argument why all the other main challengers could fade and make this a rather one sided affair. Time will tell, it'd be nice if Evans could win it to round off his career but for the future sport if Uran or Quintana could win it establishes them as a top rank grand tour contender and we need a few more of those.

RichN95.

iainf72 wrote:

Interesting TT. Uran phenomenal, Evans still pretty good.

I will admit the top 2 in the TT are a big surprise to me, especially the margin and I'm not sure I'm at ease with it. Fair few snidey comments out there too.

I disagree. I thought Evans underperformed, looked like he went out too slow.

As for the rest, it was a TT with no real TT riders on show, about 700m of climbing (average speed of just 43.7 kph) and weather which suited the last 20 riders. It was also an irregular TT with a climb at the beginning and climbs at the end so getting the scheduling right is tricky and OPQS nailed it (De Gendt being comfortably the best early time giving them a good guideline).

frenchfighter

Wow that was an interesting one. Very very happy for Uran although his margin was something I wasnt expecting. I am not too surprised he is up there and well better though - it was a tough course, he is a better climber than Evans, he is coming into his prime, Evans is getting old, he has done huge training on his TT bike (lot of photos of him on the TT bike in Colombia), Spec are better than Pina and are superb with regard position optimization, Sky did not care about Uran so didnt invest this time in him, OPQS he is top GC rider.

Shame Pozzo lost what he did int eh second half. Ulissi did a wonderful job given he had crashed badly earlier.

Uran's mum:

above_the_cows

frenchfighter wrote:

Uran's mum:

That brought a little tear.

frenchfighter

Really pleased with Majka's time. Four OPQS so high is a little surprising but they all have great form in the TT and they were 2nd in the TTT for good reason.

frenchfighter

Quintana saying his breathing and not his legs were the problem:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/quintan ... th-my-legs

frenchfighter

Kelderman 7th - uff nice one.

FJS

RichN95 wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Interesting TT. Uran phenomenal, Evans still pretty good.

I will admit the top 2 in the TT are a big surprise to me, especially the margin and I'm not sure I'm at ease with it. Fair few snidey comments out there too.

I disagree. I thought Evans underperformed, looked like he went out too slow.

As for the rest, it was a TT with no real TT riders on show, about 700m of climbing (average speed of just 43.7 kph) and weather which suited the last 20 riders. It was also an irregular TT with a climb at the beginning and climbs at the end so getting the scheduling right is tricky and OPQS nailed it (De Gendt being comfortably the best early time giving them a good guideline).

I agree. Brambilla's (no TT pedigree whatsoever, but 13th in the 2012 Giro GC) top finish is an indication of both the weather advantage towards the end, and that it was more something suiting a strong rouleur/climber than a full on TT specialist.
Evans certainly no surprise - people say he hasn't won TTs for a long time, but he has continued to get top 10s, and almost always with stronger TT opposition.
Uran clearly performed stronger than expected, but again, he was quite strong in the Romandie TT this year, and even though the gap was very big, this was probably the kind of TT that suits him best