Giro 16 - Stage 19 ***Spoilers***

manic_esso

Anyone else see a scenario other than 1 & 2 fighting for 1st and 3 and 4 fighting for 3rd ?

manic_esso

ugo.santalucia wrote:

We have seen these things before... they are undoubtly entertaining and make for good racing, but hard to explain how a man that 2 days ago couldn't keep up now is dropping everybody

Maybe he had a bit of my avatar for tea

dabber

durhamwasp wrote:

Come on Chaves, anyone but that a$%shole Nibali.

^^^^ Wot he said

bobmcstuff

In other news, Betancur DNF (along with Deignan, Ciccone and obviously Zakarin)

joelsim

Astana really know how to transform a knackered rider for the last couple of mountain stages. Impressive stuff.

the article don

Surely resident grump Iain F would give that a solid 8.5?

the article don

And I would so love Chaves to win this

craigus89

I'm so chuffed for Chaves. I've had my eye on him for a couple of years now and he is showing he is a strong little rider.

I really cannot stand Nibali. He just doesn't come across well at all. As long as he doesn't win I'm happy, I hesitate to say I think he may do it though.

joelsim

Kruijswijk has a fractured rib

bobmcstuff

And? Dropping out?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-di ... nk-jersey/

Devastating for the guy. Must be the worst.

andyrr

Maybe, maybe not.
From their twitter page
LottoNLJumbo Cycling‏ @LottoJumbo_road
"I felt pain and my morale was broken," @s_kruijswijk said after #Giro stage 19. Read more: http://www.teamlottojumbo.nl/cycling-ne ... 19th-stage

Sports Director Addy Engels thinks otherwise. “It isn’t over for Steven,” he added. “The best situation would have been with Steven still in the pink jersey. It looked like that was going to happen because he gave a good impression on the Colle dell’Agnello. The odds are not in our favour anymore, but when he’s able to recover, he can strike back tomorrow.”

Real shame.

Le Commentateur

steel42 wrote:

finding it hard to believe/accept nibali`s performance

Well he did visit a hospital for "tests" a couple of days ago, an M.O.T. to see if he was ill. Maybe they gave him an oil change while he was there.

ContrelaMontre

Is this the clinic?

ddraver

Sad to say this is not the walk of someone who is going to attack tomorrow

https://twitter.com/NOSsport/status/736308655549775872



That actually makes his ride today pretty impressive!

That CN article is brutal

smithy21

So it's ok for Chaves to take a minute or so out of Niblai the other day but not ok for Nibali to take time back today?

I don't understand why yesterday would make people uncomfortable. Nibali is a proven 3 week tour rider.

ugo.santalucia

smithy21 wrote:

So it's ok for Chaves to take a minute or so out of Niblai the other day but not ok for Nibali to take time back today?

I don't understand why yesterday would make people uncomfortable. Nibali is a proven 3 week tour rider.

Maybe we are being overly skeptical and maybe Nibali was not well last week... which would explain... but as someone pointed out earlier, Aru did pretty much the same last year

EnacheV

Astana the masters of miraculous transformations, especially day to day, from crap to in form. Makes me puke. Nibali miraculously (like Aru last year) found his 20 lost watts.

Also funny how all Nibali's wins are after his opponents crash out, no exceptions. When they don't he doesn't win, simply as that.

ContrelaMontre

EnacheV wrote:

Astana the masters of miraculous transformations, especially day to day, from crap to in form. Makes me puke. Nibali miraculously (like Aru last year) found his 20 lost watts.

Also funny how all Nibali's wins are after his opponents crash out, no exceptions. When they don't he doesn't win, simply as that.

Make your mind up. Either he's a miraculous extra terrestrial or he rides consistently for three weeks and wins when others crash out. Putting 5 minutes into a guy with broken ribs is not suspicious.

kleinstroker

Don't understand the love/hate, chaves/nibali thing.

Chaves is pretty underwhelming as a rider, Nibali for all his flaws is a great and has had some spectacular stage wins, Chaves has done sweet FA

bobmcstuff

kleinstroker wrote:

Don't understand the love/hate, chaves/nibali thing.

Chaves is pretty underwhelming as a rider, Nibali for all his flaws is a great and has had some spectacular stage wins, Chaves has done sweet FA

Give the guy a chance, he's only got to the stage where he's able to win stuff in the last year!

thegibdog

Zakarin broke his shoulder as well as his collarbone.

kleinstroker

EnacheV

ContrelaMontre wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

Astana the masters of miraculous transformations, especially day to day, from crap to in form. Makes me puke. Nibali miraculously (like Aru last year) found his 20 lost watts.

Also funny how all Nibali's wins are after his opponents crash out, no exceptions. When they don't he doesn't win, simply as that.

Make your mind up. Either he's a miraculous extra terrestrial or he rides consistently for three weeks and wins when others crash out. Putting 5 minutes into a guy with broken ribs is not suspicious.

there is nothing to make up mind. he only wins when others crash out or get ill (fact). he is mediocre and only a few blood bags make him become good in 24 hours, and even then he can win only when better opponents crash or get ill.

and let's not forget about throwing biddons, mother of imbeciles, hanging on to cars (very often, sometime caught and sometimes not (worlds) and so on.

The_Boy

EnacheV wrote:

ContrelaMontre wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

Astana the masters of miraculous transformations, especially day to day, from crap to in form. Makes me puke. Nibali miraculously (like Aru last year) found his 20 lost watts.

Also funny how all Nibali's wins are after his opponents crash out, no exceptions. When they don't he doesn't win, simply as that.

Make your mind up. Either he's a miraculous extra terrestrial or he rides consistently for three weeks and wins when others crash out. Putting 5 minutes into a guy with broken ribs is not suspicious.

there is nothing to make up mind. he only wins when others crash out or get ill (fact). he is mediocre and only a few blood bags make him become good in 24 hours, and even then he can win only when better opponents crash or get ill.

and let's not forget about throwing biddons, mother of imbeciles, hanging on to cars (very often, sometime caught and sometimes not (worlds) and so on.

You presumably have evidence to support the bit in bold

DeVlaeminck

This is getting silly - where is the evidence that Nibali is a doper - because he rides for Astana ?

You can have good days and bad days - it doesn't take much to lose a couple of minutes on a mountain and the margins between the best riders are slim enough that they can favour one rider one day and another the next.

I'm not saying Nibali isn't a doper but anyone that bets their life on ANY pro cyclist not being a doper is a mug - I just don't see the evidence that he is.

As for him being mediocre - if by mediocre you mean he doesn't have the power to weight to match an on form Froome or Quintana in the high mountains then you are right - but that is what I like about him - he's managed to win 3 grand tours despite not having the engine to just ride away on a mountain top finish. Whether he is a nice guy or a moody arrogant so and so I don't know - I suspect he does verge a bit towards the latter but he's an exciting attacking rider of the sort we need to make it more than a comparison of power to weight / aerodynamics.

smithy21

kleinstroker wrote:

Don't understand the love/hate, chaves/nibali thing.

Chaves is pretty underwhelming as a rider, Nibali for all his flaws is a great and has had some spectacular stage wins, Chaves has done sweet FA

But Chaves is smiley. The forum likes that.

salsiccia1

I'm not a fan of Nibali, but not because of being suspicious of his performance. If he's been unwell but now better then yesterday was a completely plausible performance. He would have been massively motivated, Scarponi did some great work, and let's face it Nibali is a class rider.

All that being said I would still prefer Chaves to win.

frisbee

So all riders are just supposed to ride consistently for 3 weeks?

Sounds pretty boring.

I hope Nibs attacks and wins tomorrow.

kleinstroker

smithy21 wrote:

kleinstroker wrote:

Don't understand the love/hate, chaves/nibali thing.

Chaves is pretty underwhelming as a rider, Nibali for all his flaws is a great and has had some spectacular stage wins, Chaves has done sweet FA

But Chaves is smiley. The forum likes that.

but why? He looks like a wee boy amongst men

dish_dash

Missed the race as was away looking at a camii or two, but didn't realise how bad Zakarin's fall was.