Giro 2018, Stage 19: Turin - Monte Jafferau - 184 kilometres. *Spoilers*

ben@31

Eurosport made an interesting point. If Froome wins this Giro, in a few days time he will be the holder / wearer of all 3 current GC jerseys.

Has anyone else worn the 3 consecutive GC jerseys?

lostboysaint

Merckx and Hinault.

JTUK

OnYourRight wrote:

Yeah, the interesting thing is not that Froome’s attack was planned – of course he couldn’t have pulled it off without all those feed bottles, team members fully committed to their role, etc. The interesting thing is that the ride went according to plan. Such desperate plans rarely come to fruition.

I think the parcours and the tactics flattered the athleticism of his ride, but it’s still a day for the history books.

It wasn’t desperate, it was a conscious decision.

graeme_s-2

Well that was magnificent. Gutted for Yates, but hopefully he’ll come back stronger and wiser.

Pretty much speechless about Froome. Also pleased about the fiver I put on him after the Zoncolan stage!

ben@31

mamil314 wrote:

Shirley Basso wrote:

hypster wrote:

Brailsford has repeatedly said that Froome is the most determined bloke he has ever met. I think to hatch a plan to attack on the Finestre with 80km to go knowing how much time is required is one thing. To actually pull it off is almost unimaginable.

Apart from the Wiggins debacle, he doesn't seem like that as well (RR2 may disagree). Always comes across really friendly and super nice!

I've noticed this weird thing quite a few times in the past. For some reason, people are associating perceived looks/demeanour to character traits. There are plenty of 'baby faced' brutes and monsters out there, one would think people would have learned by now.

Especially ex-missus

lostboysaint

Could Brailsford's glasses get any bigger?!

hypster

No tA Doctor wrote:

Anyway, impressive how Froome deFinistreted the entire GC.


I'll get my coat.

He saw his window of opportunity and went for it!

JTUK

Think I better go out for a ride in my Sky team top

No_Ta_Doctor

JTUK wrote:

OnYourRight wrote:

Yeah, the interesting thing is not that Froome’s attack was planned – of course he couldn’t have pulled it off without all those feed bottles, team members fully committed to their role, etc. The interesting thing is that the ride went according to plan. Such desperate plans rarely come to fruition.

I think the parcours and the tactics flattered the athleticism of his ride, but it’s still a day for the history books.

It wasn’t desperate, it was a conscious decision.

Clearly planned, but I think with space for improvisation. I doubt he thought he would be solo for 80km, but once he was there, why stop? As he said, he kept within his limits. At least a minute of his advantage was on the first descent, when the others had to wait for Reichenbach.

onyourright

If anyone finds one of these Brailsford interviews online, link please.

DeadCalm

Above The Cows wrote:

God I'm dreading the reactions to this in my office on Monday.

I'll be having to studiously avoid all my 'Sky are all doping' colleagues who like to conveniently gloss over the tawdry recent history of Dutch cycling.

Likewise my Sunday social ride with the various ex-pats. I can deflect the Americans with Armstrong, the Danes with Rasmussen and in desperation, the Aussies with ball-tampering and the Finnish guy with Lasse Viren. But it is something of a losing battle. At least Yates had the decency to fall off a cliff so it'll be back to Sky rather than all Brits.

bobones

OnYourRight wrote:

If anyone finds one of these Brailsford interviews online, link please.

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/twi ... 25&yr=2018

mfin

Above The Cows wrote:

God I'm dreading the reactions to this in my office on Monday.

I'll be having to studiously avoid all my 'Sky are all doping' colleagues who like to conveniently gloss over the tawdry recent history of Dutch cycling.

You shouldn't complain. Most offices won't have anyone in them that is remotely interested in a bunch of blokes going for a bike ride in spandex.

above_the_cows

mfin wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

God I'm dreading the reactions to this in my office on Monday.

I'll be having to studiously avoid all my 'Sky are all doping' colleagues who like to conveniently gloss over the tawdry recent history of Dutch cycling.

You shouldn't complain. Most offices won't have anyone in them that is remotely interested in a bunch of blokes going for a bike ride in spandex.

I think my colleagues take some sort of weird delight in the fact that the little British-Kiwi woman likes cycling.

JTUK

No tA Doctor wrote:

JTUK wrote:

OnYourRight wrote:

Yeah, the interesting thing is not that Froome’s attack was planned – of course he couldn’t have pulled it off without all those feed bottles, team members fully committed to their role, etc. The interesting thing is that the ride went according to plan. Such desperate plans rarely come to fruition.

I think the parcours and the tactics flattered the athleticism of his ride, but it’s still a day for the history books.

It wasn’t desperate, it was a conscious decision.

Clearly planned, but I think with space for improvisation. I doubt he thought he would be solo for 80km, but once he was there, why stop? As he said, he kept within his limits. At least a minute of his advantage was on the first descent, when the others had to wait for Reichenbach.

Fortune favours the brave as they say. Sounds like Brailsford was expecting it in his interview

JTUK

Also as we have seen in the past descending is a weapon Froome has used to attack his rivals so why not.

hypster

Yates 38:51 down on Froome today and lying in 18th place at 35:42. I'm sure he'll learn from this experience but it's going to take him some time to get over it I think.

TheBigBean

Brailsford. Apparently always planned to win it either today or tomorrow. Probably explains the undercookedness.

I'm very proud, we're halfway through this two-day block that is going to decide the race. We had nothing to lose we were fourth on GC, a long way back. Sometimes you have to race in true racing fashion. We spent all day yesterday dissecting the stage, our nutrition team, our coaching team and working with the DS's to chop the race into different sections and we decided we'd try to drop Yates on the switchbacks during the Finestre.

You don't know whether it's going to work or not but you certainly have to try and you never find out until you do try. He [Froome] was coming up in form after the crash in the first week which put him back. The plan was always to get to this point and win the race in this block and we just thought let's put it on the line and see what happens. You can have the best plan but it takes the individual and the mentality to deliver it.

bobmcstuff

No tA Doctor wrote:

JTUK wrote:

OnYourRight wrote:

Yeah, the interesting thing is not that Froome’s attack was planned – of course he couldn’t have pulled it off without all those feed bottles, team members fully committed to their role, etc. The interesting thing is that the ride went according to plan. Such desperate plans rarely come to fruition.

I think the parcours and the tactics flattered the athleticism of his ride, but it’s still a day for the history books.

It wasn’t desperate, it was a conscious decision.

Clearly planned, but I think with space for improvisation. I doubt he thought he would be solo for 80km, but once he was there, why stop? As he said, he kept within his limits. At least a minute of his advantage was on the first descent, when the others had to wait for Reichenbach.

I think desperate is fair, it was a last ditch, ballsy, hail Mary type attack to win the Giro. Can be conscious and desperate!

RichN95.

Using Giro live updates, I think this is where Froome took time on Dumoulin:

Finestere climb 37s
Finistere descent 1 min 15
Sestriere climb 49s
Sestriere descent 25s
Valley 15s
Final climb 3s
So 1 min 40 gained descending

larkim

Gained time everywhere, which sort of backs up his claim that he didn’t go to the limit.

richard_t._biscuit

Dumoulin seemed to spend a lot of his time descending trying to keep a group together that were never going to help him much on the flat anyway.

tim000

RichN95 wrote:

Using Giro live updates, I think this is where Froome took time on Dumoulin:

Finestere climb 37s
Finistere descent 1 min 15
Sestriere climb 49s
Sestriere descent 25s
Valley 15s
Final climb 3s
So 1 min 40 gained descending

but froomes bike handling is terrible . that cant be right . :roll: :roll: :roll:

larkim

%age wise, how much time was spent climbing and descending. As a proportion, Froome’s gains in those few minutes are huge.

blazing_saddles

Froome's ascent of Finestre, even will the full Sky lead out was the slowest there has been. (2005, 2011, 2015 were all faster)
Richard Carapaz ascended the Jafferau fastest, but was almost 3 minutes slower than Santambrogio/Nibali in 2014, in appalling conditions.
Dumoulin and Froome both 20 odd seconds slower than Carapazzzzz.

bobmcstuff

RichN95 wrote:

Using Giro live updates, I think this is where Froome took time on Dumoulin:

Finestere climb 37s
Finistere descent 1 min 15
Sestriere climb 49s
Sestriere descent 25s
Valley 15s
Final climb 3s
So 1 min 40 gained descending

Assume part of that Finistere descent loss is from waiting for Reichenbach to catch up.

Bet they're regretting that now!

TheBigBean

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Froome's ascent of Finestre, even will the full Sky lead out was the slowest there has been. (2005, 2011, 2015 were all faster)
:

That's quite odd.

bobmcstuff

larkim wrote:

Gained time everywhere, which sort of backs up his claim that he didn’t go to the limit.

Full quote from Froome:

"I don't think I've ever attacked with 80k to go like that on my own and gone all the way to the finish but the team did such a fantastic job to set that up for me. It was going to take something really special today to try, and first of all, get rid of Simon [Yates] and get away from [Tom] Dumoulin and [Domenico] Pozzovivo. To go from fourth to first - I wasn't going to do that on the last climb alone, so I had to try from far out and Colle delle Finestre was the perfect place - gravel roads I guess reminds me a bit of riding on the roads in Africa. It just felt good and I said it's now or never, I have to try.

It's great - obviously there's still a really hard day tomorrow, but the legs are feeling good and I've been feeling better and better as the races has gone on. Even today up front I gave it everything but I also tried to stay within my limits and tried to stay within myself. Hopefully we can finish this off tomorrow."

larkim

TheBigBean wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Froome's ascent of Finestre, even will the full Sky lead out was the slowest there has been. (2005, 2011, 2015 were all faster)
:

That's quite odd.

But also strangely reassuring.

TheBigBean

RichN95 wrote:

Using Giro live updates, I think this is where Froome took time on Dumoulin:

Finestere climb 37s
Finistere descent 1 min 15
Sestriere climb 49s
Sestriere descent 25s
Valley 15s
Final climb 3s
So 1 min 40 gained descending

That Froome put 3 mins into Dumoulin in an 80 km three mountain TT isn't that remarkable. It is the destruction of the rest of the field that stands out.