55th Tirreno-Adriatico, September 7th to 14th 2020 *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

It's going to be a busy week, next week, as there is extensive coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico on both tv and the net.
Eurosport have stage 1 live on all platforms and all stages are live via the player. TV coverage shifts to directly after the finish of the Tour stages.
So, if you fancy spending 8 hours at a stretch watching racing, next week is for you!

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4:

Stage 5:

Stage 6:

Stage 7:

Stage 8:



25 teams of 7 riders each are taking part and they are:

UCI WORLDTEAMS – 19

AG2R LA MONDIALE (FRA) – DILLIER, VENDRAME
ASTANA PRO TEAM (KAZ) – FUGLSANG, VLASOV
BAHRAIN – MCLAREN (BRN) – TEUNS, CAVENDISH
BORA – HANSGROHE (GER) – MAJKA, ACKERMANN
CCC TEAM (POL) – BARTA, BEVIN
COFIDIS (FRA) – HERRADA, MATE
DECEUNINCK – QUICK-STEP (BEL) – BALLERINI, KNOX
EF PRO CYCLING (USA) – WOODS, CLARKE
GROUPAMA – FDJ (FRA) – ROUX, BRUNEL
ISRAEL START-UP NATION (ISR) – BRÄNDLE, CIMOLAI
LOTTO SOUDAL (BEL) – HANSEN, GOOSSENS
MITCHELTON – SCOTT (AUS) – YATES S., AFFINI
MOVISTAR TEAM (ESP) – VILLELLA, CARRETERO
NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM (RSA) – MEINTJES, BATTISTELLA
TEAM INEOS (GBR) – FROOME, THOMAS
TEAM JUMBO – VISMA (NED) – TEUNISSEN, VAN EMDEN
TEAM SUNWEB (GER) – MATTHEWS, KELDERMAN
TREK – SEGAFREDO (USA) – NIBALI V., CICCONE?
UAE TEAM EMIRATES (UAE) – GAVIRIA, MCNULTY

PRO CONTI
TOTAL DIRECT ENERGIE (FRA) – TERPSTRA, GAUDIN

WILD CARD – 5

ALPECIN – FENIX (BEL) – VAN DER POEL, MERLIER
ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI – SIDERMEC (ITA) – BAGIOLI, RIVERA SERRANO
BARDIANI CSF FAIZANÈ (ITA) – CARBONI, PELUCCHI
GAZPROM – RUSVELO (RUS) – CANOLA, CIMA
VINI ZABÙ KTM (ITA) – VISCONTI, WACKERMANN

RichN95.

Ineos's B team is lot better than Jumbo's B team

Pross

Ganna taking Thomas safely through 3km and stayed on the front. I thought he was going to just ride off, absolute monster!

Pile up inside the final 2k.

RichN95.

Ackermann from way back getting through gaps that were barely there

Pross

Gaviria went long and looked like taking it but Ackerman somehow came through in the last few metres from miles back. Petit took advantage of the post crash chaos to ride off the front 1km out and opened a huge gap that I thought would hold everyone off but he died about 400m out.

Ackerman's sprint was superb.

gregster04

How on earth did he get through those gaps (or non-gaps)?

I think Gaviria was thinking the exact same thing.

Pross

Everyone seems to have come out of the crash OK, very high speed. One Sunweb rider a bit ripped up.

blazing_saddles

RichN95. said:

Ackermann from way back getting through gaps that were barely there

Rick will come calling later.
Dainese looked to come out of it the worst.
Nibali had a very minor touchdown.

takethehighroad

But yeah, sprinters should stay in lanes to sprint...

ddraver

*whispers*

Ackerman's sprint was possible BECAUSE everyone else held their lines

diplodicus

Gaviria's sprint was straight, fortunately for Ackerman. Could have been nasty a little way back where the barrier came in

RichN95.

diplodicus said:

Gaviria's sprint was straight, fortunately for Ackerman. Could have been nasty a little way back where the barrier came in

Indeed. Who signed this off?

dish_dash

Ack > Gav > Zab

DeadCalm

Caught a glimpse of Froome in the final 10km and he looked to be really struggling to hold the wheel. He's not lost any time yet to the GC contenders, and I know he's there in support of Thomas, but he's finished very near the back of the bunch on both days which is unlike him. I've previously predicted that he would win the Vuelta. I'm not so sure now.

RichN95.

DeadCalm said:

Caught a glimpse of Froome in the final 10km and he looked to be really struggling to hold the wheel. He's not lost any time yet to the GC contenders, and I know he's there in support of Thomas, but he's finished very near the back of the bunch on both days which is unlike him. I've previously predicted that he would win the Vuelta. I'm not so sure now.

He was riding on the front until about 5km then dropped back

DeadCalm

RichN95. said:

DeadCalm said:

Caught a glimpse of Froome in the final 10km and he looked to be really struggling to hold the wheel. He's not lost any time yet to the GC contenders, and I know he's there in support of Thomas, but he's finished very near the back of the bunch on both days which is unlike him. I've previously predicted that he would win the Vuelta. I'm not so sure now.

He was riding on the front until about 5km then dropped back

Fair enough. I was watching on my phone due to an internet outage caused by heavy rain (genuinely) and could only make out riders when they went to a close-up. I saw there were three Ineos on the front but none of them looked like Froome. I presumed he was one of the three that were trying unsuccessfully to join them.

DeadCalm

Just watched it again. This time on my TV. Froome did indeed put in a brief stint until 5 km to go. I totally missed it.

andyp

He was one of the ones in front (Ganna and Dennis being the others I think). The ones moving up were Geoghegan-Hart and Thomas.

DeadCalm

The 3 that I thought were unsuccessful in joining the three at the front clearly had made it and I didn't see Froome struggling in the last 5km. I'm not going to comment based on what I see on my phone in future.

Pross

He was on bottle duty yesterday too.

andyp

DeadCalm said:

The 3 that I thought were unsuccessful in joining the three at the front clearly had made it and I didn't see Froome struggling in the last 5km. I'm not going to comment based on what I see on my phone in future.

It was a bit chaotic. Matt Stephens spotted Thomas towards the back of the peloton with about 10kms to go and mentioned it on commentary. I'm not sure why he was so far back, but in the end the team did a good job of getting him back up front and then Ganna did one of his monster turns to get him to the 3 km to go mark. Then MVDP did a 2 km turn for the hell of it.

Froome did a decent turn before he peeled off.

dish_dash

Closely contested sprint there... Gav had to barge his way through but not enough to get over the line first...

RichN95.

When Froome had dropped back after this turn he was fighting to stay on the back of the peloton, which is probably Dead Calm saw. The fact that he didn't just drop off the back like a normal domestique may suggest he fancies doing a little GC ride amongst his dom duties.

Pross

RichN95. said:

When Froome had dropped back after this turn he was fighting to stay on the back of the peloton, which is probably Dead Calm saw. The fact that he didn't just drop off the back like a normal domestique may suggest he fancies doing a little GC ride amongst his dom duties.

Dom duties sounds decidedly dodgy and conjures up images I'd rather forget.

m.r.m.

Pross said:

RichN95. said:

When Froome had dropped back after this turn he was fighting to stay on the back of the peloton, which is probably Dead Calm saw. The fact that he didn't just drop off the back like a normal domestique may suggest he fancies doing a little GC ride amongst his dom duties.

Dom duties sounds decidedly dodgy and conjures up images I'd rather forget.

Imagine how I feel living in Germany where every other hotel near a church is called Dom Hotel.

Pross

Quite strung out with 55km to go, EF have just taken over the front from Ineos.

Ben Thomas solo with a 1'20" lead over a 6 man chasing group with the peloton at around 4'30".

Pross

Thomas caught by the rest of the break and EF have knocked the lead down to 2'30" in no time.

DeadCalm

Who are EF riding for?

Pross

Don't know, Woods for GC presumably.

Pross

1'15" lead with 20km to go. Frapporti has ridden off the front of the break on a descent.

Pross

Touch and go whether the break will get caught according to Stephens, I think they will quite comfortably.