Giro d'Italia 2021

gsk82

r0bh said:

Ineos: Bernal, Castroviejo, Ganna, Martinez, Moscon, Narvaez, Puccio, Sivakov

I'm surprised to see Narvaez in ahead of Sosa.

exlaser

Seems a very second string Ineos squad considering the resources they have available.

blazing_saddles

exlaser said:

Seems a very second string Ineos squad considering the resources they have available.

Jumbo changed the game at last year's Tour, so Ineos are throwing even more weight in that direction.

RichN95.

exlaser said:

Seems a very second string Ineos squad considering the resources they have available.

It's the Giro. It's mostly second string squads

phreak

exlaser said:

Seems a very second string Ineos squad considering the resources they have available.

The only one I'm surprised isn't there is Adam Yates, although having a Tour squad featuring Thomas, Carapaz, TGH, Porte, Kwia, de Plus, and two from Dennis, Rowe and van Baarle is pretty stacked. It will be interesting to see how they use their numbers.

blazing_saddles

phreak said:

exlaser said:

Seems a very second string Ineos squad considering the resources they have available.

The only one I'm surprised isn't there is Adam Yates, although having a Tour squad featuring Thomas, Carapaz, TGH, Porte, Kwia, de Plus, and two from Dennis, Rowe and van Baarle is pretty stacked. It will be interesting to see how they use their numbers.

Yup, saving 10 riders for the Tour, all the while having their best classics campaign in years.
Something had to give and it seems that the Giro is the race to suffer.
Given that only 9 months ago, Bernal was their new golden boy, it doesn't send a positive message about the reliability of his back, nor about any supposed change of priorities.

phreak

blazing_saddles said:

phreak said:

exlaser said:

Seems a very second string Ineos squad considering the resources they have available.

The only one I'm surprised isn't there is Adam Yates, although having a Tour squad featuring Thomas, Carapaz, TGH, Porte, Kwia, de Plus, and two from Dennis, Rowe and van Baarle is pretty stacked. It will be interesting to see how they use their numbers.

Yup, saving 10 riders for the Tour, all the while having their best classics campaign in years.
Something had to give and it seems that the Giro is the race to suffer.
Given that only 9 months ago, Bernal was their new golden boy, it doesn't send a positive message about the reliability of his back, nor about any supposed change of priorities.

Ordinarily you'd have both Bernal and Remco among the favourites, but both must have significant question marks against them. Sivakov kinda needs to prove he can hold it together for 3 weeks, with the same largely applying to Dani Martinez. Then you have guys like Narvaez who looks reasonably promising but has only raced 8 days this year.

lettingthedaysgoby

I'd absolutely love it if Landa could win, but let's just say I wouldn't bet any of my own money on him doing so.

blazing_saddles

lettingthedaysgoby said:

I'd absolutely love it if Landa could win, but let's just say I wouldn't bet any of my own money on him doing so.

I'd say he's worth a flutter, as you can currently get 16/1
Best bet maybe any of the Bs : Bardet, Bennett and Bilbao at 50/1 (Soler too)
Or maybe somebody fancies a Nibble at Nibali, who's 66/1

Pross

Seems a particularly weak field this year, there's usually at least one of the Tour contenders who bottles it and does the Giro as the 'easy' option. I guess Bernal could be in that category but the back problem leaves a question mark. As Phreak says it's a bit of a surprise that Yates isn't riding.

That potential Ineos Tour squad is insanely strong but riding in support of probably the 3rd / 4th favourite.

kingstongraham

It's a potentially strong field, but...

blazing_saddles

Pross said:

Seems a particularly weak field this year, there's usually at least one of the Tour contenders who bottles it and does the Giro as the 'easy' option. I guess Bernal could be in that category but the back problem leaves a question mark. As Phreak says it's a bit of a surprise that Yates isn't riding.

That potential Ineos Tour squad is insanely strong but riding in support of probably the 3rd / 4th favourite.

It does appear kind of weak, but then again, if they finish in the order of the bookies odds, the result would look like this: 1) Egan Bernal 2) Simon Yates 3) Remco Evenepoel.
Which you have to admit, isn't too shabby a podium.
Certainly looks a bit more heavyweight, than Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jai Hindley and Wilco Kelderman.

shirley_basso

Why do some stages have downhill finishes?

I was looking at profiles today and can't understand why stage 16 doesn't finish at the top of the mountain.

ddraver

pblakeney

shirley_basso said:

Why do some stages have downhill finishes?

I was looking at profiles today and can't understand why stage 16 doesn't finish at the top of the mountain.

1. Not enough space at the top to accommodate everything?
2. Give the descenders a shot of a win?

hanshotfirst

Still find it a bit mad that Evenepoel is considered a favourite seeing as he hasn't raced a grand tour before and hasn't ridden at all this year.

Sure he'll be well up there in years to come but when your first race after being out for 9 months is arguably the toughest of all 3 Grand Tours... can't see it.

Then again, it is the Giro. Anything can and will happen.

phreak

hanshotfirst said:

Still find it a bit mad that Evenepoel is considered a favourite seeing as he hasn't raced a grand tour before and hasn't ridden at all this year.

Sure he'll be well up there in years to come but when your first race after being out for 9 months is arguably the toughest of all 3 Grand Tours... can't see it.

Then again, it is the Giro. Anything can and will happen.

Does seem a stretch, doesn't it? On the strength of the field, despite last year's not being great, it produced the best Grand Tour of the year (imo), so hopefully there will be some similarly exciting racing this year.

yorkshireraw

hanshotfirst said:

Still find it a bit mad that Evenepoel is considered a favourite seeing as he hasn't raced a grand tour before and hasn't ridden at all this year.

Sure he'll be well up there in years to come but when your first race after being out for 9 months is arguably the toughest of all 3 Grand Tours... can't see it.

Then again, it is the Giro. Anything can and will happen.

If he makes it beyond the second rest day that will be remarkable. Wouldn't be surprising if he doesn't get back on after the first one.

blazing_saddles

yorkshireraw said:

hanshotfirst said:

Still find it a bit mad that Evenepoel is considered a favourite seeing as he hasn't raced a grand tour before and hasn't ridden at all this year.

Sure he'll be well up there in years to come but when your first race after being out for 9 months is arguably the toughest of all 3 Grand Tours... can't see it.

Then again, it is the Giro. Anything can and will happen.

If he makes it beyond the second rest day that will be remarkable. Wouldn't be surprising if he doesn't get back on after the first one.

If what is being said in Belgium is close to being right, he'll be there or there abouts.

RichN95.

blazing_saddles said:

If what is being said in Belgium is close to being right, he'll be there or there abouts.

Isn't what's being said in Belgium is that he should be aiming to win all three GTs by ten minutes, several Olympic gold medals across four or five sports and then set up a European football Superleague in which he is all the players.

andyp

I don't think the field is weak at all. You've got a number of proven GC riders, like Yates, Nibali, Martin, Landa, plus a really interesting mix of young contenders, like Bernal and Hindley and young prospects, like Evenepoel, Almeida and Vlasov. There's even some dark horses, like Carthy, Buchmann and Bennett.

It should be an interesting GC race given the mix of contenders.

pblakeney

Bottom line is that it is unpredictable.
Which is just how we like it. 😎

rick_chasey

What races has evenepoel done since his accident?

ddraver

He hasn't even done the local crit, eh?

Pross

andyp said:

I don't think the field is weak at all. You've got a number of proven GC riders, like Yates, Nibali, Martin, Landa, plus a really interesting mix of young contenders, like Bernal and Hindley and young prospects, like Evenepoel, Almeida and Vlasov. There's even some dark horses, like Carthy, Buchmann and Bennett.

It should be an interesting GC race given the mix of contenders.

I'd initially forgotten Yates was riding. Plenty of decent second string riders plus those past their best, coming back from injury or upcoming but unproven talent. Agree it should make for a good race but in recent years it has felt like the second or third best GC rider of the time has done the Giro (mainly to dodge Froome at the Tour).

focuszing723

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0poEYeXMAE_pZM?format=jpg&name=large

I like the way this has been laid out on one page.

jimmyjams

blazing_saddles said:

Pross said:

Seems a particularly weak field this year, there's usually at least one of the Tour contenders who bottles it and does the Giro as the 'easy' option. I guess Bernal could be in that category but the back problem leaves a question mark. As Phreak says it's a bit of a surprise that Yates isn't riding.

That potential Ineos Tour squad is insanely strong but riding in support of probably the 3rd / 4th favourite.

It does appear kind of weak, but then again, if they finish in the order of the bookies odds, the result would look like this: 1) Egan Bernal 2) Simon Yates 3) Remco Evenepoel.
Which you have to admit, isn't too shabby a podium.
Certainly looks a bit more heavyweight, than Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jai Hindley and Wilco Kelderman.

I don't think the field weak, rather a good mix with several possible winners, 3-4 teams even with a couple of possibles, far more interesting than many a Tour with basically a main favourite and a couple of challengers.

Betting odds reflect not just a rider's chance of winning but also how many people are betting on a favoured rider or the GC rider of a favoured team.
This can be the only explanation why Buchmann is the bookies' 4th favourite, nevermind Evenepoel their 3rd favourite.

jimmyjams

shirley_basso said:

Why do some stages have downhill finishes?

I was looking at profiles today and can't understand why stage 16 doesn't finish at the top of the mountain.

There is nothing much at the top of the Giau (the last mountain of stage 16), a hotel/restaurant on one side, and opposite a parking area for ~ 40 cars. Whereas the finish town (Cortina d'Ampezzo) is a nice little pretty town with lots of amenities and facilities, and which will financially benefit from spectators.

The descent from the Giau to Cortina is fast and not very technical, so even if it is Reichenbach first at the top of Giau (or Pinot were he been taking part), he should still be in front at Cortina.

gsk82

Pross said:

andyp said:

I don't think the field is weak at all. You've got a number of proven GC riders, like Yates, Nibali, Martin, Landa, plus a really interesting mix of young contenders, like Bernal and Hindley and young prospects, like Evenepoel, Almeida and Vlasov. There's even some dark horses, like Carthy, Buchmann and Bennett.

It should be an interesting GC race given the mix of contenders.

I'd initially forgotten Yates was riding. Plenty of decent second string riders plus those past their best, coming back from injury or upcoming but unproven talent. Agree it should make for a good race but in recent years it has felt like the second or third best GC rider of the time has done the Giro (mainly to dodge Froome at the Tour).

There's a clear big 2 in stage races this year, which devalues any race they aren't at. If you took them out of the tour line up, would it be any better than the one at the Giro?

pblakeney

jimmyjams said:

shirley_basso said:

Why do some stages have downhill finishes?

I was looking at profiles today and can't understand why stage 16 doesn't finish at the top of the mountain.

There is nothing much at the top of the Giau (the last mountain of stage 16), a hotel/restaurant on one side, and opposite a parking area for ~ 40 cars. Whereas the finish town (Cortina d'Ampezzo) is a nice little pretty town with lots of amenities and facilities, and which will financially benefit from spectators.

The descent from the Giau to Cortina is fast and not very technical, so even if it is Reichenbach first at the top of Giau (or Pinot were he been taking part), he should still be in front at Cortina.

Fair points, well made.
My original suggestion #1 then. 😉