Giro 2024:- Stage 6: Torre del Lago Puccini – Rapolano Terme, 180.0km ***Spoilers***

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Comments

  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,907
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,907

    He would have to lose the jersey by a lot so it carried forward into and through the weekend ...didn't mesh with ineos pushing did it .


    I think the GC guys were just being super defensive like you say ....

    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,252

    Defensive is the standard MO for stages like these and cobbled stages. People who think they'll be raced like their equivalent classics are bit dim.

    Twitter: @RichN95
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,546

    Recent examples of cobbled and gravel stages in GTs - Tour 2022, Giro 2021 - suggests they are often raced aggressively by GC riders.

    Yesterday's stage was defensive because there was only one difficult gravel sector in the stage, and it ended with 40 kms still left to race.

  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,907
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,103


    Yeah not much scope to really gain time and a TT the next stage - no point in going deep.

    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,646

    Another angle might be that Ineos kept it close to encourage Pog to play - just as a long term race strategy of trying to get him to burn his matches in the first two weeks. It worked for Jonas in last year's Tour.

    I found Thomas's interview after the stage a little unconvincing. He spoke about wanting to get the stage behind him (true enough) but not knowing the time-gap and keeping things quick? It didn't really make a lot of sense. Asked if it was for Narvaez to have a crack for the stage he was a bit "yeah, that was it". I know he's a fairly unexcited interviewee at the best of times but it seemed a touch more phlegmatic than usual.

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