Recent content by JohnWayne

Thank you, @Devil's Elbow ! The stage previews have, in my opinion, been clearly the best ones in the whole world wide web. I have been reading them with joy, and sometimes linked to non-member friends with interest in cycling.

I’m starting to like this Almeida guy. Despite the steepness/slowness, many would have started flicking elbows and looking around at some point. Today Almeida just kept on grinding. What an effort!

Yep, Swedish commentator said 38 if the groups come together (and nobody's dropped).

I’m not sure either. My single-digit estimate was from @ammattipyoraily tweet. The model he uses gave Gee 430.0W with “0% drafting” and 422.7W with “100% drafting”. And that was for the paved part, gravel would be even less (slower).

I think riders hugely overestimate the benefits of drafting on a climb as steep as Finestre. The difference in watts between pulling and following is in single digits. Riders seem to fear pulling their rivals even if it doesn’t really matter. Yates keeping a steady pace vs. Carapaz and Del Toro...

Would need a time under 42:08 or so. Sounds unbelievable, but you never know these days 😅

Really?!? But hey, ever heard of a cyclist who used to be a ski jumper? True story!

Easy side of Mortirolo, not hard enough.

De Lie divebombed the descent, 16s faster than Martinez (2nd fastest) T2-T3. Not bad in an under 5min sector.

10-6-4 available at the finish, doesn't seem too likely that Remco, Jonas, Carapaz, Bardet would get top-3 today even if they really tried...

Was that to be considered a breakaway attempt? Seemed like he asked the Alpecin guy if he can go to a "break", and he got the go-ahead. Sadly, got caught. :D

Probably quite similar here with Finnish Eurosport. We’ve got a legend Peter Selin doing the races. He usually has his son or some retired pro or semi-pro (Jussi Veikkanen, Kimmo Kananen) with him. I don’t particularly like the way in which some (English) commentators try to fill in and hype up...

Another twist to this is that the first climb is Cima Coppi, right? Should increase the number of eager climbers wanting to do a full speed 9k effort from the gun.

Is Mortirolo open? Every page I can find lists it as closed still (e.g. https://www.valtellina.it/it/situazione-passi)? Though realistically that should be easy to clear & open if it still really is closed?

If Stelvio can't be opened, then there's high risk Umbrail won't be open either? It's also not yet open. Maybe Munt la Schera tunnel then?