2012 Giro d'Italia; May 18th; Stage 13: Savona - Cervere (121km)

[Geraint Too Fast]

A sprint stage with no corners in the final kilometres!

 

[Fetisoff]

Theo BOS ..

 

[will10]

Andrea Guardini

 

[jens_attacks]

1.cav
2.ferrari but very close

 

[Catwhoorg]

Cav obviously favorite nothing too technical on the run in from the looks of it.

A straight out drag race from the roundabout has got to favor Sky and Greenedge. If Goss isn't feeling it, it will be interesting to see who they favour.

 

[Lexman]

might this short stage with a slightly uphill profile not provoke some surprises? i hope so anyway, let's say a GC rider loses a minute or because of an echelon, mechanical whatever

 

[burning]

might this short stage with a slightly uphill profile not provoke some surprises? i hope so anyway, let's say a GC rider loses a minute or because of an echelon, mechanical whatever

Frank comes to my mind again

 

[Lexman]

Frank comes to my mind again

i didn't give any names

 

[Another_Dutch_Guy]

No corners in the last kilometre? Then this will actually become the first mass sprint.

 

[Froome19]

Whilst the Giro stages have been more exciting than those in ATOC, the ones in ATOC have at least been a true test of speed something which the ones in the Giro have not really been. All these nitty gritty sprints are nice but sometimes a true dash to the line is needed as well. So I am hoping the sprinter teams get their act together and make this stage as least error/crash/break prone as possibly possible.

 

[taiwan]

Theo BOS ..

Just thought "good call" and looked at CQ. Unfortunately he hasn't finished in the top 100 of any stage in this Giro, for whatever reason. Better bet on Renshaw.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

< 3 hrs in the saddle - what happened to the time trial in the morning ?

 

[karlboss]

< 3 hrs in the saddle - what happened to the time trial in the morning ?

If it's going to be a bunch sprint, why drag it out ?

 

[wirral]

They have put a bottleneck at 550 m. The width of the road between the barriers is 2.5 metres.

And in the last 100m they have added bunnyhop logs as seen in American-style cyclo-cross.

 

[vcampbell]

JJ, now or never.

 

[Kwibus]

Just thought "good call" and looked at CQ. Unfortunately he hasn't finished in the top 100 of any stage in this Giro, for whatever reason. Better bet on Renshaw.

That might be because he crashed on the first stage in the final when he was in a very good position with Brown and Renshaw still infront of him.
That crash injured him which ruled him out for the next flat stages and besides that he isn't able to contend on a course that has a hill in the last 30km.

Today might actually be a good day for him if his lower back injury has healed that is.

I don't expect much though

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

will bos sprint today?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Bos is too busy keeping trying not to finish last

 

[Ferminal]

Yep, needs to make it over those Guardini speedbumps first.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

bos has actually been riding very well lately. that's why I ask. renshaw sucks monkeyballs

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Bos is too busy keeping trying not to finish last

He will be fine, no chance of him finishing last.

 

[Frosty]

Those unmarked climbs early on are a bit tougher than unmarked climbs might make you think.

The one between 25 and 31km rises 300 metres = 5%. With the earlier climbing too there is the potential there for someone to raise the pace and try to drop the sprinters. Only question is who? If there was a Freire and a Hushoved (pre this year) then you could end up with a climbing sprinters group and a non-climbing sprinters' group and a pursuit to the finish. However, i dont think there is anyone strong enough for this to be worthwhile. Likewise, maybe one or two teams could put on the pace to drop the sprinters and then release a high quality break of guys who could maybe finish 25th overall and try to hold the sprinters off. Only problem though is that this could be the sprinters and their workers' last hurrah so there shouldnt be a situation where anyone is tempted to sack today off and wait for tomorrow. Anyone aiming for 25th overall would be better advised to chance their arm on one of the mountain stages.

If Cav is on a good day then maybe we could even see the slowest sprinters being dropped and then not being let back on as the Sky/GreenEdge bunch disappears off.

 

[burning]

This is sort of off-topic but had a good laugh when I saw this:

Most combative classification

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling 22 pt

 

[Gloin22]

This is sort of off-topic but had a good laugh when I saw this:

Most combative classification

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling 22 pt

Well, he combats the climbs to make the time limit. I'd sya that is worthy of 22 points alone

But the award for attackers is Premi della Fuga It's looking like that :

1 KAISEN Olivier BEL LTB 557
2 KEIZER Martijn NED VCD 513
3 MINGUEZ AYALA Miguel ESP EUS 475
4 HOLLENSTEIN Reto SUI APP 344
5 BALLONI Alfredo ITA FAR 323
6 BULGAC Brian NED LTB 306
7 AMADOR BIKKAZAKOVA Andrey CRC MOV 283
8 RUBIANO CHAVEZ Miguel Angel COL AND 262
9 BOARO Manuele ITA SAX 234
10 DENIFL Stefan AUT VCD 218

 

[Froome19]

Those unmarked climbs early on are a bit tougher than unmarked climbs might make you think.

The one between 25 and 31km rises 300 metres = 5%. With the earlier climbing too there is the potential there for someone to raise the pace and try to drop the sprinters. Only question is who? If there was a Freire and a Hushoved (pre this year) then you could end up with a climbing sprinters group and a non-climbing sprinters' group and a pursuit to the finish. However, i dont think there is anyone strong enough for this to be worthwhile. Likewise, maybe one or two teams could put on the pace to drop the sprinters and then release a high quality break of guys who could maybe finish 25th overall and try to hold the sprinters off. Only problem though is that this could be the sprinters and their workers' last hurrah so there shouldnt be a situation where anyone is tempted to sack today off and wait for tomorrow. Anyone aiming for 25th overall would be better advised to chance their arm on one of the mountain stages.

If Cav is on a good day then maybe we could even see the slowest sprinters being dropped and then not being let back on as the Sky/GreenEdge bunch disappears off.

I think you are making a lot out of nothing. This stage is a destined for a flat out sprint (contested between all the sprinters asides from Guardini and Bos) as much as nearly any other GT stage.