2012 Giro d'Italia, May 9th, stage 4: Verona → Verona, 33.2 Kms TTT

[DominicDecoco]

Might consider a sneaky bet on GreendEdge if the odds allow to.

Rain tommorow? Winds?

 

[Froome19]

Surely you mean Thomas?

Yeh i see what you mean but of course Cav would be the more realistic Maglia Rosa as he can put time into Garmin guys through time bonuses on stage 5, but in terms of just the TTT obviously Thomas will be the one in pink if all goes to plan.

I doubt gaps will be that big. Although i would like it of course.
If this was 10km longer this would be intersesting, but 32km is still really short for a TTT.

Here is something I posted earlier which seems to disagree a similar course and exactly the same length and the time gaps were relatively large

Giro TTT stage 4 2010 33km
1. Liquigas - Doimo 36'37"
AGNOLI Valerio, NIBALI Vincenzo, KISERLOVSKI Robert, DALL'ANTONIA Tiziano, BASSO Ivan, SZMYD Sylwester

22. Ag2r - La Mondiale 02'50"
KRIVTSOV Yuriy, EFIMKIN Alexander, MANDRI René, BONNAFOND Guillaume, TURPIN Ludovic, DUPONT Hubert, RAVARD Anthony, GADRET John
.

 

[Pippo_San]

Weather forecast for tomorrow: no rain, no wind, no whatever. Not really sunny either so good conditions for everyone...theoretically.

 

[sucotash]

Szmyd has written on his website that he is very optimstic about Liqui chances tomorrow. In his opinion Liquigas is strong, well prepared and organized. Teamwork should be their advantage in Sylwester's opinion

 

[Eshnar]

I added the startlist on the first post.
Also here:
1 AG2R LA MONDIALE 15.25’00″
2 EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI 15.28’00″
3 ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI – VENEZUELA 15.31’00″
4 LAMPRE – ISD 15.34’00″
5 LOTTO BELISOL TEAM 15.37’00″
6 COLNAGO – CSF INOX 15.40’00″
7 FDJ – BIGMAT 15.43’00″
8 FARNESE VINI – SELLE ITALIA 15.46’00″
9 KATUSHA TEAM 15.49’00″
10 MOVISTAR TEAM 15.52’00″
11 TEAM NETAPP 15.55’00″
12 RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 15.58’00″
13 TEAM SAXO BANK 16.01’00″
14 LIQUIGAS – CANNONDALE 16.04’00″
15 ASTANA PRO TEAM 16.07’00″
16 OMEGA PHARMA – QUICKSTEP 16.10’00″
17 VACANSOLEIL – DCM PRO C.TEAM 16.13’00″
18 SKY PROCYCLING 16.16’00″
19 RADIOSHACK – NISSAN 16.19’00″
20 ORICA – GREENEDGE 16.22’00″
21 GARMIN – BARRACUDA 16.25’00″
22 BMC RACING TEAM 16.28’00″

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Szmyd has written on his website that he is very optimstic about Liqui chances tomorrow. In his opinion Liquigas is strong, well prepared and organized. Teamwork should be their advantage in Sylwester's opinion

Rai sport 2 just finished a preview of the stage - and it showed both
Liqugas and then the Lampre teams doing a practice round of the course.
Liquigas looked very comfortable and really well prepared - they had already
done the course with Basso a month ago.
Lampre / Scaponi were talking up their chances...

 

[JRanton]

Garmin to win pretty comfortably with Greenedge, Liquigas, BMC and Radioshack all close together covering 2nd to 5th place.

 

[JRanton]

Rai sport 2 just finished a preview of the stage - and it showed both
Liqugas and then the Lampre teams doing a practice round of the course.
Liquigas looked very comfortable and really well prepared - they had already
done the course with Basso a month ago.
Lampre / Scaponi were talking up their chances...

You can get 66/1 on Liquigas for the win tomorrow. I can definitely see it as realistic for them to finish 2nd so an each way bet on them would surely make a lot of sense at those odds!

 

[guncha]

To me this stage is a failure already - it should have been slightly longer ITT; they should have started the race with short TTT. Strong time trialists with weak team will be disadvantaged even more. It is not normal when TTT is longer than longest TTT.

 

[Froome19]

You can get 66/1 on Liquigas for the win tomorrow. I can definitely see it as realistic for them to finish 2nd so an each way bet on them would surely make a lot of sense at those odds!

I predicted them to win in the fantasy game.

 

[Froome19]

To me this stage is a failure already - it should have been slightly longer ITT; they should have started the race with short TTT. Strong time trialists with weak team will be disadvantaged even more. It is not normal when TTT is longer than longest TTT.

Confused......

Of course this is the age old debate about whether TTT especially in Gts in justified as they put some GT contenders at severe deficits and of course they are not a true justification of youre qualities as a true rider. So a rider could have been stronger overall and yet been penalised due to his teams TTT.
How much input a sole rider has into a TTT etc can also be debated.

The organisers seemed to want to keep the amount of TT kms pretty limited so putting in a bigger ITT would have been out of the question for them.
The longer TTT hasnt been seen for a while and is more exciting than a shorter TTT and i think it gives more opportunities to teams with less capable Time trialists as it is not all about the raw power which specialists can input but rather its focusing on team work and there is more of a collective responsibilty on the team as a whole.
Of course that is just one side, but....

 

[manafana]

garmin should be too good well drilled and best tt riders too, i expect bmc to disapoint a little 2moro finish outside top 5.

 

[Lexman]

What chances are there for Radioshack : Bakelants, Hermans, Schleck, Zaug are not the best TT, they don't have Cancellara so only Sergent and Nelson Oliveira to keep the tempo in the team or am i wrong?

 

[Froome19]

What chances are there for Radioshack : Bakelants, Hermans, Schleck, Zaug are not the best TT, they don't have Cancellara so only Sergent and Nelson Oliveira to keep the tempo in the team or am i wrong?

Also Nizzolo who came 2nd in Romandie prologue and Bennatti, those 2 are they're main riders and then Sergent and Oliviera.
Here is what i wrote about them earlier.

Radioshack have a very well spread out team, with Nizzolo having come 2nd in Romandie prologue and of course Bennatti who is generally a good TT as seen by his TA perfomance even though his Prologue was pretty awful. Oliviera has also been impressive in recent races and Jesse Sergent did decently in the prologue and is a good TT as well so they could do well ,yet their team surely would have had a better chance of success if they had Fuglsang and not Schleck as their leader.
.

 

[Lexman]

Also Nizzolo who came 2nd in Romandie prologue and Bennatti, those 2 are they're main riders and then Sergent and Oliviera.
Here is what i wrote about them earlier.

Is Fuglsang better in TT than Schleck? Anyway a hard task for the team to drag Schleck tomorrow around, they can afford to lose Hermans, Bakelants etc but Schleck has to hang on

 

[screaming fist]

Is Fuglsang better in TT than Schleck?

Yes, Fuglsang is a pretty good time trialist.

 

[Froome19]

Is Fuglsang better in TT than Schleck? Anyway a hard task for the team to drag Schleck tomorrow around, they can afford to lose Hermans, Bakelants etc but Schleck has to hang on

Most of the GC contenders will be dragged around and it wont be that hard just it is a matter of one rider in the team doing less work. It has been managed by team many times and they came 4 seconds off Garmin at the tour whilst dragging both Schlecks around.

Fuglsang is a very impressive time triallist:
10 World Championships (Kobenhavn) I.T.T.
6 Vuelta a España, Stage 10 : Salamanca - Salamanca I.T.T.
8 Post Danmark Rundt / Tour of Denmark, Stage 5 : Helsingor I.T.T.
2 National Championships Denmark (Nyborg) I.T.T.
7 Tour de Suisse, Stage 9 : Schaffhausen - Schaffhausen I.T.T.
7 Tour of California, Stage 6 : Solvang - Solvang I.T.T.
4 Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Stage 6 : Zalla - Zalla I.T.T.
3 Critérium International, Stage 3 : Porto-Vecchio I.T.T.

I count that as 8 top 10 in ITT last season including at the worlds and Vuelta.

 

[Sylvester]

Heading to Verona tomorrow to watch the race. Looking forward to it.

Garmin will win this.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Is Fuglsang better in TT than Schleck?

Jakob is 10 times the tt'er than Frank.

 

[greenedge]

whatever you expect usually the opposite happens so i expect frank schleck to lose time and even more in the mountains

But this time it is not a prediction about a BMC rider.

 

[The Hitch]

The longer TTT hasnt been seen for a while.

Last Giro but one is a while?

The organisers seemed to want to keep the amount of TT kms pretty limited so putting in a bigger ITT would have been out of the question for them.

I dont quite understand that. Why couldnt just make the 30k tt fair?

How much input a sole rider has into a TTT etc can also be debated.

Frank Schleck taking half a minute on Contador puts an end to that debate.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Usually a lot of hate towards the TTT's in here but I'm really looking forward for tommorrow. I've always loved it. It's the hardest discipline in the sport of cycling - unless you do fu** all just sitting over constantly, obviously...

 

[Froome19]

Last Giro but one is a while?

Vuelta a España, Stage 1 : Benidorm - Benidorm T.T.T. (13.5 km)
Tour de France, Stage 2 : Les Essarts - Les Essarts T.T.T. (23 km)
Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 : Venaria Reale - Torino T.T.T. (21.5 km)
Tirreno - Adriatico, Stage 1 : Marina di Carrara T.T.T. (16.8 km)
Tirreno - Adriatico, Stage 1 : Marina di Carrara T.T.T. (16.8 km)
Tirreno - Adriatico, Stage 1 : San Vincenzo - Donoratico T.T.T. (16.9 km)

Yes considering that there have been all these TTTs before the last one.

I dont quite understand that. Why couldnt just make the 30k tt fair?
Frank Schleck taking half a minute on Contador puts an end to that debate.

I dont understand these points at all.

 

[roundabout]

I like the 3 minute start intervals. Nice and compact.

 

[iZnoGouD]

1 minute would be fun