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

[gustienordic]

Major, major LOSERS: Gadret/Dupont/Nieve and Rujano.
Major, major WINNERS: Purito Power/Ryder Hesjedal.
Much ado about nothing: Scarnego/Basso Kreuziger.

Other than Purito, are we surprised by this? None of the other team results are surprising.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

navardauskas in pink. Good for him! He truly deserves it.

+1

...................

 

[Mellow Velo]

What a great race this has been.

That's because it was short and to the point.
Back to Comaland, followed by a crash, tomorrow.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Horrible, as expected, time by BMC

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

fantastic final part by BMC

they made up 12 seconds in the last part

 

[goggalor]

Phinney only 13 seconds from keeping the jersey. Shame, would've kept it without the pile-up for sure.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Fair play to Navardaskas, nice to see a new name. How long do people think he can hang on for?

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Quite heartwarming moment from BMC here...

 

[Ney the Viking]

Astana/Saxo sharing 3rd, wouldnt have dreamed of that...

 

[goggalor]

Horrible, as expected, time by BMC

Not horrible. Katusha and Garmin were on a different level, BMC were with a bunch of teams on the level below. Also had to take care of poor Taylor.

 

[patterson_hood]

have to say it,

with no obvious GC choice (AC) this race is looking to be really interesting.

 

[meat puppet]

Disagree that Hesjedal is a MAJOR winner today. Come on, 5sec to Purito is gonna evaporate very quickly come proper mountains. A winner, yeah, but GC wise should have gotten more.

Navardauskas deserves the pink. And, to repeat what I said during the Ardennes week, a major at those complaining about "nobodies" doing well and wearing jerseys.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Fair play to Navardaskas, nice to see a new name. How long do people think he can hang on for?

Two days..

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Hey, TV guys. Leave him alone would you.

 

[gustienordic]

Navardauskas in pink. Good for him! He truly deserves it.

Hopefully he will do great things in the future

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Farrar can take up pink in the next few days with a few bonus seconds.

I'd like to see two Americans hold the Pink, so I'm being optimistic


Today's TTT is why I'm excited by the pro team TTT at Worlds. Waiting for the GC leader detracted from a lot of teams potential to ride really fast. I'm a little bummed the teams didn't throw down with the gloves off, but a good stage nonetheless

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Two days..

So looks like Hesjedal will be in pink in 2 days then?

 

[DominicDecoco]

Not horrible. Katusha and Garmin were on a different level, BMC were with a bunch of teams on the level below. Also had to take care of poor Taylor.

Horrible was to exaggerating it, yes. But still disappointing. But that was, as I said, to be expected with all the dificulties before and in the race.

 

[saunaking]

No math wiz but..

some gaps for GC guys by my calcs

Hesjedal
Rodriguez +19
Pinotti +26
Kreuziger +29
Basso +41
Schleck +59
Scarponi +1.16
Pozzivivo +1.43
Rujano +2.27
Gadret +2.37

 

[gustienordic]

Disagree that Hesjedal is a MAJOR winner today. Come on, 5sec to Purito is gonna evaporate very quickly come proper mountains. A winner, yeah, but GC wise should have gotten more.

Navardauskas deserves the pink. And, to repeat what I said during the Ardennes week, a major at those complaining about "nobodies" doing well and wearing jerseys.

He might not be able to outclimb Purito, but he can certainly out TT him. Its more important that he gained time on Scarponi + Basso + Kreuziger!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He might not be able to outclimb Purito, but he can certainly out TT him. Its more important that he gained time on Scarponi + Basso + Kreuziger!

why? hesjedal loses to all of them. Well maybe not kreuziger because kreuziger is not that good, but still.

 

[barmaher]

Fair play to Navardaskas, nice to see a new name. How long do people think he can hang on for?

Ordinarily, I would say he has a good chance of lasting well. He came 10th on Green Mountain this year.

However, he struggled to hang on today. So maybe he will struggle.

He won't lose it on Stage 5, should keep it on Stage 6, but the finish of Stage 7 may provide difficulty if he is not in shape. Or if non-GC contenders get in a break.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Ordinarily, I would say he has a good chance of lasting well. He came 10th on Green Mountain this year.

However, he struggled to hang on today. So maybe he will struggle.

He won't lose it on Stage 5, should keep it on Stage 6, but the finish of Stage 7 may provide difficulty if he is not in shape. Or if non-GC contenders get in a break.

I fancy Rodriguez for stage 7 mate.

 

[Another_Dutch_Guy]

That was fun, the sound of the Sportza stream combined with the images of the Gazzetta stream. Works perfectly!

Nice TTT. Garmin was incredibly strong, but they really got into trouble with Rasmussen and (nearly) Navardauskas losing connection. Besides, Phinney showed in another way he will be the next Armstrong.

 

[goggalor]

Horrible was to exaggerating it, yes. But still disappointing. But that was, as I said, to be expected with all the dificulties before and in the race.

True.

Thought this was a really entertaining team time trial. I'm not a fan of the event counting towards GC, but it was cool to see strong TTers being dropped on the climbs, and then the pink jersey going off the road on the downhill and his team waiting for him. I love it when even the winners look like a bit of a mess.

The WC TTT might be good.