2012 Giro d'Italia; Stage 15: Busto Arsizio - Lecco/Pian dei Resinelli (169km)

[Zam_Olyas]

Yea excitement in the last 1 and a quarter km is all well and nice but come on, it has been a boring and timid Il Giro.

 

[barn yard]

Well, it's boring and stupid. Makes sense for Purito, Hesjedal and Basso, but how do the others expect to win this?

it seems there is a huge fear of making a mistake, the fear of failure seems bigger than the desire to win for many of these athletes?

 

[El Pistolero]

De Gendt flatted at 1800m before the finish

Damn. Pretty impressive he still got so close then. He's 12th in GC now(was 14th yesterday), so all is still ok.

Henao today was more impressive than yesterday. Uran will have to work for him now. Unless Sky play dumb again.

 

[SafeBet]

Liguigas really played into the hands of Purito, they simply didnt push hard/early enough to get the kick out of the little cigar.

You guys think Liquigas is much stronger than how it actually is.
There was only Szmyd, no one else. And he didn't look too good actually, he wasn't even gaining that much on Rabottini.

Basso didn't have legs, he's telling it right now to RAI. Otherwise, why let Purito go? It was not a sprint. It was 3 ****ing kilometres.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

I just can't understand Liquigas tactics anymore, kill all your riders. Well done Katusha, also I'm really happy Rabottini won, kinda reminded me of Rasmussen. Also Henao was great.

Don't understand their tactics? on a 7km long hill, the fact that basso came in with or infront of every contender except JRod is kinda suprising, and their tactics worked very good

 

[rokopt]

Amazing. One of the best GTs in recent years for sure.

Wait... what?

It has definitely been one of the ten best Grand Tours of the last three years.

 

[Froome19]

Great finale thrilled form him hanging on.

Man this race is gonna be carnage in the final week I'm certain.

Pozzovivo not good.

Rujano giro over. Like I said the other day, he simply is not a complete rider.

It is not about him being a complete rider, it is about him not being in good form.

 

[Havetts]

Has Rujano finished yet?

 

[Red Rick]

People said Contador made the Giro boring by being too awesome. I disagree, seeing Contador flying up them mountains is certainly more entertaining than seeing the peloton ride together at a lousy pace up the entire climb...

This, + 1000000000000000000000000000000000

 

[DenisMenchov]

Don't understand their tactics? on a 7km long hill, the fact that basso came in with or infront of every contender except JRod is kinda suprising, and their tactics worked very good

I understand it on the last hill, but why are they ALWAYS in front of the peloton.

 

[Ferminal]

Ok, that finale with Purito and Rabottini was awesome.

BUT
These GC contenders are an absolute disgrace. They waited until 2 km to go for ****'s sake. Well I hope Purito wins this with his uphill sprints, you morons. It would serve you well.

I'm not sure that we could have expected anything else? Look at the route, it's not a surprise that everyone is trying their hardest to be unimpressive whilst conceding as little time as possible.

Rodriguez is looking very good though, I have to admit. Credit to Rabottini for his fighting stage win, Farnese needed that.

 

[hrotha]

I don't buy the "they don't have the legs" thing. No one does? They're all at exactly the same level? They can't attack unless they feel like they're just done with the warm-up?

When someone like, say, Scarponi, feels tired, you can bet most of the others must be worse off. That's when he has to attack. Ask Hinault.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

it seems there is a huge fear of making a mistake, the fear of failure seems bigger than the desire to win for many of these athletes?

Points system means an anonymous top 10 is more important than doing anything exciting. Small GC gaps mean if you try something and it doesn't come off you lose loads of places (and therefore points), so better not to chance it. And so the attacks start late, and the GC gaps created are small, and you're drawn into a vortex of defensive, spineless riding.

The Vuelta has had this problem for the last three years. It seems they felt that as the gaps were created by uphill finishes, there should be more of them, rather than concentrating on making the stages harder elsewhere so that people have different options for the attack.

 

[hrotha]

I'm not sure that we could have expected anything else? Look at the route, it's not a surprise that everyone is trying their hardest to be unimpressive whilst conceding as little time as possible.

I've seen very conservative racing before. But waiting for the last 2 km of the final climb, two days in a row, at the friggin' Giro? No, sorry, that's a new low.

 

[labratty]

Haha!

Chapeau to the mechanic who threw Rabottini back on his bike after he crashed!

And to Purito for a strong attack, but looking at the overhead shot the win wasn't that much of a gift. Just a fantastic ride by Rabottini.

He didn't look to have much left from that overhead shot, without that kick back from Rabottini he would not have given the win back I think. But these guy loves bike racing too (well I am sure Purito does the way he rides), with no bonus seconds to lose I think he must have had the thought I his head how much I would mean to Rabottini, not sure if that makes it a gift or not.

 

[Winterfold]

I guess I must know nothing about cycling because I am finding this Giro pretty entertaining.

Do the velominati who are finding it boring long for the good old days of blood thicker than oil and elite athletes dying of heart attacks in their prime? But at least they'd attack from 10k out with a week still to race eh?

No way was that a gift btw

 

[JibberJim]

Don't understand their tactics? on a 7km long hill, the fact that basso came in with or infront of every contender except JRod is kinda suprising, and their tactics worked very good

Exactly, Basso took time out of everyone other than Scarponi who won't need to be minutes ahead come the final TT.

 

[Poursuivant]

No chance J Rod gifted that to Rabbottini. Brilliant attack though, very impressive.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

I don't remember ever seeing a Giro as bad as this.

They (organizers) got what they wanted when getting rid of Zomegnan... boring baby tour de france.

 

[The Hitch]

People tend to love those stages where the leaders jersey cracks and loses minutes.

Well with Purito in pink going into the mountains, its a possibility.

 

[Parrulo]

Why didn't Ryder smoke everyone today, like he ripped their legs off yesterday?

i thought he was clearly the best climber and was on his way to the win

 

[DominicDecoco]

The course is just fine. The riders however...

 

[burning]

I guess time limit is %10 of the winners time today, so 31:30 is the limit?

 

[Random Direction]

http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Giroditalia/2012/classifiche/it/t_15_class.shtml?lang=en

Rujano +4:15

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I guess I must know nothing about cycling because I am finding this Giro pretty entertaining.

Do the velominati who are finding it boring long for the good old days of blood thicker than oil and elite athletes dying of heart attacks in their prime? But at least they'd attack from 10k out with a week still to race eh?

No way was that a gift btw

No, but we might long for 2010.

This Giro is horribly backloaded, so everyone's just had a group ride.

Today's stage was pretty fun when Cunego was 4-5 minutes up the road, and fun at the very end, but the middle bit was a bit pedestrian. The start of the race was utterly dreadful. Two sprint stages with dangerous run-ins which caused crashes. Yesterday's stage was OK for 5km, but the rest was a group ride.

The first week was ridiculously unselective. It's like the 2011 Tour all over again. "If we make the last 3 or 4 days really exciting, everyone will forget that nobody rode with any spines at all for the first 17!"