2016 Giro d'Italia, stage 12: Noale - Bibione, 182 km

[Praying Mantis]

This stage brought to you by The Israeli Ministry of Torture.

 

[Climbing]

Re:

This stage brought to you by The Israeli Ministry of Torture.

But tomorrow is going to be full of fireworks!
Isn't it?! Let's hope so...

 

[metaCYCLE]

any time differences with all those gaps?

 

[Nirvana]

Horrible stage, ridiculous decision from RCS.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Re: Re:

Just a tad cheeky from Greipel.

Nope, just plain stupid from Ewan, not sure the he would have passed Greipel anyway when on the wind.

Greipel had half a bike length on Ewen with 150 to go, and that turned to a bike and a half at the finish.

Lotto just had so many more matches to burn. They didn't even need to go hard outside of 1k to go, just take up space. No one was going to be faster than Greipel from the last corner to the line, everyone else's only hope was some sort of disruption to Greipel's train before that.

 

[StryderHells]

Dammit, this time I think Ewan was actually strong enough, but he just chose the false line.

Edit: Okay now I think Greipel would have won anyway, but at least Ewan learned how to use his elbows.

Greipel would of won anyway but Ewan did actually try and stand his ground in that sprint unlike earlier in the race when he was just pushed out of the way to easily, he still made a couple of mistakes but he was certainly better.

Lotto just nailed how to race that circuit perfectly

 

[liamito]

Demare is collecting points every single day and now just lets go?

 

[Alexandre B.]

FDJ & Démare...

*heavy breathing*

Demare is collecting points every single day and now just lets go?

He's sick.

 

[Eclipse]

Re:

any time differences with all those gaps?

nah they neutralised the final lap

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

any time differences with all those gaps?

No. They all dropped on purpose to avoid crashes because the GC time was taken with 1 lap to go.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Ewan had won that sprint if there was room

Not at all. He gets up to speed very very quickly after that hairpin, as always, but he doesn't have the top end speed. Greipel was so much faster once he got going, the swerve didn't change the result.

Just a tad cheeky from Greipel.

Nope, just plain stupid from Ewan, not sure the he would have passed Greipel anyway when on the wind.

He wouldn't have. When he got in the wind he hit the metaphorical wall. Zero chance.

Come on. At least admit that Ewan stopped sprinting when he was closed. He was about to pass Greipel clearly.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Ewan had won that sprint if there was room

Not at all. He gets up to speed very very quickly after that hairpin, as always, but he doesn't have the top end speed. Greipel was so much faster once he got going, the swerve didn't change the result.

Just a tad cheeky from Greipel.

Nope, just plain stupid from Ewan, not sure the he would have passed Greipel anyway when on the wind.

He wouldn't have. When he got in the wind he hit the metaphorical wall. Zero chance.

Come on. At least admit that Ewan stopped sprinting when he was closed. He was about to pass Greipel clearly.

I don't think he would of passed Greipel but he would of finished closer

 

[Gigs_98]

Does anyone know if Greipel plans to ride the giro till the end or if he will abandon and prepare for the tour? On the next 9 stages there are 2 sprints left, which is probably a bit less than in most gt's. Moreover his main goal of the year will probably still be the tour and he will probably want to prepare for that as good as possible, and I'm not sure if 7 stages in the alps are a very good preparation for a sprinter.

Edit: Okay ten seconds after I posted this I heard that the eurosport guys said that Greipel will abandon

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Ewan had won that sprint if there was room

Not at all. He gets up to speed very very quickly after that hairpin, as always, but he doesn't have the top end speed. Greipel was so much faster once he got going, the swerve didn't change the result.

Just a tad cheeky from Greipel.

Nope, just plain stupid from Ewan, not sure the he would have passed Greipel anyway when on the wind.

He wouldn't have. When he got in the wind he hit the metaphorical wall. Zero chance.

Come on. At least admit that Ewan stopped sprinting when he was closed. He was about to pass Greipel clearly.

I don't think he would of passed Greipel but he would of finished closer

Possibly, now that I watch it again. It's really impossible to say, but for the sake of fairness, I would have liked Ewan to not have his line destroyed just to see how fast he actually could have been against the likes of Greipel

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Greipel didn't do anything different from what Bouhanni got DQed for earlier in the season but the differences here were that Ewen wasn't going fast enough to get properly impeded whereas Matthews probably was going to win. Oh and the fact that it's Bouhanni

 

[Eclipse]

Re: Re:

Ewan had won that sprint if there was room

Not at all. He gets up to speed very very quickly after that hairpin, as always, but he doesn't have the top end speed. Greipel was so much faster once he got going, the swerve didn't change the result.

Just a tad cheeky from Greipel.

Nope, just plain stupid from Ewan, not sure the he would have passed Greipel anyway when on the wind.

He wouldn't have. When he got in the wind he hit the metaphorical wall. Zero chance.

Come on. At least admit that Ewan stopped sprinting when he was closed. He was about to pass Greipel clearly.

He definitely sat up a bit which led to the big gap Greipel had at the end, but we've all seen enough sprints to know there's a difference between having the speed coming off a wheel to get up alongside someone and actually passing them

 

[staubsauger]

Does anyone know if Greipel plans to ride the giro till the end or if he will abandon and prepare for the tour? On the next 9 stages there are 2 sprints left, which is probably a bit less than in most gt's. Moreover his main goal of the year will probably still be the tour and he will probably want to prepare for that as good as possible, and I'm not sure if 7 stages in the alps are a very good preparation for a sprinter.

Rumors are he quits after today. Since he's got the red jersey on the silver platter now I ain't got no clue. He might think about it himself very intensive tonight I guess!

 

[StryderHells]

Does anyone know if Greipel plans to ride the giro till the end or if he will abandon and prepare for the tour? On the next 9 stages there are 2 sprints left, which is probably a bit less than in most gt's. Moreover his main goal of the year will probably still be the tour and he will probably want to prepare for that as good as possible, and I'm not sure if 7 stages in the alps are a very good preparation for a sprinter.

Rumors are he quits after today. Since he's got the red jersey on the silver platter now I ain't got no clue. He might think about it himself very intensive tonight I guess!

He said in the post race interview that this was his last stage

 

[staubsauger]

Does anyone know if Greipel plans to ride the giro till the end or if he will abandon and prepare for the tour? On the next 9 stages there are 2 sprints left, which is probably a bit less than in most gt's. Moreover his main goal of the year will probably still be the tour and he will probably want to prepare for that as good as possible, and I'm not sure if 7 stages in the alps are a very good preparation for a sprinter.

Rumors are he quits after today. Since he's got the red jersey on the silver platter now I ain't got no clue. He might think about it himself very intensive tonight I guess!

He said in the post race interview that this was his last stage

Oh okay. That's sad.

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Greipel didn't do anything different from what Bouhanni got DQed for earlier in the season but the differences here were that Ewen wasn't going fast enough to get properly impeded whereas Matthews probably was going to win. Oh and the fact that it's Bouhanni

Greipel didn't come across as violently as Bouhanni did in P-N, if you watch the overhead the barrier actually come in slightly as Ewan sits up so no reason at all that Greipel would be Dqed

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Such a cynical retirement should be penalised somehow - why don't the UCI make a new rule:
If you just won you have to start the next stage, at least?

 

[StryderHells]

Does anyone know if Greipel plans to ride the giro till the end or if he will abandon and prepare for the tour? On the next 9 stages there are 2 sprints left, which is probably a bit less than in most gt's. Moreover his main goal of the year will probably still be the tour and he will probably want to prepare for that as good as possible, and I'm not sure if 7 stages in the alps are a very good preparation for a sprinter.

Rumors are he quits after today. Since he's got the red jersey on the silver platter now I ain't got no clue. He might think about it himself very intensive tonight I guess!

He said in the post race interview that this was his last stage

Oh okay. That's sad.

He actually looked disappointed in the interview when he said it was his last stage which was good to see he thinks highly of the race but his team wants him firing for the Tour and he wants to be ready for the Worlds

 

[Jungle Cycle]

It sounded like was the team decision, not his..

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Such a cynical retirement should be penalised somehow - why don't the UCI make a new rule:
If you just won you have to start the next stage, at least?

Would it really make that of a difference watching him start tomorrow and hop of 20 k's in? I get what you are saying but teams and riders will just come up with excuses that would make the rule useless

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Re: Re:

Greipel didn't do anything different from what Bouhanni got DQed for earlier in the season but the differences here were that Ewen wasn't going fast enough to get properly impeded whereas Matthews probably was going to win. Oh and the fact that it's Bouhanni

Greipel didn't come across as violently as Bouhanni did in P-N, if you watch the overhead the barrier actually come in slightly as Ewan sits up so no reason at all that Greipel would be Dqed

I haven't seen the Bouhanni DQ, however from what I saw Greipel is the one to initiate the swerve to the right. Ewan follows this move until they're about past the center of the road and then he tries to cut through the right. In my opinion, Greipel does nothing wrong here and keeps his previous movement. Ewan would have been smart to maintain a forward line instead of swerving right. He boxed himself in IMHO.

And regarding Greipel quitting: Yeah, it's BS, it's a GT points jersey and it's pretty much in his pocket. Why drop out now? Not like Ulissi or Demare are going to have may proper chances going forward...Is he racing anything? Or going to the TDF or something?