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

[MADRAZO]

Why do people want sprinters to ride through a bunch of hard mountainstages and get tired for and risk spoiling the rest of their season. Of course they pull out with more important races like TDF and the worlds ahead, races that are much more important than a secondary pointscompetition. Anything else would be plain stupid. And forcing them to do otherwice would only result in them not starting in the first place and riding smaller races instead. Sprinters comming here for the first 12 stages is a charming part of cycling and critisising I think shows a lack of understanding of modern cycling and the need to prioritice the efforts. Anyways people should applaud Greipel for not making a bad excuse for leaving as many has done before him.

 

[MortiroloForever]

Tomorrow's stage is absolutely beautiful. Looking at the profile, the last 2 cols could pain the peloton but it's a pity that Dolomites are coming next weekend.

Let's see what Nibali can do on the last 2 downhill. To be honest I didn´t see the best side of him so far, but I am truly convinced that is shape is growing up for the decisive last week.

I'll put an eye on Majka. He is such a dangerous rider who knows how to be hidden until the important moments of the race. He's still young and I expect a level improvement on him.

 

[Tigerion]

Re:

With his future abandon André Greipel will stand a finger to the history and cycling legends who won points classification, what a shame.

The problem is the giro organisers have spend so long ignoring the sprinters that there is no prestige outside of stages wins. With the increasing professionalisim in the peleton the 2009 change to the points scoring made the jersey irrelevant to sprinters.
So as Greipel and Kittel were starting their Pro careers the Giro was telling them that the jersey wasn't important and not for them. To then suddenly make a change and expect them to care isn't how it works.

 

[Teddy Boom]

Re:

Greipel words, "Let's not do this":

For a guy his size is like torture!

Which is more classless:
1) withdrawing while in points lead
2) kicked out for holding on to team car
3) missing time cut

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Kittel and Greipel "stole" lots of points from the other sprinters that are actually interested in winning the points jersey. It's bad enough that they can't win a stage because they're so much weaker, but also loosing the points... it's ridiculous.

Kittel and Greipel didn't steal anyone's points, if they couldn't beat him across the line then they weren't there points to begin with. And anyway Nizzolo won the points jersey last year without winning a stage so if a rider is consistent enough then they can win that jersey.

 

[Samamba]

Give WT points (cause for some reason it's so important for the teams) to the leader of a jersey or the winner of a jersey and you'll see less riders dropping out and more riders fighting for the jersey's.