2016 Giro d'Italia stage 16: Bressanone - Andalo (132 km)

[jaylew]

Who knows if it's true (though I'm inclined to believe him seeing how the rest of the stage went) but Chaves says being in the 2nd group had nothing to do with his legs and was just a mistake.

From the homepage:

"It wasn't a question of not having the legs, I just left my guard down," Chaves told reporters afterwards.

"I was too far back when Nibali attacked and the group formed with Zakarin, Valverde and Kruijswijk 500 metres from the top of the climb. I thought the gap would close because there'd already been a lot of attacks on the climb but the group always came back. But the last attack didn't come back. That was the error."

Strange though, considering how attentive he's been the entire Giro.

 

[hrotha]

I call BS. As he says, there were plenty of attacks by other contenders before that, and he was never in any of them.

 

[jaylew]

Yeah, I hear you, but it's not that common to see a rider at the pointy end finish so strongly on multiple climbs after being previously dropped. Maybe he just didn't fuel correctly and had a hunger knock? Still, you'd think he'd say so if that was the case. I don't see any reason to lie. I mean, the other GC guys saw how strongly he finished.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

What was Nibbs thinking today??? He cooked himself for the rest of the Giro...

simple. He got no form. Now he needs to fight for pride. I hope zakarin will fight to bump Valverde. We all know, Valverde likes to keep his podium spot once he is in there. He wheelsucked to the gill.

You are right about it, but if you don't feel the form you cannot attack like that, he just cooked himself, now he lost his podium place and maybe he can't finish in the top five because of the energy wasted.

I mean, you know your body, if you feel that you are on the limit, you don't attack, that's quite simple, just smart ridding.

He was the favorite, not on his peak, but if he were a bit smarter there he could get a nice podium place at least.

If he had ridden smarter than everyone here would have accused him of being boring and a wheelsucker, and saying that he could have attacked, but just didn't try.

Unfortunately the only way that you can prove that you really couldn't attack, is to attack and blow up.

Nibali's efforts have been great though. Terrific ride by Valverde. Why such negativity against him? Last 12 months he's been much more aggressive.

As for Majka....

 

[Hakkapelit]

Plaza has a pretty good roadstory in BSP about why Chaves was left MIA on the first climb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NWXO87U7i0