2016 Giro d'Italia - Stage 6 Ponte – Roccaraso 157 km MTF

[hfer07]

lots of folks are already writing off Nibali's chances because of today's performance.........

good !! he can go stealth for awhile and then come up with the guns blasting away "when it matters"

 

[Taxus4a]

Amador was 4th last Giro.. this one he is a domestique, but the Giro has no level...

Last year once Porte and Urán had problems with heath, crash and more, the level wanst super.

It was of course the impressive performance of Landa in both queen stages and the second part of Hesjedal always in the break and with the best. But the rest wanst very impressive, Contador showed a good level all the Giro, but no the super some people think. Uran started sick as this year Cancellara and he managed to follow Contador in one of the first mountain finish...

 

[HelloDolly]

I can't believe people are writing off Nibali & Valverde ...gosh do people learn nothing on here about cycling

2 weeks from tomorrow is a long long way ahead ..they are warming up yet

Just wish there were a few more MTFs

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

The biggest shocker of the stage is that someone considers Top gun a 'most epic film ever'

Grats to Wellens!

The Top Gun soundtrack is badass, you can't deny that.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

The biggest shocker of the stage is that someone considers Top gun a 'most epic film ever'

Grats to Wellens!

The Top Gun soundtrack is badass, you can't deny that.

I can and I will especially that Danger zone song

 

[SevenTimeTdfChamp]

Re: Re:

Oh my!!!??? Your overall credibility has been blasted to oblivion. [/quote]
Did he ever really have it with that avatar and username? [/quote]

When you have been watching bike raceing since the early 90´s there´s a huge possibillity that some of the riders you cheered for did something there was against the wada code. I happend to cheer for lance, who i still think is a great bike rider with great handle and a lot of tactical overview... tdf 03 i still my favorite edition ever. anyways let bring focus back to the giro

 

[IndianCyclist]

This sets it up real well. Dumoulin, Fuglsang, Zakarin strong in 1st & 2nd week. Nibali, Landa, Valverde strong in third week with Majka, Chaves as dark horses

 

[staubsauger]

Well. This ain't bad for Landa after all. He seems to have some health issues, but there's still one week for him to recover until the Dolomites. As long as he ain't gonna lose 5 minutes in the tt of course. Nibali ain't got no peak shape at all. He can't take any advantage so far. Neither can Valverde. This is actually ideal for Landa given his current state.

The true dangerman now is Zaka. Dumoulin ain't got no team and no superb climbing skills for the high mountains. Pozzo always wastes his energy too early and struggles at the end of the Giro. But Zaka was the big dark horse before. If he keeps up he has the ability to turn a Berzin. It's also good for him that he can hide a bit in Tom's shadow right now. The tt and the 2 stages in the Dolomites should be a high indicator whether Zaka has the ability to win or not.

That said, Dumoulin begins to look like the new Breukink more and more! Great tt guy that also attacks in the mountains if he's able to. Great!

 

[DNP-Old]

Glad Wellens got the W. Doubt Dumoulin can be all smoke and mirrors about his GC ambitions for much longer.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

This sets it up real well. Dumoulin, Fuglsang, Zakarin strong in 1st & 2nd week. Nibali, Landa, Valverde strong in third week with Majka, Chaves as dark horses

I think Dumoulin, Fuglsang and Zakarin will be strong throughout, with Dumoulin struggling a bit in the last 2 mountain stages, but having a reasonable buffer from the flat TT.... I also think Kruijswijk is looking very good.

I think it's fine for Landa and Majka to not quite be there yet, because they are young riders, who are supposed to be best week 3, and because they will be top 2 on the mountain TT.... but for Nibali and Valverde, I think it's worrysome, so I now predict both to finish out of top 5.

 

[Samamba]

Re: Re:

Wellens wasting his energy again

Well...

Second time in two days I underestimate a Lotto guy. Not gonna complain though, awesome win

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Well. This ain't bad for Landa after all. He seems to have some health issues, but there's still one week for him to recover until the Dolomites. As long as he ain't gonna lose 5 minutes in the tt of course. Nibali ain't got no peak shape at all. He can't take any advantage so far. Neither can Valverde. This is actually ideal for Landa given his current state.

The true dangerman now is Zaka. Dumoulin ain't got no team and no superb climbing skills for the high mountains. Pozzo always wastes his energy too early and struggles at the end of the Giro. But Zaka was the big dark horse before. If he keeps up he has the ability to turn a Berzin. It's also good for him that he can hide a bit in Tom's shadow right now. The tt and the 2 stages in the Dolomites should be a high indicator whether Zaka has the ability to win or not.

That said, Dumoulin begins to look like the new Breukink more and more! Great tt guy that also attacks in the mountains if he's able to. Great!

Yeah, Zakarin could be dangerous, top 3 is possible and the guy actually loves bad weather, so the Giro should be great for him.
Nibali will improve, but Valverde loosing some time on that kind of stage is a bit of a surprise.
Kudus loosing over 2min to the Nibali/Ulissi group on such an easy climb is a surprise and Zoidl finished even further behind.

 

[Escarabajo]

Would you change your bets after today?

I wouldn't.

We just learned a little bit today, but that's all. There wasn't any majors blow ups.

 

[jens_attacks]

people just might tremendously peak for the 3rd week. from next friday, it's absolutely brutal stuff
but yes this stage was rather good

 

[therealthing]

Re:

Would you change your bets after today?

I wouldn't.

We just learned a little bit today, but that's all. There wasn't any majors blow ups.

People seem to overthink results a bit- losing a few seconds today seems to be making people think Nibali/Landa etc will get smashed. I don't think it's anything to worry about. It's the MTF so riders will be a bit rusty. We don't know if Nibali/Landa didn't have the legs to follow the attack, or if they were waiting for others to close it. Also, they are riders who seem to be best in the last week.

We shall see after the TT. Landa needs to ideally lose less than 2 minutes to Dumoulin, but he probably won't lose that much to the other contenders, some of whom are also bad TTers.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

This sets it up real well. Dumoulin, Fuglsang, Zakarin strong in 1st & 2nd week. Nibali, Landa, Valverde strong in third week with Majka, Chaves as dark horses

I think Dumoulin, Fuglsang and Zakarin will be strong throughout, with Dumoulin struggling a bit in the last 2 mountain stages, but having a reasonable buffer from the flat TT.... I also think Kruijswijk is looking very good.

I think it's fine for Landa and Majka to not quite be there yet, because they are young riders, who are supposed to be best week 3, and because they will be top 2 on the mountain TT.... but for Nibali and Valverde, I think it's worrysome, so I now predict both to finish out of top 5.

Very interesting. Ithink neither will finish in top 2

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Given that a lot of us considered Valverde to be a big favourite to win the stage, his performance is shocking.

Or a lot of you were wrong...

Same thing happened at Liege. I don't get it. Valverde is not at his best in crap weather. This is not PCM.

He's fine in the rain, it's never been a problem. The cold is what got him, as it always does

 

[markene2]

Told ya that Fuglsang would be on fire this Giro

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

Don't take conclusions so early, this means nothing.

Stoked for Wellens. Nice celebration sending kisses to the crowd. You go!

Exactly! In the space of less than an hour the forum goes from Astana super strong and Nibali going to smash it to, oh look Nibali is finished. Lol

Yes, there's some indications from today, but it's very early in the race to be drawing too many conclusions already.

I also do not think I can do any conclusion from it, Nibali tried it (I did not expected that I must say) and then he suffered from counter attack, he did not lost too much and I do not think he felt so bad or he was so weak when he sent to push Astana and then tried to attack, only climb was not so hard to do that
hopefully in big mountains will be good
and for me favourites are still Landa and Nibali

 

[cnfdugo]

Re:

Doubt Dumoulin can be all smoke and mirrors about his GC ambitions for much longer.

His GC ambitions are rather transparent. He likes riding in pink, but has no illusions at all about being able to keep it if the flyweights gang up on him on stage 20 to steal it from under his fat TT ass.

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

Don't take conclusions so early, this means nothing.

Stoked for Wellens. Nice celebration sending kisses to the crowd. You go!

Exactly! In the space of less than an hour the forum goes from Astana super strong and Nibali going to smash it to, oh look Nibali is finished. Lol

Yes, there's some indications from today, but it's very early in the race to be drawing too many conclusions already.

I also do not think I can do any conclusion from it, Nibali tried it (I did not expected that I must say) and then he suffered from counter attack, he did not lost too much and I do not think he felt so bad or he was so weak when he sent to push Astana and then tried to attack, only climb was not so hard to do that
hopefully in big mountains will be good
and for me favourites are still Landa and Nibali

 

[Fernandez]

I dont think we´ve seen nothing yet. This was a 150 kms stage with two second categorie mountains. We´ll have to wait to see who´s there and who isn´t.

 

[Akuryo]

Really impressed by Bob Jungels this Giro. He had a good season so far but he could actually win the youth classification this time. Only his teammate Carlos Verona and Formolo are under 3 minutes behind him. And he should be by far the stongest TT-rider of those 3.

 

[May0maniac]

According to Dumoulin Nibali attacked at the wrong moment when the road was flattening out, Dumoulin himself waited for the next steep ramp.
There was also a strong headwind.
Still, Nibali is not at his best right now, but the Giro is still long and Nibali is always capable of doing well in a technical TT, he'll come back.
I kinda expected Firsanov to go with Zakarin and Dumoulin.

 

[52520Andrew]

Nice stage and a nice preview of what is to come. Shaping up to be a fun Giro this year. Still early though so a lot of things can happen with the big stages in the distance. Will be curious to see if Nibali and Landa get in better form towards the end like Nibali did in the Tour last year or if this is a sign of things to come for them.