2017 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1: Alghero - Olbia 206 km

[Tank Engine]

Re:

I just realized Benedetti is Bora also. They just crushed this first stage and presumably picked up all the jerseys? Well played.

Looks like I underestimated Bora's squad, although that finish was crazy. I'm interested to see how they will go for the rest of the race.

On the other hand, swap Postelberger for Gaviria and I would have got the first 4 spots pretty much spot on

How often does Sbaragli come 6th? (in both intermediate sprints as well). I would say he's like a cheap version of Rojas (2 positions behind), but Rojas was further down today (OK, the team has other priorities)

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Foli also missed the boat, will he ride GC? Not surprising Kruijswijk messed up, not good at that much else than enduro w/kg preferably in the 3rd week, but its probably no big deal. As long as he doesnt lose 10 minutes like he did in 2015..

Always and I repeat, always good to see someone fooling the sprinters. What a win for Lukas, Bora has some pretty nice prospects, intrigued by what they have in store this Giro.

I agree, anything within 2 minutes loss in the 1st week is a good week for kruijswijk. 13 seconds is peanuts.

I fear more for him at the Etna stage. Such a mountain finish early in the Giro never suits him. In 2011 (first good giro outing) he also lost like 2 minutes in the first mt stage

Hmm, good and good, I doubt he can win the Giro 2 minutes down against this field... but 1 minute down after a week and I'd call it a day, especially after his DNS in Yorkshire which might have been really bad or might not have mattered at all (if he trained hard anyway but just didn't want to take risks).

I don't believe Kruijswijk can win the Giro regardless of time loss in the first week, unless Quintana somehow doesn't perform as usual.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Wait, just noticed your Quintana-avatar, have been you been a closet-fan until now or something?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

From the "get a spot in the top 20" group there are a lot of riders that lost time.

Kelderman, Woods 13"
Rolland, Cataldo, Henao, Hirt 18"
Stetina, Dupont, Foliforov, Firsanov 34"
Visconti, Reichembach, Hermans, Carthy, Anton, Geniez, Dombrowski 1'09"

I could see Kelderman wanting to try himself out again.

Very obvious that the Cannondale guys doesn't care about the GC apart from Formolo and thats how it should be honestly. Already expecting attacks tomorrow.

Yes it's frankly a good thing that Woods, Rolland, Dombrowski, Carthy ship time early. The sooner they are completely out of "freak break puts them in GC contention" territory, the more room they will get.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Poestlberger actually has a very good palmares for a guy many fans hadn't heard of before today (or at least before his E3 ride). He didn't get a pro contract by being a hyped kid, groomed for a pro career. He did it by winning small rouleur races around Europe with Tirol cycling team. It's why he's a couple of years older than many second year neopros and also I suspect why making the transition to the pro ranks has been relatively straightforward.

This is his seventh or eighth UCI ranked win. His twitter biography say he "finally got a pro" contract. I'll always have a soft spot for guys who got nothing handed to them at all.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Great win by Lukas Pöstlberger, an entry through the front door. The control of the sprinter teams was disrupted by the crash and by the many bends. He accidentally got alone in front while leading out. The funniest moment was when he looked behind and seemed to think, "Would I bother to try to stay away?" Concluding: "Hell, yeah!" and staying away. What a feeling it must have been to cross the line while slowing down with a sprinting bunch right behind him!

Isn't he the first Austrian to wear pink?

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

I just realized Benedetti is Bora also. They just crushed this first stage and presumably picked up all the jerseys? Well played.

Looks like I underestimated Bora's squad, although that finish was crazy. I'm interested to see how they will go for the rest of the race.

On the other hand, swap Postelberger for Gaviria and I would have got the first 4 spots pretty much spot on

How often does Sbaragli come 6th? (in both intermediate sprints as well). I would say he's like a cheap version of Rojas (2 positions behind), but Rojas was further down today (OK, the team has other priorities)

Yep,they took all of the jerseys with their Austrian riders.
First Austran to wear pink and also the first one to win a stage, Preidler could hae been the first one to win a stage,but he had to start his sprint with 600m to go on the Corvara stage...

 

[Urbi27]

Extraordinary finish. Cycling is a beautiful sport.

I think Ewan will take 2 or 3 stages, we was much better then Greipel and IMO he'll survive longer then German rider. Nice sign of Nizzolo form. I thought he will have a lots of problems after only one pre-race but we looked good.

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

From the "get a spot in the top 20" group there are a lot of riders that lost time.

Kelderman, Woods 13"
Rolland, Cataldo, Henao, Hirt 18"
Stetina, Dupont, Foliforov, Firsanov 34"
Visconti, Reichembach, Hermans, Carthy, Anton, Geniez, Dombrowski 1'09"

I think we might see Foliforov and especially Dombrowski on the attack on Tuesday already! So it ain't no desaster to lose some time today.

LottoNL better gets their act together. Otherwise Kruijswijk races for the mountains jersey as well from Tuesday on..

 

[bbaker22]

Re: Re:

Too bad we can't see the race in North America unless we accept to pay the highway robbery fee Fubo.tv asks from cycling fans.

$17,00 for their basic package + $25,00 to get the cycling channel. I refuse to pay that much. For that price , i get Netflix, Crave and Amazon prime.

So, i will only be able to follow the race on the sites that narrates the race. And i will not use illegal ways to see the race either.

VPN + Eurosport Player is much cheaper and frankly superior to "Fubo" whatever tv.

Eurosport player has commercials, no dvr capability and the setup is illegal in the USA. Just saying. I'm paying $14 to get the Giro on Fubo; great product and legal.

I signed up for the Fubo.tv deal at the cheap rate. Worked fine for me this morning. Yesterday, I could not DVR the first stage, but I see that I can now DVR future stages. Yay!

Edit: Oh yeah, that was one of the stranger finishes I've seen, and I like it.

 

[MotorRouleur]

Re: Re:

Quote: Yes Edmondson could not close the gap, Postlberger even waited because I think he was supposed to lead out one of their sprinters.

No, I think it was Orica's Juul-Jensen who was trying to lead Ewan. It was so weird, then became hilarious. Posty just drifted off the front in slow-mo, often looking back and waiting, and the Orica guy just let the gap grow inch-by-inch over a km. I only see that on low-level amatuer races. What a waste after Orica's Svein Tuft did one of those huge, long-distance pulls on the front.

 

[deValtos]

Just FYI Eurosport player doesn't have commercials for pretty much every WT race since they also provide a no edited stream (without commentary.) You just need to switch to it when the adverts come on, or you can watch it for the entire race overlayed with foreign commentary. Also all the stages are recorded and you can find them in the video section. Not to be an advert for them or anything ... :lol:

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re:

Great win by Lukas Pöstlberger, an entry through the front door. The control of the sprinter teams was disrupted by the crash and by the many bends. He accidentally got alone in front while leading out. The funniest moment was when he looked behind and seemed to think, "Would I bother to try to stay away?" Concluding: "Hell, yeah!" and staying away. What a feeling it must have been to cross the line while slowing down with a sprinting bunch right behind him!

Isn't he the first Austrian to wear pink?

Yes, a very good surprising finish. Was very happy to see this guy (since I had no idea of his name ) sneak away for this victory and leaders jersey.

 

[dirkprovin]

Re: Re:

Quote: Yes Edmondson could not close the gap, Postlberger even waited because I think he was supposed to lead out one of their sprinters.

No, I think it was Orica's Juul-Jensen who was trying to lead Ewan. It was so weird, then became hilarious. Posty just drifted off the front in slow-mo, often looking back and waiting, and the Orica guy just let the gap grow inch-by-inch over a km. I only see that on low-level amatuer races. What a waste after Orica's Svein Tuft did one of those huge, long-distance pulls on the front.

Yup, they made one grand military balls-up of that one ..... old Sveino has every right to say FU to the lot of them. They're going to burn him out by the time they leave Sardinia they way they're going .... and for no pay-off.

Extraordinary finish. Cycling is a beautiful sport.

I think Ewan will take 2 or 3 stages, we was much better then Greipel and IMO he'll survive longer then German rider. Nice sign of Nizzolo form. I thought he will have a lots of problems after only one pre-race but we looked good.

TBH, that sprint told us nothing. Greipel was coming from much further back as his team along with all the other teams with sprint aspirations (bar Bora who got away with an almost accidental win) mucked it up in the most royal fashion and had zero organisation

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Great win by Lukas Pöstlberger, an entry through the front door. The control of the sprinter teams was disrupted by the crash and by the many bends. He accidentally got alone in front while leading out. The funniest moment was when he looked behind and seemed to think, "Would I bother to try to stay away?" Concluding: "Hell, yeah!" and staying away. What a feeling it must have been to cross the line while slowing down with a sprinting bunch right behind him!

Isn't he the first Austrian to wear pink?

Wasn't the crash waaaay too far back to impact the chase?

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

I just realized Benedetti is Bora also. They just crushed this first stage and presumably picked up all the jerseys? Well played.

Looks like I underestimated Bora's squad, although that finish was crazy. I'm interested to see how they will go for the rest of the race.

On the other hand, swap Postelberger for Gaviria and I would have got the first 4 spots pretty much spot on

How often does Sbaragli come 6th? (in both intermediate sprints as well). I would say he's like a cheap version of Rojas (2 positions behind), but Rojas was further down today (OK, the team has other priorities)

Yep,they took all of the jerseys with their Austrian riders.
First Austran to wear pink and also the first one to win a stage, Preidler could hae been the first one to win a stage,but he had to start his sprint with 600m to go on the Corvara stage...

:lol:
I haven't even noticed that

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Great win by Lukas Pöstlberger, an entry through the front door. The control of the sprinter teams was disrupted by the crash and by the many bends. He accidentally got alone in front while leading out. The funniest moment was when he looked behind and seemed to think, "Would I bother to try to stay away?" Concluding: "Hell, yeah!" and staying away. What a feeling it must have been to cross the line while slowing down with a sprinting bunch right behind him!

Isn't he the first Austrian to wear pink?

Not only that, he also is the first Austrian to win a Giro stage and the first Austrian GT stage winner since Totschnig in 2005

 

[tobydawq]

On their website, Bora-Hansgrohe state that it is the first time in the history that the same team leads all five classifications (GC, points, KOM, youth and team). I have no way of knowing if that is true but I certainly don't remember other instances where it might have happened and that is pretty damn cool.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Great win by Lukas Pöstlberger, an entry through the front door. The control of the sprinter teams was disrupted by the crash and by the many bends. He accidentally got alone in front while leading out. The funniest moment was when he looked behind and seemed to think, "Would I bother to try to stay away?" Concluding: "Hell, yeah!" and staying away. What a feeling it must have been to cross the line while slowing down with a sprinting bunch right behind him!

Isn't he the first Austrian to wear pink?

Not only that, he also is the first Austrian to win a Giro stage and the first Austrian GT stage winner since Totschnig in 2005

It could be a very interesting race for the Austrian prospects. Poestlberger pulling this win off is a huge step forward for him - between this and his E3 ride it seems he has quickly established himself. Konrad is I think going for GC, which will provide a good marker for his development. And Muhlberger is also there.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

On their website, Bora-Hansgrohe state that it is the first time in the history that the same team leads all five classifications (GC, points, KOM, youth and team). I have no way of knowing if that is true but I certainly don't remember other instances where it might have happened and that is pretty damn cool.

It's pretty funny. They came with a young team and only Bennett from their second tier leaders. And here they are after one stage with their race already the biggest success of their season so far.

 

[shalgo]

Some amusing quotes from the Bora team in this article: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-stage-1-finish-line-quotes-1/

It seems that the DS had no idea what was going on, Lukas wasn't sure what to do, and it was Bennett who shouted "Go!"

 

[spiritualride]

Re: Re:

Lukas was 5th at E3 ... must have a decent engine!
GC rider Alexander Foliforov (Rus) Gazprom – Rusvelo lost half a minute.
Dan Martin lost a minute... I didn't know he was riding the Giro?!?

Great win by Lukas Pöstlberger, an entry through the front door. The control of the sprinter teams was disrupted by the crash and by the many bends. He accidentally got alone in front while leading out. The funniest moment was when he looked behind and seemed to think, "Would I bother to try to stay away?" Concluding: "Hell, yeah!" and staying away. What a feeling it must have been to cross the line while slowing down with a sprinting bunch right behind him!

Isn't he the first Austrian to wear pink?

Wasn't the crash waaaay too far back to impact the chase?

Riders were held up starting from really close to the front from missing the corner and having to unclip. The peloton was stretched significantly in front of the crash at that corner... so much so that when discovering the crash I assumed it was because of riders having to check-up for the mishap at the front.

 

[seldon71]

Something funny & fitting...

In Bora-HansGrohe -website every rider has a "motto" on his own personal page...

For Pöstlberger it says "Be at the right place at the right time!"

...he sure was today.

 

[Koba80]

One of my favorites! However (unfairly) unknown he is. Great ride, great rider, great result!

 

[Robert5091]

Pöstlberger - chapeau! What were the odds for him winning today? Unbelievable. He'll have something to tell the grandkids