2018 Giro d'Italia stage 11: Assisi – Osimo 156 km

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Like I said, I'm not to sure about Yates mountain superiority if he goes from further out. He's Puritoing this Giro.

Take today, he had 4/5 seconds at 1km but finished 2s ahead. Give it a KM longer....

True but it's one thing if Yates isn't able to gain time by attacking early and another one if someone has to actually drop him. And so far nobody has looked to be anywhere close to dropping him. A part of me also still believes he'll crack at some point but that part is getting smaller.
Anyway, what I wrote in my previous post isn't what I expect to happen but what I fear.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

We'll see. Zoncolan will be crucial but after today Dumoulin got my hopes up.

As for the rest I'm pretty negative. Froome is nowhere. Aru doesn't have it. Pinot and Pozzovivo are there and thereabouts but not even close to having any kind of pressure on Yates and they don't have a TT to back it up.

Dumoulin is the only hope of a battle right now. If he falters on Zoncolan, Yates has won.

 

[Climbing]

We'll know a lot more Saturday, I think that Pozzovivo, Pinot and Yates are probably are a lot closer than it looks.

Dumo looked quite good till now, pretty much excellent form like last year.
Clearly this Giro is a lot more favorable to climbers, so it won't be easy to limit the losses.

 

[ontheroad]

It's an interesting contrast of styles and it is good for the race that Dumoulin appears to have a genuine rival for pink. Yates is showing form that he never displayed before on a consistent basis. Can he sustain it for 3 weeks over some of the longer mountain passes that lie ahead. It is certainly far more interesting than watching a Sky train bore us to tears every single July. Pinot is not completely out of it yet either but he needs Dumoulin in particular to have a bad day and lose a lot of time.

 

[EroicaStradeBianche]

If you ask me , after today I think that Dumoulin has this almost in the bag. Yates won't be able to gain more than 5s on climbs but the minutes will fly in the TT

 

[EroicaStradeBianche]

Pozzovivo, Pinot and the others will ride for the podium, they're not going to do a Contador-mad-attack somewhere

 

[The Chicken]

Dumoulin is going to win this Giro and everyone but the Dutch are going to be disappointed He is boring to watch and even boring to listen to. Next year the Giro organisers will have ZERO TT KM in their race in the hope of dissuading Dumoulin from returning and yet again boring the viewers half to death.

 

[Põhja Konn]

The comparison with Menchov-Di Luca duel from 2009 that was brought up earlier in the thread was quite good, but I wouldn't be suprised at all if we see the reenactment of Basso vs Evans on the Zoncolan. With Dumoulin in the role of Basso and Yates as Evans.

Whichever way things end up to be, current situation is thouroughly intriguing and captivating.

 

[Stella0596]

Re:

Dumoulin is going to win this Giro and everyone but the Dutch are going to be disappointed He is boring to watch and even boring to listen to. Next year the Giro organisers will have ZERO TT KM in their race in the hope of dissuading Dumoulin from returning and yet again boring the viewers half to death.

I think the only one who's whining at the moment is you.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Dumoulin is going to win this Giro and everyone but the Dutch are going to be disappointed He is boring to watch and even boring to listen to. Next year the Giro organisers will have ZERO TT KM in their race in the hope of dissuading Dumoulin from returning and yet again boring the viewers half to death.

Maybe you should watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJaf5wchX-s&t=

Or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDlsMPduHsM&t=

 

[The Chicken]

If he rides like that in the coming days I take it all back. I know my opinion of him matters to him, heh.

 

[hrotha]

Re:

Dumoulin doesn't even need to attack. It's a complex ecosystem and he's there to make sure the actual climbers have to do something to win instead of being gifted the race.

All we know so far is that Yates is the best Purito. All time gains/wins have been 2km punches. 2km punch from a 20 man group on Etna. less than 200m punch from a 10 man group on Sasso Tetto.
2km punch on a tiny hill today.

We've not have any indication how he, or Dumoulin, or Pinot, or Pozzo, do for that matter on a multi mountain stage where the field HAS to split apart sooner. So until then, I'd say it's still anyone's game. Yates is the best puncheur, that's what we know, so don't wait until the final 2km. Thats's clear.

However, I remember Yates being super strong in Paris Nice, yet cracking when put under pressure early in the final stage. He lost in the end to Soler but could've lost even podium if he hadn't returned in with the help of the Izagirre guys falling and dropping to his group.
There's still a lot of this Giro to go. Even if Yates is good on Zoncolan I wouldn't call it a day. because of that reason. I remember the cracking Yates, and that guy is just a human.

This is pretty much my take on this too.

 

[Gigs_98]

Yeah too bad boring riders like Dumoulin exist. If he wasn't there this giro would be a nail biter right now.

 

[Scarponi]

Re:

Froome is a long way from being my favourite rider but I am impressed that he seems determined to continue. He looks skinnier than at the start.

Tbh 80% GC riders
Complete the GT they suck in unless it's a terrible
Injury

 

[Jspear]

Just watched the final 10 k. I found the last 5 quite entertaining. I wished I had watched it live. You really couldn’t tell if Yates was gonna make it till the very end. Kudos.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

It's important that MS are patient on Zoncolan and ride a steady tempo - It's a tough climb and riders eventually fall off the peleton - Put pressure on too early and you may blow up - My view is if Yates keeps the same form he has a podium wrapped up, drops a little and its top 5, falls off a cliff and its top 10.

It depends on what he wants. Does he want to try and actually win the race or is he satisfied with a podium. Given his strength I would suggest he has to go for the win and put Dumoulin under pressure before the TT. To do this he needs to take at least another 1:00-1:30. If MS ride tempo they will simply be playing into Dumoulin's hands. Dumoulin will just ride to limit losses knowing he will have enough in hand to take pink in the TT.

You are underestimating the difficulty of Zoncolan - There will be riders in the top 10 who will ship 2+ minutes.

 

[yaco]

Dumoulin is such a boring rider he can win the Eneco Tour which is your combination of cobbles and Ardennes racing - Doubt any of the other GC riders could win the Eneco Tour.

 

[Scarponi]

Re:

What do you guys think about this triple or tomorrow? Not really locks or anything but the odds are pretty good so why not try for few cents

Bennett over Pozzovivo - 2.8
Carapaz over Dumo - 2.4
Yates over Pinot - 1.45

@9.74

Formolo ftw tomorrow! He has nothing to lose and I could see him trying a solo attack on Costa del Borgo. Bilbao will also be interesting to me. If it were any other GT I would expect a sprint out of 20-30 men group with Ulissi/Wellens/Battaglin/Conti/Yates emerging victorious, but this is Giro, this is going to be chaotic AF especially after what we saw today

Thought it was a good bet, but only one got up

 

[The Chicken]

Re:

Dumoulin is such a boring rider he can win the Eneco Tour which is your combination of cobbles and Ardennes racing - Doubt any of the other GC riders could win the Eneco Tour.

Eneco as an example? LOL are u srs? Nobody cares about that race. He would've been gifted everything in his home race anyway (partly coz it's so insignificant).

 

[Escarabajo]

So this thing is truly between 3 riders.

@DT, we know that Simon Yates is a punchy rider, but in this Giro he has been everything. He is clearly 1 or 2 notches up. So it would be no good to make any comparisons historically.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Dumoulin is such a boring rider he can win the Eneco Tour which is your combination of cobbles and Ardennes racing - Doubt any of the other GC riders could win the Eneco Tour.

Eneco as an example? LOL are u srs? Nobody cares about that race. He would've been gifted everything in his home race anyway (partly coz it's so insignificant).

This is just not true. It's an awesome race and even on the World Tour (which matters to some).

 

[The Chicken]

Compared to the Giro it's borderline meaningless.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Compared to the Giro it's borderline meaningless.

Before this giro Dumoulin started a gt going for the gc exactly once and back then he was basically leading from the beginning of the 2nd week onwards, so ofc he didn't attack. So where the f*ck are we supposed to take examples from to convince you?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Compared to the Giro it's borderline meaningless.

Before this giro Dumoulin started a gt going for the gc exactly once and back then he was basically leading from the beginning of the 2nd week onwards, so ofc he didn't attack. So where the f*ck are we supposed to take examples from to convince you?

If he wants I can pull them out of my butt, but they're gonna be sh*t examples though.

 

[craigmalone]

Yeah too bad boring riders like Dumoulin exist. If he wasn't there this giro would be a nail biter right now.

Not really, would they be attacking if they didn't need to gain so much time on Dumoulin ahead of the ITT, or just waiting until Zoncolan to decide it.