Giro d'Italia 2021 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1: Torino - Torino 8.6 km ITT

[Norbea]

That's not completely true

Right.....first that he might actually finish

 

[titan31]

Great day for Italians. The two fastest, 3 in top10, 7 in top 20... Almost feels like the Giro of the early 00s. With the difference that today the international competition is way stronger than at that time.

Speaking of Italians, I completely missed that Pozzovivo out tted nearly all the main GC guys. Came in 21st ahead of Bernal, Yates etc. Be nice if he did well in the GC.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Missed all this getting the jab this afternoon.

Top Ganna making a tradition of winning the Giro's opening TT

 

[Pantani_lives]

DQSt will probably try to keep Evenepoel and Almeida both high in the GC. Both are in shape, but both are uncertain for the tough mountain stages in the last nine days.

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

It's the bird he landed on

He absorbed Fuglsang powers

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Evenepoel better than i feared, worse than i hoped. So, probably a "normal" effort considering the circumstances.
Vlasov pretty surprising. But nothing really earth shattering happened for GC. Even Landa only lost half a minute.

 

[Netserk]

Ganna clearly the best TTist since Indurain. But since he stepped up, we haven't seen him in a long ITT and won't for some time (the WCTT is merely 43.3 km), so we can only say that he is a monster on short and medium length courses.

 

[Red Rick]

DQSt will probably try to keep Evenepoel and Almeida both high in the GC. Both are in shape, but both are uncertain for the tough mountain stages in the last nine days.

I'm just not that high on Almeida in the high mountains tbh.

 

[Skalman]

I'm just not that high on Almeida in the high mountains tbh.

He will probably do much better than Evenepoel though

 

[Koronin]

Had hoped Soler would have just a little better TT, but not disastrous. I suspect that happens on some stage in the mountains. Also a nice TT for Matteo Jorgenson to start his first Grand Tour.

 

[Zoef-Lightning]

Evenepoel not bad, but fading the last kilometers. Almeida comparatively better than Evenepoel, considering Evenepoel is normally way better in tt. I think the loss of weight won't really make Evenepoel climb any better after his rehabilitation. Almeida will therefore be the leader.

 

[Red Rick]

Almeida's literally never climbed with the very best in a GT and this isn't exactly a TT heavy route. Evenepoel is the only wildcard they have

 

[Skalman]

Evenepoel didnt exactly look promising and is for sure a wildcard in the mountain even more so now than before his crash, Almeida we at least know somewhat what he can do and will probably be good for a top 5 overall. I dont think Evenepoel will come close to that this year, hope im wrong though

 

[Rollthedice]

Almeida's literally never climbed with the very best in a GT and this isn't exactly a TT heavy route. Evenepoel is the only wildcard they have

Of course. Remco did well today, the team must support him 100%. Forget Almeida, he'll leave anyway and he'll get dropped big time in the last week. If Remco's here and he seems in good shape there's no point in fooling around, he needs to be himself, be aggressive until he is capable of, see where it will take him.

 

[Panda Claws]

Evenepoel looked promising enough for his first raceday and should be expected to improve throughout the race. We can't make any conclusions about the things that are still in doubt (high mountains and recovery) based on a prologue either. All you can really say is that he would probably have been a bit faster if this was Giro 2020 and he hadn't crashed although he still wouldn't have beaten this Ganna imo.
But if this is his 'base level' then that gives me faith that he will perform well throughout the Giro.

Also, I don't think he was really fading that much towards the end as it looks. Plenty of cyclists around his position faded as hard or harder (Van Emden, Walscheid, Dekker, Castroviejo and Bettiol) and several had a more evenly distributed prologue (Almeida, Affini, Foss, Cavagna) while Ganna was just a cut above. Evenepoel was distinctly average in how he distributed his efforts and the more even Time-Trial is not always the better one. Or is Bettiol fading harder a worrying sign for him?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Evenepoel didnt exactly look promising and is for sure a wildcard in the mountain even more so now than before his crash, Almeida we at least know somewhat what he can do and will probably be good for a top 5 overall. I dont think Evenepoel will come close to that this year, hope im wrong though

And you can tell this by a 9k ITT? It was a short flat ITT, which suits guys with more power/punch. It was his first race after 9 months and he's likely still missing some muscle mass which would hamper him in a short effort more than in a long effort. He's at his lowest race-weight ever, which is further in his disadvantage for such a short flat ITT, and should in fact help him in the mountains more, not the opposite.

So, while i'm willing to believe he won't make it through 3 weeks and several mountain stages without one or more bad days, him finishing 7th today and well ahead of every GC contender save Almeida, isn't any indication of that.

Of course. Remco did well today, the team must support him 100%. Forget Almeida, he'll leave anyway and he'll get dropped big time in the last week. If Remco's here and he seems in good shape there's no point in fooling around, he needs to be himself, be aggressive until he is capable of, see where it will take him.

They need to support him to the fullest until he loses too much time. But they should do the same for Almeida. It doesn't make sense for the team to forfeit Almeida's chances, not knowing if Evenepoel can do a good GC.

 

[Skalman]

And you can tell this by a 9k ITT? It was a short flat ITT, which suits guys with more power/punch. It was his first race after 9 months and he's likely still missing some muscle mass which would hamper him in a short effort more than in a long effort. He's at his lowest race-weight ever, which is further in his disadvantage for such a short flat ITT, and should in fact help him in the mountains more, not the opposite.

So, while i'm willing to believe he won't make it through 3 weeks and several mountain stages without one or more bad days, him finishing 7th today and well ahead of every GC contender save Almeida, isn't any indication of that.

They need to support him to the fullest until he loses too much time. But they should do the same for Almeida. It doesn't make sense for the team to forfeit Almeida's chances, not knowing if Evenepoel can do a good GC.

No i cant, but so can nobody else either, my feeling is that what he did today in his favorite discipline was a general indication of his form and that he will be nowhere near a top spot in the Giro and it feels totally unrealistic to me to believe that he will win, even more so after todays performance than it did before. I agree, I think that if they find themselves in the situation of having to choose though, of supporting him or Almeida they should choose Almeida, because his chances i believe are much higher to get at least a decent position overall.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Looking at the results it kinda sucks that we no longer have the 100km TTT with 4 riders.
Imagine Belgium, Italy and Australia fighting it out for the medals.

 

[Lequack]

If only Remco was 2 seconds faster. Now he'll haveto work for Almeida for 3 weeks.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

No i cant, but so can nobody else either, my feeling is that what he did today in his favorite discipline was a general indication of his form and that he will be nowhere near a top spot in the Giro and it feels totally unrealistic to me to believe that he will win, even more so after todays performance than it did before. I agree, I think that if they find themselves in the situation of having to choose though, of supporting him or Almeida they should choose Almeida, because his chances i believe are much higher to get at least a decent position overall.

Yes, i'm sure that if the difference is a few seconds, that they'll chose Almeida who will leave the team in a few months, because in his first race after 9 months, he was only 20s faster than Bernal and Yates, and 30 than Landa. Knowing that intrinsically, he is a better climber than Almeida. Makes perfect sense.

I have to ask, what exactly were you expecting? Or what would you have deemed a reassuring effort that he would have had a shot at GC? A 2 minute lead?

 

[hayneplane]

Super impressive from Ganna and real breakthrough rides from the young JV duo.

GC guys broadly where you would expect them with DQS essentially the Maglia Rosa in waiting after stage 4.

Vlasov arguably the best GC ride compared to general expectations and nice to see that no contender junked it badly to be out of real contention.

 

[jmdirt]

Evenepoel better than i feared, worse than i hoped. So, probably a "normal" effort considering the circumstances.
Vlasov pretty surprising. But nothing really earth shattering happened for GC. Even Landa only lost half a minute.

TvG only lost a half minute too!

 

[Skalman]

Yes, i'm sure that if the difference is a few seconds, that they'll chose Almeida who will leave the team in a few months, because in his first race after 9 months, he was only 20s faster than Bernal and Yates, and 30 than Landa. Knowing that intrinsically, he is a better climber than Almeida. Makes perfect sense.

I have to ask, what exactly were you expecting? Or what would you have deemed a reassuring effort that he would have had a shot at GC? A 2 minute lead?

I would think they would rank higher placement overall in front who will be on the team in a few Months time, its about money after all.
Remco will get plenty of chances in the years to come, if he can come back to previous form.
Almeida is after all their outspoken number one, or was until yesterday anyway.
That's a real good indication that Almeida is on form maybe better than last year, Bernal and Yates had good TT´s but was 20 seconds after him on this short stage? you are not impressed, no?
I don't know how Remco will do in the mountains, few do, few even know before the crash, but we know that Almeida will be ok and that is it a 30 K TT at the end which Almeida will most likely do a whole better than Yates, Bernal and Landa.

 

[BlueRoads]

They don't have to decide on one leader now? They can totally wait at least until the first week is over. I'm all for a one leader approach in general, but not if you have two young guys with high potential and you don't know yet what to expect.

 

[Leinster]

Almeida's literally never climbed with the very best in a GT and this isn't exactly a TT heavy route. Evenepoel is the only wildcard they have

He was with the best most of the way through last year’s Giro, until the Ride of the Rohan. And he’s still only 22. It’s early even in terms of this Giro, let alone his whole career, to say he can’t climb with the best.