Giro d'Italia 2021 Giro Rosa - 2nd to 11th July

[Libertine Seguros]

Oh, saying she makes Eider Merino look like Kirsten Wild was obvious hyperbole, but the point was to draw attention to that she is a pocket rocket climber in that vein (exacerbated by a somewhat hunched riding style in the TT yesterday), rather than a taller but super-slender one like, say, Pauliena Rooijakkers.

 

[BlueRoads]

Seems like the riders were not informed of the time limit, Grossette is heartbroken bc she took it easy to save herself for the rest of the race, which might be the case for other riders like Sheyla G. Norsgaard was not that far from missing the cut off either, and though her strength in TTs primarily lie on flatter courses, I bet she could have improved her time significantly if she gave her all instead of, presumably, saving herself for today's stage.

What do you mean, not informed? I mean, I did wonder how that happened. But didn't van der Breggen start after them? (Sorry, can't open your link.)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Seems like the riders were not informed of the time limit, Grossette is heartbroken bc she took it easy to save herself for the rest of the race, which might be the case for other riders like Sheyla G. Norsgaard was not that far from missing the cut off either, and though her strength in TTs primarily lie on flatter courses, I bet she could have improved her time significantly if she gave her all instead of, presumably, saving herself for today's stage.

The time limits are listed in the roadbook, so that is definitely the riders's/teams's own fault for not knowing them/not passing the information along to their riders.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I would assume it was unclear what the % cutoff for the time limit would be and therefore riders had operated around an expectation of what it was from previous precedent and been caught out by a less generous limit than they were expecting. That would seem the most reasonable explanation, once all the emotion is taken out of the argument. It wouldn't be the first time the Giro's organisers have changed things on the fly and that is indeed one of the problems that has plagued them in recent years and helped result in the downgrade and opening the door to ASO (though I still believe ASO have picked now to come in because they're only interested in playing if they can "win" so needed an opportunity while the Giro was weak to negate the deficit they have in history and tradition vis-à-vis the corsa rosa).

I'm not expecting this is something like the 1987 Peace Race, and the presented route being "the stage will be a time trial finishing at the Harrachov ski jumping venue", then when the riders arrived in Harrachov the night before the stage, the route being "the stage will be a time trial finishing at the top of the Harrachov ski jump" "wait, what?"

 

[Samu Cuenca]

They obviously couldn't know how fast the winning time would end up being, but with that in mind they just had to give it their best to minimise the risk of being outside the limit. The time limits are there to prevent riders from taking it too easy. But with all the other weird things surrounding the race, then it is entirely possible that mixed signals were send out, but at leat the roadbook is quite clear about it.

I don't know if 30% was the right limit yesterday, but more than 91% of the riders did make it, and those who were outside it were further away from making it, than those who just held on for another day were to losing out.

 

[Dk one]

What do you mean, not informed? I mean, I did wonder how that happened. But didn't van der Breggen start after them? (Sorry, can't open your link.)

Informed come from the Danish translation of the French article - it might be more nuanced in French, i.e. they did not expect it or something.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

At least Jumbo-Visma has the roadbook, though they apparently just want get rid of it

https://twitter.com/x/status/1412374127319687172

View: https://twitter.com/JumboVismaWomen/status/1412374127319687172



Six riders have a gap of two minutes with less than 50 km. to go, which means they are now on the penultimate lap in Carugate.
They are birthday girl Giorgia Vettorello from Fassa Bortolo, Silvia Zanardi and Matilde Vitillo from Bepink, Noemi Eremita from Realini's team, Federica Piergiovanni from Valcar and the most interesting one, Maria Novolodskaya from AR Monex.

Krista Doebel-Hickok has crashed and abandoned the race.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Wiebes win incoming, though Trek is giving it a go.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Norsgaard won the battle for Wiebes's wheel, but she was only able to stay in her slipstream.

 

[Northerner]

Informed come from the Danish translation of the French article - it might be more nuanced in French, i.e. they did not expect it or something.

Translating to English gives something along the lines of she had no idea of the time needed. (Unclear if she knew there would be a cut off but not what it would be or was unaware of it's existence entirely)

It seems in recent years the limit has been more generous if there was one at all - in 2019 all riders survived the ITT finishing up to 43% outside the winning time, 48% in 2018, 42% in 2017. Maybe a DS or someone just assumed the rules were the same.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Flat stage around the circumference of Lake Como today. Elisa Longo Borghini has gone out on the attack, and because even if she's several minutes down she's still a big enough name that nobody wants to let her back into the mix, SD Worx have decided to monitor her with Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, placed 2nd on GC. The pair have 25-30 seconds at the moment.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

They have 1:55 with 45 km. left. They might finish before the live coverage even starts!
1:30 is the latest gap.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Norsgaard won the sprint in front of Vos and Rivera in that order, I think.
Rivera did hold on to second.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Vos has now gained the lead in the points classification, though she has already been wearing the maglia ciclamino the last few days.
She probably has to beat Norsgaard tomorrow if she wants to wear it on the final podium though.

Wiebes said in her winner's interview yesterday that today suited Rivera more, but the stage might have turned out to be easier than expected, cause Wiebes was actually doing the leadout, and because of that she has most likely lost every chance of winning the jersey herself.

Current standing
Vos 35 points
Norsgaard 31 points
Van der Breggen 30 points

 

[RedheadDane]

And just to confuse matters, the result sheet uses two different names for Norsgaard.
Wonder if she told them that she mostly goes by Norsgaard, so using Jørgensen would be a bit weird.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And just to confuse matters, the result sheet uses two different names for Norsgaard.
Wonder if she told them that she mostly goes by Norsgaard, so using Jørgensen would be a bit weird.

I didn't even notice that they had changed it since yesterday.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Ok, so Canyon not allowing Brand to go up the road was apparently just wishful thinking on my part.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Longo Borghini attacked on the final climb, but she just ended up doing the perfect leadout for Vos who could take her 30th Giro stage. Van der Breggen won the sprint for third.

 

[BlueRoads]

Longo Borghini attacked on the final climb, but she just ended up doing the perfect leadout for Vos who could take her 30th Giro stage. Van der Breggen won the sprint for third.

And Grace Brown?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And Grace Brown?

She did attack, but it wasn't at the right moments, unfortunately.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The top 10 have been given the same time, but there was definitely a gap behind Sarah Roy, who finished 13th or something like that, so there will perhaps be changes in the GC. Some riders weren't in the front group initially, like Muzic for instance, but they did make it back before the sprint.

 

[BlueRoads]

No Grace Brown win, but another win for team Vos.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Fisher-Black attacked multiple times and ended up losing her 9th place to Guderzo, but I don't know if she lost any time to Muzic and Realini.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Niamh lost 5" to Realini and Muzic, they came in at 19" and Niamh at 24". Chabbey also lost 11" from the rest of those (NFB excepted) in the top 10. Plenty of major climbers losing some time at the end as well, Cecilie +36, Koppenburg +40, Merino +41, Santestebán +51, Lippert +1'01. Harvey +5'23, hopefully she's just sitting back to save some efforts to stagehunt on Matajûr from a break or something because otherwise her form here has been painful considering she was looking pretty strong back in the Spanish mini-season and was consistently prominent in La Course as well.

 

[Dk one]

Niamh lost 5" to Realini and Muzic, they came in at 19" and Niamh at 24". Chabbey also lost 11" from the rest of those (NFB excepted) in the top 10. Plenty of major climbers losing some time at the end as well, Cecilie +36, Koppenburg +40, Merino +41, Santestebán +51, Lippert +1'01. Harvey +5'23, hopefully she's just sitting back to save some efforts to stagehunt on Matajûr from a break or something because otherwise her form here has been painful considering she was looking pretty strong back in the Spanish mini-season and was consistently prominent in La Course as well.

I think we can conclude that Cille is not over the crash yet, as this is a finish where she would normally place in the top 5, and her form should otherwise be good going by la course.