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

[Libertine Seguros]

Naked eye timings:

1 Anna VDB
2 Moolman-Pasio +1'22
3 Vollering +1'51/2
4 Cavalli +st
5 Magnaldi +2'30
6 Realini +2'36
7 Mavi García +3'00
8 Spratt +3'05
9 Guderzo +3'27
10 Labous +st
11 Deignan +st
12 Merino +st
13 Koppenburg +around 3'55?
14 Fisher-Black +4'08
15 Muzic +4'09
16 Rooijakkers +4'33

Cille and Aalerud at just inside 6 minutes.

Gaia Realini is 20 years old, she's on a very small team which will hurt her for the maglia bianca, but top 10 in the GP Chambéry and that's the only real race we can use as a guide to what she can do on bigger climbs as she has hardly done any UCI racing in hilly races.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lippert in a group around 7:30 back with Hanna Nilsson. Maglia rosa along with Mikayla Harvey (!!!) at 9 minutes.

It looks like Deignan might have to become Trek's GC hand, she's never really tried in the Giro from that perspective and that 15th after a stint in the maglia rosa all the way back in 2009 is still her best performance; normally this is the one time a year that she subordinates her own aims for teammates, but it looks like that might be the team's only choice this year. And with SD Worx laying such a smack down on everybody else, it's a real shame that Trek aren't able to really provide too much of a threat in the climbs this year as it seems like SD Worx ought to be able to control this from here.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Pretty big gaps.
I made a last hour decision to replace Harvey with Aalerud in the prediction game, so at least that seems to have been a better choice, although still not the best option.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

My biggest problem on that front was thinking that ELB had got over her one-bad-day-in-the-mountains syndrome that always waylaid her GC bids until about 2017. Also Cille will have to go some to win me some points for her GPM exploits now. I nearly said Anna would win the GPM too and now I'm regretting not doing that.

Also the big gaps are probably helped by this being a complete cold open, with no Bira, Trentino nor Ardêche as form guides for the climbers. Not all of them have run consistently or at that time of year but there's usually been a couple of significant hilly/mountainous races in the last couple of months to work from, realistically the last chance we had as a guide was Burgos. Plus of course, no van Vleuten and no Niewiadoma removes two of the top climbers in the bunch to judge against, and Cille crashing yesterday could have affected today for her - don't think she'd have been up there Anna, but could have been interesting if it was 2 FDJ chasers and 2 SD Worx riders in the inseguitrici group.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And I'm definitely regretting replacing her as my QOM pick, cause right now it looks like it would have been my best chance to gain a point on the competition.

 

[yaco]

Stage three, seven, nine and ten should be a breakaway and possibly one of the sprint stages - This will be the excitement in the race.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

They've given Vollering a couple of seconds' gap on Cavalli.

GC:
1 Anna VDB
2 Moolman-Pasio +1'26
3 Vollering +1'57
4 Deignan +3'31
5 Mavi García +3'42
6 Magnaldi +3'50
7 Guderzo +4'08
8 Fisher-Black +4'18
9 Spratt +4'38
10 Labous +4'54

 

[Pantani_lives]

That looked like an impressive solo by AvdBr. It's such a shame this isn't on television. The Belgian classics get proper attention nowadays, but the Giro is the biggest stage race and it's still hard to find moving images of it.

 

[OldCranky]

That looked like an impressive solo by AvdBr. It's such a shame this isn't on television. The Belgian classics get proper attention nowadays, but the Giro is the biggest stage race and it's still hard to find moving images of it.

Agreed - I was looking forward to it then they drop the '15km of coverage' joke, which is basically an ad break during the Tour.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That looked like an impressive solo by AvdBr. It's such a shame this isn't on television. The Belgian classics get proper attention nowadays, but the Giro is the biggest stage race and it's still hard to find moving images of it.

The biggest problem is that the classics are organised directly by Flanders Classics, and the close relationship between Lappartient and ASO has managed to persuade them to finally start doing their bit (I still think the Saudis paying for the Dakar Rally is more important to this as that had been making big losses, making ASO conservative about adding new expenses to their cycling portfolio rather than just focusing on profiting off the Tour), whereas the Giro's organisers are a privateer group with certain trademarks under licence from RCS, so they don't have the same pull or influence outside of the world of cycling that RCS themselves would have.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Today looks like a very Vossy day. Quite a few punchy climbs that Jumbo will want to use to try to thin the group out, somebody like Norsgaard will have to work to get over these but the flatter run-in will suit her if she can. Others that could be contenders are the types like Arlenis Sierra I would say.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Arlenis Sierra has unfortunately crashed out of the race, while Vos in a break with Chabbey, Brand and Lippert. They have either 1:24 or 2:15 with a little over 30 km left.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

More than 15km

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And now they have 3:44, so they are going to decide the win between them.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Chabbey best GC placed here I think. Vos would be best for me for the prediction game, Lippert would make me happiest.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Chabbey is virtually in second place now, but they are probably going to lose some of it in the finale.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Not much time being lost, mind! I suppose however that having dominated yesterday, SD Worx feel they can restate their superiority with the Cascata del Toce ITT.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Too easy for Vos. Brand should have attacked before the finish instead. I understand if Chabbey wanted to just take time for the GC, but brand had nothing to gain.

I don't know why the heck Canyon are riding the sprint now.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, this makes literally zero sense for them to be on the front, seeing as all they're doing is negating the gains that Chabbey has made by being in the group, and she was always going to come 4th from the sprint in that group.

 

[jmdirt]

Congrats MV!

 

[Northerner]

For some reason they've put up the new GC but not the stage result. Chabbey is up to 4th, 2:36 behind AvdB. Looks like Spratt and Labous gained 5s on the rest of the top 10.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

For some reason they've put up the new GC but not the stage result. Chabbey is up to 4th, 2:36 behind AvdB. Looks like Spratt and Labous gained 5s on the rest of the top 10.

Time bonuses from metas volantes picked up in an earlier move I believe.

 

[yaco]

We needed Grace Brown in that breakaway as she would have attacked Voss multiple times in the final - Very passive riding by the four in the breakaway.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

For some reason they've put up the new GC but not the stage result. Chabbey is up to 4th, 2:36 behind AvdB. Looks like Spratt and Labous gained 5s on the rest of the top 10.

There was a 5 second split in the finale where Spratt, Labous, Muzic and Moolman-Pasio all made the first group. Gaia Realini, who finished sixth yesterday, lost an additional 15 seconds.

 

[SafeBet]

Vos has now won stages in 10 different editions of the Giro Rosa.
First and last (for now) wins are 14 years apart (2007 - 2021).