Giro d'Italia 2022 Giro d'Italia, Stage 4: Avola – Etna 170 km (Tuesday, May 10th)

[Breezy1985]

I wish we had the option to choose which group/camera to follow. It's always 95% breakaway and 5% peloton regardless of what's happening

2 problems.

1. it would upset the sponsors and riders of small teams and upset the whole breakaway concept.
2. Soccer tried this and it turns out regular people are terrible TV producers. People complained about bad matches in the way they go to a top restaurant pour loads of salt on the meat and then tell Tripadvisor the meat was too salty.

 

[tobydawq]

2 problems.

1. it would upset the sponsors and riders of small teams and upset the whole breakaway concept.
2. Soccer tried this and it turns out regular people are terrible TV producers. People complained about bad matches in the way they go to a top restaurant pour loads of salt on the meat and then tell Tripadvisor the meat was too salty.

What? Where? And how?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Demare was in monster form that Giro though.

Démare was hardly the only sprinter who made it, though. The incredibly weak field makes the names unimpressive, but the likes of Cimolai and Ballerini made it too and Viviani was able to latch back on after the descent. The only bigger names missing were Gaviria and Hodeg, who were both in abysmal form.

 

[Cagalitroso]

What? Where? And how?

DirectTV had this for world cups at the very least. Cool in theory, not so useful in practice. I just want to watch the game, not cosplay as TV producer.

 

[Roku]

Positive suprises:

• A very good Bora with Kelderman, Buchmann, Hindley and Kamna
• A very good Bahrain with Landismo (he will finish top-2 yes), Bilbao and Buitrago
• A more than decent Bike-Exchange with Hamilton looking very strong in support for Yates
• A more than decent DSM with a very good Arensman in support for Bardet
• Ciccone and Almeida going pretty good early one, while one might hope they peak in week 3
• Valverde and Sosa giving Movistar some options of a decent GC

Expected events:

• Dumoulin dropping very bad on a climb once more as has been the case everywhere recently
• Nibali dropping to not really play a role in GC
• Gui Martin dropping, because he is just a **** rider who will probably get close to a GC top-10 again anyhow (Sorry, one of the few riders I truly dislike)
• UAE looking very weak in support for Almeida for now

Unpleasant suprises:

• Skjelmose dropping quite easily, I had hoped a bit more, but he will have chances to redeem himself, and at least it puts Ciccone into a single leadership role if he maintains this form once Lopez loses pink
• Poels being in poor form in support of Landa and Bilbao
• Foss and Oomen also dropping making sure that Jumbo is effectively out of the race already so early on

All in all the signs are there for a great final week and for some nice additional stages in the 1,5 week to come. Ineos looks strong, but the good thing is that Bahrain (Why Tratnik, why!?), Bora, Bike-Exchange, DSM also seem to have multiple options, which might make this a nice tactical race on occasions as well.

Nice takeaways. A few observations:

- Sosa will fade as soon as they hit multi-mountain stages.

- Why the hate on Martin? He is a decent climber who loves to go on the offensive. No shame in gaining time and places on breaks, especially when his gains are not extremely blatant.

- I think Skjelmose is better suited to mid mountain stages or stage hunting in breaks at the moment. His climbing level does not allow him to achieve more than a Top15 in a GT.

- Foss always starts slow on a GT. Let's see if he manages to bounce back.

Additions by my own:

- A shame Taaramae didn't manage to pull off the same trick as he did last Vuelta.

- This is probably Jan Hirt's best performance ever on a first mountain stage in a GT. The guy is going to crush the field on the last week, be wise to pick him as a winner on the Aprica stage.

 

[carton]

From the shark thread:

Lopez si ritira e Nibali cede. Il Giro dell'Astana va a rotoli. Come si rimedia?

L'Etna demolisce in poche ore le ambizioni dell'Astana. Il ritiro di Lopez lascia la squadra senza leader. Delusione al pullman. Ora si va a caccia di tappe

bici-pro.translate.goog

It's a very minor nitpick, but why have Tejada and Dombrowski drop back to pace Nibali if Nibali is going for stages anyway? Joe was 12th in Milan couple of years ago, Tejada has never done GC, seem like a worthwhile dice roll, but WDIK.

 

[Cookster15]

Didn't watch but glad to see Almeida finish in the GC group. Hope he stays strong and surprises.
Valverde also hidden away in that group - lets see.
Nice ride from Richie Porte in support of Carapaz, seems strong so far for his final season. Also I see a few Aussies high up, not like the old days when we only had sprinters to cheer for.
Nibali hype didn't last long? Maybe he intends to win an epic stage?

 

[Extinction]

From the shark thread:

Lopez si ritira e Nibali cede. Il Giro dell'Astana va a rotoli. Come si rimedia?

L'Etna demolisce in poche ore le ambizioni dell'Astana. Il ritiro di Lopez lascia la squadra senza leader. Delusione al pullman. Ora si va a caccia di tappe

bici-pro.translate.goog

It's a very minor nitpick, but why have Tejada and Dombrowski drop back to pace Nibali if Nibali is going for stages anyway? Joe was 12th in Milan couple of years ago, Tejada has never done GC, seem like a worthwhile dice roll, but WDIK.

Because in the team hierarchy Nibali has precedence at the Giro.

 

[titan31]

Alpecin should have taken Jay Vine to the Giro , instead of Mareszko - Their squad has limited climbers, and Vine could have prominently featured in breakaways.

I'd say they should have taken Philipsen or Merlier and only bring one of them to the Tour. They likely get a stage win out of them here and still can get more in the Tour then.

 

[tobydawq]

I'd say they should have taken Philipsen or Merlier and only bring one of them to the Tour. They likely get a stage win out of them here and still can get more in the Tour then.

Merlier was the plan but he got injured in Roubaix and had to forgo the Giro.

 

[Lequack]

Jumbo Visma needs to go for stage wins now I think.

 

[Extinction]

This was a lame stage, in how it was ridden, that all too frequently does disservice to the Giro. At the Tour equivilant on Mont Ventoux they would have gone balistic.

 

[Lequack]

I told you folks. Etna stage always disappoints. Now if they would include a gravel section that goes further up, then it would be a worthy climb.

 

[tobydawq]

This was a lame stage, in how it was ridden, that all too frequently does disservice to the Giro. At the Tour equivilant on Mont Ventoux they would have gone balistic.

Apples and oranges.

 

[Red Rick]

Apples and oranges.

I think the guy doesn't remember the group ride on the Tourmalet in 2019

 

[Fantastico]

Positive suprises:

• A very good Bora with Kelderman, Buchmann, Hindley and Kamna
• A very good Bahrain with Landismo (he will finish top-2 yes), Bilbao and Buitrago
• A more than decent Bike-Exchange with Hamilton looking very strong in support for Yates
• A more than decent DSM with a very good Arensman in support for Bardet
• Ciccone and Almeida going pretty good early one, while one might hope they peak in week 3
• Valverde and Sosa giving Movistar some options of a decent GC

Expected events:

• Dumoulin dropping very bad on a climb once more as has been the case everywhere recently
• Nibali dropping to not really play a role in GC
• Gui Martin dropping, because he is just a **** rider who will probably get close to a GC top-10 again anyhow (Sorry, one of the few riders I truly dislike)
• UAE looking very weak in support for Almeida for now

Unpleasant suprises:

• Skjelmose dropping quite easily, I had hoped a bit more, but he will have chances to redeem himself, and at least it puts Ciccone into a single leadership role if he maintains this form once Lopez loses pink
• Poels being in poor form in support of Landa and Bilbao
• Foss and Oomen also dropping making sure that Jumbo is effectively out of the race already so early on

Good write-up.

To Poels: I'm not sure if we can already draw that conclusion. Even at Sky he had days where he just saved his energy and got dropped early, and then a few days later he was one of the best climbers in the race.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

- Foss always starts slow on a GT. Let's see if he manages to bounce back.

I think his form is affected by the crash in Coppi e Bartali. Coming into the Giro with only 6-7 race days isn't good at all.
Last year he started slow and lost 1 1/2 minute on stage 4, but that was partly because he was working for Bennett. At stage 6 he started riding for himself and lost less than 30seconds to Bernal. After that he was solid, but not spectacular. I expect him to be better later in the Giro, but it will be very hard to get another top 10 with a start like this.

 

[Pippo_San]

I don't get the disappointment with Etna.
They just tested them form a little.
You can't expect lots of GC action so soon with so many climbs to come and with such small gaps.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulations to Lennard Kämna for conquering Etna.

As for the stage and GC ambitions. Doumolin, López and Nibali are out. At best around five cyclist still being in such equation. Carapaz was likely hoping for one of the main competitors to attack on Etna. That didn't happen.

 

[Andre]

Mauri Vansevenant for the volcano stage

HEY I came pretty close

 

[Extinction]

Apples and oranges.

True in the sense that as the first mountain top finish, the favorites had all the more reason to race for the win, but didn't. Lame.

 

[Extinction]

I think the guy doesn't remember the group ride on the Tourmalet in 2019

Pinot first, Ala second. Are you joking? That was one hell of a finish.

 

[Tour de Berghem]

The way every year Jumbo visma approach the Giro is really shameful.
All the historical teams (Quick Step, Movistar, Lotto etc.) have an history of 25/30 stage wins in the Giro.
Jumbo Visma only 9 !! (but they have 1 GC win)
In the last year the bring literally ALL the best riders at Le Tour.

What can be the reason ???
I think in the netherlands there is interest for the Giro (the starting in Amsterdam 2010 and the enthusiasm for Tom win in 2017 were incredible)

Some Dutch here have an explanation ?

 

[Filippo_3467]

The way every year Jumbo visma approach the Giro is really shameful.
All the historical teams (Quick Step, Movistar, Lotto etc.) have an history of 25/30 stage wins in the Giro.
Jumbo Visma only 9 !! (but they have 1 GC win)
In the last year the bring literally ALL the best riders at Le Tour.

What can be the reason ???
I think in the netherlands there is interest for the Giro (the starting in Amsterdam 2010 and the enthusiasm for Tom win in 2017 were incredible)

Some Dutch here have an explanation ?

Pretty easy answer even for a non-dutch. The team leaders clearly stated that their main goal is to win th tour. They haven't achieved that goal yet so it still remains the main focus. With Roglic loosing ground to Pogacar (and of course bad luck) they also invest in Vingegaard as a co-leader. So no real GC leader remains for the Giro. But Foss is a good rider who could have been a guy for the Top 5-6 here. I wonder what went wrong in the preparation for him.

 

[Tour de Berghem]

Pretty easy answer even for a non-dutch. The team leaders clearly stated that their main goal is to win th tour. They haven't achieved that goal yet so it still remains the main focus. With Roglic loosing ground to Pogacar (and of course bad luck) they also invest in Vingegaard as a co-leader. So no real GC leader remains for the Giro. But Foss is a good rider who could have been a guy for the Top 5-6 here. I wonder what went wrong in the preparation for him.

Ok but as Van der Poel is here in the same way Mike Teunissen or Wout Van Aert (maybe only for the first 7-10 days when there are many stage thay could have won and then retire to prepare the Tour) could have been here.
Sepp Kuss could have been a good leader, maybe best than Foss.

They prefer to bring in italy not their second line, but their third line.