Giro d'Italia 2022 Giro d'Italia, Stage 7: Diamante – Potenza 196 km (Friday, May 13th)

[Netserk]

The stage is hard as hell to control. You have to climb up Mount Sirino, Viggiano and two more climbs. They need to burn the entire team to have a slim shot of staying two more days in pink. Even if they control the race, they have no real guaranteees Juanpe is going to keep the maglia. If the stage goes crazy hard, he is probably losing the jersey altogether.

On the other hand, you can send Bauke and/or Sklejmose in the break chasing the stage win and even try to trade one pink for another if the gap goes too big. There will be likely a better placed rider in GC than Bauke in the break, but guys like Martin, Foss... won't be given too much leeway from GC contenders anyways.

So I say send Bauke to the break and don't try too hard to protect the pink jersey.

Mollema or Skjeldmose in the break likely means that pink is defended. There's so few riders to keep an eye on that it should be easy enough for them to control the composition of the break. If Sivakov or Buitrago joins the break, it's not unlikely that other teams would help pulling them back.

My picks for the stage win: Narvaez, Pedrero, Cepeda, Valter, Gall.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I guess this is the stage where Sosa looses a bunch of time...

 

[Netserk]

Of course, even if Landa stays upright, that will just mean that Bilbao will gain time today and be declared team leader. Such is Landismo.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Happy birthday BigCoward! Go get yourself a beer.

 

[Tour de Berghem]

In my opinion this is a stage like Guardia Sanframondi one year ago (Lafay win).

Break of stage hunters and no contest for GC guys.

Furthermore, yesterday Lopez say to RAI TV that the important for Trek is to stay near Ciccone (bad decision IMHO), so I don't think they will give everything to keep race closed
and defend the jersey.

Names for today: Sosa, Moniquet, Valter

 

[Laplaz]

Mauro Schmid will win this bike race

 

[AlfaLum]

In my opinion this is a stage like Guardia Sanframondi one year ago (Lafay win).

Break of stage hunters and no contest for GC guys.

Furthermore, yesterday Lopez say to RAI TV that the important for Trek is to stay near Ciccone (bad decision IMHO), so I don't think they will give everything to keep race closed
and defend the jersey.

Names for today: Sosa, Moniquet, Valter

What is a bad decision about riding for Ciccone?

 

[BigCoward]

Happy birthday BigCoward! Go get yourself a beer.

It's 0915 but sure, why not?

 

[Tour de Berghem]

What is a bad decision about riding for Ciccone?

I don't see ciccone as affordable for GC.

In 9 grand tours he raced his best position is 16th at Giro 2019.
Last three GT DNF.

I think it's better that he is out from the classification so that can be free to go in the breaks and maybe win a mountain stage (and maybe the blue jersey)

In general, it's better that TREK focus its Giro on breaks.

 

[AlfaLum]

I don't see ciccone as affordable for GC.

In 9 grand tours he raced his best position is 16th at Giro 2019.
Last three GT DNF.

I think it's better that he is out from the classification so that can be free to go in the breaks and maybe win a mountain stage (and maybe the blue jersey)

In general, it's better that TREK focus its Giro on breaks.

Well in both of the last GTs where he DNFed he was looking on track for the top-10 at the time he crashed right? Especially his giro last year was a top performance.

All the GTs before that one he never aimed for the GC. So I think it is fair for Ciccone and Trek to see how far he can reach in this Giro and the 2023 edition. If it doesn’t work out he can always go back to aiming for stages (which he can still do this year if for example Blockhaus proves to be too heavy for him due to a bad preparation)

 

[laarsland]

Although I suspect Blockaus and stage 20 to be a tad too hard for Ciccone, this Giro is crunch time for him for him to pull off a Haig-esque bid as a top 5-finisher in a GT. He's not yet done any of the crazy attacks which has sapped him of energy in previous Giri. I think it's fair that Skjelmose and Mollema keep their powder dry to support Ciccone (and the maglia rosa whilst in their team) until he was to falter.

If we could just have a mix of the best of Ciccone and Formolo, that'd be one hell of a sniper for stages and the most prestigious hilly one-day races

 

[Mayomaniac]

Although I suspect Blockaus and stage 20 to be a tad too hard for Ciccone, this Giro is crunch time for him for him to pull off a Haig-esque bid as a top 5-finisher in a GT. He's not yet done any of the crazy attacks which has sapped him of energy in previous Giri. I think it's fair that Skjelmose and Mollema keep their powder dry to support Ciccone (and the maglia rosa whilst in their team) until he was to falter.

If we could just have a mix of the best of Ciccone and Formolo, that'd be one hell of a sniper for stages and the most prestigious hilly one-day races

Ciccone came into the Giro a bit undercooked, but if he doesn't loose too much time on stage 9 he could actually aim for a top 5 on the gc.

 

[Eclipse]

Imo it's fair enough to ride for Ciccone for now. He's a good rider in his home GT and he should be a candidate for top 10 at least with an outside chance at top 5 if he was to catch fire. I know we often laugh at that as a goal when talking about negative racing but it's certainly a respectable GC ambition for someone who hasn't made it before.

If it's a bad idea you'll almost certainly know by the time this weekend is over so you have plenty of time to go stage hunt anyway later in the race.

 

[MrTea1976]

Weird sock game going on.

EDIT - On British Eurosport.

 

[hayneplane]

Really nice stage design but as ever its the riders that make the race. It has shades of the Vuelta stage with the Superman Lopez meltdown but its position in the race does not lend itself to that kind of separation as too early in the race for accumulated fatigue and too many decisive stages still to come to launch a big plan from 100km out.

Expect a high quality breakaway and the Ciclamino contenders to chance their arm and hunt for points.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Can someone keep a close eye on Devil's Elbow if it's only Drone riders in the breakaway?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Excited for this stage. Savio said he will put riders in the breakaway today. He didn't get them to attack yesterday because he wanted to savee them for the next 3 stages before the rest day

 

[wheresmybrakes]

No more wins for Cav, his lead out man out with illness.

 

[MartinGT]

Magnus Cort FTW

 

[MartinGT]

WTF Is Orla wearing on her feet?

 

[SafeBet]

Today Domenico Pozzovivo will get his first ever Giro stage win in his home region.
Dai Mimmo!

Edit: forgot about Lago Laceno!

 

[Netserk]

Today Domenico Pozzovivo will get his first ever Giro stage win in his home region.
Dai Mimmo!

Yes, yes, yes!

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Today Domenico Pozzovivo will get his first ever Giro stage win in his home region.
Dai Mimmo!

Please

 

[SafeBet]

Lol Mosca giving away team's strategy in no time.

 

[Netserk]

Cort will try today.