Giro d'Italia 2023 Giro d'Italia, Stage 4: Venosa – Lago Laceno 175 km (Tuesday, May 9th)

[Norbea]

A guy from Tromsø in maglia rosa! Sounds absurd. First Norwegian since Knut Knutsen in 1981. Well deserved. Andreas is such a nice person and a talented rider. Hopefully he can keep it a few stages.

 

[Jagartrott]

@staubsauger: This hinges on Hirt and Van Wilder not stepping up. I think they actually will. Their performance today is massively below their potential. They should normally be among the 10-15 best climbers, and Van Wilder is also a good TT'er. If they remain well below par or they have to abandon (e.g. illness), then it's a different story - then the rest will indeed sense blood.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

How disappointing end of the stage among GC guys, Ineos drones just lead the rest there.
Remco was like: "My 60 kph on flat is too fast in this weather"
Primoz was like: "I will kill him in Crans Montana and Tre Cime, eh"

 

[skippo12]

Not sure what Ballerini´s role is. I guess he can help with positioning and do some work on the flat but the way it looks it is very likely that he finishes outside the time limit when a team like UAE or Ineos decides to go for it on a hard multi mountain stage.
Serry and Cerny have the flat parts covered and probably are of some use on a medium mountain stage if they don´t waste them early in the stage because they are afraid of mighty GC threats like McNulty or Leknessund.

 

[Bonimenier]

Not sure what Ballerini´s role is. I guess he can help with positioning and do some work on the flat but the way it looks it is very likely that he finishes outside the time limit when a team like UAE or Ineos decides to go for it on a hard multi mountain stage.
Serry and Cerny have the flat parts covered and probably are of some use on a medium mountain stage if they don´t waste them early in the stage because they are afraid of mighty GC threats like McNulty or Leknessund.

If Serry was the rider in front of Evenepoel in the run in of sprint of stage 2, Evenepoel would have certainly gone down.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I really dislike Ineos. They ruin every single race when they are leading the peloton.

 

[Riek s]

As others point out, SQS very very weak today compared to the others. As predicted they have not the best team. (Even JV seems better at this point in time).

Will it change? maybe.

But if not, Remco will be isolated way to fast and they can do something. However the idea that JV will let someone ride from Ineos... or vice versa. I seriously doubt that. I understand they will want to let Remco work. If he doesn't do jack didly skuad, one of the other teams will attack to bridge the gap/get away. JV only has Roglic so unless Roglic is happy to not win, he will have to do something in that scenario.

 

[titan31]

Pink and ginger don't match. There's a reason selling or wearing pink clothes is prohibited by law in Ireland.

We call them salmon coloured over here

 

[Escarabajo]

I really dislike Ineos. They ruin every single race when they are leading the peloton.

From all the races they have ruined, today was the least of them. Nobody was going to do anything, so at least they kept the pace decent.

 

[HelloDolly]

I really dislike Ineos. They ruin every single race when they are leading the peloton.

FFS others could have attacked ...its not down to one team

Having said that I hope they dont tempo the climbs for G ....we need Remco and his team to put the work in or Remco having to follow attacks

 

[staubsauger]

I really dislike Ineos. They ruin every single race when they are leading the peloton.

IMHO they did nothing wrong today. They didn't step into the breach for Quick Step earlier on, so Quick Step had to empty themselves controlling the race. But of course took the little chance to ride hard enough on the final ascend to keep Remco in pink and Quick Step in responsibility!

 

[EddyMazzoleni]

But Remco lost pink.
If they wanted him to keep the jersey they should have rode from farther out.
And testing Remco with an attack from Tao or Thomas was the better choice anyway.
But i agree that other teams with more than one GC leader should have tried, you've got the favourite isolated on a climb FFS.

 

[AlfaLum]

FFS others could have attacked ...its not down to one team

Having said that I hope they dont tempo the climbs for G ....we need Remco and his team to put the work in or Remco having to follow attacks

From the pre race interviews that Arensman gave it seems to me that Ineos wants to keep Thomas, Tao, Arensman and Sivakov high up in the GC for as long as possible to ensure Remco has a lot of riders to cover. So I think they won’t be using their old strategy.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

From the pre race interviews that Arensman gave it seems to me that Ineos wants to keep Thomas, Tao, Arensman and Sivakov high up in the GC for as long as possible to ensure Remco has a lot of riders to cover. So I think they won’t be using their old strategy.

Yeah but they and other teams with GC contenders could have tried a little harder and kept Remco in pink. This way he gets an hour or two off each day from media duties.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

QuickStep DS says the same thing in another interview. Remco was feeling good, team had worked hard, everybody just had to do one short pull and come in safely.

 

[search]

QuickStep DS says the same thing in another interview. Remco was feeling good, team had worked hard, everybody just had to do one short pull and come in safely.

did he comment on why they chased down the initial breakaway group? Would be interesting to know who it was they regarded as a dangerman

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

did he comment on why they chased down the initial breakaway group?

No.

 

[search]

okay, here's how they finished, if anyone is interested:

Leknessund +0:02
Rubio +2:01
Barta +2:45
Cepeda +4:13
Lastra +4:13
McNulty +5:37
Zana +8:10
Küng +9:51
Scaroni +11:05
Healy +11:53
Vanhoucke +15:01
de Marchi +15:01
Guernalec +25:37

 

[Valv.Piti]

QuickStep DS says the same thing in another interview. Remco was feeling good, team had worked hard, everybody just had to do one short pull and come in safely.

Which makes no sense IMO. You'd also want at least one rider with your leader as long as possible. That, or they are just straight up clueless as to how you minimize risks and he's actually speaking facts. Either way its not too good.

 

[jmdirt]

I don't think it's particularly nice that you and lots of others keep calling every motorcycle rider a motard.

Unless it's actually a real word but as I understand it, it's an amalgamation of motorcyclist and genius.

Edit: Apparently, the new site now censors the word r*tard and writes genius instead... Pretty daft.

super motard

Also:

motard - Wiktionary

en.wiktionary.org

 

[search]

Which makes no sense IMO. You'd also want at least one rider with your leader as long as possible. That, or they are just straight up clueless as to how you minimize risks and he's actually speaking facts. Either way its not too good.

they talked about van Wilder with Bramati in Processo alla Tappa and as far as I understood (maybe someone who actually speaks Italian can confirm) he said something about problems with the weather

edit: there's a bit about it on bici.pro as well. Apparently van Wilder was dropped earlier on already

Lago Laceno: Remco solo tra gli squadroni. Tappa a Paret-Peintre e microfono a Giada Borgato

A Lago Laceno vince Paret-Peintre. Evenepoel perde la rosa che va a Leknessund. La Soudal-Quick Step scricchiola. Giada Borgato ci dice tutto

bici.pro

 

[Roku]

You don't leave your leader isolated if you can have someone close to him.

Having said that, unless he is hampered by illness, Hirt will be among the Top-15 best climbers during third week. Vervaeke is decent enough to be there in a group of 30-35 riders and so should be Van Wilder.

Cattaneo is more suited to medium mountains but still could be used to infiltrate in breaks and work in valleys. That should be enough to at least contain long range attacks.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Which makes no sense IMO. You'd also want at least one rider with your leader as long as possible. That, or they are just straight up clueless as to how you minimize risks and he's actually speaking facts. Either way its not too good.

I have stated my opinion on Lodewyck on the forum multiple times. I think he is, as Toby would say, a motard.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

they talked about van Wilder with Bramati in Processo alla Tappa and as far as I understood (maybe someone who actually speaks Italian can confirm) he said something about problems with the weather

edit: there's a bit about it on bici.pro as well. Apparently van Wilder was dropped earlier on already

Lago Laceno: Remco solo tra gli squadroni. Tappa a Paret-Peintre e microfono a Giada Borgato

A Lago Laceno vince Paret-Peintre. Evenepoel perde la rosa che va a Leknessund. La Soudal-Quick Step scricchiola. Giada Borgato ci dice tutto

bici.pro

Van Wilder does have a history of subpar performances in bad weather. He stayed below expectations on Thyon2000 two years ago, also in bad weather (which he gave as explanation back then as well). In last year's Vuelta, he had dropped before Pico Jano, also when it was bad weather. Of course riding the opening of the stage at 200 per hour doesn't help. The problem is neither of the DS's in the team car are tactical geniuses.

 

[Lequack]

So I guess the GC rivals took it pretty easy on Remco today. I guess they're already setting up for 2nd place or lower unfortunately.