Giro d'Italia 2024 Giro d'Italia pre-race poll: Best of the Rest?

[Netserk]

Please also mention in the thread who else you think will finish on the podium.

 

[AmRacer]

Please also mention in the thread who else you think will finish on the podium.

Is it possible to have multiple answers?

 

[Netserk]

Is it possible to have multiple answers?

In the thread, yes. Not in the poll, that is reserved for the most likely 2nd place finisher.

 

[Red Rick]

PoV, when you watch LBL and then you look at the Giro startlist

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Can the second place stay empty? None of these guys seem like they should finish 2nd in the Giro. Anyway, I‘m going with O‘Connor for 3rd, he‘ll just ride consistently.

 

[YavorD]

I think Bardet will fade towards the end of the Giro.
I don't trust O'Connor as well, so it should be Thomas and someone from Bahrain (Caruso).

 

[Gigs_98]

The funny thing is, you can't even call Pogacar lucky for facing such a weak startlist because he is the very reason nobody wants to go there.

 

[Red Rick]

The funny thing is, you can't even call Pogacar lucky for facing such a weak startlist because he is the very reason nobody wants to go there.

Any of the top riders that matters already announced they were all in for the Tour before Pogacar came with the Giro announcement. And like half the solid 2nd tier contenders are his own teammates.

You're attributing way too much to Pogacar.

 

[Brullnux]

Can the second place stay empty? None of these guys seem like they should finish 2nd in the Giro. Anyway, I‘m going with O‘Connor for 3rd, he‘ll just ride consistently.

Feels harsh to say that, given Thomas is a perennial GT podium finisher; Caruso finished 2nd in 2021; Arensman has come 6th at the last two GTs he's finished; Bardet is in good form and came 6th at the Tour as recently as 2022; O'Connor is a good one-week rider and came 4th at the Tour in 2022, etc. They're not scrubs, and there's not tons more second/third rate GC riders out there. I guess Hindley? Mas? Yates? Almeida? Ayuso? Vlasov? Landa? Three of them ride for UAE already, lol, and none of have a better GT pedigree than, say, Thomas.

 

[Netserk]

Any of the top riders that matters already announced they were all in for the Tour before Pogacar came with the Giro announcement. And like half the solid 2nd tier contenders are his own teammates.

You're attributing way too much to Pogacar.

But who are we really blaming for riding the Tour and not the Giro?

Hindley and Carapaz? Geoghegan Hart? I think it makes sense for all of them to go to the Tour. Landa for the same reason as Hindley as well.

Maybe Simon Yates, but I also don't blame him for no longer doing the Giro.

 

[Brullnux]

Any of the top riders that matters already announced they were all in for the Tour before Pogacar came with the Giro announcement. And like half the solid 2nd tier contenders are his own teammates.

You're attributing way too much to Pogacar.

I think UAE hoarding 2nd tier contenders is the main issue, really. Add to that, also everyone this year has gone all out for the Tour, so teams with more than one good rider (basically just Bora, Soudal, Visma) haven't brought anyone. Once you remove those four teams, you are left with seriously few second tier riders, none of whom are really any better than the people here.

 

[Brullnux]

But who are we really blaming for riding the Tour and not the Giro?

Hindley and Carapaz? Geoghegan Hart? I think it makes sense for all of them to go to the Tour. Landa for the same reason as Hindley as well.

Nobody, really. It's just an issue that arises when the four teams who have the four top tier GT riders also have half the second tier ones to be their domestiques. Means that there's a lack of depth/quality elsewhere.

 

[Red Rick]

But who are we really blaming for riding the Tour and not the Giro?

Hindley and Carapaz? Geoghegan Hart? I think it makes sense for all of them to go to the Tour. Landa for the same reason as Hindley as well.

There's probably like 10 dudes who have 0 shot at the Tour podium in a really stacked field that could be credible podium contenders in the Giro. And yet, for most of them the TdF decision is somewhat logical because either the team wants to use them as domestiques/2nd leaders. i.e. Kuss, Landa, Hindley, or they're on French or Spanish teams that blindly put the TdF or Vuelta 22nd place above a TdF podium i.e. Mas, Gaudu, Lenny Martinez or Felix Gall. Then you have Ciccone not being fit, Skjelmose prioritizing Ardennes and then Vuelta, Ayuso/Almeida/Adam all being Pogacars *****, and I think the only riders that are realistcally somewhat to flame are Simon Yates (has prioritized Giro most of his career) and probably Carapaz (has won Giro already). Finally you have Bernal and Carlos Rodriguez, who are at Ineos who are already sending Geraint Thomas to the Giro

Basically every single star has alligned for a horrendous Giro field.

 

[Brullnux]

I am unconvinced Gall and Gaudu are better GT riders than the better end of this poll. Ciccone neither. I really do think that out of the riders outside the top four stage race teams, who have all gone all in for the Tour this year, a good portion will be at the Giro. Trouble is those teams have like all of the top ten GT riders of the past five years other than Thomas and Mas. This feels like the inevitable result of the growing pay disparity among peloton teams.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Feels harsh to say that, given Thomas is a perennial GT podium finisher; Caruso finished 2nd in 2021; Arensman has come 6th at the last two GTs he's finished; Bardet is in good form and came 6th at the Tour as recently as 2022; O'Connor is a good one-week rider and came 4th at the Tour in 2022, etc. They're not scrubs, and there's not tons more second/third rate GC riders out there. I guess Hindley? Mas? Yates? Almeida? Ayuso? Vlasov? Landa? Three of them ride for UAE already, lol, and none of have a better GT pedigree than, say, Thomas.

Thomas and Caruso are at the age where decline is basically inevitable if you‘re not Chris Horner. If Pogačar crashes out, it‘s plausible that 38 year old G, who‘s going for the double accidentally wins the Giro against a 36 year old long-term Italian gregario, while O‘Connor dies of nervousness and loses five minutes on day one. Arensman would play the Froome role despite losing to Pinot in GC here last year. Bardet will have some sort of heartbreaking mishap because that‘s how it‘s been going for him outside of the Tour all career long and the rest of the GC contenders are also horribly inconsistent/washed/unproven. Upon thinking about it, if Thomas (and maybe Caruso) doesn‘t get it together this could actually be an incredible battle because there‘s no rider who you can trust to get it through three weeks without struggles.

 

[Brullnux]

Thomas was about to win it last year against one of the 'big six'. Caruso I agree with, but Thomas has a better GT record than Evenepoel lol. He might be old, but he has been riding at a similar level to last year and, as mentioned, he was a stage away from beating Roglic. I think people underestimate him somewhat, maybe because he only shows up once a year or because people don't really like him, but he is a genuinely strong GT rider who has come on the podium of the Tour or Giro four years out of the last six.

 

[Netserk]

I think Uijtdebroeks will get his act together and podium. I don't think he will lose all that much time in the ITTs against Bardet and O'Connor.

 

[sam6]

Bardet will be the best of the rest. Thomas will ride a steady race and scrape a podium

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Thomas was about to win it last year against one of the 'big six'. Caruso I agree with, but Thomas has a better GT record than Evenepoel lol. He might be old, but he has been riding at a similar level to last year and, as mentioned, he was a stage away from beating Roglic. I think people underestimate him somewhat, maybe because he only shows up once a year or because people don't really like him, but he is a genuinely strong GT rider who has come on the podium of the Tour or Giro four years out of the last six.

I mostly agree with this and think G is underrated for the bolded reason, but Roglic was coming back from offseason surgery and also had a bad crash on stage 14, so I don’t know how representative that was. I’m not sure I ever saw a direct comparison, but I believe Roglic’s climbing performances in the Vuelta were significantly better than in the Giro.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

well, I would have whisted for A. Taberi, but the Barain business puts him in the non promotional bracket. Instead having Bardet doing well again in a GT would be quite pleasing.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Foss

 

[ingsve]

Isn't the issue with the Giro the lack of good italian GT riders at the moment. That is usually what provideded the base competitive level at the Giro that the first or second tier riders had to compete with. There was usually also a strong eastern European contingent in the Giro with rides like Tonkov, Menchov, Honchar Popovych etc. who were often based in Italy.

Without that base competitive level it becomes too much of a freebee for whatever first tier GT rider who decides to attend.

Perhaps in a few years if Tiberi, Pellizzari and Piganzoli all establish themselves as capable GT riders could the base level of the Giro increase a bit again.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

2. Thomas, 3. Bardet. I'd say that that's a pretty damn uninspiring podium and that I'd rather have some new faces up there, but when Tiberi and Uijtdebroeks are two of your three main options...

 

[Froome]

Pogacar has the Giro in the bag, but the second place i guess will be for Arensman, not bardet or thomas.

 

[sam6]

This is a problem with all of cycling atm, not just the Giro. Except for MSR, if you look at the top 10s of major classics this year it looks very weak. You'd expect very few of the top 10 in Flanders/Roubaix/Strade in particular to be competing for major classics. Part of the problem is that the top riders atm are amazing but there is not many of them. And the second-tier riders never seriously compete for a win and so never become big names, when, in another generation, they might have been?

Bardet was, at one stage, a serious contender to Chris Froome. Now he is a B-tier contender who you wouldn't expect to seriously compete with Pogi/Vingo/Roglic/etc.

2. Thomas, 3. Bardet. I'd say that that's a pretty damn uninspiring podium and that I'd rather have some new faces up there, but when Tiberi and Uijtdebroeks are two of your three main options...

Thomas has won the Tour and, last year, arguably rode his best grand tour in the Giro. Bardet was at one stage best of the rest behind Froome. I don't think this would be a weak podium it's just Pogi/Vingo are so much better than everyone else