Giro 2011 Curse

[Forunculo]

Top riders who were in the Giro are doing a "weak" end of the season.

Tour

Contador 5th
Gadret, Kiryienka off after few stages
Kreuziger lost 2 hours
Arroyo couldn't get break
Saxo-bank helpers zero help

Vuelta

Anton, Scarponi, JRod complety out of contention
Nibali better but not enough.
kruiswijk little bit worst than the Giro
Menchov and Sastre invisible Vuelta
Nieve average
Bakelandt very passive.

Is the Giro the answer?

 

[roundabout]

Dupont finishes Tour around the same position as usual in 22nd.

Dupont = greatest cyclist ever.

 

[Forunculo]

Dupont finishes Tour around the same position as usual in 22nd.

Dupont = greatest cyclist ever.

He only rode Tour before in 2008 and was 55. we havn't a solid proof. But at least was very consistent. I half agree with Dupont

 

[roundabout]

Even better, he rode better than usual.

Sastre was bland in the Giro and is bland now.

Menchov is actully getting better (although with him you may never know if today was just a good day) and is likely to finish in about the same position in the Vuelta as he did in the Giro

Nieve is riding ok and apart from not winning the queen stage isn't doing badly 13th n GC compared to the Giro 11th.

Nibali had bad days in the Giro. Tomorrow will tell if it was one or he is running out of energy.

 

[luckyboy]

If Contador had skipped the Tour and did the Vuelta, I would think that he would be in red now.

 

[Parrulo]

If Contador had skipped the Tour and did the Vuelta, I would think that he would be in red now.

i would think the vuelta would be over by now actually

 

[jsem94]

Correct, except Menchov's form atm. The only reason I think he didn't go for it was because he was scared of dragging Wiggo & Froome back to Cobo.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Kruijswijk is not a little worse but much worse. From getting better each day in the Giro to getting worse each day in the Vuelta.

 

[Swede1]

Correct, except Menchov's form atm. The only reason I think he didn't go for it was because he was scared of dragging Wiggo & Froome back to Cobo.

Yeah im pretty sure if menchov hadnt lost the 2+ minutes on stage 3 because of the mechanical he would be 53 seconds from red. Tomorrow we will see if he has the form!

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Some of the 10-30s in the Vuelta GC are doing as well as they could have hoped, "despite" having completed the Giro: Lagutin, Capecchi, Seeldreyers, Kiserlovski, and Moreno,

Plus Montaguti, although his campaign for the KoM seems destined to fail, and Lastras with a stage win and a second.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah im pretty sure if menchov hadnt lost the 2+ minutes on stage 3 because of the mechanical he would be 53 seconds from red. Tomorrow we will see if he has the form!

+2 minutes?

He lost 1:42

 

[roundabout]

1.23 actually.

And 14 seconds a few days back.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah I was just watching what Poels lost (he lost quite some time in silly stages as well), and it was indeed 1:23

Now people make it 2+ minutes

 

[More Strides than Rides]

I'm not sure how far down the results you want to go, but Le Mevel was 15th in the Giro, and is now 45th in Spain

Former favorite for the win Anton was 18th at the Giro, and is now 43rd (Nieve 11th and 13th)
Machado was 20th and is now 32.
Dario Cataldo was 13th at the Giro and is now 143rd.
Matteo Carrara was 17 and is now 153
De Greef 24th to 35th
Just rounding out somensensationalized names and others I spot on the results.

 

[Fergoose]

I think this is a really good point that could go someway to explaining some of what we are seeing. I've heard suggestion that the Giro & Vuelta were made tougher as the organisers didn't want them to just been seen as practice events for the TdF and the World Championships. But they have to be careful.

If its too hard it'll just drive riders away. Contador has already decided (if eligible to ride) that he won't do the Giro as it'll interfere with his TdF too much.

The Giro/TdF double is one thing, but if others decide that doing the Giro/Vuelta double isn't possible too then that would be a bad situation for the sport. But we always clamour for longer, faster & steeper! I've even seen this Vuelta described as poorly planned and filled with weak stages "suitable only for the first week". Better not let Haussler hear you.

 

[Parrulo]

I think this is a really good point that could go someway to explaining some of what we are seeing. I've heard suggestion that the Giro & Vuelta were made tougher as the organisers didn't want them to just been seen as practice events for the TdF and the World Championships. But they have to be careful.

If its too hard it'll just drive riders away. Contador has already decided (if eligible to ride) that he won't do the Giro as it'll interfere with his TdF too much.

The Giro/TdF double is one thing, but if others decide that doing the Giro/Vuelta double isn't possible too then that would be a bad situation for the sport. But we always clamour for longer, faster & steeper! I've even seen this Vuelta described as poorly planned and filled with weak stages "suitable only for the first week". Better not let Haussler hear you.

i read that blog from haussler earlier today and all i read was: "whaaaaaa i am a sprinter give me more flat stages!!! whaaaa i am sprinter give me less climbs!!! whamm i don't like the heat don't make this race at all whammm!!!"

 

[Fergoose]

i read that blog from haussler earlier today and all i read was: "whaaaaaa i am a sprinter give me more flat stages!!! whaaaa i am sprinter give me less climbs!!! whamm i don't like the heat don't make this race at all whammm!!!"

Aye. We should have some mouth watering sprints to look forward to in the last week... if we can rustle up some sprinters.

 

[Forunculo]

Haussler must see the parcours before the race. I think vuelta did good with make difficult final stages. It cut sprinters who want to warm for worlds. A 3cat near the end or a spring classic finish let riders who want to race take the stages. Anyway there is Madrid and 3 more flat sprints.

 

[greenedge]

Bakelandt crashed whilst in a break. That is aggressive to him.

Scarponi was 2nd at the Giro and now abandoned.

Haussler should suck it up like Boonen. I would love if Boonen can recover and win a stage.

 

[The Hitch]

I think this is a really good point that could go someway to explaining some of what we are seeing. I've heard suggestion that the Giro & Vuelta were made tougher as the organisers didn't want them to just been seen as practice events for the TdF and the World Championships. But they have to be careful.

Its possible you heard it from Rendell, seeing as a previous "I heard somewhere" quote from you came from him, and i know he said this very thing last time I watched ITV.

I disagree with him on that though. The Giro has been around for a century. For the last 40 years at least it has played second fiddle. But yet the hardest courses are coming now.

A far better explenation imo is one that gets periphally mentioned here now and again.

That GT's base routes around the countries best riders. A lot of Vuelta finishes in recent years have been designed for Alejandro Valverde (mind you he can win anything from a sprint to a hc mtf so a lot of finishes suit him). But when Pettachi and Cipo were Italies best, the courses were a lot easier and more sprint stages. Pettachi won 9 stages in the 2004 Giro.

Now that Di Luca, Basso, Ricco, Nibali, are Italies big boys while world championship sprints are based around Pippo Pozzato, you get 8 mtfs in one gt.

 

[Ferminal]

Rodriguez and Kruijswijk went deep into June with their Giro form. That gave them only 8-10 weeks to start all over again for the Vuelta. I'm not sure going crazy at Burgos was helpful to Purito either.

Anton and Scarponi seem to be a bit more than doing a GT in May.

Nibali is hard to tell, but what can I say, I'm not surprised.

 

[rzombie1988]

Kruijswijk's been at it since February. The poor guy is obviously tired by now. It's been a great year for him and he's got nothing to be ashamed of. Same story with J-Rod, who's had an even longer year.

 

[The Hitch]

I'm not sure how far down the results you want to go, but Le Mevel was 15th in the Giro, and is now 45th in Spain

Former favorite for the win Anton was 18th at the Giro, and is now 43rd (Nieve 11th and 13th)
Machado was 20th and is now 32.
Dario Cataldo was 13th at the Giro and is now 143rd.
Matteo Carrara was 17 and is now 153
De Greef 24th to 35th
Just rounding out somensensationalized names and others I spot on the results.

This is some good research btw.

Nicely done.

 

[LukeSchmid]

I'm not sure how far down the results you want to go, but Le Mevel was 15th in the Giro, and is now 45th in Spain

Former favorite for the win Anton was 18th at the Giro, and is now 43rd (Nieve 11th and 13th)
Machado was 20th and is now 32.
Dario Cataldo was 13th at the Giro and is now 143rd.
Matteo Carrara was 17 and is now 153
De Greef 24th to 35th
Just rounding out somensensationalized names and others I spot on the results.

Le Mevel was racing for himself in the Giro, riding in support of Martin in the Vuelta.
Machado lost a lot of time by going back and trying to help Zubeldia after his horribly timed flat, but was probably doing about as well as at the Giro. Done nothing really great in the mountains in either.
Cataldo raced for himself at the Giro while racing for Seeldrayers here so not worring about GC perhaps.
Carrara perhaps the same as Cataldo, not the GC leader.
De Greef, not as good but not shockingly worse either.

Might be the Giro but maybe in some cases other riders are being given a chance to lead the team.

Another rider to do worse at the Vuelta is Tschopp, 16th Giro, abandoned here after coming in behind the gruppetto on the stage to Sierra Nevada.

Scarponi seemed to be going okay then crashed, totally not his fault, which may have had an effect on his performance. Nibali's crash maybe hindering him a bit as well although less likely. It hard to know as they like to keep things quiet as much as possible.

 

[Parrulo]

I'm not sure how far down the results you want to go, but Le Mevel was 15th in the Giro, and is now 45th in Spain

Former favorite for the win Anton was 18th at the Giro, and is now 43rd (Nieve 11th and 13th)
Machado was 20th and is now 32.
Dario Cataldo was 13th at the Giro and is now 143rd.
Matteo Carrara was 17 and is now 153
De Greef 24th to 35th
Just rounding out somensensationalized names and others I spot on the results.

well machado was 19th before today but was told to wait for zubeldia what made him lose 20 minutes. . . really bad decision by the shack imo, then again he wasn't climbing all that well so would have dropped a few places anyway. its his first season really peaking for specific races and he seems to be having a hard time learning how to do it (it has been hinted on his blog that he failed to peak at the right time again for this vuelta)