Giro 2017, stage 11: Ponte a Ema – Bagno di Romagna 161 km

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

Man Fraile super strong!

Or the competition too weak?

Really? Amador and Kangert are top 10 in this race currently. Rui Costa is a breakaway beast, Visconti is also breakaway master. Cataldo was there, Hermans, Rolland..., all great riders. Not to mention one and only Mikel Landa, successor of Pantani . I would say he was super strong.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Thomas could have lost a lot more, couple of days to recover now, i can't believe people think deignan shouldn't be called back.

Of course Deignan should have been called back when Thomas is off the back of the Pink Jersey group.

Deignan is at this point a career domestique and I'm sure he expects to be called back to help his team leader.

That said, there comes a point when you have to start wondering about whether there should still be a team GC leader. That point for some may quite reasonably come when the original leader is a couple of minutes outside the GC top 10 is in the process of getting dropped by twenty guys on a medium mountain stage and is quite possibly carrying injuries. What exactly are they supposed to be aiming for with Thomas at this point? That he scrapes into 9th or something? How many minutes behind a meaningful GC place does he have to be before a team decides it's all for stage victories now?

 

[shalgo]

Ouch, the main grupetto came in at 26 minutes, but 6 out of 9 Wilier riders were in the small group at 31 minutes (along with Ewan, among others).

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Ouch, the main grupetto came in at 26 minutes, but 6 out of 9 Wilier riders were in the small group at 31 minutes (along with Ewan, among others).

They had team orders to help Mareczko, so that he wouldn't end up OTL.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Damn the next 4 stages are underwhelming. After 4 days of good racing, we can expect a couple of very dull ones. Even Oropa and Bergamo are flat for the most part.... they could definitely have done a better job there.

I've realised a couple of days ago that the whole route is much more underwhelming than I inidially thought. Not many stages suited for long-range attacks and tactical moves.

There was today, queen stage to Bormio, dolomite-stage and potentially the stage to Foza with Grappa, but thats only if they go bananas and even then, i dno. Otherwise, this Giro is pretty straught forward, way too many flat roads.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re: Re:

Thomas could have lost a lot more, couple of days to recover now, i can't believe people think deignan shouldn't be called back.

Of course Deignan should have been called back when Thomas is off the back of the Pink Jersey group.

Deignan is at this point a career domestique and I'm sure he expects to be called back to help his team leader.

That said, there comes a point when you have to start wondering about whether there should still be a team GC leader. That point for some may quite reasonably come when the original leader is a couple of minutes outside the GC top 10 is in the process of getting dropped by twenty guys on a medium mountain stage and is quite possibly carrying injuries. What exactly are they supposed to be aiming for with Thomas at this point? That he scrapes into 9th or something? How many minutes behind a meaningful GC place does he have to be before a team decides it's all for stage victories now?

Pointless trying to bring logic into it when it's Sky making the decisions

 

[portugal11]

Just love to see (almost) everyone underestimating dumoulin.
Quintana is clearly waiting for stage 16. Why did movistar put 3 riders in the front of the race? Quintana didn't do anything. Is such a shame seeing a guy who is so talented in climbs (but pretty average in time trials, windy stages,etc), not having the charisma, the guts, the SPARK to go ballistic in a stage like today. Everything was in his favour in the beggining of the stage.
Unzue still thinks the leader of the team is indurain and not nairo, is always the "waiting game"

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

There was today, queen stage to Bormio, dolomite-stage and potentially the stage to Foza with Grappa, but thats only if they go bananas and even then, i dno. Otherwise, this Giro is pretty straught forward, way too many flat roads.

Unless Quintana is solidly in pink by then, the stage to Foza will be proper raced, IMHO.

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Fraile! (we need a chapeau emoji/smily!)

Landa's attack seems to have been a test for condition only - though G might well have hoped to bridge over to him if G could attack. Sky seem to be in chaos.
Movistar have managed to get Sky's double GC contenders - Pinot, Nibs etc all need to be in front of Tom D before the last stage, so it'll be full gas over the lumpy bits - good TV-viewing!

What's up with TJ?!

 

[Kokoso]

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Foliforov, Hirt & Dombrowski still have been nowhere so far. What's their excuse?

Regarding Hirt - team doesn't wish team to take part in any attack so far. I have no clue about the other two.