Giro 2017, stage 14: Castellania – Oropa 131 km

[klintE]

All Q needs is a good team which will carry him out trough the third week. He has. Tom has not.
But the question if Nairo is able to outperform Tom much more than 3 minutes on left course stiil is open.
Good for the race.

 

[BullsFan22]

Can Dumoulin be stopped? Of course he can, but now it appears that only he himself can stop him. He could of course hit the wall and completely drop out of GC contention, but let's hope that doesn't happen.

Quintana played his cards today, but the climb didn't suit him and Dumoulin paced it so well and was obviously strong.

Zakarin quietly had his strongest day of the Giro, moving up 5 spots to fifth in the GC, 59 seconds behind Pinot. I'd love to see him snatch a stage win and perhaps get on the podium.

Nibali wasn't that good today, but he isn't out of it.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

I didn't expect NQ to be able to do much today, the stage was too easy. But I do think once he got a gap, to then end up losing 22 total secs is probably a bit of a body blow. It's not over by any stretch, but that hurt him today.

 

[Cookster15]

Can Dumoulin be stopped? Of course he can, but now it appears that only he himself can stop him. He could of course hit the wall and completely drop out of GC contention, but let's hope that doesn't happen.

Quintana played his cards today, but the climb didn't suit him and Dumoulin paced it so well and was obviously strong.

Zakarin quietly had his strongest day of the Giro, moving up 5 spots to fifth in the GC, 59 seconds behind Pinot. I'd love to see him snatch a stage win and perhaps get on the podium.

Nibali wasn't that good today, but he isn't out of it.

Just watched the stage finish again. What looks worse for Quintana is not that TD caught and passed him but that it appears Quintana blew. He was still with Dumoulin with 500 meters to go. Lost 14 seconds in just 500 meters :surprised: .

 

[Moviefan1203]

I do wonder if Quintana is afraid to go too deep with the Tour in the back of his mind.

 

[Robert5091]

So folks, who do you think will win the TdF? This race is over ....

 

[Moviefan1203]

Re:

So folks, who do you think will win the TdF? This race is over ....

Don't jinx it, man!

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

I do wonder if Quintana is afraid to go too deep with the Tour in the back of his mind.

Not the way to win the double. Watching him chase Dumoulin yesterday and attacking from a long way out on Blockhaus makes me think he is already going quite deep, not to mention the TT with another one to come. Dumoulin only needs one bad stage for Quintana to come back and the last week gives Quintana plenty of opportunities. If Quintana wants to win the race, from the position he is in he has no alternative but to go deep.

 

[Ruby United]

Re:

So folks, who do you think will win the TdF? This race is over ....

This race is certainly not over yet.
We have yet to ride a full, start to finish, high mountain stage. Those are still to come. If Movistar and Quintana go full out early on the 'Stelvio' stage, for example, Doumoulin could lose tons of time.
To be honest, this race is still very much alive. A number of unknown factors make this still a very close GT:
a) How Doumoulin will fare in the last week
b) How Doumoulin will fare on full, start to finish, high mountain stages
c) If Quintana is still riding into form; will we see Quintana at his very, very best in the last week?
d) Whether Movistar will crack Sunweb on one of the hardest stages in the last week
e) How much more time will Doumoulin gain in the final TT if Quintana is in pink then

That being said, so far Doumoulin has obviously looked absolutely incredible and the final week could, theoretically, simply be Doumoulin repeatedly defending off Quintana's attacks and then smashing the final TT and winning the GC by 3+ minutes.

In any event, at this stage, the race is very much alive, especially because Quintana won't go down without a fight

 

[Valv.Piti]

TdF is more over when it hasn't started tet than this race, which indeed still is super open. It seems some people tend to forget what happened last year....and that was practically a done deal already.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

I do wonder if Quintana is afraid to go too deep with the Tour in the back of his mind.

If he has a Tour in the back of his mind, then he already lost this race. He has to race like every day is the last one, and grab every opportunity. Maybe even that will not be enough. He has a whole month then to think about the Tour...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It's interesting how many ways people find to misspell Dumoulin.

I've seen Dumolin, Doumoulin and Doumolin.

We've had Samuel Dumoulin for years, and now it's hard to spell a guy with the same name? Wtf

 

[Irondan]

Re:

It's interesting how many ways people find to misspell Dumoulin.

I've seen Dumolin, Doumoulin and Doumolin.

We've had Samuel Dumoulin for years, and now it's hard to spell a guy with the same name? Wtf

Well, it's not like anyone has had much to say about Sammy Dumoulin to get much practice in spelling his name correctly.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Re:

It's interesting how many ways people find to misspell Dumoulin.

I've seen Dumolin, Doumoulin and Doumolin.

We've had Samuel Dumoulin for years, and now it's hard to spell a guy with the same name? Wtf

But how to make a Dutch pronunciation of a French name is what I am unsure of. Most commentators simply treat him as though he is second generation French, with whatever degree of Gallic inclination they wish to muster.

But should we be Nederising it to Doo-moo-lijn or something similar?

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

It's interesting how many ways people find to misspell Dumoulin.

I've seen Dumolin, Doumoulin and Doumolin.

We've had Samuel Dumoulin for years, and now it's hard to spell a guy with the same name? Wtf

Well, it's not like anyone has had much to say about Sammy Dumoulin to get much practice in spelling his name correctly.

There's always the flat stage where they mention the shortest guy in the race. And if they get really bored they'll find a way to mention that he's married to Lavenu's daughter.