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Giro 2017, stage 9: Montenero di Bisaccia - Blockhaus 149 km

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Jul 5, 2011
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Great to see a pure climber in action. But we'll never know.... and that dumb copper did the same again further up the climb, luckily when it was thinned out and riders could see him.
 
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Forever The Best said:
Forever The Best said:
Pinot-Dumoulin 24''
Mollema 40''
Nibali 56''
Nibali 1 min behind on the stage, not 56 seconds.
Let's be grateful it's only a minute. I think Nibali is just about the only thing keeping the race alive at this point. He's the only one who could come close to match peak Quintana in the final week. And he also will risk all for the win on a descent or crazy break.
 
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DFA123 said:
Forever The Best said:
Forever The Best said:
Pinot-Dumoulin 24''
Mollema 40''
Nibali 56''
Nibali 1 min behind on the stage, not 56 seconds.
Let's be grateful it's only a minute. I think Nibali is just about the only thing keeping the race alive at this point. He's the only one who could come close to match peak Quintana in the final week. And he also will risk all for the win on a descent or crazy break.
And Dumoulin as he looked very impressive today, losing less than 30 seconds. But Quintana can break Dumo on stage 16. Tuesday's TT very critical for Nibbles. If he gains close to a minute on Quintana there, he is back into the battle.
 
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WheelofGear said:
Richeypen said:
WheelofGear said:
Sky back to stage winning now?

If i were them Id pull out completely. A statement needs to be sent about the motos **** up races
They aren't quitters.. They'll try to win a stage.

They wont quit because of their Italian sponsors. They will stay in and nothing will change.

If Sky, Orica & Sunweb pulled out it might be the start of something.
 
Dumoulin, way, way, way better than I expected. I thought maybe 5-10th places in MT stages.

And to those who say he did this at the Vuelta: No.. no, he really didn't. That was hanging on for dear life, chosing own pace, and finishing 10-15th. (with some exceptions).
This is something entirely new. My god, to stay within 30s of Quintana on a climb as tough as Blockhaus is way beyond any expectation I had for Dumoulin.

Kruijswijk confirmed what I thought after the Yorkshire and early Giro crashes, it took the top end out of his form, so he is not the same. Won't be a factor.

Mollema in typical Mollema style. And Nibali in the same error he made before, trying to go to deep and then blowing up. Typical early GT Nibali. He'll learn, do it sensible in the last week and come back a bit. But.. Quintana almost cannot lose this Giro. Yeah he might lose rosa in the TT, but he will gain it back in the next mountains and build up a nice buffer for the 2nd TT.

I can't see Quintana losing this. Pinot/Dumoulin/Nibali/Mollema for 2nd to 5th. Although you might not want to count Yates or Thomas out. They might go in good breaks.
 
Aug 31, 2012
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Re:

kingjr said:
24 might not sound much, but it seems hard to imagine that Quintana could have gone much faster... he was going absolutely flat out.

But Quintana becomes a stronger climber relative to everyone else in the world in the third week.
 
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movingtarget said:
Mollema, Dumoulin and Pinot would be happy with that. Quintana would have been hoping for more.
I imagine Quintana is delighted with the outcome of the stage. Half the 'contenders' are now out of contention; it's basically now a fight between him Pinot, Nibali, Mollema and possibly Dumoulin. And he already has a nice advantage over all of them and knows his climbing shape is good enough to drop them all fairly comfortably. All that, without even having had a multi climb stage yet.
 
This Giro is definitely not over. Assuming Dumoulin hasn't lost power a d done a wiggo, Quintana will lose around 2:30-3 minutes. Pinot will gain 1-1:30 or thereabouts and Nibali could come back into it sort, as well as Mollema. This is by far the hardest mtf of the whole Giro and probably the steepest (long) climb of it all. Nibali will go full kamikaze from now on, and some will try with him. Quintana didn't destroy the others: beat them but not destroyed (apart from Nibali)