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

[TommyGun]

Sooo much hype about Dumoulin, supposedly the only and one rival of Quintana..
afaik Pinot is still a stronger climber that Dumoulin : did you see Dumoulin attack once during the climb ? If he was behind Quintana's wheel as Pinot was, he would have blown up big time.
And let's not forget that Dumoulin has not really proven that he can hold this level of shape for 3 weeks, on the contrary of Pinot.
I am quite sure Dumoulin will crack when the multi-climb Dolomitic stages arrive.

 

[Arredondo]

This really sucks. Horrible that the dreams of some GC riders were shattered by that stupid, stupid crash

Landa is out for this Giro, but i still think Thomas can ride a decent GC. If he's not injured.

Quintana already on a good level. Normally he should win this race quite easily. However, i'm surprised by Nibali! His form is better at this point in comparison to last year. He should be better in the final week, and putting Nairo under pressure by doing a crazy attack on Stelvio or Monte Grappa.

And the fact that Dumoulin did his best climbing perfomance of his entire career, makes things very interesting for the upcoming two weeks. I think he will put 1.00-1.30 on Quintana in the TT, and take the Maglia Rosa. But the question is: can he hold on, and not falter in the last mountain stages?

Interesting stuff for sure

 

[DNP-Old]

Glad I was wrong, what a climb.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

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.

But he also attacked a long way out. He used a lot of energy for 30 seconds.

Yeah, but everyone used about the same amount of energy today.

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Giro 2017, stage 9: Montenero di Bisaccia - Blockhaus 14

Quintana showed he is a head and shoulder above everyone. Very surprised to see NIbali cracked so badly like that. Maybe his days is over. But he always has luck on his side. So it's not over yet for him. Maybe Lady luck has another surprise for him. TJ? ow well, if he can't get to the podium at the Giro, maybe he should rethink his long-term goal. 5th in the TDF means nothing at the Giro. Even a newbie GC Dumoulin climbed better than him. Sky .. maybe Giro never like them or something. Another bad luck.

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

Movistar push on. Nice

The race was already on. They're just continuing the pace the already had going. After all, they were at the front.

They're doing this **** ever since provoking Leipheimer to crash twice at 13 PN, but started whining massively when Sky let them pay the check for it later that year. ****'em!

Where was your outrage when Valverde crashed while wearing yellow and Sky pressed on?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

BTw, don't count Mollema out in the time trial either. Remember last years Tour

 

[Gloin22]

Re:

Sooo much hype about Dumoulin, supposedly the only and one rival of Quintana..
afaik Pinot is still a stronger climber that Dumoulin : did you see Dumoulin attack once during the climb ? If he was behind Quintana's wheel as Pinot was, he would have blown up big time.
And let's not forget that Dumoulin has not really proven that he can hold this level of shape for 3 weeks, on the contrary of Pinot.
I am quite sure Dumoulin will crack when the multi-climb Dolomitic stages arrive.

Because Tom can maybe one in one hundred beat quintana

Pinot has absolutely zero chance of ever beating Nairo in GT

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

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.

you are putting it as though once quintana wants he easily puts 1-2 minutes on any rider in the field on multimountain stage.

 

[burning]

Re: Re:

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.

I do agree that Sky should pull out completely but why on earth Orica and especially Sunweb will pull out? It is a shitty situation but just calm down

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

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.

Yeah,
Dumoulin will be in pink after TT and will be interesting to see how climbers will try to put time back and hopefully Nibali will have same peak as previous years in last week so one minute is quite OK I think I believe he will show something yet

And IMHO if riders are not able to avoid moto staying on side part or road, it is only their fault they were not as fast there, they are just risking too much

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

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.

you are putting it as though once quintana wants he easily puts 1-2 minutes on any rider in the field on multimountain stage.

yeah, pretty much. In the final week, I think if he needed to put 1-2 minutes on Dumoulin or Pinot on that Stelvio stage or even some of the others, he would do it.

 

[WheelofGear]

Thomas has an excuse for quitting. Since he hurt his shoulder and Froome needs him in the Tour.

But Landa CAN'T quit. They need to win something in this Giro and he is still have a good chance on winning the Stelvio stage from a break or something.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

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.

you are putting it as though once quintana wants he easily puts 1-2 minutes on any rider in the field on multimountain stage.

Well, based on his perfomances of the past and the climbing level of his rivals, it's actually a quite accurate theorem.

 

[Richeypen]

Re: Re:

Movistar push on. Nice

The race was already on. They're just continuing the pace the already had going. After all, they were at the front.

They're doing this **** ever since provoking Leipheimer to crash twice at 13 PN, but started whining massively when Sky let them pay the check for it later that year. ****'em!

Where was your outrage when Valverde crashed while wearing yellow and Sky pressed on?

There was plenty of backlash on here for Sky when that happened. Valverde was pissed off at them too.

Simple fact is you cannot stop a race whenever there is a crash, Movistar did nothing wrong today and Sky did nothing wrong then.

 

[classicomano]

We still dont know what Big Tom can do in the time trial now that hes Skeletom. But hes in blistering form thats for sure.

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

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.

With the exception of Nibali, maybe.

 

[TomLPC]

Re:

Sooo much hype about Dumoulin, supposedly the only and one rival of Quintana..
afaik Pinot is still a stronger climber that Dumoulin : did you see Dumoulin attack once during the climb ? If he was behind Quintana's wheel as Pinot was, he would have blown up big time.
And let's not forget that Dumoulin has not really proven that he can hold this level of shape for 3 weeks, on the contrary of Pinot.
I am quite sure Dumoulin will crack when the multi-climb Dolomitic stages arrive.

Dumoulin led a vuelta the entire way up until the last stage, that he hadn't prepared for, in which his best mountain domestique was Big John Degenkolb

He will be fine

 

[Richeypen]

Re: Re:

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.

With the exception of Nibali, maybe.

And Poels :surprised:

 

[dacooley]

well, hopefully it finally was the official end of landa hype train on today's stage. what he showed 2 years ago isn't worth anything at the moment.

 

[hfer07]

Re: Re:

so apparently G went down because a rider in front of him crashed into a moto, ala Porte/Froome last year...... well, I guess is time for Landa to go for stage hunting then....

You know Landa went down, too? And he's much worse off. I wouldn't be surprised if he DNF's.

did he too? :surprised: damn it!!!

 

[Richeypen]

Re:

well, hopefully it finally was the official end of landa hype train on today's stage. what he showed 2 years ago isn't worth anything at the moment.

Eh?

Because he got taken out by a crash?

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Absolutely farcical.
As an aside- if Sky is a blight on the sport, why not Movistar? At least Sky is a new thing, Movistar and its previous iteration have now haunted cycling for over a decade. They're looking very Astana 2015 at the moment too.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Sky now into Plan B, Stage wins

don't think so, a top 5 is doable

Stage wins are better than anonymous top 5s

Normally, yes, but I don't know about in this case. Thomas wants to show he has the chops to ride for the podium in a GT and needs to prove it to the team and himself. He can still do that if he finishes close.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

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.

you are putting it as though once quintana wants he easily puts 1-2 minutes on any rider in the field on multimountain stage.

Not really. But Dumoulin and Mollema are not pure climbers. Pinot was good. Quintana would be happy about the gap on Nibali though.