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Giro d'Italia 2013, stage 18: Oderzo - Val Di Zoldo 161 km

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Chapeau to Zana, but another 2nd to Pinot. He'll at least have KOM jersey tomorrow.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man - Kuss. Thomas islolated a bit too quickly probably for his liking, which means attacking Ineos will certainly pay off. Good to see Roglic is getting better, but is it too late?
Eddie Dunbar still hanging on for fourth spot - chapeau.
 
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Kämna is turning into prime Zubeldia/Meintjes. Not a single stage top 10. Always sitting at the back of the group. Among the first GC guys to be dropped. Pacing himself and limiting the damage. Gaining time on other GC guys that tried to follow the best and exploded.
He has a ways to go to reach HOF Ninjas Meintjes and Zubeldia............sometimes you would see the Devil more on the side of the road than you would see Zubeldia for three whole weeks..........
 
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Do you think it's wrong?

None of the three strongest are in a desperate situation nor strong enough to seal the deal. They have the strongest teams by far and will control the race, ensuring a solid pace on Giau and Tre Croce. They share the same winning path: be strong enough on Tre Cime and Lussari.
Yes, I think its wrong, and I think its very depressing to think that way about cycling. Imagine if worst case scenario would be our expectation going into watching every race. I definitely wouldnt want to live in that world since the magic about cycling, to me, is a lot about fantasizing and expecting epic stuff. Whats gonna happen, is it gonna blow up on Giau? Maybe. But the thought sticks around enough to the point of me absolutely having to tune in at that point at the latest, and If I wasn't working, you better believe I'd watch exactly this stage in close to its full duration. If I thought nothing would happen before, why would I bother watching?

Thats why flat stages are a lot worse than mountain stages, even if nothing really happens. At least you have certain expectations beforehand, you are excited and thinks to yourself what might happen, where as a flat, certain sprint stage is straight up unwatchable for me unless its TdF. Same with hillyish stages - what break will go, will the harder sprinters try to gap the fastmen, is the last hill enough to shred it, will Wout attack etc. You have all these possible scenarios, and they are quite important in order for me to get excited about a race and want to watch it.
 
Yes, I think its wrong, and I think its very depressing to think that way about cycling. Imagine if worst case scenario would be our expectation going into watching every race. I definitely wouldnt want to live in that world since the magic about cycling, to me, is a lot about fantasizing and expecting epic stuff. Whats gonna happen, is it gonna blow up on Giau? Maybe. But the thought sticks around enough to the point of me absolutely having to tune in at that point at the latest, and If I wasn't working, you better believe I'd watch exactly this stage in close to its full duration. If I thought nothing would happen before, why would I bother watching?

Thats why flat stages are a lot worse than mountain stages, even if nothing really happens. At least you have certain expectations beforehand, you are excited and thinks to yourself what might happen, where as a flat, certain sprint stage is straight up unwatchable for me unless its TdF. Same with hillyish stages - what break will go, will the harder sprinters try to gap the fastmen, is the last hill enough to shred it, will Wout attack etc. You have all these possible scenarios, and they are quite important in order for me to get excited about a race and want to watch it.

(my like is only to the first part of the post, not the unwatchableness of flat stages)
 
I wouldn't expect anything differently ;)

Seriously, even some small hills can cure a lot of it though. Think Tour de France 2022. Fantastic, basically every stage was unpredictable and nothing was certain. A perfect race in my book, the transition stages and the mountain stages. Only blemish were the rather boring Danish stages, but we live with that because, well, I watched them and they took place in Denmark, so those were acceptable.
 
Yes, I think its wrong, and I think its very depressing to think that way about cycling. Imagine if worst case scenario would be our expectation going into watching every race. I definitely wouldnt want to live in that world since the magic about cycling, to me, is a lot about fantasizing and expecting epic stuff. Whats gonna happen, is it gonna blow up on Giau? Maybe. But the thought sticks around enough to the point of me absolutely having to tune in at that point at the latest, and If I wasn't working, you better believe I'd watch exactly this stage in close to its full duration. If I thought nothing would happen before, why would I bother watching?

Thats why flat stages are a lot worse than mountain stages, even if nothing really happens. At least you have certain expectations beforehand, you are excited and thinks to yourself what might happen, where as a flat, certain sprint stage is straight up unwatchable for me unless its TdF. Same with hillyish stages - what break will go, will the harder sprinters try to gap the fastmen, is the last hill enough to shred it, will Wout attack etc. You have all these possible scenarios, and they are quite important in order for me to get excited about a race and want to watch it.
So it's not that you find it an inaccurate prediction of what will unfold, but that it's demotivating to you?

How's that my problem? I'll watch the stage in full as well and I look forward to it.
 
Yes, I think its wrong, and I think its very depressing to think that way about cycling. Imagine if worst case scenario would be our expectation going into watching every race. I definitely wouldnt want to live in that world since the magic about cycling, to me, is a lot about fantasizing and expecting epic stuff. Whats gonna happen, is it gonna blow up on Giau? Maybe. But the thought sticks around enough to the point of me absolutely having to tune in at that point at the latest, and If I wasn't working, you better believe I'd watch exactly this stage in close to its full duration. If I thought nothing would happen before, why would I bother watching?

Thats why flat stages are a lot worse than mountain stages, even if nothing really happens. At least you have certain expectations beforehand, you are excited and thinks to yourself what might happen, where as a flat, certain sprint stage is straight up unwatchable for me unless its TdF. Same with hillyish stages - what break will go, will the harder sprinters try to gap the fastmen, is the last hill enough to shred it, will Wout attack etc. You have all these possible scenarios, and they are quite important in order for me to get excited about a race and want to watch it.
Almeida nor Thomas have ever done anything as imaginative as attacking Giau. Roglic has been part of a thing like that but any scenario where Giau attack works involves him having the legs to win on Tre Cime anyway.

Just look at how unimaginative Jumbo, Ineos and UAE have been this entire Giro. Roglic still has 7 helpers with him, but they still can't come up with better ideas than "let Kuss drill it for 10 minutes"
 

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