Giro d'Italia 2015: Stage 5: La Spezia – Abetone 152 kms MTF

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Climb too easy. Contador almost cracked Aru, but not steep enough. Unfortunately The Devil looks good.

Porte always looks good though I think, even when he's about to crack. Like Nibali and Quintana.

Nibali doesn't always look good though.

I actually think Nibali always looks like he's cracking.

I meant he always looks the same so you can't tell same goes for Froome actually

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Porte actually looked to be in a bit of a struggle near the end. He was breathing very heavily, rather than his typical closed mouth. Just my insight though

We appreciate your insight

 

[Singer01]

2 great days in a row, and more excitingly 2 new potential talents for the future revealing themselves to the world. i would say aru looked just about the worst of the big 3. don't know why contador or porte would attack until after stage 14, just follow the astana train and aru and let them wear themselves out. they both take big time in the TT.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Giro d'Italia 2015: Stage 5: La Spezia – Abetone 152 kms

It seems that the new Scultura is already fruitful in the mountains. So much for dropping the goat for aero, Lampre.

 

[sir fly]

Re:

2 great days in a row, and more excitingly 2 new potential talents for the future revealing themselves to the world. i would say aru looked just about the worst of the big 3. don't know why contador or porte would attack until after stage 14, just follow the astana train and aru and let them wear themselves out. they both take big time in the TT.

You'll be surprised with Aru's time trial.

 

[johnymax]

I think the 3 contenders are about even right now. We know Contador has a great recovery and is supposed to be better in the third week, but I expect the same from Aru. Porte looks maybe the strongest to me, but he is still a question mark over the three weeks. I think and hope it will be a fascinating battle.

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

Stage 6 is probably going to be a sprinters stage so Tinkoff will not need to chase down the break themselves to defend pink even if someone relatively close goes in the break.
However are Tinkoff going to ride all day on a 264km stage 7 to defend the jersey if they need to. Contador could well give it up and then take it back on stage 8. Perhaps Clarke should go in the break on stage 7 and see if he can get the jersey back for another day. Visconti, Formolo, Moinard, Monfort and Monsalve are probably the others who might be let go in a stage winning break that wins by a large enough gap to take the pink.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

2 great days in a row, and more excitingly 2 new potential talents for the future revealing themselves to the world. i would say aru looked just about the worst of the big 3. don't know why contador or porte would attack until after stage 14, just follow the astana train and aru and let them wear themselves out. they both take big time in the TT.

You'll be surprised with Aru's time trial.

Climbers on a tear tend to have surprisingly good time trial results. See Contador @ Annecy.

Anyone know if the 1-second rule is in effect at the Giro? At the risk of sounding even more like a fanboy I thought placing Uran outside the 1:53 bunch. Yeah, it very likely won't make a difference for the Rosa but it might matter for a top-5 if he's able to find his form later on in the race.

 

[perico]

Re: Re:

2 great days in a row, and more excitingly 2 new potential talents for the future revealing themselves to the world. i would say aru looked just about the worst of the big 3. don't know why contador or porte would attack until after stage 14, just follow the astana train and aru and let them wear themselves out. they both take big time in the TT.

You'll be surprised with Aru's time trial.

Climbers on a tear tend to have surprisingly good time trial results. See Contador @ Annecy.

Anyone know if the 1-second rule is in effect at the Giro? At the risk of sounding even more like a fanboy I thought placing Uran outside the 1:53 bunch. Yeah, it very likely won't make a difference for the Rosa but it might matter for a top-5 if he's able to find his form later on in the race.

Contador has always been good in TTs. Maybe not at Froome/Wiggy's level, but good enough.

 

[Big Doopie]

Re:

Why is the idiot commentator even mentioning syringe's while Contador is putting Pink Jersey on. Rob Hatch. Scumbag

um... because the two are forever linked.

no matter how much the CN Forum worldview desperately wants put lipstick on a pig.

 

[bigcog]

Not convinced Porte can match Contador over the course of a GT. Aru may have a better chance with his strong team.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Climbers on a tear tend to have surprisingly good time trial results. See Contador @ Annecy.

Anyone know if the 1-second rule is in effect at the Giro? At the risk of sounding even more like a fanboy I thought placing Uran outside the 1:53 bunch. Yeah, it very likely won't make a difference for the Rosa but it might matter for a top-5 if he's able to find his form later on in the race.

Contador has always been good in TTs. Maybe not at Froome/Wiggy's level, but good enough.

No-ones time trial is always the same, just saying that some climbers have very variable time trials, so it's very hard to expect Aru or Contador to lose (or even gain) any given amount of time. Contador has a very good but very unstable time trial. He went from finishing 1st and taking 40s from everyone an Annecy to 15th 2:15 back at Mt. St. Michel a few years later or 28th 3:21 back at the Dauphine a couple years earlier.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

No-ones time trial is always the same, just saying that some climbers have very variable time trials, so it's very hard to expect Aru or Contador to lose (or even gain) any given amount of time. Contador has a very good but very unstable time trial. He went from finishing 1st and taking 40s from everyone an Annecy to 15th 2:15 back at Mt. St. Michel a few years later or 28th 3:21 back at the Dauphine a couple years earlier.

The difference is that in 2009 he was in brilliant form and in 2013 he was crap. When he is in good shape his TT is almost always very good.

 

[Cookster15]

Re: Re:

No-ones time trial is always the same, just saying that some climbers have very variable time trials, so it's very hard to expect Aru or Contador to lose (or even gain) any given amount of time. Contador has a very good but very unstable time trial. He went from finishing 1st and taking 40s from everyone an Annecy to 15th 2:15 back at Mt. St. Michel a few years later or 28th 3:21 back at the Dauphine a couple years earlier.

The difference is that in 2009 he was in brilliant form and in 2013 he was crap. When he is in good shape his TT is almost always very good.

The explanations for these variations are best discussed elsewhere.

 

[infeXio]

Re: Re:

No-ones time trial is always the same, just saying that some climbers have very variable time trials, so it's very hard to expect Aru or Contador to lose (or even gain) any given amount of time. Contador has a very good but very unstable time trial. He went from finishing 1st and taking 40s from everyone an Annecy to 15th 2:15 back at Mt. St. Michel a few years later or 28th 3:21 back at the Dauphine a couple years earlier.

The difference is that in 2009 he was in brilliant form and in 2013 he was crap. When he is in good shape his TT is almost always very good.

The explanations for these variations are best discussed elsewhere.

Take it to the clinic then rather than making your insinuations here then.
The fact is that whenever he's been in good shape (regardless of clinic reasons), he's more often than not done good time trials - exactly as flo said.

 

[Flamin]

Sick start of a gt this has been, incredible. Great and unexpected attack by Contador, and that's why I like him. You could tell it wasn't planned at all. Just seconds before he attacked, you could see him looking for Porte, who was sitting a bit further, and then Alberto probably thought 'let's catch them by surprise'. Richie sure will be glued to his wheel in the coming mountain stages.

But then Landa came back and killed all action unfortunately. would have been interesting to see what happened between the 3 in those final kms.

 

[ILovecycling]

Wow,what a stage again! (I know this is giro ) The three looked quite even, but I was stunned by Landa.

...and well, I was wrong with Aru's form

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

Porte actually looked to be in a bit of a struggle near the end. He was breathing very heavily, rather than his typical closed mouth. Just my insight though

his marginal moto-home gain.. will fix that in the next mountain stage

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

Stage 6 is probably going to be a sprinters stage so Tinkoff will not need to chase down the break themselves to defend pink even if someone relatively close goes in the break.
However are Tinkoff going to ride all day on a 264km stage 7 to defend the jersey if they need to. Contador could well give it up and then take it back on stage 8. Perhaps Clarke should go in the break on stage 7 and see if he can get the jersey back for another day. Visconti, Formolo, Moinard, Monfort and Monsalve are probably the others who might be let go in a stage winning break that wins by a large enough gap to take the pink.

i think Contador will be happy to let it go tomorrow. I'm sure there's going to be a little back room deal tonight or tomorrow. Contador said he didn't want the jersey until the third week. So whoever close to GC, tomorrow will be the day to be in the break.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

Who of the riders that are not in the Giro do you think could have followed the three leaders?

Froome and Quintana, yes. But I'm not sure Nibali could.

Kreuziger should be able to follow. But it's not wise to drag Porte and Aru when your team leader is attacking?

 

[SeriousSam]

Re:

Who of the riders that are not in the Giro do you think could have followed the three leaders?

Froome and Quintana, yes. But I'm not sure Nibali could.

Are you joking? Top form Nibali (July 2014) can easily follow today.
Off form Nibali can't even follow Greipel up some hill near Sanremo. Other riders that would have not been dropped today are Valverde and Rodriguez.

 

[Carols]

Well 2 days of some awesome racing and 2 fresh faces on the GT stage winners podium. I just love it when these young guys get the opportunity to show themselves . Same for the ToCA yesterday, another fresh young face slips away and stays away.

Other thoughts:
Sky doesn't look that strong, and haven't behaved like Sky at all so far. Lil' Richie looks Good though. He will not be underestimated.

Astana are Monsters!!! They appear to be the strongest team in the race. Aru will be given every opportunity to make his bid with this team supporting him.

TS looks the second strongest team thanks to Roman and Mick. Alberto well he will attack whether his legs feel great or not, he just can't help himself. He animates any race and he looks grand in Pink .

The cream has already risen, there is still a long way to go to what is shaping up as an awesome race!

 

[Tank Engine]

I didn't expect any major action today. A nice bit of improvisation from Bertie to set the ball rolling. Astana look really strong and barring accidents or bad days, it seems we have our podium. Fortunately, it looks like there's going to be a big battle to sort out the order.

As for TTs, the later they are in the tour, the better the climbers generally do (even taking into account that the later the TT, the greater the number of riders who treat it almost as a rest day).

 

[carton]

Re:

As for TTs, the later they are in the tour, the better the climbers generally do (even taking into account that the later the TT, the greater the number of riders who treat it almost as a rest day).

This is also probably a factor. But even among the guys who wear themselves out in the mountains, it seems like the Indurains, Armstrongs, Wiggins & Froomes of the world tend to be consistently excellent to superb, while the Contadors & Nibalis have occasional strike-outs and home-runs along with their usual solid showings and the Puritos & Andy Schlecks seem to fluctuate from god-awful to surprisingly decent, regardless of their GC placing.

Anyway, no one here to school me on the bunch times? Is the one-second rule in force?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

Does anyone else thinks Aru starts his sprints too early?
Yesterday I thought he's just miscalculated the effort, but today happened the same, although the outcome is better.

Yeah, but maybe he wanted to catch Chavanel.

Its actually better he didn't catch Chavanel since that would've given Contador a 4 second bonus and Aru 6. This way Aru gets 4 and Contador/Porte 0.

I know it is far from unique to the Giro, but the 10-6-4 time bonus system seems thoroughly counter-intuitive. there is a bigger incentive for beating a rival for third than there is for beating them to second.

Aru would have been worse off (comparative to Contador) had Landa been that little bit stronger to get the three contenders ahead of Chavanel: that can't be a sporting good. It won't be relevant in this race, but it illustrates the perverseness of the allocation.