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Giro d'Italia 2016 St 20 Guillestre–S.Anna di Vinadio 134 km

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Hopefully Cunego can get some points to confirm his win, even if he isn't the best climber (not even in the breakaways has he been best climber).

For Astana, same tactics as today I guess? Put two from Fuglsang/Zeits/Scarponi/Kangert up the road, make a small group over Bonette and treat Lombarda like the final climb.
 
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luckyboy said:
Hopefully Cunego can get some points to confirm his win, even if he isn't the best climber (not even in the breakaways has he been best climber).

For Astana, same tactics as today I guess? Put two from Fuglsang/Zeits/Scarponi/Kangert up the road, make a small group over Bonette and treat Lombarda like the final climb.
Im on the other side - hopefully Nieve will win it. Both would be good winners, but I would generally like to see the best climber win and his displays in Cividale and today were really good!
 
Feb 3, 2015
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What about Dombrowski, Taaramae or Firsanov? They took it relatively easy today.

Also break might not get a chance to make it. Shark will be hungry for these bonus seconds.
 
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phil-i-am said:
Well, you know, Simon Clarke doesn't necessarily have to ride for Chavito. He's not his teammate anymore.
Good point. I was counting him when I was thinking of Cannondale's climbers. Funny how the mind works. Maybe Svein Tuft has enough form to manage break hunting duties?
phil-i-am said:
Don't have to mention he worked at least as much as Valverde did in the second group?
"He worked as hard as Valverde" is not exactly the highest of compliments. When it comes to racing, at least.

I'm not saying he's sandbagging or he's wasting a great team (didn't realize that it was Petrov that had come back from the break in Agnello). Or that a Giro top-5 is something to sneeze at, either. But for a guy who's already podiumed a GT, he's missing a little flair. When he's had the camera on in he seems to split his time between looking annoyed, being dragged up by an ill Uran, sitting on an off-form Zakarin, and flicking his elbow. Too much grinta and too little grazia for my tastes.
 
Feb 3, 2015
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Try Rai! I guess you have enough cycling knowledge to see what's going on and enjoy the race anyway! I'm not Italian but love to watch races like Giro or MSR in italian television. It just somehow helps me to feel the race better :D
 
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jsem94 said:
CheckMyPecs said:
Any nice descents for Lo Squalo?
Just look at the map. The answer is no. Barely any hairpins, like today.
The descent has decided today's stage so...
It's difficult to keep concentration going down from 3000 meters while constantly having to add up speed through meadows and valleys. High speed descents can be equally demanding like technical ones.
 
Aug 16, 2013
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I always hope the best possible climber wins the mountains jersey. Nieve is an incredible agressive rider, and even catched and did drop Chavito today on Risoul after being in the break all day.

Then you deserve that jersey imo.
 
Re: Giro d'Italia 2016 St 20 Guillestre–S.Anna di Vinadio 13

I'm not so sure about Valverde. The problem for him is the altitude which is also the reason why I fear he wont do anything, but maybe he will still try something on the Bonette. If he has teammates in front he could get a decent advantage and who knows, 1:49 isnt that much. If Nibali can't drop Chaves after he attacks him early on the Lombarde its well possible that they will watch each other for a long time...
Moreover let's not forget Valverde now doesnt even have a podium anymore. Ofc. to get those seconds on Kruijswijk he doesnt nee a long range attack, but if Kruijswijk isnt completely bad he at least has to attack which is already more than some people here expect.
 
Jun 30, 2014
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phil-i-am said:
What about Dombrowski, Taaramae or Firsanov? They took it relatively easy today.

Also break might not get a chance to make it. Shark will be hungry for these bonus seconds.
Dombrowski will probably try something, Isola 2000 is one of his favourite training climbs.
 
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Valv.Piti said:
Superb stage tomorrow.

One of those good days when you wake up early, spend 2 hours on the bike and 5 in front of the TV. Gotta love it!
Yeahhhhh :D . 'sounds like a plan...too bad I'll be at work :mad: . Too bad. Sore legs on the couch watching great racing, it doesn't get much better than that.
 
Re: Giro d'Italia 2016 St 20 Guillestre–S.Anna di Vinadio 13

Gigs_98 said:
I'm not so sure about Valverde. The problem for him is the altitude which is also the reason why I fear he wont do anything, but maybe he will still try something on the Bonette. If he has teammates in front he could get a decent advantage and who knows, 1:49 isnt that much. If Nibali can't drop Chaves after he attacks him early on the Lombarde its well possible that they will watch each other for a long time...
Moreover let's not forget Valverde now doesnt even have a podium anymore. Ofc. to get those seconds on Kruijswijk he doesnt nee a long range attack, but if Kruijswijk isnt completely bad he at least has to attack which is already more than some people here expect.
It all depends on SK. If he's not too beat up, I don't worry for him. He'll drop Valverde before the last climb, provided that he doesn't get spooked in the descents. For Valverde to podium, he needs to be with SK in the final climb, attack strong, explosive, who knows?
No predictions for me: I'm wrong every single time :eek: . At least a broken clock gets it right twice a day. I get it right twice a year. I had Contador/Malhao, I'll keep the second charm for the TdF, hopefully.
 
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Tonton said:
Valv.Piti said:
Superb stage tomorrow.

One of those good days when you wake up early, spend 2 hours on the bike and 5 in front of the TV. Gotta love it!
Yeahhhhh :D . 'sounds like a plan...too bad I'll be at work :mad: . Too bad. Sore legs on the couch watching great racing, it doesn't get much better than that.

You're sick tomorrow. I guess you're not, but you had been if it had been Pinot?! Maybe not, I have no clue to how an adult life works.

But yeah, its heaven. Thats what I love about the Tour more than anything else, the opportunities in the Giro are very sparse.
 
I wonder if the GC contenders will be going for the first intermediate sprint. It's at 14.3 km about 3/4 up Vars (at 7-8 %). I wouldn't be surprised if both Astana and Orica would go for that sprint.
 
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This is how it is going to go down.

The GC rider who has saved - by far - the most energy during the three weeks will win the Giro. The greatness of wheelsucking shall be highlighted for all to see.

Nothing much happens on Vars. An average break gets away (some of which is caught on Bonette, the rest on Lombarda), and by the top of the climb it is Astana running the show at the head of the peloton. Kruiswick is hanging on. Maybe he can keep his podium spot?

Not so fast. 5kms into Bonette and he has unfortunately cracked. Not unfortunate for Valverde though, who decides that he is not going to attack today. Another GT podium awaits.

Not so fast. Remember Fuglsang? He was a guy who was quite strong at the beginning of the race, and rarely sighted since. Well he takes up the pacemaking and destroys most of the peloton. This isn't just a 1km assasination like OGE on Agnello though. With 5kms to go Scarponi returns to the front, continuing the torture. Nibali is in third wheel, feeling like he is about to win the Giro.

Nibali wanted to save Scarponi for Lombarda, but he's heard via race radio that Chaves is dangling off the back. The smiling Columbian smiles no more, cracking big time.

And by which time he has no teammates to support him. OGE didn't put anyone in the break either, and the forum explodes.

Valverde smiles some more.

Not so fast. 2kms from the top of Bonette, well above the dreaded 2,000 metres of altitude level, Valverde begins to crack. Realising this, Nibali himself now attacks; kinda illogical, given that the Spaniard is no threat to his GC, and Esteban has already lost over a minute, but the forum explodes (positively) nevertheless.

Only one rider is able to follow Nibali. The mythical Majka.

Mythical, for it is said that he has never put his nose to the wind.

The happiness of the forum (anticipating that Valverde might lose his podium), quickly turns to sadness with the realisation that said rider might be Majka instead.

Nibali tows Majka down the next descent, and the time gaps open further. At the bottom of Lambarda it is a minute to Valverde and over three minutes to Chaves. But here is where it gets really interesting.

Rafal wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but on the early slopes of Lombarda, Nibali doesn't seem as strong as before. He hears the word "attack!" being blasted into his earpiece by his director sportif. "Attack? What is this foreign term?" Rafal wonders. After a while the dialogue is added to: "Attack Rafal, and you can win Giro!" Majka had gone to the school of Valverde and had never thought of anything beyond a podium. But hearing the word win now, it sounded quite nice.

So Majka attacked. Vincenzo was immediately gaped.

It wasn't exactly Landis La Tousierre like, but Rafal quickly disappeared into the distance.

Behind the action, Valverde had recovered somewhat and was now reeling the toothless shark in. With 4kms left to climb he reached him, by which point Nibali had already lost more than two minutes to Majka. Couldn't Valverde risk it all and win the Giro? Maybe, but the latest time check had Chaves more than two minutes behind him. "So why not just wheelsuck my way to third place?" the much loved Spaniard thought to himself.

The Italian was bleeding time though, so much so that Chaves was coming back. By the time that Valverde heard that the Columbian was within ninety seconds, and thus ahead of Valverde in the overall on the road, it was too late....logically. They had just crested the final major climb of the day. But Valverde had unlimited confidence in his 'mur' abilities. "I will make up the time on the hill top finish" he reasoned, "and if it's touch and go for the podium, then I always have my sprint."

If it had been anyone other than Valverde - or Majka for that matter - Nibali would have won the Giro. Because they would have given the struggling Sicilian the respite that he needed by taking some pulls. But contrary to Alberto Contador's motto; "The second place is no good", Valverde's was; "The podium place is more than enough."

Majka was continuing to gain time with every pedal rev. That was until he reached Mikel Nieve, the final remnant of the days breakaway, and a return to wheelsucking was just too good to resist. So he sat on the Sky rider, for the remainder of Lombarda, and then on the descent, and then even all the way up the final climb of the day, the Sant Anna Di Vinadio. Normally this would have spelt doom for Majka's bid for pink, but Nieve is unusually strong for a breakaway rider, and Sky riders never worry too much about being liked, so he paced Rafal just fast enough so as to take him to the finish with enough of an advantage over Nibali - and the rest - to win the Giro. Well it wasn't quite enough, but Mikel felt that after all of the hard work that Rafal had done throughout the three weeks, that he ought to allow him to take the stage. Those extra bonus seconds would be enough to deny Nibali the Giro.

Well they wouldn't have been if he'd been able to take third. But Alejandro showed him a clean pair of heels in their sprint for third. Sweet revenge for that week two sprint.

The forum was about to go into meltdown, but on the final 2.5 km ascent, little Esteban Chaves dug deep; just enough as it turned out, to kick Valverde off the podium by a single second. World peace was achieved. Until Froome beat Contador in July.

BTW, there was a power outage in Gigs' area, so he didn't see any of this :p
 
Aug 31, 2014
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Well, let's hope Kruijswijk or Nibali takes it. Chaves winning would be such an anonymous, forgettable victory. Being able to remember who the '16 Giro three years later is better. Red and blue jerseys also up for grabs, Nieve and Ulissi to be very active.
 
I think this might be the happiest with a GC I've ended up in a long time, I'd be delighted with any of the top 3 winning at this point

hell given what it would take I'd probably even be delighted if Valverde pulled a rabbit out of his hat too
 
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Praying Mantis said:
Well, let's hope Kruijswijk or Nibali takes it. Chaves winning would be such an anonymous, forgettable victory. Being able to remember who the '16 Giro three years later is better. Red and blue jerseys also up for grabs, Nieve and Ulissi to be very active.
Seriously?
 

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