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Giro d'Italia 2018 stage 19: Venaria Reale – Jafferau 184km

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Re:

Valv.Piti said:
So, the best climb in cycling.... Finestre, Mortirolo or?
Depends on circumstance.

Finestre has more capacity to be raced passively

But once it's raced like crazy, it's also harder to bring things back.


I'd say Finestre/Sestriere and Mortirolo/Aprica are more or less equal. Mortirolo is a bit more reliable in creating action cause it's a little steeper and it's usually earlier, so at a moment when the GC isn't decided yet. It also connects better to other climbs, and you can actually put real monsters before it.

Finestre is probably better for stuff like today, 80km out.

But today was incredibly reliant on circumstance. As unprecedented as Froome's ride, it also never happens that the strongest rider in the race finds himself 3 minutes down in stage 19 and with only Finestre at 80km to go as reasonable platform for an assault on GC. Normally a rider this strong would've had the GC locked up by now.
 
I've just finished watching it.. as well as reading posts simultaneously.
Epic stage. Epic win.
As you all know The Dark Knight has been declining for at least 2 years. Marvellous. I hope he will be declining in the same way for yearsBTW.
BTW, what I've just read, Dawg has just gained some fans :):
@Pippo_San, Moose McKnuckles, DNP-Old, Valv.Piti, Gigs_98, DFA123.. Forgive me if I omit anybody.
Haters are the same: LaFlo ('I hate him'), Salvarani. I don't care.
 
Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
Yeah it was a fantastic ride by Froome but there's just too much stuff around him for me to enjoy that. I'd like it more if it was Pozzovivo or something
Kinda where I am with it.

Did anyone figure out what the hell Lulu was doing?

whittashau said:
https://twitter.com/LottoJumbo_road/status/1000105610489286662

George Bennett summing things up to utter perfection
That is brilliant.
 
Re: Re:

Bardamu said:
DFA123 said:
topt said:
which performance do you think was more impressive; Landis 2006 Tour stage 17 or Frome today ?
Landis. The quality of opposition he was up against was much higher than what Froome faced today.
Was it, really? Apart from the fact that they were all juiced up, I'm not sure they were stronger.

The riders behind Landis on that stage in order:
Carlos Sastre (ESP) Team CSC + 5' 42"
Christophe Moreau (FRA) AG2R Prévoyance + 5' 58"
Damiano Cunego (ITA) Lampre–Fondital + 6' 40"
Michael Boogerd (NED) Rabobank + 7' 08"
Fränk Schleck (LUX) Team CSC s.t.
Óscar Pereiro (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne–Illes Balears s.t.
Andreas Klöden (GER) T-Mobile Team s.t.
Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) Euskaltel–Euskadi s.t.
Cadel Evans (AUS) Davitamon–Lotto

Missing:
Basso, Ullrich, Vino, Contador

I think we underestimate the riders of the present.
 
Re: Re:

vedrafjord said:
Bardamu said:
DFA123 said:
topt said:
which performance do you think was more impressive; Landis 2006 Tour stage 17 or Frome today ?
Landis. The quality of opposition he was up against was much higher than what Froome faced today.
Was it, really? Apart from the fact that they were all juiced up, I'm not sure they were stronger.

The riders behind Landis on that stage in order:
Carlos Sastre (ESP) Team CSC + 5' 42"
Christophe Moreau (FRA) AG2R Prévoyance + 5' 58"
Damiano Cunego (ITA) Lampre–Fondital + 6' 40"
Michael Boogerd (NED) Rabobank + 7' 08"
Fränk Schleck (LUX) Team CSC s.t.
Óscar Pereiro (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne–Illes Balears s.t.
Andreas Klöden (GER) T-Mobile Team s.t.
Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) Euskaltel–Euskadi s.t.
Cadel Evans (AUS) Davitamon–Lotto

Missing:
Basso, Ullrich, Vino, Contador

I think we underestimate the riders of the present.

I think you underestimate the riders of the past. Those riders would be doing fine today.
 
Re: Re:

movingtarget said:
vedrafjord said:
Bardamu said:
DFA123 said:
topt said:
which performance do you think was more impressive; Landis 2006 Tour stage 17 or Frome today ?
Landis. The quality of opposition he was up against was much higher than what Froome faced today.
Was it, really? Apart from the fact that they were all juiced up, I'm not sure they were stronger.

The riders behind Landis on that stage in order:
Carlos Sastre (ESP) Team CSC + 5' 42"
Christophe Moreau (FRA) AG2R Prévoyance + 5' 58"
Damiano Cunego (ITA) Lampre–Fondital + 6' 40"
Michael Boogerd (NED) Rabobank + 7' 08"
Fränk Schleck (LUX) Team CSC s.t.
Óscar Pereiro (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne–Illes Balears s.t.
Andreas Klöden (GER) T-Mobile Team s.t.
Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) Euskaltel–Euskadi s.t.
Cadel Evans (AUS) Davitamon–Lotto

Missing:
Basso, Ullrich, Vino, Contador

I think we underestimate the riders of the present.

I think you underestimate the riders of the past. Those riders would be doing fine today.
in the future of their careers they would do things, between them at that time they had 1 GC win (and Cunego was nowhere near his Giro winning form, while Dumoulin is not that far from his) and 2 other podiums if i work it out correctly, which is not that different to what the current contenders to Froome have now (1 & 1).
 
Dumoulin is better than last year. Of that Im convinced after today. He is more consistent in the mountains and especially in the multi mountain stages he seems incredibly strong. Just Froome since he magically got better is another level, even much better than Yates in the first two weeks
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
DFA123 said:
topt said:
which performance do you think was more impressive; Landis 2006 Tour stage 17 or Frome today ?
Landis. The quality of opposition he was up against was much higher than what Froome faced today.
I'm not so sure. It's not like all good gc riders of that era were in that tour as most of them were banned. The opposition was probably still stronger but not by much
I also meant it a bit more broadly than that. Not just the individual riders, but the quality of the chase group as a whole. The chasers were in a much bigger group on the Landis stage, with domestiques, and were much fresher than the Froome chase group, having not already been put on their limit by a climb as hard as Finestre.
 
Re: Re:

Hugo Koblet said:
RedheadDane said:
Still, this whenever we get a stage profile like this, it's full of posts on the morning of the stage with fans fantasising along the lines of "(INSERT FAVE RIDER NAME HERE) to launch a suicidal attack 90km out". Well, today someone did. If you can't enjoy watching that, you're following the wrong sport.

I feel like I'm repeating myself here. It was not just the fact that it was Froome who launched that 80+ K attack which made me unable to enjoy the stage, it was the fact that Yates, a guy a sympathies with very much, cracked and had to watch all GC aspirations sail away in the distance.
I guess part of me just have this weird tendency to prefer guys who've never won big races, in this case GTs, over guys who have plenty of wins already. Which means I honestly don't know what I would've done if it had been any of the other guys in the top-10-as-it-was-before-the stage (Froome and Dumoulin being the only ones who've won GTs before) who'd launched the attack, I might have literally split into two different people...
Two RedheadDanes, now there's a scary thought!
What does it matter that it's Froome? I couldn't care less if it was Froome, Contador, Leipheimer or Landis. This was as entertaining as we'll ever get, and that's why I watch cycling, to be entertained.

Because of my - admittedly rather weird - tendency to prefer first-time winners over guys who have plenty wins already. I was simply too gutted for Yates to truly enjoy it...
 
Re:

armchairclimber said:
Watching a replay, noticing a couple of things .... when Yates popped, Kiri dropped back to ride with his group. Keep tabs. Froome with a wad of gels, feeding Lulu.... I missed that yesterday.
Froome ate a lot of gels.
I think that was Puccio, Kiryienka had already dropped and abandonded the race at that point.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
armchairclimber said:
Watching a replay, noticing a couple of things .... when Yates popped, Kiri dropped back to ride with his group. Keep tabs. Froome with a wad of gels, feeding Lulu.... I missed that yesterday.
Froome ate a lot of gels.
I think that was Puccio, Kiryienka had already dropped and abandonded the race at that point.

Yeah, cheers, had just realised that. I they sometimes look similar on the bike (to me anyways).

Finestre doesn't look any less brutal or astonishing on a second viewing. Puccio's stint on the front shed yates and most of the peloton.
 
Re:

armchairclimber said:
Watching a replay, noticing a couple of things .... when Yates popped, Puccio dropped back to ride with his group. Keep tabs. Froome with a wad of gels, feeding Lulu.... I missed that yesterday.
Froome ate a lot of gels.

In 2008, he did a great stage in the queen stage of the Tour, in his first Gran Tour, in Barloworld. He was at the botton of Alp D Huez with the best after Galibier and Croix de fer. Amazing for a rider with so little experience in cycling. He was asked to take some gels, he refused and he lost a lot of time on Alp D Huez...although he got a decent 30th place that day. He has learnt about his mistakes. For an attack and a stage like this... it is very important to eat properly. He spoke about that yesterday at the end of the stage.
 
Re: Re:

movingtarget said:
vedrafjord said:
Bardamu said:
DFA123 said:
topt said:
which performance do you think was more impressive; Landis 2006 Tour stage 17 or Frome today ?
Landis. The quality of opposition he was up against was much higher than what Froome faced today.
Was it, really? Apart from the fact that they were all juiced up, I'm not sure they were stronger.

The riders behind Landis on that stage in order:
Carlos Sastre (ESP) Team CSC + 5' 42"
Christophe Moreau (FRA) AG2R Prévoyance + 5' 58"
Damiano Cunego (ITA) Lampre–Fondital + 6' 40"
Michael Boogerd (NED) Rabobank + 7' 08"
Fränk Schleck (LUX) Team CSC s.t.
Óscar Pereiro (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne–Illes Balears s.t.
Andreas Klöden (GER) T-Mobile Team s.t.
Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) Euskaltel–Euskadi s.t.
Cadel Evans (AUS) Davitamon–Lotto

Missing:
Basso, Ullrich, Vino, Contador

I think we underestimate the riders of the present.

I think you underestimate the riders of the past. Those riders would be doing fine today.
I'm sure they would do fine , but they weren't world class opposition. 2006 was a poor man's Tour due to Puerto and the crash of Valverde.
 
Re: Re:

silvergrenade said:
Brullnux said:
Taxus4a said:
Is there a time of climbing Finestre yesterday? At climbing records there is nothing.
1:04, or thereabouts. Jafferau significantly slower than Nibali/Santambrogio in 2013, as you might expect. I don't know about sestriere, though and I am most interested in it.
Here you go:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/viewtopic.php?p=2266992#p2266992
It doesn't tell me anything i didn't know, but i appreciate the thought
 

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