Giro d'Italia 2018: Stage 20: Susa - Cervinia, 214 KM

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

I'm actually very happy nobody higher up in GC crashed out.
We saw a proper 3 weeks of racing.
What a great race this is. Love the Giro.
Great fans. Great passion for the sport.

Thats a good point. It was been a very 'pure' Giro in that aspect where raw strength, endurance and recovery really has been important and we have had no bad luck and 'what if' scenarios.

No crashes, but still a bunch of the podium contenders completely cracking on a good course which was ridden hard: Pinot, Aru, Chaves and Yates. Throw Dennis into that mix, but that was to be expected. Thats how it should be!

Yes Dennis was not unexpected but of all of those riders it's Dennis the highest on GC.....could the Giro have been more unpredictable this year ?

 

[YavorD]

Well, seing the GC after Gran Sasso .... Is there a GT like this one where 4 of top 5 (all of them good GC riders) after the third MTF to fall that hard ?
I think it was incredibly tough Giro.. And kinda Hesjedal all over again...instead of finish him (Froome) when he was vulnerable, they let him ride...and was punished.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

So we've had a Giro full of surprises resulting into a very predictable top 3.

Yeah, that's actually pretty funny. But no GC riders caught any real bad luck, so for once we got to see what we always hope for: Who's the best, no questions, no excuses. I guess that's tthe reason why the final podium ended up like many predicted.

Yup, but we are lucky, very lucky, that Froome had his fall. If not it would have been a borefest. Im sure of it. Sky and Froome are more fun for the race as chasers. In this regard Froome is better than Wiggins was in everything, he can actually take risks when he really needs to.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

So we've had a Giro full of surprises resulting into a very predictable top 3.

Yeah, that's actually pretty funny. But no GC riders caught any real bad luck, so for once we got to see what we always hope for: Who's the best, no questions, no excuses. I guess that's tthe reason why the final podium ended up like many predicted.

Yup, but we are lucky, very lucky, that Froome had his fall. If not it would have been a borefest. Im sure of it. Sky and Froome are more fun for the race as chasers. In this regard Froome is better than Wiggins was in everything, he can actually take risks when he really needs to.

He would have been mediocre anyway in the first two weeks I believe and I think the opposition would have tried harder to distance him were it not for his crash.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

So we've had a Giro full of surprises resulting into a very predictable top 3.

Yeah, that's actually pretty funny. But no GC riders caught any real bad luck, so for once we got to see what we always hope for: Who's the best, no questions, no excuses. I guess that's tthe reason why the final podium ended up like many predicted.

Yup, but we are lucky, very lucky, that Froome had his fall. If not it would have been a borefest. Im sure of it. Sky and Froome are more fun for the race as chasers. In this regard Froome is better than Wiggins was in everything, he can actually take risks when he really needs to.

Wiggins had one year when he was okay as a climber in a GT, and that was the most laughable climbing route I have ever seen.

I think 2012 Wiggins drops 10 minutes in the mountains in this Giro.

 

[DBotero]

Re: Re:

So we've had a Giro full of surprises resulting into a very predictable top 3.

Yeah, that's actually pretty funny. But no GC riders caught any real bad luck, so for once we got to see what we always hope for: Who's the best, no questions, no excuses. I guess that's tthe reason why the final podium ended up like many predicted.

Yup, but we are lucky, very lucky, that Froome had his fall. If not it would have been a borefest. Im sure of it. Sky and Froome are more fun for the race as chasers. In this regard Froome is better than Wiggins was in everything, he can actually take risks when he really needs to.

Wiggins had one year when he was okay as a climber in a GT, and that was the most laughable climbing route I have ever seen.

I think 2012 Wiggins drops 10 minutes in the mountains in this Giro.

Of course that Wiggins is no Froome,but to say that his only decent climbing was in TDF 2012 is hilarious.He was 4th in TDF 2009,3rd in Vuelta 2011.He showed multiple times he could climb well when he wanted.Wiggins 2012 version doesn't get enough credit imo.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Absolutely insane race. Froome's attack didn't just win him the Giro, it completely reshaped the GC. Yates and Pinot were basically eliminated over 2 days, Pozzovivo dropped off the podium, and various other guys disappeared from the top 10 as well. All of those riders might've struggled anyway, but who knows what would've happened if Froome has stayed in bad shape and we just had Astana/FDJ/Sunweb trying to set the pace instead.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Re: Re:

So we've had a Giro full of surprises resulting into a very predictable top 3.

Yeah, that's actually pretty funny. But no GC riders caught any real bad luck, so for once we got to see what we always hope for: Who's the best, no questions, no excuses. I guess that's tthe reason why the final podium ended up like many predicted.

Yup, but we are lucky, very lucky, that Froome had his fall. If not it would have been a borefest. Im sure of it. Sky and Froome are more fun for the race as chasers. In this regard Froome is better than Wiggins was in everything, he can actually take risks when he really needs to.

Wiggins had one year when he was okay as a climber in a GT, and that was the most laughable climbing route I have ever seen.

I think 2012 Wiggins drops 10 minutes in the mountains in this Giro.

Of course that Wiggins is no Froome,but to say that his only decent climbing was in TDF 2012 is hilarious.He was 4th in TDF 2009,3rd in Vuelta 2011.He showed multiple times he could climb well when he wanted.Wiggins 2012 version doesn't get enough credit imo.

This is true, Wiggo was getting there as a GC rider at Garmin and was just held back by crashes and so on on a few occasions if I remember correctly.

To put it another way, it's easy to think Wiggo just went from being Rohan Dennis to a TDF winner overnight, but that's not how it was at all.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

Absolutely insane race. Froome's attack didn't just win him the Giro, it completely reshaped the GC. Yates and Pinot were basically eliminated over 2 days, Pozzovivo dropped off the podium, and various other guys disappeared from the top 10 as well. All of those riders might've struggled anyway, but who knows what would've happened if Froome has stayed in bad shape and we just had Astana/FDJ/Sunweb trying to set the pace instead.

Yates was 2 minutes down on a 20ish rider lead group before Froome attacked on Friday. Yes, that was largely down to the pace Sky were setting on the Finestre, but he was dropped long before anyone else in the top 10. He was cooked after the TT.

Fair point on the rest, though.

 

[dusty red roads]

Cosmo's take - a great watch, as usual!
http://cyclocosm.com/2018/05/how-the-race-was-won-giro-ditalia-2018-stage-20/