Giro d'Italia 2018 Stage 21: Roma - Roma, 115 KM

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

He's a gift that keeps on giving.

And by "giving" I mean "giving me the urge to bash my head against a wall"

 

[burning]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

Pozzo should fight this in court, there was no valid reason for neutralizing the race.

What did Pozzo have to do with this?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

An interesting race for Bennett. On the one hand he won his first three GT stages and was the fastest sprinter on the race. On the other hand he was also repeatedly beaten by Viviani’s clever decision making and Quickstep’s outstanding teamwork. He will obviously take a lot of confidence from the wins, but for his future development it’s just as important that he learn from being out thought.

Viviani deserves a lot of plaudits. He’s not the fastest of the big sprint guns in a brute force drag race, but he’s probably the smartest so he doesn’t need to be - between his decision making and the strength of QS they make sure that it doesn’t come down to a brute force drag race more often than not.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Pozzo should fight this in court, there was no valid reason for neutralizing the race.

What did Pozzo have to do with this?

Only GC rider in the front group.

I'm not gonna be the judge about whether or not neutralising the GC was necessary, but I'm hard pressed to believe the route was so dangerous the Pink Jersey Group needed to take it so careful they lost 10 minutes.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Pozzo should fight this in court, there was no valid reason for neutralizing the race.

What did Pozzo have to do with this?

Only GC rider in the front group.

I'm not gonna be the judge about whether or not neutralising the GC was necessary, but I'm hard pressed to believe the route was so dangerous the Pink Jersey Group needed to take it so careful they lost 10 minutes.

Ah, well he knew the race was neutralized so I don't know what the fuss is about regarding him. He had something to say about it himself?

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here. Before 2017 ratings were split across more than one channel, at least in Europe.

It would be a disaster if the ratings weren't up for just Eurosport.

Eurosport sucks anyway, terrible commentators and frequent ads. When Italian races were still shown on Sporza things were much, much better.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's for Eurosport. For the Giro, it would make sense that their numbers are up, since they signed some exclusivity deal, meaning that viewers in a number of countries have nowhere to go but web or Eurosport.

Edit: Might as well say it twice in slightly different words.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here.

Don't you think that has something to do with the lack of Flemish GT talent?

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here. Before 2017 ratings were split across more than one channel, at least in Europe.

It would be a disaster if the ratings weren't up for just Eurosport.

Eurosport sucks anyway, terrible commentators and frequent ads. When Italian races were still shown on Sporza things were much, much better.

Nobody cares about Belgium

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here.

Don't you think that has something to do with the lack of Flemish GT talent?

Nah, it's mostly because of Eurosport buying up exclusive rights. Less people are interested now because Sporza at least was ad free and had better comentators. There's been a lack of Flemish GT talent for decades, so that can't explain the sudden lack of interest here.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here. Before 2017 ratings were split across more than one channel, at least in Europe.

It would be a disaster if the ratings weren't up for just Eurosport.

Eurosport sucks anyway, terrible commentators and frequent ads. When Italian races were still shown on Sporza things were much, much better.

And maybe that's why fewer people are watching. Because of the terrible coverage, not because they wouldn't watch if it was shown somewhere else.

Pozzo should fight this in court, there was no valid reason for neutralizing the race.

What did Pozzo have to do with this?

Only GC rider in the front group.

I'm not gonna be the judge about whether or not neutralising the GC was necessary, but I'm hard pressed to believe the route was so dangerous the Pink Jersey Group needed to take it so careful they lost 10 minutes.

Ah, well he knew the race was neutralized so I don't know what the fuss is about regarding him. He had something to say about it himself?

I think the logic here is that if the GC hadn't been neutralised, then he would've won the overall.
Of course if the GC hadn't been neutralised, then he probably wouldn't have been the only GC rider in the front group...

 

[Bardamu]

Eurosport will always have less viewers than Sporza I guess. I must say I didn't mind van Belleghem and Kroon that much, although at times I wanted to know what José Decauwer his opinion was on the race.
Eurosport NL/BE needs to sack their interviewers though, they are truly horrid and I hope they'll only let José Been do the races I don't watch because I tend to change the channel when she is on.

 

[jflemaire]

Re: Re:

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here.

Well, since none of the national broadcasters is showing the Giro in Belgium it stands to reason ratings are down. I had to resort to crappy low quality Eurosport with billions of insufferable ads rather than HD with no ads on Sporza. You need to be really motivated to keep your interest in such circumstances (especially when Dutch is not your first language...).

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here.

Well, since none of the national broadcasters is showing the Giro in Belgium it stands to reason ratings are down. I had to resort to crappy low quality Eurosport with billions of insufferable ads rather than HD with no ads on Sporza. You need to be really motivated to keep your interest in such circumstances (especially when Dutch is not your first language...).

Judging by your location I'm gonna guess your first language is French.
Guess I never thought about this before, but Belgian viewers can't pick what language they want?

 

[oldcrank]

Re: Re:

Is the course really that bad? How is this so different from a cobbled stage earlier in a race? I don't understand this, is it simply because they feel like they shouldn't have any opportunity for difficulty on the final day of a GT?

The teams with the elite sprinters battling for a stage win don't like the final,
and in many eyes the most prestigious, sprint stage screwed up by teams that
are fighting to keep a top eight or ten overall on GC and don't have the required
skill-set to be mixing it up with experienced lead-out trains.

Oh, so it was the at the request of sprinters' teams, not the teams of guys near the top of GC? That's more tolerable to me as I can understand them not wanting the GC guys mixing in there - seems like that should just be decided prior to the start of a GT though, instead of partway through the final stage.

Yes, Cycling Weekly has reported that it was Viviani who first approached the commissaires.
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/r...ts-from-stage-21-of-the-giro-ditalia-2-381436

 

[Robert5091]

Regardless who asked first, the commissaires should have said, "what are you getting paid for? Get on with it!"

 

[jflemaire]

Re: Re:

Judging by your location I'm gonna guess your first language is French.
Guess I never thought about this before, but Belgian viewers can't pick what language they want?

There is no "national" broadcasters anymore; it's either the French speaking services or the Dutch speaking ones. Eurosport is available in either languages depending on your television provider. Mine provides Eurosport 1 in both languages but no Eurosport 2 at all; since Eurosport France broadcasted the Giro on their second channel I was stuck on the Dutch channel. I know, it's complicated :razz:

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Judging by your location I'm gonna guess your first language is French.
Guess I never thought about this before, but Belgian viewers can't pick what language they want?

There is no "national" broadcasters anymore; it's either the French speaking services or the Dutch speaking ones. Eurosport is available in either languages depending on your television provider. Mine provides Eurosport 1 in both languages but no Eurosport 2 at all; since Eurosport France broadcasted the Giro on their second channel I was stuck on the Dutch channel. I know, it's complicated :razz:

Time to learn some Dutch.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

Yikes, cycling has become such a joke. No wonder TV ratings are down year over year and it's becoming more difficult to find long-term sponsors.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/09/26/eurosport-commits-to-cycling-after-ratings-jump/

Lol?

That's Eurosport. Ratings are way down here in Belgium, for example, ever since Eurosport bought exclusive rights to the Giro. Interest in the Giro is at an all-time low here.

Don't you think that has something to do with the lack of Flemish GT talent?

4 stages won by Belgian born riders: that's not bad for them.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

I didn't watch today, but the neutralization was pure bollocks. I really don't hope Froome had anything to do with it, as that would reflect quite poorly on both him and the organizers (instead of just poorly on the organizers).

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Sénéchal said on TV that Froome took the decision to "cancel" the stage, because he's "the boss of the race".

I didn't watch today, but the neutralization was pure bollocks. I really don't hope Froome had anything to do with it, as that would reflect quite poorly on both him and the organizers (instead of just poorly on the organizers).

It’s pretty clear from the Bennett interview that Sky were pushing for the neutralization (although it may not have been only them)

“"They were discussing what they were doing in the race. Sky got their way too easily, in that they got the race neutralised just to suit them," Bennett said. "At the end of the day, we still had to race, so why do they get to go easy? It was equally as dangerous for us."”

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Just seen a replay and was highly entertained by Bonifazio in the sprint. He got successively knocked out of the way by four riders in a row, including both Viviani and Bennett. Also noticed that Viviani seriously lost traction on the cobbles at the end of the sprint. His back wheel was flailing around wildly. The sprint would have been close if he’d been able to get more of his power down.

Also I still find it very funny that Sean Kelly’s main advice to his protege, Bennett, is now, as it has been for years, that he needs to be more aggressive in the approach to the sprint and knock more guys out of the way. Kelly is irredeemably old school.

 

[pastronef]

Dumo started the netralization request, not Sky/Froome

http://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/362533/dumoulin-aanstichter-neutralisatie-laatste-rit-giro-ditalia.html?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter