Giro d'Italia 2020, stage 18: Pinzolo - Laghi di Cancano 207 km

[Escarabajo]

Kelderman is leading only because a rider stronger than him is in his team (as we saw on Piancavallo and today).

Which supports my point of tactics!

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Neither TT seems especially comparable TBF, just adds to the general air of unpredictability.

 

[ppanther92]

Looking up the TT results:
Stage 1:

• Almeida: 0:22
• Bilbao 0:59
• Hindley 1:15
• Kelderman 1:28
• Geoghegan 2:04

Stage 14:

• Almeida 1:31
• Kelderman 1:47
• Geoghegan 2:24
• Bilbao 2:53
• Hindley 3:39

No idea what happened to TGH in the first TT (didn't go all out? That could be costly...), and yeah, stage 21 TTs can be weird, but I'm not seeing a big advantage for him on any of the other contenders.

Stage 1 was a start number lottery due to the wind.

 

[richwallone]

De Gendt came into the finish with Antonio, il piccolo squalo, almost 32 minutes behind...

 

[Leinster]

Am I alone in thinking Almeida isn't out of this? He's at 2.15, likely to gain 30s to 1.00 over all the others in the TT, and Sestrieres is a stage that will potentially reward tactical racing rather than just W/kg.

If there was a chance of echelons tomorrow, he'd be locked in.

 

[Eclipse]

Kelderman is a dumba**. Sorry but can't get around to like him... Stop being so candid with your stoopidity...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1319292363328507911

View: https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1319292363328507911?s=20

Talk about guaranteeing he doesn't on Saturday lmao

The more I think on it the more I think Tao rode a very mature race today. It would have been really easy to get desperate seeing pink so close but he managed two opponents well and if he has done it with enough reserved that he can still go hard again on the weekend that puts him in a great position

 

[ppanther92]

Am I alone in thinking Almeida isn't out of this? He's at 2.15, likely to gain 30s to 1.00 over all the others in the TT, and Sestrieres is a stage that will potentially reward tactical racing rather than just W/kg.

If there was a chance of echelons tomorrow, he'd be locked in.

I would argue its more likely that now he is not in pink anymore, he will lose further in Sestriere. But not totally out probably.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Talk about guaranteeing he doesn't on Saturday lmao

The more I think on it the more I think Tao rode a very mature race today. It would have been really easy to get desperate seeing pink so close but he managed two opponents well and if he has done it with enough reserved that he can still go hard again on the weekend that puts him in a great position

I disagree. He is arguably the favourite, at the very least he still has a very real chance to win. But he should have gone all out to bury Kelderman and not worried about the stage.

 

[Finn84]

41 riders finished within half an hour of the winner.

 

[trevim]

Am I alone in thinking Almeida isn't out of this? He's at 2.15, likely to gain 30s to 1.00 over all the others in the TT, and Sestrieres is a stage that will potentially reward tactical racing rather than just W/kg.

If there was a chance of echelons tomorrow, he'd be locked in.

I doubt he'll gain a lot in the TT, last day of a 3rd week in first GT, surely the other guys endurance will come to play. Also Sestriere only looks straightforward because it replaces Agnello and Izoard, it's still a difficult mountain day where he can lose time if legs aren't there.

 

[TMP402]

Looking up the TT results:
Stage 1:

• Almeida: 0:22
• Bilbao 0:59
• Hindley 1:15
• Kelderman 1:28
• Geoghegan 2:04

Stage 14:

• Almeida 1:31
• Kelderman 1:47
• Geoghegan 2:24
• Bilbao 2:53
• Hindley 3:39

No idea what happened to TGH in the first TT (didn't go all out? That could be costly...), and yeah, stage 21 TTs can be weird, but I'm not seeing a big advantage for him on any of the other contenders.

Worth also looking at Tirreno Adriatico's 10km flat ITT from September -

15 Kelderman 0:47
31 Geoghagan Hart 1:00
41 Hindley 1:06

 

[SafeBet]

Colossal gaps at the finish.

 

[Pricey_sky]

I disagree. He is arguably the favourite, at the very least he still has a very real chance to win. But he should have gone all out to bury Kelderman and not worried about the stage.

If Tao loses this race by a few seconds then today wasn’t the problem, he put himself back in the race and kept Hindley within reach.

The problem was Sunday, he only had eyes on the stage win but may well have been able to attack and drop Kelderman, with Hindley at that point obviously pacing Kelderman.

 

[bob.a.feet]

44 riders haven't finished yet; they have around 12 minutes to make it to the line.

 

[richwallone]

Colossal gaps at the finish.

Yep... 15 minute buffer for the last 50, or so, to arrive within the time limit:

Giro d'Italia 2020 Stage 18 results

Jai Hindley is the winner of Giro d'Italia 2020 Stage 18, before Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pello Bilbao. Wilco Kelderman was leader in GC.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[TMP402]

If Tao loses this race by a few seconds then today wasn’t the problem, he put himself back in the race and kept Hindley within reach.

The problem was Sunday, he only had eyes on the stage win but may well have been able to attack and drop Kelderman, with Hindley at that point obviously pacing Kelderman.

Well, look at his awful performance on Stage 1's ITT. If he loses by a few seconds, there will be a thousand what ifs.

 

[Eclipse]

I disagree. He is arguably the favourite, at the very least he still has a very real chance to win. But he should have gone all out to bury Kelderman and not worried about the stage.

The problem with going all out is that it's not a given he drops Hindley who may still sit on and jump him and then beat him on Saturday by enough to survive a TT.

It would have been ideal to bury Kelderman here but I think after today if he's got more in the tank he's going to feel they can do it again on Saturday by enough to see this home vs Wilco while Hindley almost certainly needs to be in the lead before the TT.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yep... 15 minute buffer for the last 50, or so, to arrive within the time limit:

Giro d'Italia 2020 Stage 18 results

Jai Hindley is the winner of Giro d'Italia 2020 Stage 18, before Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pello Bilbao. Wilco Kelderman was leader in GC.

www.procyclingstats.com

How many riders are even left in the race? Yesterday had 136 finishers, but how many DNFs today?
Anyway; now 133 man has finished, and Boaro and Visconti are out... so... we're missing... one?

 

[richwallone]

Most guys are in, 133 and all, 51 minutes behind the winner, well within the time limit Good...

 

[richwallone]

How many riders are even left in the race? Yesterday had 136 finishers, but how many DNFs today?
Anyway; now 133 man has finished, and Boaro and Visconti are out... so... we're missing... one?

I think it's just one unaccounted rider now... But don't quote me on that

 

[TMP402]

The problem with going all out is that it's not a given he drops Hindley who may still sit on and jump him and then beat him on Saturday by enough to survive a TT.

It would have been ideal to bury Kelderman here but I think after today if he's got more in the tank he's going to feel they can do it again on Saturday by enough to see this home vs Wilco while Hindley almost certainly needs to be in the lead before the TT.

Maybe it's even to TGH's advantage to have Kelderman in pink so that Sunweb have difficult decisions to make.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Well, look at his awful performance on Stage 1's ITT. If he loses by a few seconds, there will be a thousand what ifs.

He said he didn’t feel good the first few days. So not too much he could have done differently there.

 

[hrotha]

Most guys are in, 133 and all, 51 minutes behind the winner, well within the time limit Good...

How is 51 minutes "well within" the time limit. Time limits are such a joke.

 

[TMP402]

He said he didn’t feel good the first few days. So not too much he could have done differently there.

Fair enough.

 

[Leinster]

I doubt he'll gain a lot in the TT, last day of a 3rd week in first GT, surely the other guys endurance will come to play. Also Sestriere only looks straightforward because it replaces Agnello and Izoard, it's still a difficult mountain day where he can lose time if legs aren't there.

I know, a lot of what ifs, but I thought he looked fresher at the finish than Kelderman today, and I don't think his experience counts for much less than Hart and Hindley's (both only a couple of years older, neither of them have made a team selection for a TdF yet, none of the top 5 have been a team's GC leader in a GT before)