Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2021 stage 11: Perugia – Montalcino 162 km

[BlueRoads]

Porn moment again. Nice.

 

[Publiuszam]

Evens sighting on Tv. He looks kinda old.

 

[MrTea1976]

I think I'll watch Andalucia for a while. The benefits of a 4 screen homeworking setting.

 

[BlueRoads]

So, who will win the stage?
Vanhoucke? Covi?

 

[spalco]

I think I'll watch Andalucia for a while. The benefits of a 4 screen homeworking setting.

Yeah, nothing's happening here for at least another hour, casual sunday ride with the kids.

Even the break doesn't look like they are going terribly fast despite the 10 minute head start.

 

[JosefK]

Top 10 GC guys within a minute of each other. Looks like the GC teams are riding to mitigate the likelihood of disaster rather than to try to gain time on rivals.

 

[limak_]

Technically, there is a reason why there is a "king of the mountains" classification.
It wasn't meant to be a carbon-copy of the GC.
Now it should be renamed as "king of the breakaways"

The same case like with young riders classification.
"King of the breakaways" would be much more relevant indeed.

Give me echelons. Loads of echelons.
And some cobbles.

I focused on climbs vs time trials thing.
I'm more than fine with echelons even more with cobbles and gravel (stage like today's is imo a must in every GT)

 

[Bonimenier]

So, who will win the stage?
Vanhoucke? Covi?

Vanhouche will launch me to the 1st place in Giro CQ game.

 

[Publiuszam]

Vinoooooooo

 

[Eclipse]

Wahay looks like my wait for the break to go and then do a quick shopping trip plan was the right one

Top 10 GC guys within a minute of each other. Looks like the GC teams are riding to mitigate the likelihood of disaster rather than to try to gain time on rivals.

Don't think we can read too much into that until the going gets tougher. Don't think riding this start harder was really going to make or break the day.

 

[Gigs_98]

And you guys really think this won't be a major disappointment? Man I so hope it won't, but I just have a bad feeling...

 

[Publiuszam]

No, i really don't think. I too have a bad feeling since last night.

 

[Rollthedice]

And you guys really think this won't be a major disappointment? Man I so hope it won't, but I just have a bad feeling...

Please go away until evening, do something useful, walk the dog for a few hours, visit your grandparents.

 

[BlueRoads]

And you guys really think this won't be a major disappointment? Man I so hope it won't, but I just have a bad feeling...

How's the opening going in Austria? Aren't there a thousand things allowed with tests now that you haven't done in months?

 

[Red Rick]

And you guys really think this won't be a major disappointment? Man I so hope it won't, but I just have a bad feeling...

If it happens, I blame you

 

[topcat]

The race will totally explode on the sterrato.

 

[Gigs_98]

How's the opening going in Austria? Aren't there a thousand things allowed with tests now that you haven't done in months?

Nah, I'm good

 

[Rollthedice]

Trek twitter:

Technical detail: For today’s stage @giroditalia on strade bianche our @trekbikes are equipped with @Pirelli tubolars 28 mm except @vincenzonibali who chose 30 mm https://t.co/1kG0zFWkTR

 

[Bonimenier]

The race will totally explode on the sterrato.

If it happens, I blame you

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Is there something like an official, general agreement in cycling that GTs should only be won by "all-rounders" or is it just like your own opinion, wishful thinking, one of hundreds of different visions of cycling that you identify most with? Cause from your statments it seems like it's the first one.

For me, mountains and climbs are the essence of cycling, something that defines cycling itself, the most beautiful while most challenging part of it, also the terrain when you can gain or lose the most. Also Grand Tours are kind of iconic cycling races with Tour being most recognizable race worldwide. Then if I think about a GT winner I have a CLIMBER in front of my eyes, who drops his rivals on the long mountainous switchbacks. The only way that imho GTs should be won is by face-to-face clashes on the most brutal mountain passes. I can't imagine GTs being defined by time trials to the same extent - with riders looking like f1 bolids passing in front of you in regular time intervals.

I'm not saying TTs should be completely removed. In my opinion a perfect GT winner is a climber who doesn't sucks that much in TT. Not the case like these two skills being equally imoprtant - just for the reasons above.

Apart from that, time trialing has become (especially in last few years) a very specialised discipline with a technical component playing a much bigger role than in "ordinary" cycling. Then it becomes really dependent on which team you ride in, what equipment you use, if you have a regular access to wind tunnel and so on (why Ineos and TJV excel at TTs that much?). So it's really not like time trial is the most fair ground for racing a bike.

I know my point of view being a little bit romantic or whatsoever. But that's excatly how I see cycling with its romantic, sentimental ingredient making it unique amongst other sports. And I think many people could associate with me.

I actually started my first post with it. It's called the Tour de France, not Nepal. If you go by that name, i assume the idea is to show all parts of the country, to traverse all the different regions. As such, the Tour is huggely skewed. And i have no idea why you would think of a climber when thinking of GT winners. Merckx, Hinault, Froome, Indurain, Armstrong... all the most dominant TDF winners, were all world class climbers AND timetrialers. Clinic aside (the pure climbers weren't clean any more than their more all-round rivals), there is no reason to have such an image in your head. For every pure climber victory, there are 5 all-rounder wins. Even Contador was a great TT'er.

I'm also not saying my vision of how a GT should look like is superior to yours (though obviously, we all know it is ) i was simply stating that GT's are in fact skewed towards climbers, even though some people claim they aren't. Is it really that weird to expect more from a potential GT winner, than to be only good at one thing? Like i said, in 1934 there was a 90k ITT. Good luck with that, Gaudu, Kuss, Sosa.

 

[Ranagazoo]

Would it be optimistic to hope the TV directors focus on the GC guys rather than the breakaway once we hit 70 to go

 

[tobydawq]

Awful development

 

[Climbing]

Bit disappointing, ain't it, but who knows.
Mostly it will be a disaster for the images I bet.

 

[Kazistuta]

Why? Why should a guy who is only good at climbing get the most prestigious races tailored to his skills, while the guy who is good at everything but climbing has literally 0 chances? Because the other guy can win classics? So can the climber. He can win Lombardia, Liège, San Sebastian. There are also enough 1 week stage races where they can shine. They can also go for stagewins. Why should a limited rider even be in contention to win a GT?

Again, and to be clear, i like mountain stages. I love them. But you can't pretend GT's aren't skewed in favor of climbers, because they are. And by a huge margin. Why is a guy like Gaudu even to be considered as a possible GT winner? He can't do anything that isn't climbing. The fact that you and many others can't even see it anymore is most telling of all. Van Aert, who is basically top 5 in the world in everything he does but ONLY top 50 at climbing has -as it stands- zero chances at winning a GT, unless he loses further weight. But Gaudu, who doesn't make top 200 at most things except climbing, where he might be top 10, should have a shot.

Maybe it's time people see "the climbers" (by which i mean guys who are good at climbing, but suck at most other things, because as Blueroads said, those other guys aren't considered to be climbers anymore but "all-rounders") are basically one-trick ponies with limited capabilities who shouldn't be able to win a GT. Pogacar isn't a "climber" because he's also a good ITT'er, well then why should a guy is not even a better climber, or only just, be favored in route design? If they want to win a GT, they need to get better overall riders.

I was waiting for those three races to be mentioned. Which pure climbers has won these the last 10 years? Lombardy, Chaves in 2016 , San Sebastian A.Yates (and that's a stretch to call him pure) and Liege Wout Poels. That's it, the rest is proven classic riders or GT men with the odd Zaugg/Iglinskiy. These races are not skewed towards pure climbers, but are actually the races with the best balance considering which riders can win.

And I agree that GT's currently is skewed in favor of the climbers, where do I claim the opposite? But personally I think that it's okay. You name Gaudu as an example, and we actually don't have many pure climbers (most climbers are excellent in hills as well). How far do you think he'd have gone in this years giro? I would say borderline top10, definitely not a podium candidate. Please provide a name of a pure climber that won a GT that's not La Vuelta recently. I think in general the grand tours must be pretty well balanced to get all those all-round winners after all.

 

[Red Rick]

The one thing I'd hate the most is for the riders to give any more credence to "riders make the race" ***.