Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 8: Terni – Fossombrone 207 km

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Feel like I've seen a dropped Evenepoel pull back time on flats and false flats too often to put it that confidently.

You shouldn't put that confidently because it's obvious nonsense. He had a bad day today and blew himself up on the climb. Going by what happened today, at least one of those statements are true. So if he would have been dropped by Pogacar, but would simply choose to lose a few seconds more on the climb without blowing himself up, he could certainly come back on the flat. I thought we saw enough at Amstel.

 

[Didinho]

Roglic looked really strong, well deserved time bonus today. Hard race today again, curious how this translates in the TT tomorrow. Hopefully Remco can get better the next days, because I'm not used to him getting dropped on such an effort. Ineos timed it perfectly while others faded.
Good try by Leknessund, the leader jersey always gives you something extra. Deserved to still be in the lead, didn't expect this.
All GC guys we're up there, only Vlasov underperformed a bit.

Oh yeah, Ben f*cking Healy!! Impressive solo win!

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

I was kinda surprised about Evenepoels descent and flat too. I thought he was much more over his descending issues than he looked here,.

Im only a recreational cyclist, but isn’t it harder to do a good downhill when you’ve just blown up on the climb?

 

[Red Rick]

Im only a recreational cyclist, but isn’t it harder to do a good downhill when you’ve just blown up on the climb?

They'd all done a super hard effort. It shouldn't cause him to get dropped by the guys right there with him.

 

[Blanco]

I think if he really believes that he doesn't know how speed and distance interact. I'm most surprised that G and Hart really dropped him with ease in the last hundred meters of the climb.

But let's get not ahead of ourselves. Remco is still the favourite by a mile. It would be a big success if a few GC guys could stay within a minute of him tommorow. If that happens and Regolic and Thomas just loose 30-40 seconds then we can talked much more serious about a declineing of Remcos form.

Yes, in TT he is.

 

[Blanco]

Out of curiosity, I rewatched the end and I saw that actually you all are right, Remco was unable to hold the wheel on multiple occasions. Were the roles reversed, I am sure that Roglic would have held the wheel and been accused of being a wheelsucker, but I agree that Remco repeatedly was on the front, just progressively farther back.

I'm little confused here. I get the impression that being dropped all the time, but riding on the front is way better than holding the wheels nad being up front?

 

[Blanco]

Yeah, he said, he could be with Roglič on the top, if he would keep his own pace. Funny fella.

Guess Roglic was too nervous, so he couldn't follow...

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

I'm little confused here. I get the impression that being dropped all the time, but riding on the front is way better than holding the wheels nad being up front?

I share your confusion

 

[Blanco]

You shouldn't put that confidently because it's obvious nonsense. He had a bad day today and blew himself up on the climb. Going by what happened today, at least one of those statements are true. So if he would have been dropped by Pogacar, but would simply choose to lose a few seconds more on the climb without blowing himself up, he could certainly come back on the flat. I thought we saw enough at Amstel.

We saw what at Amstel?

 

[Carols]

I didn’t mention few meters but final meters of the last climb, your perception of what I said it’s far from what I posted.
Cappuccini climb has an extension of 2.8km and Roglic attacked roughly halfway so more or less 1.4km from the top.

He attacked more than 5km from the finish because the leader was at 4.8 and was 6 minutes ahead. (I just rewatched it to make sure that is correct). Then really turned it on at the steepest part of the climb. And did the pulling until inside the 1KM when Ineos finally figured out it might be to their advantage to get time on the Belgian. So Much for people's wheelsucker charge. He defends when he's in the leader's jersey and attacks when he isn't. It just so happens that he is Often wearing the leaders jersey!

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

We saw what at Amstel?

How impossible it is to gain time on a non-carpaced Pogacar on the flat after a climb. Unless ofcourse you 'd want to argue Evenepoel is not in Healy's league in that regard.

 

[theyoungest]

Hart and Thomas went into the red to close the gap to Roglic. They both did the smart thing to recover on the descent particularly as Roglic is by far the best descender of the three. Just seems like irrational hate from Roglic fanboys.

You can't file any kind of criticism under fanboyism of another rider. I think if I were an Ineos fan I'd want to see them increase the gap to Evenepoel. Unless I don't want my favourite team to win the Giro.

 

[Blanco]

How impossible it is to gain time on a non-carpaced Pogacar on the flat after a climb. Unless ofcourse you 'd want to argue Evenepoel is not in Healy's league in that regard.

He gained little, then lost more. The win was never in question, that's what I saw. But then again, it all depends on much circuimstances, how much is someone cooked for instance. There's no pattern, there's just real race time.
For example if someone told you this morning that Roglic will lead Evenepoel by 5-6 sec on the top of the last climb, you would probably think he will close that gap till the end. There's just no way of knowing how much someone have in the tank, until we literally see it.

Edit: Oh, and I saw very, very strong Ben Healy today.

 

[groogster]

He attacked more than 5km from the finish because the leader was at 4.8 and was 6 minutes ahead. (I just rewatched it to make sure that is correct). Then really turned it on at the steepest part of the climb. And did the pulling until inside the 1KM when Ineos finally figured out it might be to their advantage to get time on the Belgian. So Much for people's wheelsucker charge. He defends when he's in the leader's jersey and attacks when he isn't. It just so happens that he is Often wearing the leaders jersey!

Once again i never said, as you wrongly implied, that Roglic attacked a few meters from the finish! I said that he attacked in the last meters of the last climb (to be more precise around 1400 meters of the summit), which it's a fact!
Your simply misunderstould what i said, or perhaps you thought that i tried to diminish Roglic's move which I didn't, he has indeed chose the best possible moment to make his move
I'm not even an Evenepoel fan so...

 

[Gargamel35]

Once again i never said, as you wrongly implied, that Roglic attacked a few meters from the finish! I said that he attacked in the last meters of the last climb (to be more precise around 1400 meters of the summit), which it's a fact!
Your simply misunderstould what i said, or perhaps you thought that i tried to diminish Roglic's move which I didn't, he has indeed chose the best possible moment to make his move
I'm not even an Evenepoel fan so...

Maybe you should check again when did Roglič attack. Why do people like that even comment if you didn't see the race? If you did, find your glasses.

 

[Carols]

Once again i never said, as you wrongly implied, that Roglic attacked a few meters from the finish! I said that he attacked in the last meters of the last climb (to be more precise around 1400 meters of the summit), which it's a fact!
Your simply misunderstould what i said, or perhaps you thought that i tried to diminish Roglic's move which I didn't, he has indeed chose the best possible moment to make his move
I'm not even an Evenepoel fan so...

Actually I was using your post as a rebuff to the myriad of posters who were screaming 'wheelsucker' at Rogla during Catalunya. Since he was wearing the jersey it was up to Remco to attack. Which he did many times but never could drop Rogla. My apologies for trying to prove a point to others, not refute you.

 

[houtdffan]

You shouldn't put that confidently because it's obvious nonsense. He had a bad day today and blew himself up on the climb. Going by what happened today, at least one of those statements are true. So if he would have been dropped by Pogacar, but would simply choose to lose a few seconds more on the climb without blowing himself up, he could certainly come back on the flat. I thought we saw enough at Amstel.

He also admitted that he rode very conservatively on the descent, while Rog took a lot of chances. Most of that 14 second gap came on the descent

 

[Tim Cahill]

Seeing 7.8/7.9 w/kg for 5.15 on twitter apparently which seems like an obscene level(?). No wonder he had trouble following, although Thomas who has never been good at this sort of sharp burst and claims he isn't in proper form yet I find puzzling.

No idea if there are too many other references for that sort of timed effort, few here might be able to point to a few but I believe the Mur record was about 8.1 for 2.40.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulations to Ben Healy for an epic stage win.

Nice stage. Raced hard from the start. Hessmann preparing the terrain, Bora stating to drill the last climb and Roglič without hesitation deciding this is the day to stress test the field. Too hard for Evenepoel today, only Ineos riders being able to follow. Roglič strong both on ascend and descend. This came at perfect time.

 

[Rob5091]

Ben Healy showing us his good form - he's also without a contract for next year (as far as we know). Good bit of self-promotion.
Roglic (apparently without Covid even though he said to Thomas he had it) put in a good dig on his prefered finish. Ineos could not believe their good luck and followed along. 14 seconds though aint going to win you the Giro. If the Alp stages are reduced in ferocity because of snow, then Roglic and others have to do some creative thinking.
Onto the TT and let's see how the land lies on the first rest day.

 

[Netserk]

Once again i never said, as you wrongly implied, that Roglic attacked a few meters from the finish! I said that he attacked in the last meters of the last climb (to be more precise around 1400 meters of the summit), which it's a fact!
Your simply misunderstould what i said, or perhaps you thought that i tried to diminish Roglic's move which I didn't, he has indeed chose the best possible moment to make his move
I'm not even an Evenepoel fan so...

To be fair though, I would never call an attack in the first half of a climb to be in its last meters, no matter how short the climb is. And the climb proper was less than 2 km, so 1.4 km from the top is almost from the bottom.

EDIT: @ammattipyoraily measured the length of the climb as 1.70 km. So 1.4 km from the top would be after 17.6 % of the climb was done ...

 

[SafeBet]

I was on the Cappuccini yesterday. Beautiful atmosphere up there. Healy attacked right in front of us and it was clear he'd drop them for good. Nice to see the GC riders fighting it out on the final wall!

 

[Netserk]

I was on the Cappuccini yesterday. Beautiful atmosphere up there. Healy attacked right in front of us and it was clear he'd drop them for good. Nice to see the GC riders fighting it out on the final wall!

Awesome! The tifosi were great yesterday.

 

[Red Rick]

Awesome! The tifosi were great yesterday.

The atmosphere on muritos is somehow always better than on the big climbs

 

[Cookster15]

Im only a recreational cyclist, but isn’t it harder to do a good downhill when you’ve just blown up on the climb?

Only when your form isn’t right. When the form is good you recover quickly on the descent.

Having said this, I don’t think you can read much into what happened. More likely just an off day for Remco. But one thing seems clear - Roglic looked very good. It was his ease of climbing I noticed. I noticed similar when Carapaz won in 2019.