Giro d'Italia Stage 2: Amsterdam-Utrecht (209km)

[trompe le monde]

What's the GC watch? Sastre 1' behind? Nibali, Evans, Vino pretty close together and Basso 23" behind?

Read it here.

Nibali is 8 seconds behind, Sastre is 57 seconds. Basso is 21 seconds behind. Uran is 1'18. Garzelli is 18 seconds.

edit: previous post did not take into account yesterday's TT. I keep thinking it's a prologue for some reason.

 

[Moondance]

Notable time losses today:

+ 00:37:
Wiggins
Mollema
Caruso
Moreno
Arroyo
Uran
Martin
Tondo
Sastre
Cunego

Any DNFs other than Kohler?

EDIT: He's the only one. Pretty good that there's only one abandon vs. the enormous amount of falls

 

[Jamsque]

Garmin has to feel good about it's chances of landing the Maglia Rosa after the TTT, even if Farrar can't claim it on bonuses tomorrow.

 

[Francois the Postman]

"Official" visitors estimates:

Half a million people between A'dam and Utrecht. 250,000 in Utrecht alone.

 

[davis_123]

Handy seconds for evans.

I don't see why people view him taking the lead this early as bad, there is a sprinters stage to come in which Farrar will most likely take it off him if not in that stage then almost certainly in the stage 4 TTT.

That means that BMC have it for a max 1 day with a rest day afterward. They barely have to do anything tomorrow as the sprinters teams will take over if the gap gets big enough.

Really its a case of, is riding on the front for 100km at a casual pace worth a 57 second advantage on Sastre going into a TTT? If you think that is a bad thing to have then you must have rocks in your head.

 

[Francois the Postman]

edit: previous post did not take into account yesterday's TT. I keep thinking it's a prologue for some reason.

You are still confused about this prologue thing. EVEN if the first Stage was a Prologue (which it wasn't, only because it was slightly longer than what is arbitrarily set as the max distance allowed for Prologues), Prologue times still count! They are part of the race.

I am wondering where you get it from. Are you confused by what happens at the Cancer Classic, just before the Tour Down Under? That is a show ride that isn't part of the actual Tour Down Under, but a charity ride on steroids. So it doesn't count towards the TdU for that reason, it is a separate race.

 

[ak-zaaf]

Handy seconds for evans.

I don't see why people view him taking the lead this early as bad, there is a sprinters stage to come in which Farrar will most likely take it off him if not in that stage then almost certainly in the stage 4 TTT.

That means that BMC have it for a max 1 day with a rest day afterward. They barely have to do anything tomorrow as the sprinters teams will take over if the gap gets big enough.

Really its a case of, is riding on the front for 100km at a casual pace worth a 57 second advantage on Sastre going into a TTT? If you think that is a bad thing to have then you must have rocks in your head.

The team wearing the leaders jersey is expected to help the sprinters teams in the chase, it's always like that. Just look at Sky today, they weren't riding for Henderson.
If BMC doesn't help tomorrow they shouldn't expect any help themselves in the rest of the race. It's 'disrespectful' towards the pink jersey and the Giro.

 

[joy118118]

"Official" visitors estimates:

Half a million people between A'dam and Utrecht. 250,000 in Utrecht alone.

Ummmm, when i watched video, i thinked the number of fans around the road was large.

Or, are you from China or India?

 

[Walkman]

Handy seconds for evans.

I don't see why people view him taking the lead this early as bad, there is a sprinters stage to come in which Farrar will most likely take it off him if not in that stage then almost certainly in the stage 4 TTT.

That means that BMC have it for a max 1 day with a rest day afterward. They barely have to do anything tomorrow as the sprinters teams will take over if the gap gets big enough.

Really its a case of, is riding on the front for 100km at a casual pace worth a 57 second advantage on Sastre going into a TTT? If you think that is a bad thing to have then you must have rocks in your head.

I don't get it either. Why even bother being in the front tomorrow? It's the TTT the day after so why on earth would you worn your men out just to abey some silley unwritten rule about being in the front?

It's a sprinters stage so team like Garmin and HTC should be the ones to take responsibility, isn't that right?

 

[trompe le monde]

You are still confused about this prologue thing. Prologue times still count! They are part of the race.

I am wondering where you get it from. Are you confused by what happens at the Cancer Classic, just before the Tour Down Under? That is a show ride that isn't part of the actual Tour Down Under, but a charity ride on steroids. So it doesn't count towards the TdU that reason, it is a separate race.

Actually it's not the fact that I'm confusing it with any other race but rather that I mostly don't pay attention to them very much. I mean usually the monsters of the prologue/TT have so little a say in the final GC outcome that I usually forget that time differences are set from the start to begin with. Its the fact that those TT specialists that excel in them tend to be largely irrelevant in the GC standings, Contador notwithstanding as he's a bit of an exception.

But I do appreciate your concern of trying to extract my head out of the sand/right the ship etc. I appreciate the gesture. And no, I don't mean that in a sarcastic sense.

 

[ak-zaaf]

I don't get it either. Why even bother being in the front tomorrow? It's the TTT the day after so why on earth would you worn your men out just to abey some silley unwritten rule about being in the front?

It's a sprinters stage so team like Garmin and HTC should be the ones to take responsibility, isn't that right?

See my comment above. BMC would be wise to have a little talk with Columbia and maybe even Colnago and sacrifice a few non-climbers tomorrow to make it look like they're defending the jersey.
If BMC blatantly gives up the jersey and let the sprinter teams do 200km of work, they will feel it later. It has always been like that.

 

[Walkman]

See my comment above. BMC would be wise to have a little talk with Columbia and maybe even Colnago and sacrifice a few non-climbers tomorrow to make it look like they're defending the jersey.
If BMC blatantly gives up the jersey and let the sprinter teams do 200km of work, they will feel it later. It has always been like that.

I saw it after I posted and I know it the way it is, but I still think is stupid. I mean, if you want stage wins, then you should have to work for it, and if are interested in the GC you should spare you men until you really need them! And since BMC ain't no USPS they better come up with something for tomorrow so that they ain't completely exhusted on stage 4.

 

[The Sheep]

"Official" visitors estimates:

Half a million people between A'dam and Utrecht. 250,000 in Utrecht alone.

I was one of them

 

[Barrus]

Few things of note to me.

Great spectator numbers, really living up to the expectations raised by last years veulta start.
A lot of falls, and to be honest the worst of them were at places I did not expect and did not see any direct thing which could have caused them, nothing in the road or something like that.
Good work by Farrar, but even more so by his entire team, good lead-out work and very good at getting him back after his fall, this bodes well for their TTT.
Also good team effort by especially Astana and Liquigas by maintaining their place in front with almost their entire teams.
Good effort by the Cervelo group by at least finding a connection with the second group, also a good showing in preperation of Wednesday, too bad Sastre loses even more time today.

 

[davis_123]

The team wearing the leaders jersey is expected to help the sprinters teams in the chase, it's always like that. Just look at Sky today, they weren't riding for Henderson.
If BMC doesn't help tomorrow they shouldn't expect any help themselves in the rest of the race. It's 'disrespectful' towards the pink jersey and the Giro.

Because teams really help out other teams just for the hell of it right? I long for the day when HTC decide they are going to chase down Sastre on a breakaway to honor the "Green Jersey"

I can't honestly remember a time when a team going for GC has chased down a breakaway, they throw 4-5 men on the front let the gap get out to the 100km to go 10min margin and the sprinters take over.

It is a routine that happens at every GT which has little to no effect on the riders. It's not as if the gap shrinks while they are on the front, in most cases it simply gets bigger to a group of 4-5 guys who themselves are saving their own energy for the last 50km in case the sprinters stuff up.

If BMC actually work tomorrow and not just throw a few guys to the front to "manage" the gap I will eat my shorts. Regardless of if they work or not there is a rest day after it so they will be fresh for the TTT anyways which is the only real reason Evans needs them other then to fetch him drinks.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Its a Catch 22 situation. BMC are "obliged" to keep any break at a respectable distance, so as the sprinter teams have the option to take up the chase in the final kms.
If BMC don't pull the peloton from the formation of the break, no one sprinter team will accept the role.
They key in managing the break is making sure that its the right break that goes away.
Providing BMC do their expected job, they will be relieved, in the final 40kms.
Besides, Evans will want to display his new colour scheme.

Otherwise, we could have an Oscar Pereiro scenario.

 

[Ripper]

The team wearing the leaders jersey is expected to help the sprinters teams in the chase, it's always like that. Just look at Sky today, they weren't riding for Henderson.
If BMC doesn't help tomorrow they shouldn't expect any help themselves in the rest of the race. It's 'disrespectful' towards the pink jersey and the Giro.

That's a bit overdone. If the team with the leader's jersey is a GC team, they can let it go without too much worry if that is their want. We have seen teams let it go in the past without it being a big deal.

Of course, they can help another team if that forges a useful alliance down the road, so it needs to be strategically thought out. For example, they could chat with Garmin and help them to get pink via Tyler F, if Garmin will help out down the road. VdV will be up for the climbing fun but is not going for the overall. Conversely, Evans seems to cozy up well to the Italians, so there could well be an alliance with some of the Italian teams (except Leeky).

Either way, loving watchin the Giro!

 

[aarnold517]

Yes, pink combined with a rainbow. The Amsterdam gay scene will go crazy.

haha, i'm sure ACF would love it more than the gay crowd in amsterdam

 

[Cobblestones]

In other news, Wigan lost 8:0 against Chelsea.

 

[joy118118]

In other news, Wigan lost 8:0 against Chelsea.

But sky is MU not Chelsea

 

[goonermatt]

In other news, Wigan lost 8:0 against Chelsea.

losing the pink jersey and then this, hasnt been a good day for wigans.....

 

[Jamsque]

In other news, Wigan lost 8:0 against Chelsea.

Goddamnit I am watching Match of the Day tonight and I was trying to avoid seeing scores.

 

[Cobblestones]

But sky is MU not Chelsea

That's too bad for them.

Who's Chelsea then? Garmin? Because they won today. Actually, weren't they supposed to be Wigan? I'm confused.

 

[offbyone]

In other news, Wigan lost 8:0 against Chelsea.

haha

if it weren't for all the time trials I wouldn't even give wiggins a chance of top 10 in the giro. It is a climber's race and he is going to lose a lot of time on those mountain stages. He will compensate by excelling in the time trials, but it won't be enough.

 

[Anonymous]

Just saw the finish. Great work by Dean, and to those who said Farrar wasn't really that fast, you might want to watch that again, his burst when he came off Dean's wheel looked pretty fast to me.

Poor ole Wigans and Team Murdoch...