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Giro d'Italia stage 20, Stage 20: Alba – Sestriere 190 km

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Tactics should be interesting especially with Ineos. They need a good Dennis again. Kelderman will be thankful for the shortened stage yesterday. With such a short final TT Bilbao and Teo will have to be aggressive. So far Hindley doesn't look less than comfortable on the climbs but I have some doubt with Kelderman. The route changes and the easier day yesterday might be enough for Kelderman to recover better, hang on and let the TT decide it. But of course at this stage of the race the time bonuses will be important if the break doesn't grab them first.
 
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Bilbao is the most interesting rider here, I think. If he goes, and the current top-3 has no more teammates, who chases? Hindley? But that would allow Hart to counterattack afterwards. No-one goes/they wait for teammates, then Bilbao could be gone and gain a lot of time based on his climbing on the last ascent Thursday.

I think what would be best for the race is that all the helpers drop off early, but seeing how Dennis is riding at the moment, that's unlikely.
 
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Soooo... The narrative on this forum will now and forever and ever be that Nibali would have for sure turned the race on its head with the old profile?
I think in a few years the narrative will be something like "Nibali was the only one at the starting line under the pouring rain on Friday and those 260 flat km would have allowed him to drop all the other contenders by 5 minutes on Saturday..."
 
I think in a few years the narrative will be something like "Nibali was the only one at the starting line under the pouring rain on Friday and those 260 flat km would have allowed him to drop all the other contenders by 5 minutes on Saturday..."
What do you mean in a few years? :laughing:

What do you mean "narrative"
 
Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what is the ITT prowess hierarchy amongst the top 4 GC riders?

Kelderman
--
TGH / Bilbao
--
Hindley

Would be how I would put them.

The big wildcard is that this comes right at the end of the race after some hard days where fatigue and recovery are huge factors and that typically throws the TT form book out the window slightly.

If Wilco looks like he's cooked today it would not be surprising to see his TT be poor tomorrow. Similarly while Hindley is not the TT rider the others are in a bubble, he's continued to look incredibly fresh and may surprise when he was something to really ride for.
 
Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what is the ITT prowess hierarchy amongst the top 4 GC riders?

Kelderman would normally be the best, and Hindley and TGH won't beat him on a flat course, if he avoids mishaps.
Hindley is the worst among them. You'd normally expect Bilbao to be better than THG, but that wasn't the case on the longer ITT in this Giro. Bilbao may have the advantage again on this route.
 
21 riders in the break. They have almost 5 minutes.

BOUCHARD Geoffrey+2:41:23
VENDRAME Andrea+2:37:33
TRATNIK Jan+2:58:55
FIORELLI Filippo+4:53:05
MAŁECKI Kamil+3:15:49
VIVIANI Elia+4:42:26
BALLERINI Davide+3:18:35
HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich+1:28:46
SERRY Pieter+1:27:38
KANGERT Tanel+1:46:23
DÉMARE Arnaud+4:49:56
GUGLIELMI Simon+5:00:11
CIMOLAI Davide+4:50:30
HOLMES Matthew+3:58:00
RUBIO Einer Augusto+2:47:48
VILLELLA Davide+2:01:52
GHEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel+2:36:36
SOBRERO Matteo+3:21:36
BERNARD Julien+2:29:28
CONCI Nicola+2:34:50
MCNULTY Brandon+33:12
 
21 riders in the break. They have almost 5 minutes.

BOUCHARD Geoffrey+2:41:23
VENDRAME Andrea+2:37:33
TRATNIK Jan+2:58:55
FIORELLI Filippo+4:53:05
MAŁECKI Kamil+3:15:49
VIVIANI Elia+4:42:26
BALLERINI Davide+3:18:35
HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich+1:28:46
SERRY Pieter+1:27:38
KANGERT Tanel+1:46:23
DÉMARE Arnaud+4:49:56
GUGLIELMI Simon+5:00:11
CIMOLAI Davide+4:50:30
HOLMES Matthew+3:58:00
RUBIO Einer Augusto+2:47:48
VILLELLA Davide+2:01:52
GHEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel+2:36:36
SOBRERO Matteo+3:21:36
BERNARD Julien+2:29:28
CONCI Nicola+2:34:50
MCNULTY Brandon+33:12

Lovely break. But I don't want to imagine a Démare stage win on Sestriere, lol.
 
What the top 4 needs:
  1. Bilbao needs to drop top 3 and ship at least 1 minute to all of them. If anyone from trio can follow him he just fights for second place.
  2. TGH needs to put at least 30s on Kelderman and not lose any time to Hindley to have a chance to grab a win during TT.
  3. Hindley needs to put time on TGH and if he does, Sunweb has a great shot on TT.
  4. Kelderman simply needs to survive any attacks from TGH.

Super exciting Giro!
 
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