Giro d'Italia Stage 3: Amsterdam-Middelburg (209km)

[stefrees]

i read some info on Adam Blythe on wikipedia because as i mentioned earlier that i'd never heard of him and he sounds like a promising rider, he's doing very well for a 20 year old.

Another fast British rider from a track background yet again.

its a shame its hardly been noted in the british press, a great result, on a par with what wiggins did really-a 20 year old stayed upright finished 5th but not in any headlines as he didnt crash. 4 years ago this would have made front page of cycling weekly

 

[stefrees]

Me too - I was hoping he was going to go for this, but it has all gone to Plan B Le Tour too quickly.

Sky just do not seem able to defend a jersey. And now they dont have on to defend I am not sure that they are going to get to practice what they wanted here. Brad may well have the power and have lost the weight to contend, but eg Astana are waaaay cannier as a team.

Stage wins and 3rd week TTs will still be good results, but 4 minutes down on GC after 3 stages, when you were in the jersey on stage 1 is a complete cochk-up IMO.

Would all this have happened if Arvesen was road captain?

to be fair, while sky have made a couple of mistakes, they were unlucky in stage 2 when they lost the jersey, and stage 3 they werre just too keen- but at least they were trying to race. and had numbers. the tour team will be a bit different.

but 3 times theyve had a leaders jersey and lost it the next day.....

 

[Winterfold]

but 3 times theyve had a leaders jersey and lost it the next day.....

Well, that's my point really, any individual occurrence of it is OK, but it is a recurring thing now.

Maybe Arvesen is the man, and what happened to him was genuinely bad luck, but they really lack a Hincapie or Millar kind of guy*.

Agree on Blythe - utterly amazing result. It shows how quick you can become complacent that thiat has not been really picked up. Actually blackcat, with his love for clean young UK cyclists, got it

*Vino's form is just frightening this year, Contador is going to have such an uber mega domestique if he has a rest in June. It would be easy to go down a Clinic route, but the guy looks in amazing Gilbert like shape, ie a healthy way, that I dont really remember.

 

[ferryman]

No way LeLangue told his BMC bois to soft pedal and save themselves for the TTT. They spent more time grovelling in the ditch than a bunch of Dutch dyke diggers.
Fact is: One puncture further down the road and Evan's Giro would be over.
He got lucky and yet, was unlucky.
I'll bet the air was blue in the team car, when Cadel was isolated, with over 75kms to go.

His team mates are not fit for GT purpose. End of.

Indeed. What is it with Cadel and having a team to really help him in a GT. When was any top GT rider ever left on his own like he was on a stage like Stage 3? Ever? At least Team Sky all went down together

 

[Night Rider]

There is no race leader, there is only a guy wearing the Pink Jersey.

Had this happened after the mountains, and the race leader had a mechanical, you'd have seen a different reaction from the group. Right now you have GT guys mixed with sprinters, and the sprinters are stage hunting. There is no truce yet, spoken or otherwise.

Spot on....

 

[Winterfold]

Indeed. What is it with Cadel and having a team to really help him in a GT. When was any top GT rider ever left on his own like he was on a stage like Stage 3? Ever? At least Team Sky all went down together

+1 Despite ACF94's efforts to make us all hate Cadel - he's got guts, and more than anything you need that. Maybe guts will be enough, but I think at the end of these 3 weeks he will wish he had Cervelo's or liquigas's domestiques.

i wonder if we'll actually ever know how good Evans was - if he'd been on a strong team, and if he isn't on a level playing field, if he was...

 

[Night Rider]

Other than Sky falling down all over the show, I don't think you can read into other teams performance that much. It's a bit of a lottery when there are that many crashes going on around you. Some pretty experienced riders went down.

The real test starts tonight.

 

[cyclopeon]

Supposedly he was sick on Thursday or Friday. It is likely he is riding a notch or two below his usual level.

Ah. Missed that; thanks for setting me straight.

 

[auscyclefan94]

suggesting BMC's ride yesterday was tactical is absurd. Just admit it; BMC are pretty freakn weak. If evans win the giro, no one can say anything though. It will be thoroughly deserved!


.

So you are saying that it is just pure coincidence or weakness that bmc did not have at least 1 rider with evans in the 2nd group or even in the 1st group. I don't think they all would of faltered like that straight away.

 

[Barrus]

So you are saying that it is just pure coincidence or weakness that bmc did not have at least 1 rider with evans in the 2nd group or even in the 1st group. I don't think they all would of faltered like that straight away.

Weakness probably. Why would you not have at least one other rider near Evans. What would have happened had he gotten a puncture or something similar, in those roads the cars were often fat behind, as can be seen when Petacchi had a puncture in the first group. He would have lost more than just 47 seconds. Evans himself even noted that they were far too weak the day before yesterday

 

[schadenfreude]

Supposedly he was sick on Thursday or Friday. It is likely he is riding a notch or two below his usual level.

yep. a friend, who mingled with some HTC riders on sunday morning, was told that he had a cold.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

So you are saying that it is just pure coincidence or weakness that bmc did not have at least 1 rider with evans in the 2nd group or even in the 1st group. I don't think they all would of faltered like that straight away.

Yes that is what I'm saying. Seriously do you even watch cycling, or understand cycling tactics? There is no a way a manager would not have a man up there with their main GC man. Like others have said, a puncture or eve a crash could have dashed his hopes.