Giro d'Italia Stage 4: Savigliano - Cuneo (TTT) 32.5km

[blaxland]

Me either (would be good for cycling in australia). Though I would like to see sastre win. (Nibali would be very cool too). Like I said it is the obnoxious posters kissing evans A$s that make me hate him

Dont be a hater Timmy us aussies like dutch riders too......Go gesink,Mollema and Hoogerland(My 3 favourites).........I also like Sastre,Nibali and dont mind either of the two finishing second?

 

[blaxland]

Watch out for Garzelli in these upcoming intermediate stages.

He has to much time to make up but a stage win would be considered good for Garzeli and his team.............

 

[Ferminal]

Liquigas surprised me with this result, really good ride by them.

Vino blowing up his own team is hilarious, but frankly I am surprised they didn't end up losing more time.

BMC rode decently, but I still see them as one of the big losers here.


Ferminal- I concede, the time gaps were smaller than I expected. I thought they would be huge especially with a little weather.

That's ok, even before I read this I decided I wasn't going to rub your face in it

Evans is going to have to start hoarding bonuses. Interesting to see if anything happens on Saturday - even if nothing from a GC point if view changes, it should still be exciting. Anyone in the GC susceptible to 20km of undulating gravel? BMC should try something, and consider their job done - they will not be much help in the mountains so may as well go 110% where it's possible they could achieve something.

Interesting to see what Liquigas do on Sunday (providing they are still leading), might want to let a break go so they don't risk Vino/Evans/Garzelli getting bonuses.

 

[SpartacusRox]

That's ok, even before I read this I decided I wasn't going to rub your face in it

Evans is going to have to start hoarding bonuses. Interesting to see if anything happens on Saturday - even if nothing from a GC point if view changes, it should still be exciting. Anyone in the GC susceptible to 20km of undulating gravel? BMC should try something, and consider their job done - they will not be much help in the mountains so may as well go 110% where it's possible they could achieve something.

Interesting to see what Liquigas do on Sunday (providing they are still leading), might want to let a break go so they don't risk Vino/Evans/Garzelli getting bonuses.

I think it is a worry for not only this tour but also for the tdf. BMC and Astana are going to be relatively weak which will put enormous pressure on the team leaders and the few real quality riders on those teams. I think that Saxo and Shack will be pretty happy at the moment given the depth of those squads.

 

[red_flanders]

He has to much time to make up but a stage win would be considered good for Garzeli and his team.............

He's lost enough to make some teams really question spending energy to chase him, and is fast and opportunistic enough to take advantage of some of the upcoming terrain. I'm not saying he's going to win it or take the lead, I'm saying watch for him to animate.

 

[Eratosthenes]

Evans is going to have to start hoarding bonuses.

They could be crucial. Vino may be Mr Inconsistent over the course of this race as some suggest, but if he can hang in with Cadel/Sastre, and then outgun them Vino power to get max bonus time, that could be enough to make up any time he loses on bad day or two.

 

[blaxland]

He's lost enough to make some teams really question spending energy to chase him, and is fast and opportunistic enough to take advantage of some of the upcoming terrain. I'm not saying he's going to win it or take the lead, I'm saying watch for him to animate.

Fair enough red_flanders,I have always liked Garzelli's attacking style and hopefully Scarponi can add some spice to the mix....I think Liquigas is going to have to work to keep either Nibali or Basso in pink....I love the GIRO...........

 

[blaxland]

They could be crucial. Vino may be Mr Inconsistent over the course of this race as some suggest, but if he can hang in with Cadel/Sastre, and then outgun them Vino power to get max bonus time, that could be enough to make up any time he loses on bad day or two.

When you have a bad day you don't loose seconds,you loose minutes.............

 

[Eratosthenes]

When you have a bad day you don't loose seconds,you loose minutes.............

True (when you start letting those minutes loose they really can get away from you) and past history shows this can be substantial, mind you Evans is almost minutes behind already.

But it is all conjecture at this stage is it not, really just having a chat to entertain ourselves until the last week when individual rider condition, decision (who will be the team hopeful, who wants to flog their guts out and sacrifice condition for the TDF), luck (one of Cadel's favourite words, usually prefaced by 'bad'), team strength, mental stamina, drug existence and effectiveness, and so on really come into play as the road goes up and up and up and away.

 

[Nick777]

When you have a bad day you don't loose seconds,you loose minutes.............

Particularly on some of the climbs later in the race. Even if all are having good days, there will still be significant gains/losses.

IMO, the gaps will be minutes, not seconds, between 1st, 2nd & 3rd.

As an Aussie, I would like to see Cadel win (another 'first' for Australian cycling), but if everyone is on form, I think Sastre is a big chance, regardless of whether he or Cadel are a minute or two behind Basso/Vino.
3 weeks is a long time though - anything can happen.

 

[autologous]

When you have a bad day you don't loose seconds,you loose minutes.............

yeah, and if you have a really bad day, you might lose some of those loose seconds and minutes.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Scarponi on the Terminillo stage:

With some riders being far back and some of the 2nd tier contenders being quite a fair way back you may see some attacking racing on the terminillo. I think though that some of the other gc teams should let liquigas have lead and let them ride on the front for day in day out to tire them before the final week of fireworks.

 

[blaxland]

yeah, and if you have a really bad day, you might lose some of those loose seconds and minutes.

autologous=1
blaxland=0
"You got me"..............

 

[theyoungest]

rabobank tactical situation seems to be ideal at the moment. weening is pretty placed in the gc and could try to go for the top 10. he's in a good form at the moment, and i don't see why his top 10 chances should be lower than the ones of gerdemann. a lot of other potential top10 guys might be already beaten (pozzovivo, bruseghin, masciarelli, simoni, arroyo, uran, martin, albasini, cioni, serpa, rodrieguez)

mollema is already about 3.00 behind the other guys, so he could stop thinking of the gc now. he should conserve himself the next 2 days, and with about 5 minutes deficent he should break away on saturday and trying to capture the maglia verde and maybe the stage win if the favourites gaugling eacht others. i'm not sure if gibo and pozzovivo now are really planning to do sth in the mountains classification and moncoutie is more than harvestable.

that seems to be a very nice tactical dubble-force for rabo to place one guy in the top 10 and/or get a classification yearsey (forget about this stupid maglia blanco). i don't expect brown to be a competitor for the maglia ciclamino at the end, and breukink has to know that too.

Top-10 might just be possible for Weening, yes. Though I don't see why you think Mollema should already give up his pursuit of the white jersey. It's a very realistic goal this far in the race, and he's minutes ahead of most of the other contenders for the jersey: Masciarelli, Rodriguez, De Greef, Martin. Richie Porte seems to be an adequate climber though, and he'll be a tough nut to crack.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Top-10 might just be possible for Weening, yes. Though I don't see why you think Mollema should already give up his pursuit of the white jersey. It's a very realistic goal this far in the race, and he's minutes ahead of most of the other contenders for the jersey: Masciarelli, Rodriguez, De Greef, Martin. Richie Porte seems to be an adequate climber though, and he'll be a tough nut to crack.

I agree. Giving up the GC would be silly, after all - imo anyway - this is about gaining experience in a GT. I assume one day he wants to seriously contend a GT. He should try do the best he can, and learn the ropes.
I think he is a real chance for the white, and still see him beating weening in the long run... but it is a really tough 3rd week.. especially for those who have never done a 3 week race.

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Google Translat'd (from russian) blog posts with answers on yesterday's TTT from

Andriy Grivko

and

Vino himself

Sorry for the poor translation quality, but that's all there is.
________
Washington Dispensaries

 

[autologous]

STFU and ride. Excuses are for losers. Let the reporters report on the weather conditions. If he thought he was going to win, he'd not be commenting on the weather at this point in the race.

I'm sure Cadel would love to make a comment about today's crap weather, but he's worried some know it all internet tough guy will tell him to STFU and ride.

That loser. Rode away from everyone. Loser. When will he learn to just STFU and ride?

How about that loser Vino? Buried just about the entire peleton, but has the audacity to say that the weather sucked. STFU vino, how dare you comment on the weather. Harden up, soft guy.

If red flanders was there, he'd show you & cadel how to be winners, and how to be real men.