Giro d'Italia Stage 8: Chianciano - Monte Terminillo (189km)

[BroDeal]

Evans and Vino are in peak form and would be foolish not to try to put more time into their rivals. I say either or both will go full gas on the final climb if they're having a good day. Sitting in with Basso and Nibali only makes sense if they're suffering and worried about being countered or blowing up.

Scarponi for a stage win sounds about right to me.

I would pick a good climber with a finishing punch who did not burn too many matches during stage 7. Although Cunego, Scarponi, Garzelli, etc. would normally be good choices for a stage like this, those guys killed themselves on the previous stage.

 

[karlboss]

First mountain stage but following a brutal stage, and everyone must **** themselves at the sight of the 3rd week. GC riders will try and conserve something.

Evans to ride as he did 7. Match anyone who goes, do his share of pace making should a favourite be in trouble, and go for the win if its there.

Vino...will attack unless he can't.

Sastre to show characteristic calm and wait. Along with Millar, Basso, Karpets, Pinotti and Nibali.

Attempts to push the pace from Cunego, Scarponi, Garzelli, Arroyo, Milram boys.

Gerdemann for the win.

Really hoping Porte can hang on, he's from my home state

 

[joy118118]

Cunego looked not bad yesterday. maybe he can do something today.

 

[Sasquatch]

I see a similar situation to stage 8 in the Vuelta last year.

Moncoutie got into a break, attacked the break and went solo to the end. However, Cunego attacked the peloton and caught him in the closing 2km and won the stage.

I see Moncoutie get in the break today and a similar situation might unfold or he might hang on to the end. Simoni could try a break today too.

I can't see any of the GC guys winning the stage. If Vino was smart he would do no defending today and let other teams do the work. Save himself.

 

[Sasquatch]

I would pick a good climber with a finishing punch who did not burn too many matches during stage 7. Although Cunego, Scarponi, Garzelli, etc. would normally be good choices for a stage like this, those guys killed themselves on the previous stage.

Simoni or Moncoutie

 

[Eratosthenes]

Really hoping Porte can hang on, he's from my home state

Hey another Taswegian. I think there's a few out here, anyone else wants to pronounce their 'Apple Isle' heritage?

He's even from my home town, good old Lonnie which is also home to the legendary Boags beer (pronounced 'boges').

If you don't know about it, you need to find the answer to the question:
"Who is James Boag?"

I know that American and European (e.g. Belgium) mircrobreweries produce many fine brews, but Boags is well, Boags (premium, draught, St George...). Haven't reied the 'Pure" brand yet. Any good?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=james+boag&aq=f
http://www.boags.com.au/


Don't know about Porte's ability in the mountains. Will be keeping a close eye on him in week 3.

 

[stefank]

Hey another Taswegian. I think there's a few out here, anyone else wants to pronounce their 'Apple Isle' heritage?

He's even from my home town, good old Lonnie which is also home to the legendary Boags beer (pronounced 'boges').

If you don't know about it, you need to find the answer to the question:
"Who is James Boag?"

I know that American and European (e.g. Belgium) mircrobreweries produce many fine brews, but Boags is well, Boags (premium, draught, St George...). Haven't reied the 'Pure" brand yet. Any good?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=james+boag&aq=f
http://www.boags.com.au/


Don't know about Porte's ability in the mountains. Will be keeping a close eye on him in week 3.

Totally correct, apart from your opinions about Boags (pronounced Bo-ags).

 

[Polka Dot Punter]

Definitely feel a breakaway will succeed tonight. I'm going for one of:

Pozzovivo
Moncoutie
Uran
Martin
Simoni

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

I know that American and European (e.g. Belgium) mircrobreweries produce many fine brews, but Boags is well, Boags (premium, draught, St George...). Haven't reied the 'Pure" brand yet. Any good?

Since when have American Breweries produced decent beer? There's 4 or 5 decent beers but that's it. Unless you think a decent beer is a lager.

Holland, Belgium, Germany, Chezch Republic and the UK are where you'll find the best beers.

Anyway, back on topic, I can't see any of the major challenges going for it tomorrow unless a Basso or Sastre who have lost time have a dig.

I can see the winners coming from a breakaway of Moncoutie, Pozzovivo, Possoni and Matt Lloyd

 

[Scirea]

Kiserlovski for White jersey for sure!!!

He won't win because he is riding for Liquigas and has to help Basso and Nibali.

 

[Scirea]

Really hoping Porte can hang on, he's from my home state

Maybe he can today but he will crack in that killer third week.

 

[Wicked Witch]

Stage 7 was just thrilling! Unfortunately there's absolutely no live coverage here in Aus for stages 7 and 8. Eurosport is showing French rugby union instead of the Giro!

I've been following much of stage 7 right here with you guys and have thoroughly enjoyed the banter and knowledge you have. Looks like I'll be parked up to the laptop tonight to read the forum as it happens.

Looks like today's stage is shaping up to one that will show who the strongest (and freshest) competitors are after the gruelling stage yesterday...

 

[Scirea]

Stage 7 was just thrilling! Unfortunately there's absolutely no live coverage here in Aus for stages 7 and 8. Eurosport is showing French rugby union instead of the Giro!

That sucks.

 

[toontoon]

Eurosport here in the UK is only going live at 15:30. However if you have HD they are going live at 13:15. Get in!

 

[Giro d'Italia 20100516]

Giro d'Italia

FREE LIVE VIDEO STREAMING

http://videochat.gazzetta.it/index_giro.shtml

EVERY DAY FROM ABOUT 2 PM LOCAL TIME

 

[Wicked Witch]

Eurosport here in the UK is only going live at 15:30. However if you have HD they are going live at 13:15. Get in!

We don't have Eurosport HD - Guess that's the price we pay for being a small population base.

Thanks for the link Giro. Will hopefully be able to see it from there.

Anyone have a weather forecast for today's stage?

 

[Sasquatch]

Maybe he can today but he will crack in that killer third week.

If Porte finishes top 25 today, I'll be surprised.

 

[theyoungest]

If Porte finishes top 25 today, I'll be surprised.

This is not a killer climb, top-25 should certainly be possible.

 

[markene2]

I must say not before now i started admiering Evans, I am not guessing if he is clean or not because that belongs in the clinic. But the fact that he has done so well in a grand tour now. So the win yesterday was fully deserved.

But the riders who can win this stage.

Favorites: Pozzovivo, Evans, Sastre
Outsiders: Vinokourov, Basso, Garzelli

 

[Giro d'Italia 1104]

Anyone have a weather forecast for today's stage?

According to "La Gazzetta dello Sport" http://www.gazzetta.it/ this morning it has snowed on the top of the last climb (Terminillo); now fog and rain along the climb... probably another hard stage!!

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Evans should take the opportunity to stick a knife in Basso, who might have showed some early weakness in stage 7.

First mountain stage. What would Lance do?

 

[Galic Ho]

Stage 8 will be the first test as to whether Evans can "easily outclimb Basso", which I claimed a number of days ago and was rubbished for it.

Question: should Evans try to dominate the first half of the Giro and then hold his lead defensively?

Concerns over his third week form now arise, because as we have all been saying for weeks, Evans and Vino are in peak form already, whilst Basso and Sastre you would expect to grow in the third week...

So should the humble Aussie and the evil Kazakh p) try to take more time from the former Giro and Tour winners on today's stage and really try and defend later on? or should they play it cool tomorrow and 'force' Sastre and Basso to attack... adopting a wait and see strategy, or kick em while they're down strategy?

Whoever challenged me on my Evans outclimbs Basso call, it's now time for your tip to do as you said, and we might see Basso "launch" up a mountain for the first time in 4 years? I highly doubt it...

I agree about Basso. Evans is stronger. I agreed with your comment a few days back but didn't feel like posting. The degree to which Evans will put time into Basso is the only thing in question.

Smart move now for Vino and Evans would be to mark the opposition. Yesterday was a golden opportunity and they both utilised the advantage of fallen competition. You cannot do that every day. Astana are already down one mountain domestique and BMC only have one, Santambrogio. The final week is hard enough so best to race but not flog your team into the ground. If Liquigas or Cervelo want to make moves just mark them.

How strong is Basso? I think he is stronger than Nibali. I think Nibali's form now is good but he will tire in the third week. Could be wrong, but he is Pellizotti's replacement and has raced an almost full calendar. His program was an additional week off then California and then to the Tour. A three week Giro is a big alteration. Basso on the other hand had not raced as much and was aiming for this GT. I only saw from the footage I watched Nibali predominantly leading Basso on the descent on the final hill. Nibali descends very strongly. Other than that I saw him and Basso share the work evenly. IMO it makes sense that Basso is their strong man and Nibali can be sacrificed because their aims and seasons so far indicate Basso is the more likely rider to be strongest in the final week.

This of course does not mean Basso will drop Evans or Vino in the final week. I don't think he will, but I do think he will be ahead of Nibali. I hope Sastre gets better. If he is to make a move I don't expect anything major till the final week. He is hurt right now. Two falls and hurt badly both times. Who knows, maybe it is a long shot but if he can recover and hold on, maybe he can pull some minutes back to fight into the top 5. Big IF!

 

[Galic Ho]

Moncoutie has been way back every stage so far. I'll go with him for the win today.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Nibali was much stronger than Basso yesterday. Might just be a bad day, who know? But I was quite surprised that Nibali had to wait for Basso as he could easily have minimized his losses if he didn't had to drag Basso up the ascent.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Question for those in "the trade" (journalistic, that is)

Is there any reason why the audio from the helo cameras isn't unplugged? The mikes are clearly not going to pick up anything other than the blade flap, which really doesn't add to the atmosphere and frankly gets a bit annoying after awhile.

The Eurosport crew addressed that question a couple of days ago, and they said that when it was done without the canned sound, it looked weirdly odd, it just didn't "feel" right. It needed the ambient (canned) sound to make it appear more normal to us. Ever since, they have added it.

Our brains are funny like that. We usually don't notice ambient sounds as we tend to filter them out, but we miss them when they are gone, but are expected. If you ever watched a poorly dubbed movie that replaced speech and sounds, your head will probably be telling you that something just "ain't quite right" and the movie will feel oddly flat.

The volume level is kinda important to me. There is probably a magic formula somewhere that dictates how loud it can be before appreciates flips into too irritating (for too many people). If it gets to you now, it seems you are in the unfortunate minority.

So it's not really there to remind us, but when done right, to stop us from reminding us. Most of us, that is.