Giro Rest day 2 - Round up

[just some guy]

Following on from rest day 1 round up.

General classification after stage 15
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 62:14:42
2 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:04:20
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:05:11
4 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:06:08
5 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:07:03
6 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Androni Giocattoli 0:08:39
7 Denis Menchov (Rus) Geox-TMC 0:08:46
8 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:08:58
9 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 0:09:20
10 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team 0:09:30

Contador is going to win by minutes unless something like a crash occurs ( Ryo)

Who will win the battle for second with the MTT does Scarponi have enough left to put more time into Nibali.

Gadret having a great ride.

Will Menchov get to 4th or higher ?

Le Mével gutsy ride to get Pink.

Now we have finished the 3 days in Hell - was it too hard

I also bet we see the Crostis in next years Giro.

Thoughts ?

 

[Tuarts]

Can TeamGadret time trial?

If he can get up that mountain better than Nibbles then it could be close for 3rd! Menchov should be able to move into 5th.

Hope the riders are sleeping in

 

[nesocip]

Can TeamGadret time trial?

If he can get up that mountain better than Nibbles then it could be close for 3rd! Menchov should be able to move into 5th.

Hope the riders are sleeping in

Purito looks like Indurain compared to Gadret on flat tts.

He is that bad, yes.

On tomorrow's tt i dont see Gadret doing too good either, especially because of the flattish part at the start. I also expect him to drop a minute or two some fast paced flat finish.

Immense climber, but simply not a serious GC contender.

Otherwise, fantastic week for Euskaltel (despite Anton's flop yesterday), and Nibali showing he has the biggest heart on this Giro.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Can TeamGadret time trial?

He can mountain time trial.
Regular time trial, he usually sucks at, but the way he's riding now, who knows?

 

[maxmartin]

hope nibbles can get sometime back from Scarponi, but it is MTT, and Scarponi seems in form again

who knows Gardret could do these days? LOL seems he is having a ride of his life, never expect this from him before Giro starts

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

hope nibbles can get sometime back from Scarponi, but it is MTT, and Scarponi seems in form again

who knows Gardret could do these days? LOL seems he is having a ride of his life, never expect this from him before Giro starts

'Form' seems to be all over the shop at the moment, it seems to be coming down to who feels best on the day, so there's still a perfectly reasonable hope for Nibbles to beat Scarponi on merit on a MTF. Saturday wasn't that long ago.

 

[Frosty]

Can TeamGadret time trial?

If he can get up that mountain better than Nibbles then it could be close for 3rd! Menchov should be able to move into 5th.

Hope the riders are sleeping in

Came third in the MTT last year but as someone has already mentioned, that time trial only had a few kms at the start which werent that steep. Tomorrow's stage has about 5.5km which arent that steep or even have downhill, so you would think that might count against him.

Last year's final time trial saw him come home 42nd at 1.16. Difficult to know how much effort others around the 40th mark were putting in but the most relevant gaps would probably be 32 seconds to Scarponi and 44 to Nibali. That TT was half the distance of this year's final TT though.

EDIT: Another point though is that in last year's final TT Gadret was unlikely to go up or down in the classification so probably wouldnt have been going all-out.

 

[Lanark]

Came third in the MTT last year but as someone has already mentioned, that time trial only had a few kms at the start which werent that steep. Tomorrow's stage has about 5.5km which arent that steep or even have downhill, so you would think that might count against him.

Last year's final time trial saw him come home 42nd at 1.16. Difficult to know how much effort others around the 40th mark were putting in but the most relevant gaps would probably be 32 seconds to Scarponi and 44 to Nibali. That TT was half the distance of this year's final TT though.

EDIT: Another point though is that in last year's final TT Gadret was unlikely to go up or down in the classification so probably wouldnt have been going all-out.

Last year's final time trial was pretty much half uphill, and half downhill. This year it's completely flat (and twice as long).

 

[Kwibus]

Allthough the fight for the nr.1 spot isn't very exciting I'm still loving this Giro.

Contador is dominating and pretty much always the best, but the last 2 days showed that he is also suffering. Thank god, else I had to consider him being an alien. (or something else which shall not be discussed here)

 

[Archibald]

Following on from rest day 1 round up.





Contador is going to win by minutes unless something like a crash occurs ( Ryo)

Who will win the battle for second with the MTT does Scarponi have enough left to put more time into Nibali.

Gadret having a great ride.

Will Menchov get to 4th or higher ?

Le Mével gutsy ride to get Pink.

Now we have finished the 3 days in Hell - was it too hard

I also bet we see the Crostis in next years Giro.

Thoughts ?

for the MTT, I reckon we might see kruziger move above menchov and rujano
also that gadret and neive (especially after yesterday) will drop down the list a bit

 

[Climbing]

'Form' seems to be all over the shop at the moment, it seems to be coming down to who feels best on the day, so there's still a perfectly reasonable hope for Nibbles to beat Scarponi on merit on a MTF. Saturday wasn't that long ago.

Which hopefully means that cycling is becoming cleaner and cleaner.
Really it feels really more human without much nitro boost (if that’s the case).
One day you feel good, the other day you suffer!
It will be very interesting to see the fight for the podium. After the epicness of this weekend, believe it or not, there is still another week to go!

 

[auscyclefan94]

Meh, this giro has been quite mundane so far. The only stage I truly enjoyed was when Anton went away.
Harder course does not equal more entertaining bike racing. It can = more boring reserved racing.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah, attacking from 50km out is really boring reserved racing

 

[auscyclefan94]

Meh, this giro has been quite mundane so far. The only stage I truly enjoyed was when Anton went away and everyone was fighting really hard.

Harder course does not equal more entertaining bike racing. It can = more boring reserved racing.

Yeah, attacking from 50km out is really boring reserved racing

Read what I said. I never said "stage x" was reserved and boring.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yet you said you only enjoyed one stage and the rest has been quite "mundane".

Calling bs when I see it.

On the hardest stage, they started racing from 50km till the finish.

 

[Finbouy]

I'm enjoying this Giro
I'm enjoying the domination of Bertie
I'm enjoying the fight for the remaining top ten places
I'm enjoying seeing Menchov show his heals
I'm enjoying seeing the mountains again
I'm enjoying watching Gartzelli and Scarponi back on form

I'm not enjoying seeing the Crostis cancelled

 

[L'arriviste]

Meh, this giro has been quite mundane so far. ...

Compared to 2010, I suppose you have a point.

Contador's (early) domination has made it a little less interesting for me because everyone else seems quite equally matched.

Perhaps a concerted effort to ride against him yesterday might have tested him a bit. He was totally isolated for a good chunk of the race. Trouble was, no single team apparently had the strength and/or tactical imperative to try to work him over.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

I'm glad AC was also suffering at the end, yesterday.
Until that, it looked like they had put a Pro rider in a U23 race...

 

[will10]

Liquigas 2010 vs. Contador on yesterday's route might have made for a great stage

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He can mountain time trial.
Regular time trial, he usually sucks at, but the way he's riding now, who knows?

No, simply no, if you get dropped at the flat by Pieter Weening then there is no hope for you in flat time trials

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I'm glad AC was also suffering at the end, yesterday.
Until that, it looked like they had put a Pro rider in a U23 race...

Nah, he was suffering on the Zoncolan as well.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Compared to 2010, I suppose you have a point.

Contador's (early) domination has made it a little less interesting for me because everyone else seems quite equally matched.

Perhaps a concerted effort to ride against him yesterday might have tested him a bit. He was totally isolated for a good chunk of the race. Trouble was, no single team apparently had the strength and/or tactical imperative to try to work him over.

Just assume Bertie is getting banned, and suddenly it's a thrilling tight battle for the win.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Nah, he was suffering on the Zoncolan as well.

It's relative. Of course he was suffering, these past 2 days. He's just ridden the toughest MTF and the toughest stage he's ever had, back to back. At no point though was he ever not in complete control of the GC situation. Could he have been closer to Anton and Nieve and put a bit more time into his rivals? Certainly. Did he need to, given that he could still put some time into them and save himself a bit? No. Could he have beaten Anton? No way, but again, he kept it close enough so that he didn't have to.

 

[veganrob]

I think the course is great. Maybe it won't be like this every year but every few years put in one like this. There is not the same level of anticipation as 2010 which was more competitive. Alberto simply owned this race from the start. But that is ok too, I do like watching him race. Overall grade I give it an A-

 

[auscyclefan94]

Yet you said you only enjoyed one stage and the rest has been quite "mundane".

Calling bs when I see it.

On the hardest stage, they started racing from 50km till the finish.

But it is an opinion based on what I feel. You have no right to question the way I feel about something. 1 stage doesn't change a race.