Stage 20: Saturday May 26th, Caldes/Val di Sole - Passo dello Stelvio 219km

[El Pistolero]

I think people are talking about 2008 as I remembered the year wrong, and 2008 Giro is bad imo because nearly all of the guys who did fancy and crazy stuff in the Giro, was doped heavily

That Giro itself was pretty epic though... As if the 2009 Giro was any cleaner...

 

[burning]

That Giro itself was pretty epic though... As if the 2009 Giro was any cleaner...

In 2009 there were Di Luca and Pelizotti
In 2008 there are this guys,Sella and the craziest doper Ricco

 

[staubsauger]

I think people are talking about 2008 as I remembered the year wrong, and 2008 Giro is bad imo because nearly all of the guys who did fancy and crazy stuff in the Giro, was doped heavily

do you also remember the doped losers (kohl e.t.c) at the tour de slow motion in the same year? they weren't able to perform at that level altough they were big on the juice.

to come back in contact with the topic. in my opinion the only giro edition since 2003 that have been as much crappy as this years could be 2004. but there was the rise of the little prince, the team intern fight of simoni & cunego about the leadership, the big fail of the "new lance armstrong" jaroslav popovych cracking without having a team to protect him + serhey honchar faces his suffering in the mountains to hold his 2nd position. so in conclusion even that edition was better.

 

[Lanark]

2010 and 2005 say hello.

2007 had quite a lot of great stages as well.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

funny thing after wednesday stage when someone said De Gendt is looking good for top 15/top 20 and I said 'he's already 9th'

I remember someone replying that there are a lot of better climbers behind him and he should be lucky to finish top 15. even remember replying that he was already in the group for 7th place a minute behind so top 10 should be no problem.

Turns out he is a better climber than the 'guys behind him' and a lot more ballsy as well.

 

[Mellow Velo]

In 2009 there were Di Luca and Pelizotti
In 2008 there are this guys,Sella and the craziest doper Ricco

Nope: That was Stellar Sella too. He was off the Richter scale for the whole of the second half of the 2008 race.

 

[woodburn]

If they had done something between the Mortirolo and the Stelvio, when De Ghendt was in front, then people would have panned them for "doing Hesjedal's dirty work".

So they got the free ride after Motirolo which let De Ghendt gain time and then still didn't attack on Stelvio.

Just seems like they weren't stronger than Hesjedal and that he is deserving of the win. But they really didn't try anything unless you consider letting De Ghendt force Ryder to chase. Maybe a series of separate attacks would break him and they all benefit. No idea why they didn't work in concert.

 

[burning]

Nope: That was Stellar Sella too. He was off the Richter scale for the whole of the second half of the 2008 race.

Yeah he was crazy and If he didnt lost huge time on first week, he would have won by 10 minutes or something

The problem is he was doped as well

 

[The Hitch]

In 2009 there were Di Luca and Pelizotti
In 2008 there are this guys,Sella and the craziest doper Ricco

Dont forget Sastre, Since Evans is oficially the only person to ever win the Tour clean, that makes Sastre a doper.

 

[burning]

Dont forget Sastre, Since Evans is oficially the only person to ever win the Tour clean, that makes Sastre a doper.

What about Pererio?

 

[staubsauger]

What about Pererio?

he never won the tour

 

[maltiv]

funny thing after wednesday stage when someone said De Gendt is looking good for top 15/top 20 and I said 'he's already 9th'

I remember someone replying that there are a lot of better climbers behind him and he should be lucky to finish top 15. even remember replying that he was already in the group for 7th place a minute behind so top 10 should be no problem.

Turns out he is a better climber than the 'guys behind him' and a lot more ballsy as well.

Yes, but with the exception of Alpe d'Huez in 2011 he has never shown anything in the big mountains before. I remember in P-N last year, when he had his breakthrough and won stage 1, he initially said that he'd try for a good GC placing. However, he was dropped as soon as they entered the first hill in the race.

 

[The Hitch]

Yes, but with the exception of Alpe d'Huez in 2011 he has never shown anything in the big mountains before. I remember in P-N last year, when he had his breakthrough and won stage 1, he initially said that he'd try for a good GC placing. However, he was dropped as soon as they entered the first hill in the race.

1 mountain is enough to show ones skills.

You dont just fluke your way to finishing with the heads of state on a climb like Alpe.

You need climbing skills for that.

 

[will10]

Yes, but with the exception of Alpe d'Huez in 2011 he has never shown anything in the big mountains before. I remember in P-N last year, when he had his breakthrough and won stage 1, he initially said that he'd try for a good GC placing. However, he was dropped as soon as they entered the first hill in the race.

His stage win in Suisse was pretty impressive, attacking the rest of the break in the valley and then not losing much time to Andy Schleck, who was off-colour but it was a good effort nonetheless by De Gendt.

 

[burning]

1 mountain is enough to show ones skills.

You dont just fluke your way to finishing with the heads of state on a climb like Alpe.

You need climbing skills for that.

I know its utterly pointless but

1 Cadel Evans (AUS) BMC Racing Team 4h 11' 39"
2 Alberto Contador (ESP) Saxo Bank-SunGard s.t.
3 Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ) Astana s.t.
4 Rigoberto Urán (COL) Team Sky s.t.
5 Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma-Lotto s.t.
6 Thor Hushovd (NOR) Garmin-Cervélo s.t.
7 Fränk Schleck (LUX) Leopard Trek s.t.
8 Samuel Sánchez (ESP) Euskaltel-Euskadi s.t.
9 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (BEL) Omega Pharma-Lotto s.t.
10 Andreas Klöden (GER) Team RadioShack s.t

 

[El Pistolero]

Mur de Bretagne is not a mountain.

 

[JA.Tri]

I Basso

Totally off the current track...sorry.

What a classy guy I Basso is? I perceive him to be the consummate "sportsman"...from the way goes as hard as he can (except maybe on tricky descents???) to the way he compliments those that have performed better on the day than he has.

Chapeau!

 

[burning]

Mur de Bretagne is not a mountain.

I know its utterly pointless but

 

[maltiv]

1 mountain is enough to show ones skills.

You dont just fluke your way to finishing with the heads of state on a climb like Alpe.

You need climbing skills for that.

Obviously, but as he says himself, that result was caused by the fact that he was taking things easy the first 2 weeks of the race. Also, if you look at his results this year, he hasn't shown the ability to climb with the best even once. His only result prior to the Giro was his P-N stage when all he had to do was to beat a sick Taaramae after the peloton gave them 15 minutes.

He didn't even manage to finish Pais Vasco or Catalunya. In the "super-hard" Tour de Romandie he didn't finish in the peloton on any of the stages.

All I'm saying is that anyone who claim that this was a predictable result are kidding themselves. This was almost as surprising as Chris Froome's breakthrough last year.

 

[El Pistolero]

Obviously, but as he says himself, that result was caused by the fact that he was taking things easy the first 2 weeks of the race. Also, if you look at his results this year, he hasn't shown the ability to climb with the best even once. His only result prior to the Giro was his P-N stage when all he had to do was to beat a sick Taaramae after the peloton gave them 15 minutes.

He didn't even manage to finish Pais Vasco or Catalunya. In the "super-hard" Tour de Romandie he didn't finish in the peloton on any of the stages.

All I'm saying is that anyone who claim that this was a predictable result are kidding themselves. This was almost as surprising as Chris Froome's breakthrough last year.

You've claimed plenty of times EBH is a one day racer.

 

[cineteq]

Let me translate this for you: He's the one who made a little acceleration within 2 bar 1 kms to go and gained some seconds here and there.

No, I told you NOT to use Google Translate.

 

[Steel4Ever]

What a classy guy I Basso is? I perceive him to be the consummate "sportsman"...from the way goes as hard as he can (except maybe on tricky descents???) to the way he compliments those that have performed better on the day than he has.

Chapeau!

Yeah....and especially the way he lied about not doping...super classy!

 

[Parrulo]

no more clinic talk gys, otherwise warnings will fly

 

[maltiv]

You've claimed plenty of times EBH is a one day racer.

I don't see how that's relevant at all

 

[El Pistolero]

I don't see how that's relevant at all

Let's just say I'd never put a bet on EBH winning a real classic.

Thomas was sixth on Alpe Dhuez and fourth in the time trial. That shows he was still fresh in the third week. You know why he sucked in the first two weeks of the Tour? He crashed badly, but didn't give up.

This year he missed out on the echelon stage of Paris-Nice, so he decided to forget about GC and target a stage win again. And he was quite successful at that.

He dropped out in Catalunya because of the bad weather. As did most others. Or do you think Albasini is a great climber or something?

At Tour de Suisse he won a mountain stage. Yes, it was from a break-away, but he held off Andy Schleck. He proved it wasn't a fluke at the Tour that year. He can climb AND time trial.

Is his performance a surprise? Yes, it is. Is it an as big surprise as Froome? HELL NO.