Stage 5: San Martino di Castrozza - Alpe di Siusi

[BroDeal]

Folks, hold on to your hats. Make sure you are sitting down. The commentator just informed us that Armstrong may--I repeat may--be out of the running.

 

[Snake8]

I'm surprised the commentator wasnt telling us Armstrong might be in pink,

 

[ingsve]

Folks, hold on to your hats. Make sure you are sitting down. The commentator just informed us that Armstrong may--I repeat may--be out of the running.

lol, that funny...

 

[Zoncolan]

Folks, hold on to your hats. Make sure you are sitting down. The commentator just informed us that Armstrong may--I repeat may--be out of the running.

At least they won't be showing him that much anymore. Or will they?

 

[Anonymous]

haha.. so glad we get eurosport..

 

[Bala Verde]

YES!!!! Menchov takes it!

I knew he had a good acceleration on semiflat mountain top finishes. Di luca had done too much work, and menchov forced him to a long sprint!

Menchov expended no energy. Smart, and he takes bonus seconds (he had lost in stage 3). Astana loses face, leipi wasn't strong enough to be competititve in the sprint. But he still hung in there and showed he is in good shape, especially with the TT coming up...

Sastre will get in better form later in the giro. Menchov usually gets better over time as well although he sometimes suffers from a bad day....

Lovqvist keeps on surprising me!

Cunego, garzelli, pellizoti, Bruseghin and simoni are the biggest losers today!

 

[rolfrae]

Folks, hold on to your hats. Make sure you are sitting down. The commentator just informed us that Armstrong may--I repeat may--be out of the running.

Well, there's no point in watching now!

 

[Jamsque]

Great finish, I really enjoyed this stage. I was watching Sastre sitting at the back and picking his gear, I thought he would stay away when he went, but Menchov just blasted by him. He rode very cannily today, did not do any work until the last 500m. He could win this Giro.

Also, Wiggo came in 1:48 down on Menchov and ahead of Cunego. If he keeps this up he could easily ride in to a top 20 GC place.

 

[BroDeal]

Leipheimer should be p!ssed. His team is spending its time showboating with Armstrong rather than looking after its GC man. There is another rider who should be looking to leave along with Contador.

 

[jaylew]

Menchov's gotta miss those 24 secs he lost behind that crash.

 

[Anonymous]

interesting that they show the GC until they get to lance...

if he falls to 60th is the gc list going to be 8 screens long..?

 

[franciep10]

YES!!!! Menchov takes it!

I knew he had a good acceleration on semiflat mountain top finishes. Di luca had done too much work, and menchov forced him to a long sprint!

Menchov expended no energy. Smart, and he takes bonus seconds (he had lost in stage 3). Astana loses face, leipi wasn't strong enough to be competititve in the sprint. Sastre will get in better form later in the giro., but menchov usually gets better over time as well

Lovqvist keeps on surprising me!

Cunego, garzelli, pellizoti, Bruseghin and simoni are the biggest losers today!

agree on everything except the part about levi he was pretty strong but he can't handle the acceleration of di luca and others, oh and nice call on the finish you said that it's going to be di luca or menchov. Also dumb tactics by Liquigas and Astana why leave most of your support riders away from their team leader. Liquigas they should've made Pelizotti work for basso obviously he doesn't have the CERA with him this year, OOPS

 

[Anonymous]

Leipheimer should be ****ed. His team is spending its time showboating with Armstrong rather than looking after its GC man. There is another rider who should be looking to leave along with Contador.

he had someone with him.. whats the issue..?

the rest of them taking it easy up the hill, while liquigas blew themselves apart... theres over two weeks to go... liquigas may well regret the effort they put in today.. i think astana played it fine...

but anyway.. Menchov..

 

[Jamsque]

Levi certainly looked good, I'm slightly surprised that noone tried to attack him earlier in the climb.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Good spring in the legs by Denny, but he did almost as little work as Astana. Still, he rarely attacks so it was good to see him go for it after he looked done at 2k to go.

Good to see DiLuca in pink. He looks strong, and good for the Abruzzo earthquake victims.

How many minutes back does Lance have to be before we see less of him than the Maglia Rosa?

I'd say partial success for Liquigas. Basso needs that kind of pacing, as he doesn't like to yo-yo, and they did shed some contenders - Cunego the biggest name.

Nice extended helicopter footage, huh?

 

[Bala Verde]

agree on everything except the part about levi he was pretty strong but he can't handle the acceleration of di luca and others, oh and nice call on the finish you said that it's going to be di luca or menchov

Thanks I had to type really fast to put in my analysis. I did want to say that Leipy showed really good form, but that he usually has to pass when it comes to a sprint.

 

[Cobblestones]

Interesting that we see Basso, Menchov, and Sastre on top. If they fight it out in the Giro, how much will they have left for the TdF?

 

[mr. tibbs]

Leipheimer should be p!ssed. His team is spending its time showboating with Armstrong rather than looking after its GC man. There is another rider who should be looking to leave along with Contador.

Yeah, I bet Leipheimer would have loved to have 3 or 4 more guys sitting at the back Basso's group with him and Horner

 

[jaylew]

Leipheimer should be p!ssed. His team is spending its time showboating with Armstrong rather than looking after its GC man. There is another rider who should be looking to leave along with Contador.

Agreed, if those guys actually had the legs to follow. I'm not completely convinced they did. Seems like several guys were going out the back then, but you gotta figure at least one of the guys might have been able to?

 

[Zoncolan]

Leipheimer should be p!ssed. His team is spending its time showboating with Armstrong rather than looking after its GC man. There is another rider who should be looking to leave along with Contador.

If you leave JB, you lose out on all his little goodies

 

[Anonymous]

well, if bradley can keep performing like this...

trip to the bookies for a few quid on fridays stage... nice long steady climb, with a downhill perfectly suited for a decent time trialler...

 

[Zoncolan]

Interesting that we see Basso, Menchov, and Sastre on top. If they fight it out in the Giro, how much will they have left for the TdF?

Basso won't be there. Menchov did pretty much the same last year, and Carlos is just warming up

 

[franciep10]

Agreed, if those guys actually had the legs to follow. I'm not completely convinced they did. Seems like several guys were going out the back then, but you gotta figure at least one of the guys might have been able to?

they obviously had the legs to pull Lance up the climb for 6 km and if Levi had a couple more teammates they could've come to the front and maybe shred lovquist and maybe di luca

 

[pmcg76]

So it looks like they are going to ride around and wait for Leipheimer to blow them away in the TT. Do any of these guys know the meaning of the word attack??? another relatively boring day I am afraid, eliminated a few contenders, Cunego, Garzelli thats it. Cheering for Sastre now, looked to be struggling today but first to attack in finish. Wheelsucker won, how annoying is that?

 

[Bala Verde]

So the next two weeks we will be seeing the rear of the peloton, or 'the autobus', more often, as that's where the Astana boys will be chillaxing with LA...

Interesting, and very informative, because usually we never get to see the struggles of the lesser climbers 'en group'