What would Wiggins have done? He waited for punctured Cadel then Rolland raced off.
Q's lost his bottle lol
Bloody ek' Pozza's in the chasing group 😯
Ahhh, what a nice end to the stage ! 😀
Bravo Rolland!!!
blimey he didn't nick a cap !!!! 😯
Nice result today, feel good moment seeing Rolland get a win and how much it meant to the whole team
lol at NQ almost throwing himself off his bike with his bottle
Stage 18 Moena > Ortisei the Dolomite Dash
This queen stage starts from Moena which has been stage town six times and goes across the Dolomites taking in 5 consecutive categorised climbs, with not even a single flat stretch in between: Passo Pordoi (2016 KOM Damiano Cunego), Passo Valparola, Passo Gardena, Passo Pinei and Pontives (final climb). The stage features a remarkable rise and drop of a little less than 4,000 m in 137 km, with average gradients of approx. 7% and topping out at 15%. The roads are always moderately wide and well surfaced. The stage arrives in Ortisei, already arrival of the Giro in 1940 and 2005. The Pontives categorised summit (4 km before the finish) marks the slope change in the closing climb. Next on the route are a false-flat uphill drag, up to 1,500 m before the finish, and a steep stretch up to 500 m before the finish, with gradients topping out at 13%. The stage course then turns right and takes a short descent on setts-paved road, up to 150 m from the finish, where the road levels out. The finish line sits on 5.5-m wide asphalt road.
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Tough day today, a break with (bored of the usual suspects) Stuyven and a Roy and ohhh some Lotto boys to go all the way. The GC will be bound by an invisible cloaking device..
But it'll be lovely to watch, another fabulous area of the world.
I'm calling a Niballi attack on Passo Di Pinei, just ahead of the descent so he can gap the bunch before Pontives...
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/wales/40029721 ]G on the Tour[/url]
But it'll be lovely to watch, another fabulous area of the world
Couldn't agree more. I've stayed in Val Gardena and snowboarded all around that area, the Sella Ronda etc etc. Such a beautiful place.
As for the race. I hope Tom is still in pink tonight and goes on to win.
I'm calling a Niballi attack on Passo Di Pinei, just ahead of the descent so he can gap the bunch before Pontives...
Interestingly, Dumoulin was the fastest of the contenders down the descent into Bormio the other day.
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Amusing from cyclingnews article...
"I'm not here to write history because I'm shitting in the bushes," Dumoulin deadpanned in response to yet another question on the incident, just about stifling a grin. "I want to write history by getting the pink jersey in Milan."
Just over the first climb of the day and already Dumoulin is down to a single team mate. Betting Quintana still has a full compelment.
Sunweb have been disappointing as a team.
Geschke and and especially LTD are good climbers, but don't seem to have been able to stick around long at all.
Although guess it didn't help to lose their best mountain domestique to a parked motorbike.
It is surprising we haven't seen more of Geschke. I wonder if he's been working hard for TD on the hills before the TV coverage.
The winner will be the strongest rider in the race.
Brilliant insight from Brian 🙂
SKy working for pink!!!!
Stalemate?
Dumoulin is trolling his rivals! Great commentary
Tommy D!!!
gah! great stage!
happy for TJ.
Sad for Landa, but he's got the KOM.
Pinot sitting just behind Nibali's podium spot.
Quintana showing he doesn't like the wind. ever.
Quintana and Nibali don't seem to have the legs to actually crack Tom, even with the ol' team mates up the road ploy* and Dumpalon all isolated.
*does that ever work ?
To me it looks like they are expecting TD to light it up and burn himself out in the process. Certainly Niballi is not going to do much more than wait for a sneaky opportunity to attack, and either NQ is playing the ultimate bluffing game or he really hasn't got the form to ride at pace or launch an explosive attack.
Tommy is dischuffed with Nibbles and Nairo:
They are only focussing on me, and trying to make me lose instead of trying to win. In the last moment they lost a lot of time to the other competitors. I really hope that riding like this they will lose their podium spot in Milan, that would be really nice, and I would be really happy.It would be a dream scenario if the other competitors didn't get any closer, but now Thibaut Pinot almost took a minute on me just because Nibali and Quintana made a pact, clearly. It's their right, but it would be nice if they lose their podium spot for that behaviour.
I agree with Tom, that would be brilliant 😀
Great stage today, again.
Great words, we've seen too many races follow the same format, crooks and NQ last year comes to mind.
He didnt rule out working with Pinot either....
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 80:00:48
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:31
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:12
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:01:36
5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:58
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:07
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:17
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:05:48
9 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:07:06
10 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 0:07:24
Well two big finishes to come, but neither stage looks that hard in the run in to the finale. General consensus seems to be that Nairo needs at least 2 mins going into the final TT so needs to gain two and a half minutes over the next couple of stages. Not seen much over the past few days from him that makes me think he'll do it.
Yay! I enjoyed that a lot..
Well done Tom.
Think Nibali has already settled for second (hoping that somewhere along the line another misfortune befalls tom).
so Whitey calls it for Tom.
Just watched the highlights. Didn't think it was possible to love Dumoulin more, but it is. Quintana and Nibali were poor.
edit; and Landa, watch some videos!
edit2: 'I hope Pinot can take a podium spot' 😆
Second feel good stage win in a row
I don't get Movistar and NQ, they are so timid tactically, is NQ unable to pull the trigger or the DS terrible at planning?
I wonder if that was a bit of tactical play today, and they're going to try and break TD over the coming days. The GC has closed in a lot now, with the likes of Pinot not very far behind at all. It's a threat for Nairo and Nibali, but it also means TD will have to chase down any major attack, and unlike the others, he doesn't really have the team mates to do it with, which leaves him with a lot of extra work...
Dumoulin "Why you not ride?"
Quintana "..."
And Landa sits on the front, tires himself out and leaves an inside line open again. Unbelievable.
It was identical to the Nibali lead out
Tommy D bossed that like, erm....a boss. A great performance.
Agree with the above on the negativity of Nibbles'n Nairo.
Nibbles thinks Dumoulin is being "cocky", however.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nibali-annoyed-by-dumoulins-cocky-criticism-of-tactics/
Quick reminder of the calibre of the man making that accusation;
And, lest we forget.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana_Pro_Team#Doping_controversies
Oh, and...
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Astana? Hardly the cleanest.
Bahrain? Hmmmmm
