Only if Movistar can get Amador away. After that, all the riders are 40 minutes down other than Pellizotti who's 25. Sunweb can let them go and other teams will start to get nervous about their top 10 places if there are a couple of other guys from the top 20 there.

A big attack on the Mortirolo leaves an awful lot left afterwards.

hints of andy schleck vs cadel evans 2011 tdf stage 18

No-one will let Amador get away, end result would be blowing things apart immediately.
They'll try to get Izaguirre and Rojas up the road imo.

May see the bridge attempt quite early, as the Umbral is steep enough that team-mates wont be that important.

If I win the lottery I'm buying a place in Bormio.

Bormio is pretty cool. I did my biggest ever bike climb near there, 1900m height gain, all rideable, bottom part on road top part off road.

[quote=Klunk ]
How far up climb 1 before TJ gets dropped ?

ha ha

[quote=matts ]You think he's gonna make the base of the climb in the bunch? Bold prediction.

*tea over monitor*

To be fair to TJ, he's doing well for a guy who trains for the mountains by riding on the flat and hugging his kids.

LOL. I wonder if guys like Van den Broeck or Brice Feillu get this kind of stick in the Belgian or French cycling world. Is it just that TvG is American that we see the hype in the English-speaking press?

I wonder if guys like Van den Broeck or Brice Feillu get this kind of stick in the Belgian or French cycling world. Is it just that TvG is American that we see the hype in the English-speaking press?

JVdB may have just been a domestique in the last couple of years since the comeback from his crash, but he was definitely touted for years as the next big thing for Belgian stage racing.

Most riders (unless they've got a grand tour podium or two in them) tend to say they're on form, hoping for the best, lets see how it goes. Look at the Yates lads, they're top 10 GT riders but never spend much energy trying to get their names on the contender lists.

It may be that BEING American, TvG feels obliged to get stuck in with media soundbites and they end up coming back on him.

definitely touted for years as the next big thing for Belgian stage racing.

There's a difference between being touted as the next big thing by the media and believing yourself to be up there with the current greats.

Who cares about TJVG.

That Bob Jungels is a class act though.

Nice bloke too. I see him around fairly regularly throughout the year and he's usually the one to greet other cyclists in particular rather than half-arsedly return their waves.

Sky doing all the work for Movistar at the moment by driving the break.

Thing is, Team Sky need to get something out of this giro so it may be launching Landa for a stage win even if that means giving Quintana a hand

this is brutal stuff 😯

Huge climb this, proper mental.

TJ attack !!!! 😯 😀

Two down, one to go. Hang in there Tom!

mental descent on shit roads ! 😯

Don't fancy the descent much. Patching in the entry, middle and exit of corners. Nice.

Worth putting any pressure on Quintana on the descent (a la Froome)? We know he's not the best...

Beautiful ride by Landa, Amador knows him well so I'm hoping they work together to pin this one down.

Stunning area, you must go.

Hold the back page ! WTF.... seriously !

pink needs a dump.

Doumulin has stopped for a dump!

Don't fancy being the guy that pushed him off again!

Dumoulin's doing a doo doo.

Shit get's real.

shedding weight before the climb ?

Are they waiting for him? They should, but obviously if he was with them, chances are they'd be attacking right now.. #poogate

Did they wait?

Nope.

nah about 1:20 down according to my stream*..

*internet, not wee..

Cagare fuori

EDIT - Lol @ Eurosport - 'Is Dumoulan about to be dethroned...'

"is he about to be dethroned" classic !

2:50 from the front group, 1:30 from NQ group I think.

They did wait for a fair bit, but there is only so long you can stop a whole race for.
They ALL should've stopped for a pee, that would have been better.

Vie Niballi

Crapeau!

Clean ride by Tom, sad Landa didn't get the stage..

Just seen a gif pop up on FB of Dumoulan peeling off his gear whilst rushing into the nearest ditch to jettison a bungle's finger - pretty bad form if the rest pressed on regardless - is nothing sacred anymore? 😥

edit - didn't know they held off for a bit, must have been one for the history books.

didn't know they held off for a bit, must have been one for the history books.

they didn't really, they were pushing hard enough to drop other riders.

All they did was look around behind them to see if he was near and on his bike, once they knew he was back on his bike and riding they just cracked on.

Toms a decent bloke, he will gain more from this than any of the small minded group underneath him.

If QuintNa wins this Giro it will be on the back of his team pushing on twice against the Other GC rivals in distress. Tainted IMHO.

Bloody incredible ride by Tom D. To still have a 30+ sec overall lead after the whiff of scandal today is proper hero material.

Thought it was near the end of the stage once the racing had started? Fair enough for racing on. He should have shit on his bike like Lemond did.

And that's why his bike had easily accessible dual bog-roll holders built in 💡
[img] http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=194345 [/img]

Bad form by Quintana et al. After Dumoulin had allowed him to get back on last time you would have expected him to have returned the favour ... fingers crossed others repay him sometime soon.

Superb descending by Nibali and Dumoulin.

He should have shit on his bike like Lemond did.

At that point in the race, definitely this!

Not seen the stage yet but it sounded like it was Bahrain Merida that were doing all the work, though probably without too much complaint from Movistar. You can bet that if Subweb hadn't slowed down when Quintana crashed they'd have been a lot more aggressive today.

Not been keen on Quintana though ever since he pushed on on that neutralised stage a few years back to win the Giro. He seems to be regularly involved in this sort of thing.

A bit more complicated than quintana's crash the other day - Kruijswijk was up the road and a threat to lots of other GC positions today. On balance though, not very sportsmanlike from Bahrain and Movistar.

Landa etc wasn't too far up road - no excuse why they couldn't let Dumoulin get back on; Quintana had enough team around him to have slowed it.

the organisers are not going to be happy when riders start crapping down the middle of the road, he was unhappy for some time he had gone back to the car one can presume to ask for a natural break, which was probably rebuffed by the other teams.

I thought they'd backed off the pace a bit and it was Zakarin who attacked, he got a few looks from the others when they bought him back but then they didn't slow again and the race was on.

The thing that really took the piss was the Movistar rider dropping down only to sit on Dumoulin's wheel at the start of the climb. There is some argument for the GC riders carrying on, but offering Dumoulin some kind of assistance to get back to the group would have shown at least a little bit of class.

That's never going to happen. The problem Dumpin' Tom has is that he's not got a team to support him in the mountains.

It'll be amazing if he can keep the pink jersey - but I fully expect one of the big teams to sign him for next season.

It'll be amazing if he can keep the pink jersey

I hope VN hits his peak and takes the overall, whilst TD cracks and sacks it off to concentrate on riding breakaways in the Tour instead

Bloody incredible ride by Tom D. To still have a 30+ sec overall lead after the whiff of scandal today is proper hero material.

Yeah, the way he's beating out and out climbers on mountains. it's almost...unbelievable isn't it? 🙄

remember the last time big Testers were beating mountain men uphill? That ended well, didn't it.

remember the last time big Testers were beating mountain men uphill? That ended well, didn't it.

He's a bit of a Miguel Indurain; just got a much bigger engine than everyone else 😉

TBF, I think he looks a bit awkward on the bike in terms of GT contenders; he certainly appears much "broader" than everyone else. At least Wiggo (the last big diesel engine) looked like he'd actually thinned out for his TDF win. Domoulin looks like he's ready for the classics season, deffo got more of a Hincapie look about him. Although if you remember, he wasn't too bad up the climbs either.....

remember the last time big Testers were beating mountain men uphill? That ended well, didn't it.

Chris Froome? Bradley Wiggins (OK, bit of a grey one..)? Both very capable testers. And dumoulin isn't THAT heavy.

People bashing Quintana but it was Zakarin who attacked and then Bahrain Merida, it didn't leave Movistar much choice, they couldnt let Zakarin and Nibali with Pelizzotti ride off and Tom's dump was a little tactical surely, sat on the back for 45mins up to the climb and just as they hit the climb he jumped off

Some "interesting" thoughts you have.

Tom's dump was a little tactical surely

Shit tactics 😆

And dumoulin isn't THAT heavy.

he's 13kg heavier than Nairo...

not good form that and the race should be one in a manner befitting a champion

he's 13kg heavier than Nairo...

Nairo is a shit (in GC terms) tester though

however, only Pantani has been faster up the final 7.5km of the Oropa than Doumalin (from Ross Tuckers twitter),

This time up Oropa was a short, hockey stick stage though rather than as part of a longer stage like most previous years.

Yes, it was a climb ideally suited to TD. It's a shame he didn't ride it in the drops though

Interesting figures shamelessly stolen from[url= https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/867122083553320965 ]Twitter[/url]
Umbrailpass, last 12.59km:
Quintana,Nibali 41:13
Zakarin,Pozzovivo 41:16
Dumoulin 42:00
Pinot,Jungels,Mollema,Yates,Formolo 42:17

Bloody good solo effort! I hope he take the Pink all the way to Milan!

Nairo is a shit

Yeah, that made me sad. Zakarin mainly, but Quintana and Nibali should have taken control and backed off.

Not a lot of class on display today. I hope Tom destroys them in the TT. Nibbles isn't fit to hold the Post of Tom's groom of the stool.

We're missing the bigger picture here. He only lost around 90 seconds during poogate, 90 seconds......... do these guys train to poo that quickly?!?!? I'd barely have started browsing the internet by that point! Hope he doesn't have a case of the Duke of Argyles this morning

And dumoulin isn't THAT heavy.

He was a bit lighter at the end of the stage.

he's 13kg heavier than Nairo...

Comparing anyone's weight to Nairo isn't really fair. In terms of GC contenders he's about right. Indurain was a lot bigger.

Tricky for Movistar when there's an incident just. Wrote a big climb. Nairo being a one trick pony he doesn't have that many opportunities to make up big time gaps so can't really expect them to neutralise a finale like that.

Tom's dump was a little tactical surely,

Whatever you're having, make mine a half.

well on to the next stage in the giro de antisportivo

stage 17 Tirano > Canazei

The stage is wavy, with a few technical climbs in the first part, such as Aprica and Passo del Tonale after the start from Tirano. A long drop then takes the peloton across the Val di Sole. The route goes up again in the second half: first comes the Giovo categorised summit, then comes a long false flat up, leading all the way to the finish in Canazei (already three times stage town). The route climbs slightly in the last 5 km, on wide and well-surfaced road, with just a very short descent 1,000 m before the finish. The home straight (450m) is on 6.5-m wide asphalt road.

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Has anyone used Dumpoulin as a nickname yet? If not, I just have....