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

CCC and Rusvelo, maybe Bardiani in the break which will last until the final bump.

Be nice if an unknown got the win.

Nibali yesterday... "l never expect anyone to wait for me when I stop". What bollocks.

The new saying in our house - it's Dumoulin time 🙂

This is a stage I'm looking forward to, as we've skied a lot of this area.

Come on Yates, you're doing really well, nice and steady, keeping out of trouble.

He's a seasoned Tour campaigner though and seen many an event screw his chances up, as many other riders have.

"Rumour" has it Tom did go back to the car and ask for a slow down, we'll never know for sure but it didn't look like the request (if there ever was such) got answered.. something he's keeping very quiet about, and his team.. so maybe....

But 30's is wider than some gaps at this stage in a Tour, I'd like to see him take it to the end because he's classy and a damn fine all rounder and I'd like the old guard to soft peddle off into the distance.

Dumoulin time

This is a stage I'm looking forward to, as we've skied a lot of this area.

We were there last year, absolutely fantastic place! 8)

I would love to see Quintana or Nibbles have a problem and Orica, Sky ad Sunwebb move to the front and power off into the distance.

CCC and Rusvelo, maybe Bardiani in the break which will last until the final [s]bump[/s] dump.

FTFY 🙂

Looking forward to today's stage, we were skiing in Passo Tonale in march and our coach went up the road they'll be climbing - it'a a bit of a bastard.

[quote=Bunnyhop ]The new saying in our house - it's Dumoulin time

Indeed, I was in the garage just about to put on my shoes when I felt that urge to [i]du[/i] a dumoulin. Glad I did, I needed a courtesy flush, that could have been horrendous if it had happened mid-commute

The memes have begun...

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all my 10 yr old kept asking was what did he use to wipe his arse ? 🙂

(though he didn't actually use those words..)

[quote=iainc ]all my 10 yr old kept asking was what did he use to wipe his arse ?

That's what the chamois pad is for, surely? 😉

Caleb Ewan won the stage after a late poo, bit disappointed by TD's performance in comparison

So I watched the full stage yesterday evening after carefully avoiding this thread all day.

WTF! So many times over!

NQ sends half team up the road, and then doesn't have the balls (or maybe the legs) to try the bridge.

TD needs a potty break - sometimes it just has to be done. Loved his blunt interview response of "I had to take a dump"

And Landa........
Why oh why leave an inside line open round the final corner - at least make Nibali come around you.......

Oh, and CCC guy - wtf did he have in his Sandwiches on the rest day 😐

When you gotta Do-poo-man, you gotta Do-poo-man.

And Landa........
Why oh why leave an inside line open round the final corner - at least make Nibali come around you.......

For the last 2k I assumed that they had agreed that Landa would take the stage if he pulled with Nibs all the way to the line for time. As that was not the case, why the heck was he not letting Nibali do the work?

Dumoulin must feel a right prick for waiting for Quintana the other day. Hopefully the little nob crashes again.

Hopefully the little nob crashes again.

Nibali yesterday... "l never expect anyone to wait for me when I stop".

No he doesn't, he waits for his DS, and holds onto the car. Sometimes he doesn't get away with it.

You could tell Nairo wasn't happy about it in the post-race interview. He probably realises it will be a (cough) tainted victory if he wins now.

Would have been classy if he'd waited for Tom and they'd chased the others together.

I too thought it was Zakarin who kicked it off. Quintana looked a bit uncomfortable to me. But then once others start going up the road, what are you going to do?

Yeah, apparently his DS told him to shut it down over the radio. But that was the catalyst to kick everything off.

I was confused by Landa doing all the work also, did he think he could take Nibali? Pretty exciting last few corners, that's how I like to imagine I corner 8)

He seemed pretty frustrated at the end but then I guess you would be if you'd spent most of the stage out front just to get pipped on the line

I don't think they should have waited, they had been riding all day to isolate TD and at the very point that they were going to really put the hammer down he pulled over for a break. If everyone waited then what happens the next time that TD is maybe struggling to hold the wheels, he pulls over for a phantom poo and they all have to sit up and wait for him to climb at his own pace? It was unfortunate for TD and might well cost him the Giro, but it wasn't a racing incident.

That said, I don't particularly want to see Nibbles or Quintana win so hope that TD can keep them within range for the TT.

If everyone waited then what happens the next time that TD is maybe struggling to hold the wheels, he pulls over for a phantom poo and they all have to sit up and wait for him to climb at his own pace?

I think you're letting your imagination get the better of you now

Wonder if Landa will mention yesterdays stage bonus on his tax form...

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;

/p>

And, lest we forget.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana_Pro_Team#Doping_controversies

Oh, and...
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[img] http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com/2009/07/04/2/bettiniphoto_0040242_1_full_600.jp g" target="_blank">http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com/2009/07/04/2/bettiniphoto_0040242_1_full_600.jp g"/>

Astana? Hardly the cleanest.

Bahrain? Hmmmmm

Stage 19 Innichen > Piancavallo [b]Running out of Time[/b]

This is a high mountain stage with a long flat drag in the final part of the route, before the closing climb. The stage starts from San Candido for the first time in the history of the Giro. The peloton will climb up Passo di Monte Croce Comelico (categorised summit) and Cima Sappada on relatively wide and well-paved roads, with a long descent then leading all the way to Tolmezzo. Next comes the Sella Chianzutan categorised summit. Along the descent, the route passes through a few porphyry-paved tunnels (well surfaced and well lit), and then levels until Aviano, where the final climb begins. Arrival in Piancavallo, as it happened in 1998 (stage won by Pantani). The final 15 km run entirely uphill. The first 10 kilometres go up at very steep gradients - around 9% and topping out at 14%. With 10.9 km to go, the road levels out and even descends a little, then climbs up again (passing through an avalanche gallery) with milder gradients (max. 8%). The final kilometre is quite sinuous, still climbing slightly. The home stretch (100 m in length) sits on a wide, mild bend, on 6.5-m wide asphalt road, and has a 1.5% uphill gradient.

This is where it kicks off. Yesterday's soft peddle and tick tack will annoy Nibz and Quinty, Mov will tear this one apart and Merida will follow along, sadly the Sunweb Boys have nothing left, if you saw the anquish on Ten Dams face yesterday you'll understand they're bushwhacked.
If Tom, if, he can tail along with either of the split Trains (which sadly I doubt) he'll have a myriad of choices to consider, which one to follow, how hard, oh shit there goes another.. and so on. Mov and Merida will tactically race together..
Toms only hope is Quickstep or Trek or Daledrapac or Lotto Soudal (all of whom have been quite quiet recently, (saving energy I hope for this stage) to assist him.

Hats off to the Sunweb boys, they must be destroyed by now.

Should be a cracker.

Sky rode for pink yesterday when Niro attacked, was it Rosa ? dropped back and helped Tom to bridge the gap.

True, Sky could help.. they must feel aggrieved at loosing the opportunity to go for it with Thomas.. could work out, Diamond Dave is always tight lipped on tactics.. but good call..

Yeah it's looking like today is the day NQ and Nibali will have to make their move. I'd assume not really until the final climb though and the question then is, can they take enough out of the pink jersey in such a short time.
Really hoping that if they go for it, team Sky leave a couple of riders to help out the pink jersey 🙂

Let's not forget FDJ trying to haul Pinot on to the podium. They'll take it to Nibbles and Nairo too.

this is why I think Nibali thinks he has second, Pinot like Quintana has a relatively weak TT. Vincenzo probably thinks he has at least a minute on them both so he'll stick to Niros wheel guessing/hoping Pinot cannot gain enough time.

+1 FDJ must hold some of the keys to this. If TomDum can be with them at the final climb he'll be fine, and the 2nd last climb is miles back so it's doubtful NQ or Nibs will go that far out. Go Tom. #anyonebutmovistar

At the start of the week I did think that Tom was going to crack at some point in the mountains and lose about five minutes or so. However am happy that it looks like I'm going to be proved wrong. That was a masterful display from him yesterday.

After the crash that ruled G and Adam out I was fairly neutral about who I wanted to win. However after poo-gate I'll be cheering Tom on all the way.

I have a hazy recollection of Dumoulin moaning after Froome and Porte were given some time back on last year's Ventoux stage (Froome's little jog after a motorbike broke his bike). I've a feeling that he said something along the lines of "according to the rules Froome should have been disqualified, and he shouldn't have been given special treatment so should have been booted out". Am I imagining that? A quick Google didn't show anything up, so maybe I am. Aside from that (which I might very well have made up or mis-attributed in my head!), I see no reason not to be a big TD fan. I don't mind him speaking out about Nibbles and Nairo riding negatively - just makes the show more interesting!