How lovely that the Polti KOMETA team are offering bottles and gels to Alaphilippe from their car. Go Julian.
I'm not watching live btw.
I wonder what the French is for ‘ram it up your hoop, Patrick’
Brilliant ride by Alaphilippe. So good to see a break avoid being hoovered up by the pelotone (Sean Kelly) in the last 5 metres.
Mmmm I wonder if Lefevere will let Lou Lou ride La Vuelta Espana.
Might not watch all of today's stage live then.
Maybe just turn on after 60-90 minutes and use timeine markers to skip tothe attacks, then watch the last 20km or so?
Lovely recap of yesterday's breakaway effort here from Marco Maestri
https://twitter.com/TeamPoltiKometa/status/1791214897138659466
And a quick link to the league
https://www.velogames.com/italy/2024/leaguescores.php?league=347313627
Word is there might be crosswinds.
Might not watch all of today’s stage live then.
The Breakaway saying that this is the flattest road stage ever in a Grand Tour and that includes some of the stages they've had in the Netherlands!
Race just starting, an ultimately doomed breakaway containing riders from the 2 Pro-Conti teams has been allowed to disappear up the road immediately then the sprinters teams shut the whole thing down in the peloton. Rumours of crosswinds further down the road but everyone is just relaxed at the moment. Going to be a pretty dull day until the final 20-30km.
I wonder what the French is for ‘ram it up your hoop, Patrick’
Lol, yep. **** that guy.
Please can one of the commentators come up with an adjective other than "pan" to describe the flatness.... 🙄
Saw Robbie McEwen previewing the parcours - "The are some spikes in the elevations. Don't get excited, they're bridges"
Saw Robbie McEwen previewing the parcours – “The are some spikes in the elevations. Don’t get excited, they’re bridges”
Once did a 150 mile sportive called "Flat out in the Fens", 96% of the route was below sea level, and i ended on 68m of climbing in 150 miles, they were all bridges, so dull i looked forward to corners for something to do....
Ey up something has happened!
Ineos drilling it out of a corner and creating splits. Milan, Merlier, Pozzivivo, Gaviria amongst others dropped
Ineos have just blown the race to bits - around a 90 degree corner and they smashed it out of that cutting a big swathe into the peloton, a lot of people caught unawares. Pogacar safely up in the front group - that could have been interesting if he'd been towards the back!
This is suddenly quite fascinating. Lidl-Trek really caught unawares and chasing hard, it nearly came back together then suddenly the gap went back out again, the rear group then split into two.
It will come back together but there's a lot of shredded nerves all of a sudden.
Perhaps went off a little earlier than expected, but a mostly boring stage with a breakaway dangling of the front door and then a frantic finish
Itt no 2 today. 31km, mostly flat. Another highlights day for me
Itt no 2 today. 31km, mostly flat.
excellent - got stuff to do
Same here - riding today then I'll watch tomorrow's Queen Stage.
The are some spikes in the elevations. Don’t get excited, they’re bridges
When I lived in Shoeburyness it was an utterly flat ride below sea level to work on Foulness with the exception of one bridge. On some days I could be crawling up the bridge in a 26,28 gear or I could be flying up it at 25 without trying. If there was a day without wind it felt very very strange. Sometimes you had a head wind or a tail wind both ways. Best days were when you could pick up a lift behind one of the big tractors and sit right on it and barely pedal.
Is there any news of whether the full Stelvio climb will be used?
I'd heard there were concerns about avalanches and they were considering shortening the stage
Is there any news of whether the full Stelvio climb will be used?
Inrng has updated their website with the stage to be used tomorrow. They're not using Stelvio at all. Originally the plan was to go over it from Bormio, they then changed the plan to climb about 3/4 of Stelvio and then turn left, pass into Switzerland and descend the Umbrail Pass but that's now changed again to omit Stelvio altogether.
I climbed Umbrail a few years ago. KOM on it was 45 mins, done at the end of a monster Giro stage of 220km with about 5000m climbing. My time up it was 90 mins and I needed to stop 3 times for gels and to dunk my base layer in a mountain stream cos it was absolutely baking hot.
They are doing the Mortirolo though but from the easier side. I remember hearing an Aussie ride leader in Bormio briefing his Aussie group on their ride that day (imagine this in an Aussie accent...)
"OK guys, today we're gonna ride the Morti-rollo. It's ****in hard. Morti is Italian for death - cos you could ****ing DIE on this one! OK, we all good? Let's roll!"
As rider briefings went, I felt it left a bit to be desired...
Rouleur magazine have a preview of tomorrow's stage too. They've got the date wrong (showing as 15th but they mean 19th, maybe they've got it confused with the actual stage number (15) )
https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/giro-ditalia-2024-stage-15-preview
Inrng have the day's preview up:
https://inrng.com/2024/05/giro-stage-15-preview-livigno/
Looks like the weather might be quite changeable at times...
220km+ distance
5000m+ climbing
I can't even fathom those numbers on a bike. 🤯
I can’t even fathom those numbers on a bike. 🤯
I can fathom the numbers, it's the fact that it only takes them about 6hrs that is absolutely mind-blowing.
That'd be an all-day ride for me, like 7am start to finish before dark. And I'd need a lot of cafe stops.
I'll be honest, apart from the scenery, today hasn't been up to much. And now with 15km to go, Pogacar has done his predictable launch and buggered off up the mountain.
It's kind of like having a Premier League footballer turn up to the pub 5-a-side or having a PhD student take an 11+ exam. They're just so much better than everyone else, it kind of ruins the whole thing.
Boom!
Arensman, got out of the saddle and went **** that!
I've ridden these roads. Not at this speed but it's a cracking descent into Livigno. There's a bike park up there as well. Had loads of e-MTBers cruising past me on the climb as they headed up there. 😂
Catchy catchy or no?
catch
caught
Boom!
that was a brute of a climb!
I really, really, really want to believe but….
I know - even Armstrong had the decency to look thoroughly ****ed on stages like that!
On the other hand, Pogacar is beatable. By Vingegaard at the Tour for one. I think the "problem" at the moment is there's maybe 6 guys in men's WorldTour who are head and shoulders above everybody else. MvdP, WvA, Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel...
And when only one of them is there, it's kind of like the Premier League football analogy I made earlier.
So, what do we think? Is this Pogačar fella in with a shot here or what?
I don’t know how he does it. I’m sure he is passing all the anti doping test but to be that much better makes me suspicious. A sad state of affairs
Someone flagged his ride on Strava!
It got quickly reinstated but I can just imagine the former KOM holders on dozens of segments getting the uh-oh email and finding themselves out of the top 50 and with a completely unattainable new KOM time! 😂
A sad state of affairs
I agree. Part of me thinks that this generation aren't like the riders of decades past, but part of me also understands that if teams think they can get an advantage, they'll use it, and for all the clean riders there's still exemption certificates and "vitamin injections"
I think the “problem” at the moment is there’s maybe 6 guys in men’s WorldTour who are head and shoulders above everybody else. MvdP, WvA, Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel…
The difficulty is in explaining the size of the gap.
It's not something I worry about too much, I'm enjoying the spectacle, but I'm not sure if I'm witnessing some of the greatest athletes of all time, or one of the biggest doping scandals...
When Sagan was in his prime, he was considered one of a kind, a once in a generation talent. He was still famed for coming second in most races because he was a marked man and winning is hard.
These guys are riding everyone off their wheel with ease. I don't think we've ever seen anything like what Pogacar is doing in the modern era. Maybe my memory is hazy but even the likes of Armstrong and Pantani don't come close. There's been a complete change in the past couple of years and I think there's some good healthy discussion to be had as to why.
The difficulty is in explaining the size of the gap.
in G's case he said he was on a "bad" day before the attack and didn't even consider following when Pog went. And it got cagey behind.
At this point, I'm almost looking forward to the doping scandal, just to find out what sort of Super-Soldier Serum they're feeding these guys. In the meantime, the possibility isn't detracting from the spectacle for me, although it's much better in races where there's another competitor on Pog's level.
220km+ distance
5000m+ climbing
That’d be an all-day ride for me
That's about a month's worth for me
On a side note...
Saw last week's stage up to Prati di Tivo live.
The GF was wondering why lots of people were talking about focaccia.
The GF was wondering why lots of people were talking about focaccia.
Pop her in front of Eurosport commentary and she'll soon find the Kelly pronunciation: POGger-charr
