It's Grand Tour Season! Giro d'Italia thread

How smooth was the tarmac on that last climb!!! 🤩

Road envy........

How smooth was the tarmac on that last climb!!! 🤩

Road envy……

Don't be fooled. Many Italian roads are akin to the UK atm.

Admittedly the north, particularly Trentino, Alto Adige and Veneto are generally pretty good.

Drove much off stage 8 in Umbria/Abruzzo and it was almost all nice new tarmac. Anything off the route was potholed.

Don’t be fooled. Many Italian roads are akin to the UK atm.

I remember riding Gavia Pass a few years ago and it was atrocious. Stelvio was much better but we definitely found some really pretty crap roads.

Spain for the top notch roads. Even their gravel is better than many UK roads!

When Pogacar took off towards Steinhauser with a couple of km to go I was thinking he'd go down in my estimation if he caught Steinhauser on the line and nabbed it from him. But it didn't look like he was really drilling it and it was probably a bit too late anyway, even for him.

Spain for the top notch roads.

Yes!

Was there for five months last year and was impressed at their tarmac.

Think they have the smoothest roads in Europe. I just struggle with the language.

Our own local roads were beautifully re-tarmacked last year when the 'Tour of Britain' came through. Sadly it was a botch job and now mostly back to death trap pot holes for people who cycle.

Sprinty or possibly breakaway stage today, out through the prosecco vineyards.

https://inrng.com/2024/05/giro-stage-18-preview-padova/

Looks like a better weather day, maybe the possibility of rain later on.

Breakaway day it is, it was all go go go until about 90km to go then for no apparent reason, the peloton sat up. Large break now has 7 minutes

Love breakaway days. Love AG2R. Great.

Imagine how much better that win would have been with brown shorts though.

I think Geraint may have had brown shorts 7km from the finish.

Imagine how much better that win would have been with brown shorts though.

It's notable that since they dropped the brown shorts this season, they've suddenly become incredibly successful. Perhaps it was the brown shorts holding them back?

I understand Luke Plapp had the brown shorts today. He did well to stay in the break.

Another big day in the mountains with a double ascent of Monte Grappa to finish the day.

https://inrng.com/2024/05/giro-stage-20-preview-bassano-del-grappa/

Pogacar has already indicated he wants to win yet another stage so I'm predicting much the same as previous mountain days. A breakaway goes, gets gradually wound in as UAE up the tempo and the Pogacar goes. 🙄

I was so pleased when an Italian won a stage yesterday. Congratulations Andrea Vendrame. Yes the brown shorts have been binned, this subject has been discussed a lot in the Bunnyhop/nbt household making us smile.

Geraint please stay on your bike today.

Geraint please stay on your bike today.

Oh it's not a bike race unless G falls off at some point. To be fair it was pretty minor and everyone seemed to wait for him. Although if that happens in the middle of a GC battle today, I'm not sure there'll be quite such willingness to play nicely. Yesterday the peloton was very much in neutral mode so it didn't really matter that they sort of sat up a bit and waited for him to get back in.

Weather back to being grim I see...

The trouble with these innocuous falls (G), is that they can often be worse than a full flight through the air at speed. Yes I'm surprised 'G' has got this far without a tumble of some description.

How to gain a fan for life. Really nice gesture from Podg

The time gaps from Tadej Pogacar back to "the rest".

🤯

4 seconds short of 10 minutes.

How to gain a fan for life. Really nice gesture from Podg

It was.

4 seconds short of 10 minutes.

Will he go for bonuses tomorrow?

So what is he on then?

Winning by 10 mins is just taking the piss.

Has all the oil money developed the new EPO?

Vingegaard won last year's TdF by over 7 minutes. From Pogacar. 11 mins ahead of 3rd place. Has he got even better EPO?

A very exciting, enjoyable race. It was inevitable that Tadej would win, but my favourite rider ever was on that podium, at the age of 38 Geraint Thomas was as ever dependable and only had one sit down moment (as I recall). 'G' is heading to the TdF as a domestique and will be in great shape to help out their GC (guessing Egan Bernal and maybe Carlos Rodrigez).

My velogames STW team suffered 4 losses but I managed to pick riders who won stages, so didn't end up rock bottom. Congratulations to 'Team Name Here' - Ben who came 194th  out of 19,055, good show.

With a GC specialist like Jonas Vingegaard then the freaks of nature like Tadej Pogacar who can do what he can do in GC and the classics, then the multidicaplinary superstars like Tom Piddcock, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert I'm not sure world cycling from XCO to cyclo cross to classics to GC has ever looked so good.

I'm looking forward to Tadej doing a full season of cyclocross in preparation for next year's Paris-Roubaix.

Thank you all for setting this up.

‘Team Name Here’ – Ben who came 194th  out of 19,055, good show.

Ben is Mr TW and he is very pleased.

That he did better than me 😃

Critérium du Dauphiné starts tomorrow and Velogames is up and running as usual. The league runs all season and applies to all the velogames, so anyone who entered the giro League will find themselves in the league for this and subsequent games. There already 9 or 10 of us...

Tip: Sam Bennett is the only recognised sprinter in the race. This is because others only one sprint stage...

https://www.velogames.com/

League ID: 347313627

https://www.velogames.com/cdd/2024/leaguescores.php?league=347313627

Race coverage on Eurosport / Discovery+, but in far better news there are daily highlights on ITV4 with Gary, David and Ned. Only SD though which is a little disappointing

Let me take this moment to revel in being top of the STW league after my dismal Giro performance.

Critérium du Dauphiné starts tomorrow

almighty crash 🙁 2 more Visma  riders off to hospital Steven Kruijswijk & Dylan van Baarle, they really have had a run of bad luck!

Stage neutralised, the crash must have been awful.

https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status/1798698892684333058

Crash was notable just for sheer numbers of guys going down. Looked like a super slippy bit of newly resurfaced, wet road and possibly a couple of crashes simultenously in different bits of the bunch. Easily 50 riders on the deck including Remco, Roglic and Ayuso.

Visma-LAB must have broken some mirrors in the off season.

the break have gone the wrong way 😕

the break have gone the wrong way 😕

Prize stupidity by the lead cars! No wonder Gregoire had a nose bleed!!

Great ride by Rogla. Brexit Bombardiers fast train to nowhere as usual.

Close at the end.

Congratulations to Beej in the STW velogames league. I started in  2nd place and gradually slipped to the very bottom (face palm).

Thanks! I was lucky picking Gee and Jorgenson, went for Remco over Roglic. Rest of the the team did OK.

So... TDF... I still think Pogs going to take it. It'll be interesting to see how Bernal does this week.

I only half watched the Dauphine but it's hard to see Roglic competing with Pog and Vinergaard. They all looked distinctly human compared to what we've been watching recently. Looking forward to the Tour.

Derek Gee seems like the nicest guy on the planet !!

I only half watched the Dauphine but it’s hard to see Roglic competing with Pog and Vinergaard.

Agree he'll struggle with Pog but we don't know about Vingegaard's condition yet, plus Visma LAB are in a bit of a mess at the moment.

the two top riders in the Tour de Suisse are the Pogmonster's Team mates, everyone else looks well off the pace.

the two top riders in the Tour de Suisse are the Pogmonster’s Team mates, everyone else looks well off the pace.

Adam Yates is all set to be a super-domestique at the Tour!