Even with a fairly limp race for the top of the podium, there’s still been plenty of ciclismo to get your teeth into so far.
My rider to watch this week is Ciccone as Lidl Trek have underperformed so far this Giro and I feel like he’s just going to keep trying stuff til it sticks.
Anyone else for predictions?
Back at it today after a fantastic weekend and a well deserved rest day. Today is short and sharp - 113 km, but finishes with 11.7km at 7.9%. Will the break hold, will Jonas destroy them, will it be a damp squib? Looking forward to it
Regarding the Zanoncello disqualification- there’s an interesting post on @howtheracewaswon instagram that makes it look less of a clear cut thing. Take a look. What do you think?
Will the break hold, will Jonas destroy them, will it be a damp squib?
I think it's one for the break. Short and fast.
My rider to watch this week is Ciccone
Today maybe. Or another one for Narvaez?
there’s an interesting post on @howtheracewaswon instagram
Just watched that thanks, and yes I think his point is very well made
Somehow my completely random team of 9 (many unknown to me) has risen to 2nd in our league. Tis a shame that mr Yates took a tumble early on.
I'm going to be tumbling (welshfarmer has knocked me off the number 2 spot ;O) ) due to not having Vingegaard in my velogames team. Come on Felix Gall, you're my only hope now.
A semi-bumpy stage through the dolomites today. Potential for both scenery and ciclismo are HIGH
what a cracking stage it's been so far! if you haven;t seen it then the highlights wil be worth watching
A great stage today.
Fuga de la Fuga de la Fuga
A perfect illustration of my argument that even if Pog and Vin take every GC in sight there is still plenty to watch. Especially when someone going for a non-GC result of some kind can sometimes cause utter mayhem.
Thank heavens JV got rid of the ridiculous adolescent face fuzz. I was embarrassed for him. My Watts/kg may struggle to get into single digits, but at least I can grow a beard 🙂
A perfect illustration of my argument that even if Pog and Vin take every GC in sight there is still plenty to watch
Today was yet another example. GREAT finish
Today was yet another example. GREAT finish
Yes. There was much argument about whether today could be considered a sprint stage and ought to have 50 points at the finish. Well...
All the talk was "muro di ca di poggio is too hard for sprinters,it will be a break away."
as for today - IT'S QUEEN STAGE DAY, plus added Cima Coppi
Rolling for the first 46 KM (the domestique guide says "flat" but that's only compared to what follows) then a Cat 1, a cat 2, the "intermediate sprint" part way up the next Cat 2, the Cima Coppi (which looks like an HC tbf), the "red bull sprint" part way up the third Cat 2 of the day, then a LOOOONG descent to a relatively short and steep (5km at 9.9%) cat 2 mountain finish. say relatively because at the end of a day like that, they'll all kow about it.
I'll try to have most of the race on becuase again I expect two or three races-within-races
will a break go?
will it stay away? will it win?
When will Jonas go
who will be be able to follow apart from Felix Gall, and how loing will he last? Who will move in the GC?
Laters!
We need a Ciccone win. Any maybe a sunglasses-yeet at the finish line.
A lot to follow on this stage!
Fair play. That was a tough stage. Well done to Sepp and unlucky Cicerone. Probably went to hard to get KOM points on previous climbs
Masterclass by Visma. JV said this morning it would be nice if Sepp won the stage, and abracadabra - he does, while nothing much changes on the GC.
That shrug from rubio
I was disappointed when Kuss overtook my brave boy Giulio with 2km to go but then they showed him almost in tears at the prospect of seeing his mum for the first time in months.
Tomorrow's stage looks pretty brutal - my money is on Ciccone rampaging over the early mountains before visma nuke the whole peloton and Vignegaard gains another minute or two.
Well he needs to take the first two koms to be sure of not handing the blue jersey back to Vin.
What few bits and highlights I managed to watch have been good. For a couple of years, the Giro went through a phase of trying to be as ridiculously tough as possible so it's nice that they've sort of dialled that back a bit.
Still needs swapping with the Vuelta. Move the Vuelta to May when the weather in Spain is not completely scorchio, move the Giro to September when the weather in Italy is not completely shite. Early on had a couple of atrocious days.
All to play for tomorrow @Bunnyhop 🙂
I thought you had 2nd in the bag after yesterday but somehow managed to have 4 in the top 10 today. Just need someone other than Milan to surprise us tomorrow
What happened with Jonas bike? Any ideas?
@welshfarmer - I've lost 2 riders and am expecting to possibly drop off the STW podium (unless Milan wins). Probably a win today for Magnier. Silly me wrote Leknessund into my velogames team, then at the last minute I changed to Jake Stewart, which ended up a bad choice. Hindsight is a wonderful thing :O). Good luck.
All kicking off in the Women's Giro.
Lorena Wiebes won Stage 1 but was then DQ'd (completely DQ'd, thrown off the race) because her bike weighed 6.78kg and was therefore 20g under the minimum weight limit of 6.8kg. 😳
Seems harsh to me, SD Worx put out a statement saying they can't understand it, that bike has been used (and weighed) many times before so they're questioning the protocols.
So Elisa Balsamo is in pink. Highest place British rider is Pfeiffer Georgi in 30th, 10" back (along with a significant chunk of the peloton, it's only Stage 1.
Stage 2 today is pretty much pan flat.
All kicking off in the Women's Giro.
Apparently the UCI weighed it twice after the race, the weights differed by 50g so the accuracy of their scales is questionable.........................
There are conflicting reports about what happened with weighing the bike so I'd be cautious about believing the reported numbers.
It does seem a bit excessive in this context but it is a rare example of a clear well defined UCI rule with an unambiguous sanction. It's a zero tolerance rule and is being applied as it has been written for about 20 years. I'd be surprised if SD workx legal sabre-rattling gets them very far unless there's any clear evidence of malpractice by the UCI. From what's in the public domain, there isn't even anything to suggest that the SDWorx scales are calibrated better than the UCI ones.
I'd be surprised if SD workx legal sabre-rattling gets them very far unless there's any clear evidence of malpractice by the UCI. From what's in the public domain, there isn't even anything to suggest that the SDWorx scales are calibrated better than the UCI ones.
The fact that she's now missed Stage 2 would indicate that there's no way back for her.
These post-race things are a nightmare, it's been seen before in F1 where the race finishes, there's a presentation and then 2 days later, everything is completely turned around because fuel discrepancies, protocols, (and the related appeals) etc have all happened.
The race organisers are desperate for a podium ASAP after the finish (in fact it's in the regs about how long you can wait). The UCI are keen to see rules followed, anti-doping etc done and then there's any in-race incidents, penalties etc to work through and none of that actually ties in, in fact they're largely at opposite ends of the time spectrum.
Shame about Cat Ferguson crashing out on Stage 1, she was widely touted as being the best of the British talent in the race.
Oh and congratulations to Jonas Vingegaard too. It's been 8 years since Froome won all three Grand Tours and Vingegaard is only the 8th male ride in history to do that.
From what's in the public domain, there isn't even anything to suggest that the SDWorx scales are calibrated better than the UCI ones.
SDWorx are suggesting that the UCI scales weren't recalibrated to take altitude into account, unlike the SDWorx scales. There's also the possible affect of wind (SDWorx measured theirs indoors).
That’s getting tenuous. I read in the New York Times that 100kg mass at sea level weighs 100g less at the top of Everest
If that’s correct I doubt a 7kg bike looses 50g over 2000m of vertical gain
I think that its more of an issue if the UCI weren't regularly checking / recalibrating (i.e before each weighing session) their weighing scales.
Apparently other teams go to the UCI at the start/finish of each stage and calibrate their measuring equipment against what the UCI are using. I'm betting that the nature of a lot of the measurements (wheel diameters, handlebar widths, TT bike spec and weight spring to mind) will vary a bit from race-to-race as I can't imagine the UCI having the most watertight approach to metrology. Probably the most sensible thing for teams to do is to plan for that. You can indeed argue that Weibes likely didn't benefit from a lighter bike on that stage, which then begs the question why was she riding a bike so close to the weight limit? Was anyone else DQ'd for underweight bikes?
This all really sucks for Weibes who was certainly competing in good faith. I'd be interested to see if SD Worx's legal approach leads to changes in how UCI handle their measurements.
