And this may be why reducing the teams by one is a good thing

I suspect it’s more that the Giro is just a really hard race to control, it was when teams had nine riders. Arguably what cutting team sizes actually does is reduce opportunities for young, developing riders to get GT experience because you can’t carry a ‘passenger’. Or in the case of Sky, a sprinter – if Cav were still at Sky, would he even get a Tour place with or without a sprint train? The tendency is to select proven riders only at the expense of younger talent, which potentially means they never get the experience they need to develop.

Heard a young US pro rider make exactly this point in a Cycling Podcast episode earlier this year with the more general inference that it reduces opportunities for riders overall and potentially means teams will cut their rosters, reducing the number of riders overall at World Tour level.

Inner Ring for example, says that for this year teams overall have cut riders, sometimes as many as four:

http://inrng.com/2017/11/shrinking-peloton-world-tour/

Anyway… ultimately it wouldn’t matter how strong Team Sky’s team is at the Giro, if Froome isn’t at the same level as the other main contenders, he can’t win it.

It’s a shame that whenever anyone wins anything, the first question seems to be ‘is he or she a doper?

Yes it is indeed a shame

Both the Yates brothers have proven their ability in grand tours with top 5 finishes. There’s no doubt they’re an exceptional talent. If things continue the way they are, it will be very close between Yates and Dumoulin.

Froome is not looking great, but given (if he gets back on form – and according to him he was on better form before his crash) he can potentially make time up in the TT and get right back into it at least for a podium finish.

Simon is a very good TTer for his size, and he’ll concede a considerable amount of time to Dumoulin in the TT, but possibly not as much as people think. Contador springs to mind. Either way, 2 stage wins already (bearing in mind he gifted another to Chaves): the guy is on fire. Very happy for him.

Also, it’s seconds here and there, not a massive time gap caused by a ridiculous solo breakaway. Not seen the highlights of today but till now it’s seemed like canny riding rather than drug fuelled feats

this was in response to a post on the last page, but clearly I’m slow at typing!

only caught about the last hour today – looked GRIM

Well played by Bennett though

Who is that commentating on Eurosport today Bernie Eisel?

yeah, he was on for a bit – didn’t catch it but heard them saying so

bad weather forecast for the Zoncolan tomorrow just to spice it up some more.

Going to be a very big day tomorrow, might have to time it to be back in for the finish

yeah, he was on for a bit – didn’t catch it but heard them saying so

Cheers, didn’t hear his name but they kept mentioning Austria so I assumed it was him.

Chaves only has 51.30 tom make up this weekend. No probs. I believe in you Esteban!

Call it a round hour to give a buffer for the TT.

Set up to be a great climb, waiting for the fireworks. Crowd at the top looks huge, it could almost be Yorkshire!

that climb was brutal, no respite

yates has got his lead out to 1.24 and for all his valiant endeavors Froome gained 10s on Yates

But lots more on Doimoulin.   Froome and he will be fighting to swap places on the TT both thinking they’ll be taking Yates times away .   Chipping away at Yates now makes the overall job easier, but narrowing the gap to TD is the real game in town .

But lots more on Doimoulin

Tom should take that back in the TT

Tom should take that back in the TT

Not sure he’ll take a lot out of Froome, if he’s now fit

What’s impressive here is Froomidge went away at 4K to go and Yates waited until 3K to go before catching him and then loosing by just 6seconds to Froomidge.. 6seconds… Froomidge whilst a win is a win, this isn’t StemBoy of old… and Yates is clearly up for carrying this Pink jersey all the way home…

Thats an awesome concept.

is there time bonus in the TT ?

Tom should take that back in the TT

A hard call. Based on the opening TT Dumoulin would gain 80-90 seconds on Yates but we don’t know what effect the cumulative fatigue of two weeks’ racing has had on either of them. Makes for a very interesting TT on Tuesday.

Tomorrow’s stage is also lumpy.  I’d expect them both to attack Dumoulin – he cracked here last year.

We’ll then see how relative things are on Tuesday.  If Froome comes into form before a rest day and a TT he could prove very dangerous .

tomorrow

I can see Sky/Froome tapping out Dumoulin on Tre Croci and then Froome doing his latest descending trick onward tbh.

I’m actually excited to watch tomorrow’s stage, could be fireworks and really light up the Giro with multiple contenders. I’m also wondering if Aru could come back.

Tomorrow looks like the kind of stage that late-career contador would have set fire to

I’m really hoping both Tom and Froomidge don’t catch Yates 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Just watched the highlights, great rides from all three of them tbh. Tomorrow looks like anything could happen!

I’m really hoping both Tom and Froomidge don’t catch Yates

‘Froomidge’?

great rides from all three of them tbh.

think they’ll all be pretty satisfied with the days work….. Froome might of hoped to gain more time on Yates & Tom but will be pleased he had better legs, Tom will be glad to keep it around the 30 seconds when he could have easily lost a couple of minutes on that brute. Yates probably thinks now  if he can stay on or close to Froomes wheel he won’t lose the Jersey to Him but would have liked more time on Tom.

Great and brutal battle. 2 Brits at the top, awesome!

I feel really sorry for George Bennett. He had a serious mechanical at the base of the Zoncolan and had to wait for a replacement bike. Lost over a minute standing round due to the chaos of no support cars on the climb. I think he ended up taking Gesinks bike eventually and stormed up the climb passing most of the field and did one of the fastest times of all up. The TV coverage missed it all. Still only lost less than 2 minutes to Yates and is still 8th on GC. Go George! Just need a bit more luck on the remaining climbs.

Still some tough climbing to come next week too. I’m certainly rooting for Simon but the TT?

but the TT?

after a rest day too, easy to blow up on, they’ll be plenty of nervous riders.

very tentative on the downs , bunch of girls! he who dares dies 😉

Yates attacks

froome in trouble here

and again, here hoping

Froome a minute back on pink…. this kind of panache in the pink will win the lad a lot of fans

he’s a man on a mission! flying ! keep it on the road boy!

Yates is giving it some, Dumoulin getting a bit of an armchair ride from the others in the chasing group