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

That’s a long line of riders going very very fast!

50mph run in on wide-ish roads, can see the nervous descenders drifting out the back as it all narrows.

This is mental – the GC riders taking it to the sprinters using the short but steep ramp to the line as a launchpad and the sprinters just can’t hold it!

That was interesting. Did all the GCers make the sprinters group at the end?  If not there’s going to be some time gaps and those two will have had a good day at the office.

Again, the boy pog loves a bike race.

“He was kicking my head in”. Got to love a G quote. Well done for even holding pog’s wheel when he went. Best of the rest thus far, but a long way to go. Last 5km was great. The earlier 160 less so.

Yep – G’s interviews are always good.

Really hope Geraint hasn’t worn himself out for the nest few days, that was some effort keeping up with the pink minx.

Day 4 and I’ve now lost 2 riders from my velogames team – Ben Healey and Simon Carr.

190km is too long for a sprint stage, it’s going to be another of those days where it’s really only the last 20km that’s worth watching, even with Italian scenery to pass the time!

ohhh, the finish sees a punchy little climb then downhill to the finish. the question is whether people will get shelled out the back or if we’ll see phenomenal speeds to the finish line. At least it looks fairly straight

Properly motoring on the one climb of the stage, they’re really putting the pace on and stringing it all out to get onto the descent up front. Looks really misty and tricky!

Some of the sprinters being distanced.

Biniam Girmay is out after a couple of crashes today. 🙁

Commentators better be careful, having a good old moan about the god awful racket of squealing discs on the wet corners. Big Disc will be pulling the advertising bucks! 😂

G. Pure class.

G loves a Tortilla……. pic.twitter.com/pRhCNsJjCC

— MarkContador (@MontVentoux23) May 7, 2024

One to make you sad… How many teams are riding Campagnolo in this year’s Giro? How many World Tour teams are riding Campagnolo this season?

Rode my fixed Campagnolo Record bling bike on last night’s club ride. The gruppo ratio matched the Giro.

How many teams are riding Campagnolo in this year’s Giro? How many World Tour teams are rising Campagnolo this season?

Don’t know.
None.

Which I assume from your first question means one of the Pro-Conti teams are riding Campag so either Team Polti Kometa or VF Group – Bardiani CSF – Faizanè.

I bet Neutral Service are thrilled with that – having to carry a load of Campag just for one team…

Campag is an irrelevance now. They’ve basically decided their market is uber-rich middle age blokes buying bikes based on Italian “flair” and heritage of the sport, not actual professionals.

Bardiani are indeed on Campagnolo. Sprocket spacing has been interchangeable since 11-speed Shimano, so I doubt Neutral Service have an issue. Of course when they bring out the new 2024 rim-braked Giant TCR for lighter weight on those hilly stages…

Campag is an irrelevance now

Try and buy a Ghibli in an Olympic year 😉 And only 7k euros a pair. Indoor use only.

Anyway, here’s today’s stage:

Giro Stage 5 Preview

Same sort of format as the previous 2 days – a lump midway through to string it all out then a smaller lump on the run in.

Should be a sprint finish. Watch Milan’s front wheel during yesterday’s sprint – aero? Nah, just power. Poor bike – utterly brutal! Jakobsen today for me, hoping he’s recovered from whatever the team are going down with.

They’ve basically decided their market is uber-rich middle age blokes buying bikes based on Italian “flair” and heritage of the sport, not actual professionals.

Kind of like the Eurosport commentary team employing former professionals with no insight or contributions of value purely on the basis of “well they used to be a great cycle racer and everyone will know their name”

Naming no names of course…

Oh, Discovery+ now have the “timeline marker” functionality on the website player

Any one else getting adverts on Discovery + when watching the highlights programme, makes me wonder what i am paying £7.99 a month for!?

Any one else getting adverts on Discovery + when watching the highlights programme, makes me wonder what i am paying £7.99 a month for!?

Yes, the “highlights” is just a recording of whatever goes out on Eurosport and in a lot of cases that’s “about 50 minutes coverage before the finish line” – at least with the Giro you do get Orla summarising the race so far / yesterday and prehaps vaguely previewing today’s race, as opposed to the editor just finding a “natural break” in the commentary and starting there. It’s crap isn’t it. I recommend watching the full coverage and using the timeline markers to jump to key points

Peloton being absolutely shredded by the pace on that middle climb – they’re riding it in the mid to high 20’s mph, it’s a full on TTT up there!

Riders at the back really struggling to hold the wheels.

Yeah it was  full on wasn’t it?! As the team are saying though with over 100km to go, it’s not about dropping riders per se, it’s about making them work so their legs are less fresh come the finaly. Expect more of the same on the climb with about 20km to go

Im watching with a slight delay and I will probalby just skip a large chunk, but there’s a gap back to the group with Alan Philip and Merlier

Major cockup by Alpecin catching the first break and allowing a new stronger break to go.

One presumes a slight downhill and tailwind. That negates the benefits of the peleton. It’s how Pog won strada bianche. I spent 90 min watching the whole program on the rollers rising a Zwift Group C paced group ride. The ability to rapidly scan through the program by bookmarks means that the hi lights are largely irrelevant. No adverts either. Well worth the subscription.

The strada bianche stage today – three sectors of gravel road in the last half of the race followed by a technical and narrow run in with lots of short steep little climbs.

Giro Stage 6 Preview

Should be another good day for the scenery!

A rapid start to the day – everyone keen to be in the break but that means it’s really selective as to who is allowed to get there given that today has been advertised as “a day for the breakaway”.

At some point it’ll settle down cos they can’t sustain this pace. They’re averaging high 50’s kph, the first 10km was ridden at 62kph!

they’ve just hit the first categorised climb and the speeds have been so high that there’s already a grupetto of about 20 (including tim merlier) off the back. Alan philip off the front

I love the fact that are 5kph faster than the organisers estimated pace for the day!

I think there’s going to be a few riders treating tomorrow’s TT stage as a bit of a recovery ride!

Meanwhile over at Tour de Hongrie, Cav beat Dylan Groenewegen for the stage win. 💥

I think there’s going to be a few riders treating tomorrow’s TT stage as a bit of a recovery ride!

Meanwhile over at Tour de Hongrie, Cav beat Dylan Groenewegen for the stage win. 💥

It came past the office yesterday, was walking back from lunch, so hung around to watch them pass.

Bit of a sad day at the Giro today actually, it’s 13 years to the day that Belgian pro Wouter Weylandt was killed in a crash.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wouter_Weylandt

He was teammates with Jens Voigt at the time, Jens was almost in tears on the moto at one point as he talked about it. And Robbie McEwan (commentating on EuroSport) was in the peloton that day too.

It’s why there’s no #108 in the race – Israel Premier Tech have 107 and 109 but 108 (Wouter Weylandt’s number), has never been used since that day.

Cracking stage today.

Friday’s stage seven is a 38.5km individual time trial from Foligno to Perugia which features a 6.6km climb at the end.

https://www.cyclingstage.com/giro-2024-route/stage-7-italy-2024/

Giro Stage 7 Preview

So pleased to hear of that win for Cav. I think I’ll cry off he gets one at TdF!

Holy Flaps!

WHAT ARE THOSE??? ?#GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/oDCxO4T5ve

— Domestique (@Domestique___) May 10, 2024

“What are those?”

Hopefully UCI legal…

Can’t help but feel this is all just getting a bit silly

WOw, Geraint is running  a 66 tooth single chainring