Or Androni ??

Hope it’s better than yesterday’s stage, it was like watching a really crappy club run

Twitter shows a big crash has happened, thanks to which twitter also shows a picture of a gratuitous portion of Former Ski Jumper Primoz Roglic’s arse. Looks like he went down HARD, but has regained the bunch.

Nibbles just keeps getting better at time trials, doesn’t he?

There’ll be frank discussions at the Lotto dinner table tonight. If Campanaert’s bike change had gone better – if he’d had a spare tt bike – he’d have had a stage win today.

thank god it’s a rest day to save us from mr ciclamino.

Do we know what happened to Yates? Is his knee playing up?

I’m quite pleased that the presenters started talking yesterday about how boring the race has been so far. I thought it was just me and an unusual lack of attention! (I have to agree with them that we’ve been spoilt with the Giro in the last few years, and hopefully, by the end of the race, I’ll have forgotten about the first half.

Yes indeed, it’s been mostly pretty dull. Well, unless you want to watch processions followed by sprinters… Then it’s been ace…. I’ve mostly fast forwarded through most stages at the moment.

I’m hoping it livens up a bit soon.

Agree with the above.

Feels like a race of two halves, until now then basically going to be a climbing race for ~10 days. I suspect Viviani and Ewan will go home tonight to prep for the tour. I’m guessing Ackerman will see the Giro thorough and try to hold the points jersey as I’m guessing the tour team will be built around Sagan and maybe Bouchman.

Be interesting to see what it does to the fantasy league, could be all change with the climbers coming to the fore for the next few (after today) stages.

I almost considered turning the coverage off yesterday it was that dull. Today’s the last sprinters stage iirc so hopefully decent racing will commence afterwards.

Yesterday was basically the last sprint stage of the race and, if i heard correctly, we’ve got 43,000m metres of climbing to go. Should get good soon, hopefully…

Yesterdaytoday was basically the last sprint stage of the race

Fast-forwarded through today’s stage to the sprint. At least I’ve got more time to do other things this May! (I’m home late tomorrow and away then until Monday – guess when every exciting moment will be. 😁 )

This could be interesting…

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bahrain-meridas-milan-erzen-under-uci-investigation-for-doping-links/

I don’t get it this year. Boring as hell so far, all the sprinters could go home.

Only been one good day for the breakaway.

I know fireworks will be in last week, with all GC riders on fresh legs… unless they have de trained too much..

Need more interest for the coverage on tv though imho

Yep, boring, two pan flat stages in succession makes for yawn worthy viewing until it gets sprinty and then I’m cringing in case there’s a crash – like yesterday. Speaking of which I’m impressed that Ackermann was up there after yesterday’s crash, bravo that man. Will the sprinters stay the course? Demarre holds the maglia ciclamino and doesn’t mind climbing so he’s a fairly sure bet. Ackermann doesn’t like giving up so could stay to fight it out. Ewan’s primary target this year is the TDF so I’m think he has a ticket home already, two stage wins is a pretty good result.

Only one “flat” stage left, maybe one or two others that will favour a breakaway. Given there was fresh snow on the Gavia a couple of days ago, not sure how the (apparently already prepared) replacement route looks if they have to abandon plans to take the race over the Gavia due to fresh snow

Surprise surprise…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/48372560

that was brutal

Race is on now! Great viewing. Can’t believe Roglic’s DS was having a slash at the side of the road when he needed a bike change with 25k to go 😂

Shame we’ll miss the Gavia

Shaping up to be a great race now.
A shame my fantasy team have pretty much all gone home/crashed/had a nightmare 😆

I have/had Dumoulin and Gaviria in mine – i feel your pain

I had both of them and Tao Geoghegan Hart, doh!

looks like Roglic has popped on the Mortirolo.

So not a bad Giro in the end

Not the best Giro ever but a worthy winner. One thing I have really enjoyed though has been the Eurosport coverage. They’ve really upped their game at this race. In fact I’ve probably watched more of the studio footage than the actual race.

Overall Race Score: 2042
Overall Rank: 18595 of 18637

That didn’t go well.

“One thing I have really enjoyed though has been the Eurosport coverage.”
Me too.

Well being a massive fan of the Giro the only bit I found interesting was the rider punching that bloke to the ground up that hill.

It was a dull race from start to finish. Even the Lombardia sections were just a bit “flat” it all felt a little repressed and lacking excitement.

Androni did well, and Nippo Vini. Thats about it as far as I recall.

🥺

Well there was no single dominant go rider which added interest I think but not enough climbing. My fantasy team did well 🙂

One thing I have really enjoyed though has been the Eurosport coverage.

I liked the studio stuff and Shaun Kelly, but Rob Hatch did my melon in, fully worse than Carlton! Arrrggghh!!

I’ve probably watched more of the studio footage

I thought the pretty lady was the best thing about the giro this year…nice to see a outsider win but fudge me Roglic v Nibbles was dull.

One thing I have really enjoyed though has been the Eurosport coverage.

Usually pretty good but this years commentary was starting to drive me mad. Every single time Nibali did anything and you got comments like “the shark shows his teeth…” or “the shark bites again”, “another shark attack” etc etc. Once or twice is fine but after a while it becomes rapidly annoying. Same with Lopez. Every time the camera went to him on a climb and it’s “Superman Lopez!”

Shaun Kelly too. Incredibly dull monotone delivery and his constant pronunciation of “Primoz Rojlick”.

Think I’ll stick to ITV when the tour comes around.

I though the studio stuff was much better this year, and also the way the highlights wasn’t just “the last 40 minutes of the race”. But yes, not a fan of Sean Kelly on commentary, nor really of Brian Smith in the studio. Give me Ned and Dave and woe, lament the loss of Chris Boardman for the tour and vuelta

The other one that got me was their talking about the finish lately.

“once they get to the gallop” and then used it about 20000 times… until the last month i’d never heard it called that and suddenly it’s all day, every day.

Every single time Nibali did anything and you got comments like “the shark shows his teeth…” or “the shark bites again”, “another shark attack” etc etc.

My favourite was when a spectator got in the way of Nibali: “Don’t go in the water…”

Eurosport coverage was great. Always thought they could do so much more than the standard commentary and I think they did it quite well. Even enjoyed Wiggins’ quite thoughtful insights – you can tell he’s thinking about stuff as it’s coming out of his head, and that’s quite rare.

Wiggins was very good I agree and yes, he did seem to engage his brain before talking!

Studio stuff was good although as I had to watch it late I tended to skip through it a bit. General coverage was fine but the commentary added to an unexciting route and the early loss of Tom, plus Yates being way of his best meant it wasn’t great viewing. Probably spoilt by last years one though to be fair.