Wiggins Giro (spoiler)

I hate rest days

we’ll get an idea of how everyone is climbing tomorrow – nice mountain finish with a 20% in the closing KMs

long range weather forecast for Sunday at the foot of the Galibier is for rain.I wouldn’t be suprised if it will be snowing on the col. Hmm wonder if I’ll ride up or take the thermos.

David Millar tweeted something yesterday saying that Wiggins has just lost a bit of confidence and it happens to everyone.

I think we can all relate to that – who on here has had a bad crash then struggled to regain the same sort of commitment? Gone through a period of riding like a bag of spanners for a bit? I’d hazard a guess at most of us.

Better to lose 30 seconds on a descent and work back on than crash, break your collar bone and be out for 6 weeks. And those roads were SOAKING wet, it was like a river at times.

Mind you, it’s livened up the race no end, it’s a great spectacle this year. Tomorrow should be a good stage as well, first of the properly mountainous days.

Just remember, a fall in the 2011 Tour put him out. Im sure that’s still sitting in the back of his mind

But that was a huge pile-up on the road before an intermediate sprint and was not a skill failure from his PoV. It’s not like he binned it descending from a mountain. If anything it should show him the value of being at the sharp end of the race not stuck in the middle/back where someone elses accident becomes yours quite fast.

it’s sunny!

at the moment

nibble’s turn for some bad luck

What happened to Nibbles?

Chain off. Reports of bike change, but it wasn’t shown on telly.
He’s now right behind the sky train.

That descent is a corker.

Plan B swings into action – Uran goes for it.

Nibali could have rode that stage with one leg. He’s head and shoulders above the rest.

Good win for Uran , I think Sky should now be looking at switching there priorities.

i think they just have switched

Oh Bradley, those steep bits really don’t suit you me old mate. 🙁

And this is when he’s in the best condition he’s ever been in according to ‘the numbers’….

So, does this mean all those Bradley Wiggins autobiographies from last year are going to start turning up in second hand bookshops?

Difficult to see how Nibali can be touched given that he’s going for every bonus point and second over his rivals as well. Great to see Evans is such good shape as well

It’s simple – to win a grand tour- you have to be consistent in the mountains. Bradders isn’t without good support – and all the other teams know it.
Indurain was able to attack in the mountains – it was never exciting to watch because all he used to do was up his cadence and eventually everyone cracked. Pure climbers like froome and uran are exciting to watch – but they do crack. Wiggo needs to keep doing what he is doing and limiting time loss. Sky need to keep him paced and let him crack the others by upping cadence instead of chasing off all the time like froome or Uran.

Even after today – Wiggo still only a second behind Uran on general classification. In the mountain time trial Uran is likely to lose 2-3 minutes on wiggo. Still all to play for.

Tactically wiggins has lost 30 seconds on a top 10 finish in the mountains. Not a bad effort.

I still reckon a top 3 finish.

I remember the last time Wiggins was gibbering on about numbers. He made a mess of that grand tour too.

How exactly is Uran going to lose 2-3 mins to Wiggins over a 20.6KM time trial?

Nibali looks far too strong to be overhauled at the moment, it’s still relatively early days though.

In the mountain time trial Uran is likely to lose 2-3 minutes on wiggo.

Yes, Uran has just shown how useless he is at climbing 🙂 Still two weeks to go though, anything can happen, and probably will.

Those Italian climbs aren’t like the consistent gradient French Alpine climbs, Bradley just doesn’t go well on these variable gradient climbs.
He’ll probably be top 10 at the end, but not top 5.
Nice to see Cadel going well after the illness last year.

I don’t think Wiggins will do well at the Mountain TT, not famed for his solo climbs is he?

so is it that sky let Uran push ahead because it gets them a stage win and also inflicts a little extra pain in everyones legs, attack rather than defence? (defence = helping wiggins ‘chase’ down breaks)

Fascinating Giro. I’m trying to guess what’s going to happen, but really can’t!
I can’t work out whether Nibali is in the shape of his career, or whether Wiggo is slightly down on his. Cadel is the thing that’s adding to the confusion. He hasn’t even been talking about targeting the Giro!

Either Wiggo will know of a summit finish where he can be stronger than Nibali and his biding his time, or he’s got no chance.

Come on guys, he’s had a right mare
of a first week, but still in there
fighting.
Thought the team tried really hard
today, great to see cataldo back to
fitness, and to see uran win.
Think nibali is on top form, but was
on the peyresourde at the tour last
year when he was dropped 😀
Looks like my comment to the aussies
last year of “taxi for cadel” may come
back and bite me in the ass this time
though.
So come on brad grow them sideburns back
and allez wiggo, my italian no so good.

In some respects, I think it shows how much British cycling talent has come on in that everyone is slagging Wiggins off for being 4th.

5 years ago, there wouldn’t have been a Brit inside the top 50!

He’s had more than his fair share of bad luck. I don’t believe he can actually win it without something seriously bad happening to Nibali but hey, it’s a Grand Tour – anything can happen. And Cadel is a bit of a dark horse as well – has he been targeting the Giro but telling everyone he’s going for the Tour? Bit of reverse psychology. Sky would do well to learn from that rather than banging on about how great Wiggins is going at the moment cos then you just look a bit silly when he goes out the back door…

Has to be said, it’s a properly nail-biting race so far, great team performance from Sky in the TTT, two incredibly close sprints from Cav, some persistent attacking over the last few days and more than the usual speculation and guesswork.

he germinator – Member
Come on guys, he’s had a right mare
of a first week, but still in there
fighting.

Yes but the first week was the easy week, into the high mountains soon I can see Uran taking lead now, he’ s obviously in brilliant form and the rest of the course suits him better.

Oh Bradley, those steep bits really don’t suit you me old mate.

He was still climbing stupidly fast. Just not as fast as the others.

And this is when he’s in the best condition he’s ever been in according to ‘the numbers’….

And if everyone else is in better condition, according to ‘the numbers’ they will beat him.

He’s 4th overall and managed a top ten finish on a hard day in the mountains. He’s not exactly doing badly, yet everyone slags him off.

I can see Uran taking lead now, he’ s obviously in brilliant form and the rest of the course suits him better.

I don’t know anything about Uran. Is he the sort of rider that can maintain that form over the next two weeks or the sort of rider that might only have a couple of good days in his legs?

At least this means Froome will be team leader for The Tour.

I don’t know anything about Uran. Is he the sort of rider that can maintain that form over the next two weeks or the sort of rider that might only have a couple of good days in his legs?

Best young rider last year. I would suspect that given protected status he could maintain his performance levels for the duration of a grand tour.

cant see him winning it now tbh but yes he is still world class just not at the peak of his trade

Shame if he could do it in the mountains he would be unbeatable but the reality is he cannot quite fight with the best

The team needs to get behind uran now,froome-dog must be thinking,i hope brad gets in form by TDF to support me

Shame if he could do it in the mountains he would be unbeatable but the reality is he cannot quite fight with the best

Arguably the best aren’t there. If Contador, Valverde and Froome were there the race would have atomized today.

Today:

Yes presumably on this form its Froome for the Tour?

But I’m pausing just for a moment to think that this is now the 5th Grand Tour I’ve watched with British riders in GC contention and I for one find that this has made them much more enjoyable to watch.

Oh and 2 different British riders have already one stages. 10 years ago that alone would have been note worthy

JCL – Member
Shame if he could do it in the mountains he would be unbeatable but the reality is he cannot quite fight with the best
Arguably the best aren’t there. If Contador, Valverde and Froome were there the race would have atomized today.

Both Wiggins and Nibali above all 3 in the World Tour Rankings 2012/2011 and Nibali above all 3 in 2010 so I don’t know why you think they aren’t two of ‘the best’.

I don’t get it, the man looses time in the TT due to a mechanical, swaps to a normal road bike and still come second. He’s 4th overall and not exactly looking bad. It’s hardly surprising that a 6ft 2 inch guy who’s awesome at TT’s and steady paced/gradient climbing is left slightly lacking over little pure climbers is it

Why is this country in general obsessed with slagging off people for winning and not winning simultaneously.

He swapped to his standard TT bike. (Graal, which is what Dowsett won on).

It’s not slagging someone off to say ‘I don’t think he’ll win it’.

I didn’t want him to win it tbh, as I’ve said before he’s boring to watch.

I don’t get it, the man looses time in the TT due to a mechanical, swaps to a normal road bike and still come second.

He swapped from the new Pinarello Bolide TT bike to his usual Graal TT bike.