Giro d’Italia

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

Seldom ever seen a race like this. Jumbo being naive and Mitchelton Scott going too conservative…they may both pay for it.

Bilbao and Formolo let back in and now around the same time as the other GC boys after having distanced them in the opening TT is a big mistake. Love or loathe them I think it probably true that Team Sky (Inneos) would never have allowed that to happen…the Sky train would surely have shut the door on them…

Roglic and Yates have  thrown away any wiggle room inside two days….a crash, a puncture on the TT and any other number of things could really bite them now.

The race just got real again for some.

I’m not sure Sky are on the ball either, Sky should have been trying to get TGH or Sivakhov in the break today, not Seb Henao.

Dunbar said the aim today was to protect their GC riders, that was an opportunity lost.

Personally I think Mitchelton have become the polar opposite of the team they were last year. They seem to think they won the Vuelta by being ultra-cautious and think they can do the same here. At the Vuelta Yates didn’t have much competition in the mountains and actually made up time on his rivals in the ITT. In this race he will lose time in the ITTs and in the mountains so playing cautious will not work.

I am surprised that teams like Bahrain, Trek, Jumbo, Katusha and others didn’t work together to keep Fromolo & Bilbao closer. Today makes it more difficult for teams aiming for a top5 or top10 to realise the ambition when 2 rivals gain a minute unchallenged.

Tbh i’m Not sure if Sky actually know what their role is now in this race…not helped by Tao’s crash….I think we can be fairly certain that had Bernal/Thomas/Froome been enjoying a high placing with Roglic and Yates none of this would have happened. Why would you beat Bilbao/Formolo once and then put yourself in the position of having to beat them again…they’re good riders in good teams who can make life very difficult….Oomen as well. 

The bigger worry for them is that any rider…including Yates and Roglic are very capable of a bad day for no apparent reason…it just happens, and it could happen to them…as Yates well knows.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

TDG giving up on the climb. 

I really don’t understand this race this year….what the hell is going on?

Would have been very difficult if not impossible for TDG  to win the satge with Formolo, McCarthy, Bilbao there. So I guess he decided to save his legs for tomorrow and helping Ewan in the sprint.

Formolo is going to be challenging for top5 this year. He is making up today what he will lose on Sunday.

Bilbao, Gallopin & Cattaneo gaining too.

 

All working out as you said Minardi. Jumbo letting riders back into the race is just a bit naive really. Riders like Formolo and Bilbao can make life difficult.

TDG giving up on the climb. 

TDG giving up on the climb. 

I really don’t understand this race this year….what the hell is going on?

MinardiM189 wrote:

Gecko-cyclist wrote:

Needs a brighter mind than mine to unpick how happy the big boys will be with today. I brought in TDG and played it safe with GC contenders to leave a few hanging around until the TT. Like the good Dr. I earned a resounding 7 points in the process! With 5 minutes plus advantage, today’s break could be filling the GC until the final week and some of them won’t give their positions up easily. The giro hasn’t thrown up a surprise winner for a while. Are we due one?

I’m beginning to think that JumboVisma haven’t done themselves a huge favour. Yes UAE will now ride to protect any immediate threat to GC.

But what about all the riders 7 or 8 minutes down? UAE won’t see them as a threat to their pink jersey but they could become a threat to GC later on.

It is a great time for riders like Sivakov, Geoghegan Hart, Zakarin, Landa, Cattaneo, Nieve, Kangert  to get in the break and move up GC.

Agreed. Gave far too much time away…which they may get back…but what they’ve  also done is lose control of the race to an extent and opened the door to an entirely new race. I fully expected them to contrive to push Ulissi into pink yesterday, if possible, and remain just a minute or so off the lead. Even TDG seemed somewhat puzzled by it all yesterday when he tried to get Jumbo to chase with him.