[MinardiM189]

My team for today –

My team for today –

ROGLIC
YATES S.
LOPEZ
ULISSI
BATTAGLIN
CIMOLAI
MADOUAS
LONARDI

Pity they don’t have live coverage on Eurosport there is a real battle to get in the break.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

Farcical….and showing a real lack of understanding of bike racing. Plenty of riders and teams work on staying out of trouble at the 3km marker, and at other places…..it’s a major tactic for staying safe that reaps rewards now and again. Organisers making it up as they go along in California…..as for TJ getting the same time…sheesh.

Apparently it isn’t  the first time they have changed the rules to favour an American.

Levi Leipheimer crashed with 10km to go in 2007 but was given the same time as the winner and kept the leader’s jersey and went onto win the race.

 

 

[MinardiM189]

Farce in California –

Farce in California –

UCI statement  “The mass crash near the finish of stage 4 was just outside 3km to go. The commissaires have decided to treat the crash such that all riders affected by the incident and the road blockage will receive field time.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6plhFzXoAACgFq.jpg:large

 

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

Roglic saying tonight he would quite like a break to win tomorrow and ditch his jersey….he may well get his wish.

The last climb is harder than it looks but after that the route is quite easy. The top sprinters will probably get dropped on the climb, so it is a bit of a lottery who might win from a reduced sprint, if the group finishes first.

Certain teams will probably give Friday’s stage priority.

I think it depends on how long the break takes to get away and who gets in the break.

If it takes a long time for the break to go, more teams might give a hand with the chase if they don’t have a rider up front.

Historically the break doesn’t win very often in the first week of the Giro, unless it is a GC day.

 

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

Just an observation.

This stage…and indeed this race…is terrible in juxstaposition with the Giro. Wide open roads, no road furniture, no spectators…just endless nothingness…am I being unfair? Surely they could do better than this….dull as dishwater today.

This race is rather boring.

I gave up watching yesterday as the peloton did absolutely nothing to try and win the stage, not one team attacked all day.

I did manage to stay up and watch the end of today’s tedious stage which turned out to be quite exciting.

TJ managed to crash, then nearly catch up before completely screwing up a corner and going straight on. He finished about 50 s down and lost the lead to Asgreen.

However, there was  a crash in the leading group during the  finishing stages and the organisers decided to give all riders the same time and TJ was re-instated as leader

But the crash was outside the final 3km and TJ  wasn’t even in the bunch at the time of the crash.

I guess Trump was watching & got someone to call the judges.

[MinardiM189]

teckert wrote:

He lasted all of about 2km if that…

So he will now be doing the TdF relatively fresh.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

Disaster for Big Tom and my purist team….damned shame…Doesn’t look good for him.

Dumoulin is starting today but I’m not sure he will go all the way to Verona now.

Awful season for Sunweb, Matthews crashed screwed up his Spring, Kelderman crashed screwed up his season, Oomen crashed and abandoned in Itzulia

[MinardiM189]

Condor Andy wrote:

Bottom of this page, there’s the game@road.cc email. Message that.

Hi Andy,

I have emailed to game@road.cc times twice and get a reply from Trello.com which says –

“The list you attempted to send a card to, Game issues via email (to do), is currently archived and you will therefore not see your card on the board………”

Is that correct?

[MinardiM189]

Condor Andy wrote:

The deadline definitely wasn’t changed. It may be a case of hitting ‘Confirm’ after the deadline passes. Not sure though. Let Dave know anyway if you want.

How do I contact Dave ?

[MinardiM189]

Condor Andy wrote:

The deadline definitely wasn’t changed. It may be a case of hitting ‘Confirm’ after the deadline passes. Not sure though. Let Dave know anyway if you want.

I had seen that Eurosport was showing the stage from 10:00pm so assumed that the deadline was a couple of hours before that.

It looks like I did miss the deadline but had my transfers in before the stage started at 5;30 GMT.

[MinardiM189]

Sniffer wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

I saw that. Did you know it was quite an early deadline compared to the day before?…I nearly missed it because of that.

Just checked and my transfers were made at 17:07

The deadline today is around 18:00

I think it was 16:15 yesterday.

I’m going to do a Viviani.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

I saw that. Did you know it was quite an early deadline compared to the day before?…I nearly missed it because of that.

Just checked and my transfers were made at 17:07

The deadline today is around 18:00

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

I think they’ve gone a bit mad with it tbh Minardi. I remember the days when sprints at both sides of the road were common to keep out of trouble…those days have been replaced by more single bunched sprints hiding behind each other. Having race craft and knowing how to stay out of trouble by using the whole road is an art whether at GC or sprint disciplines…..or at least it was.

I think the problem is inconsistency in applying penalties.

UCI rules state that riders shouldn’t change line and impede other riders but the rule isn’t often applied.

In the last 3 or 4 years sprinting has changed too. Reducing the number of riders in teams has meant some teams don’t bring a sprint train and rely on jumping on other riders trains and hopping wheels.

Personally I think riders are talking rubbish when they say they didn’t realise another rider was there. They have a very good idea who is near them and I am pretty sure Viviani realised someone was coming up on his left and he deliberately moved further over than necessary to obstruct them. What he didn’t realise is how fast Moschetti was coming and as a result hit him.

Like most sprinters Moschetti had the reactions and bike handling ability to avoid crashing.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

I saw that. Did you know it was quite an early deadline compared to the day before?…I nearly missed it because of that.

When I logged on to check the scores this morning I am sure that I saw Jakobsen was in my team roster. On my lap top when you open a competition the first 3 riders in the roster are visible, I saw Jakobsen listed and thought wtf.

Later this morning I went back to make transfers and the roster was as I had expected it to be. So it looks to me like it was updated sometime later this morning.

I made the transfers sometime late yesterday afternoon, I wasn’t aware of the deadline being early.

As I said I am sure that the team roster hadn’t updated when I checked the scores earlier this morning. I assumed I hadn’t confirmed and on the bright side I wasn’t stuck with McNulty.

Given that GKAM had a roster problem earlier this year it could be something odd is happening occasionally.

 

[MinardiM189]

Sniffer wrote:

Condor Andy wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

At one stage Viviani was 4th in the points classification with the 18 points he scored on Stage 2.

However it now appears that these points taken off him as an additional punishment.

That’s what I’m assuming too, but I was trying to find confirmation of his punishment.

I think he will be on minus points

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-viviani-unrepentant-after-sprint-punishment/

 

I suspect that some of the punishment is for what he has said to the judges. When Nizzolo was relegated in the fianl stage in 2016 he didn’t lose any points.

Didn’t Viviani have a major tantrum at the track World Championship one year, accusing all the other riders of conspiring against him, or was that Gaviria?

[Author]

Replies