USAZorro

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Tsuru

Interesting.....

TommyL

Reminds me of the TDF stage that ended in Barcelona, either 09 or 08, I don't remember which. It had short climbs near the end and David Millar, amongst others, made a go at it. Really fun to watch. I hope I get to watch the end of this one.

USAZorro

Stage 6, 2009

botto 

early onset alzheimer's?

dws5b

The Strade Bianche sections should be cool and could shake up the overall. I heard there is a landslide that may alter the course though.

TommyL

I'm just not as hardcore as you guys. If it didn't effect the GC, there's a good chance I won't remember what year it took place.

That was so awesome when Floyd Landis came back from injury to take yellow last year.

diphthong

let's see what kind of giro mayhem results from the dirt/gravel roads. hope the weather is good...

Cipo

Rain + Strade Blanche = Epic. There's gonna be a lot of busy mechanics cleaning muddy bikes overnight.

dws5b

Did Vino and group attack the leader when he crashed? I thought it was an unwritten rule to not do it like LA v Jan. Or was it to close to the mud section to wait for him? Just wondering. I thought Nibali did a real good job limiting his losses almost solo. Nice win by Cadel.

bryguy27007

I'm sorry if this has already been answered but is there anywhere that streams the Giro later in the day?
Cyclingfans.com has a few live streams up, but I haven't been able to catch those.

Edit: I'm looking for a free stream, so Universal Sports is out of the question.
(Yes I looked at the other thread)

j6ppc

Live feed and highlights:

https://video.gazzetta.it/?vxChannel=Giro2010_Arrivi

Free, high quality, and the Italian commentary makes it even better.

rufus

Two minute highlights just ain't gonna cut it.

OrionKhan

Naw. It was just one of those unfortunate racing events for Liquigas boys. Bad weather, bad roads, up and down course. I think Vino, Cadel, and the others were already starting to put the hammer down. Things were getting strung out. The peloton was breaking into small groups already. I'm kinda surprised they couldn't pull Nibali and Basso closer to the front. They had most of the team with them to try and catch up. But the team gassed out pretty quick leaving only Nibali and Basso the chase. But it was too late. Vino was trying to ditch Cadel and vice versa. Plus, there were other GC contenders to deal with. I don't think it was a bad sportsmanship thing at all. Just one of those racing things.

I think it would have been different if the GC was down to only 2 men and one had a puncture or something. This Giro is still early and up for grabs for a bunch of riders. The way this Giro has been crashes are expected to have an outcome on the GC. Ask Evans about it. He had pink for a day then got caught up in one and was out of the pink that afternoon.


BTW, it was a pretty exciting stage to watch. Evans seems like a different rider since last years Vuelta. And Vino is definitely back to his old self. Unfortunately, Basso is appears to be only a shell of what he was before the suspension.

Tsuru

Just watched the Universal final 2 hours.... f'n bad ass!

diphthong

yes. simply. epic.

felt bad for the riders dealing with the miserable conditions/route
but every once in awhile, zomegnan comes up with a winning
situation and this is such an example. memorable...will be looking
forwards to this stage when the dvd comes out in the summer.

wow. cadel evans has been the rider that many of us thought or hoped
he could be since last year at the worlds. maybe it's the team change,
maybe it's a mental thing but it's proly a combo of the two. he is
simply kicking assets-period.

a shame that nibali wiped out but he is still extremely well-placed considering the
crashes & unpredictability of the first full week of racing.

always loved vino's attacking style & tactics (or lack thereof). doesn't look
like he missed a beat during his hiatus/suspension. my question(s) is/are
if he could get results like this naturally, why didn't he? and how is he able to
approximate his (former) enhanced abilities with so little racing? still big
red flags...

OrionKhan

There's still a lot of racing to go. First mountain top finish is tomorrow. A lot can change. I find it hard to believe Sastre is in this bad of form. I wouldn't be surprised to see him win a couple of the mountain stages on breakaways.

Re Vino: There's so much doping in sports nowadays. I just try not the think about it. No way to know who is and who isn't. This has been a great Giro. No need to drag in the doping angle. It would just be an exercise in futility to try and figure out who's on what and who isn't. Let's just enjoy the race.

kimconyc

This Giro has been insanely epic thus far--oh man!

Crashes, rainy weather, Astana TTT dropping their 5th rider (not that it matters now), too much more!

Stage 7 was so gritty, and not just from the weather. So much drama, Nibali was so pissed when be fell.

But how about my boy Cadel? If this does not silence the critics, nothing will; why didn't he go for more 1-day classics when he rode for Davitamon-Lotto? He was on the right team for that back then.

He still put on an epic attack today with basically the b-list team he's always had; except now luck is finally starting to go his way.

Let's cross our fingers for some blizzard action in the mountains. Too much suffering, and it's only the first week, basically!

diphthong

yeah, methinks sastre or garzelli (or cunego) will be faves to take this first mountain-top stage...especially sastre since he is "finished." the other gc contenders
will be more likely to let him go.

sorry about vino. love watching him because he rips the hell outta races whether he's taking a flyer at a crazy time or crashing & burning and all the other
contenders are trying to bury him for good. unfortunately, he just seems like a guy that doesn't seem repentant and doesn't "get it." i'm generally with you
and have given up trying to guess who is or isn't. vino is never dull except during press conferences. keep hoping one day he'll just snap post-race and go off
with the same intensity he races at.

let's just enjoy the racing-amen!

dstrong 

Dang...

dws5b

Looks like the Tifosi think Vino should have waited for Nibali: From Cyclingnews.

Astana leader set to keep pink after defensive ride on Terminillo

Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) did not turn up for the race leader’s press conference after stage eight to Terminillo, claiming that he was too tired and complaining about a 120 kilometer transfer to his hotel.

He probably also heard the whistles from the Italian crowd and read the sign one spectator was holding up opposite the podium. It read: "Vinokourov ora hai perso anche la lealta" – “Vinokourov now you've lost your respect as well”. It perhaps refers to Saturday's stage, when Vinokourov did not wait for Nibali and Basso, after they crashed just before the dirt road section. In Holland, Liquigas had refused to drive on the front of the bunch when Cadel Evans crashes.

OrionKhan

I think that's some hometown sour grapes. That's to be expected though. Evans did lose the pink because he got caught behind a crash that caused a split in the peloton in stage 3. They didn't complain when Vino and Nibali didn't stop for Evans and Sastre.

On this stage, it wasn't just Vino pushing it. It was the whole front group. They'd have to level the complaint against all of them (Cunego, Evans, Pinotti, Garzelli, Scarponi, and about 10 others). Not just Vino. He's just the easy target. I was more surprising that the Liquigas team couldn't pull them back up to the lead group. They had more than enough kms to do it.

Considering how chaotic the race has been, its a fairly hollow complaint. All of the contenders have had bad luck so far.

ALANB58

oTAY, help me figure this out, the pic dstrong provided to us (thankyou!) has to be staged. Cadel has road mud all over him but somehow his Bell helmet has magically repelled it all. Look in the first vent on the left of his medial line, there is splattered mud on his cap inside of the helmet, but no mudd on the helmet itself?

I first noticed this this morning, but now that I am fully awake, I am asking the questions. What first appeared to be the look of a determined man not yet done, now looks more like the look of a very tired man who can't believe he has to do this crap for his sponsor, and risk loosing it all so they can get a pic.

Sure it might only take 5 minutes to change helmets and do a couple pictures, but the pic is not authentic, and that is why he is grimacing, becouse he has to compromise his ethics to keep his sponser happy, risk his health by not getting warm and dry immediatly, etc.

That is what I think.

ALANB58

Actually with a little more thought, this whole "thing" took way more than 5 minutes. More like 1/5 hour he was standing around trying to stay warm.

The mud on his right cheak is drying and turning white, you think kids are chalking his face?

Go Cadel do!

PS. It would not be in Penta photo's interest to indicate that this pic is not 100% authantic.

OrionKhan

Good catch. When I looked at the photo, I thought something seemed odd as well. I was trying remember him crossing the line or something. But you got it. It was the shiny clean helmet. After that stage, nothing was clean on any rider. The announcers even had some difficulty telling who was who. Cadel had to be thinking, "you gotta be frickin' kidding."