diphthong

**rest day recap** stage fourteen was a barnburner! here's what's shaking down in the last act/six stages of the 2022 giro:

stage 16: absolutely brutal. three monster climbs with a penultimate "bump" that's not exactly something to sneeze at. 5,268 meters/17,000 ft of climbing.
stage 17: respectable amount of climbing. descent off of the penultimate climb looks tailor-made for nibbles. someone could go (full stevie) kruijswijking together (sorry, smokey) into a snowbank on that descent.
stage 18: looks to be a sprinters/breakaway stage. nuff said.
stage 19: another respectable amount of climbing stage. second half of the stage might be the last chance for romance for some given the amount of road curves involved. mountaintop finish.
stage 20: second mountaintop finish in a row. absolutely brutal, part due. 4,718 meters/15,200 ft of climbing. san pellegrino, pordoi and fedaia on the docket. podium chances dismissed-with prejudice.
stage 21: tt. less than 1,000 ft of climbing on a 17.4km course. plenty of sharp corners and curves tho. rain/mist would really up the ante here and make it even more dramatic.

here's what's currently shaking down with the top seven league teams (listed in order of standing and barring more crashes, dns, dnf, etc):

bruschetta bois: missing-girmay. needs-carapaz and almeida to finish 1-2 on the gc (with a carapaz stage win somewhere), mollema to crack the gc top ten and mvdp to win, place or show on stage 18 and finish the race.

Keka 76: missing-girmay, miggylo, bardet. needs-almeida and bilbao to finish 1-2 on the gc, a bilbao tt stage (or mtn stage) win would be huge and bauhaus/mvdp going 1-2 on stage 18 along with finishing the race.

Riders on the Storm: missing-rule #87, morkov. needs-the bora boys to keep on keeping on (another kämna stage win goes a long ways), almeida and buchmann both to finish on the podium, mvdp/air cav going 1-2 on stage 18 along with finishing the race.

X Merckx the Spot: missing-bardet. needs-carapaz and bilbao to finish 1-2 on the gc, démare to win stage 18 and finish the race and the dynamic duo of carthy and ciccone to win a stage apiece and/or both place in the top five much of the last few stages/gc top ten

Giro di Gallo: missing-dumou. needs-wilco and carthy to finish top ten gc along with a stage win (preferably two), mvdp and démare to go 1-2 on stage 18 and finish the race, nibbles, carthy and yatesie to both top 3 placing on multiple stages.

Das Boot: missing-girmay, tratnik. needs-carapaz and buchmann to finish 1-2 on the gc (with a stage win for either), mvdp to take a stage win on stage 18 and finish the race and foss/ciccone(also drop into the top gc ten)/cort and formolo to be results superstars this week.

Húsleves with Gnocchi: missing-girmay, bardet. needs-landa and almeida to finish 1-2 on the gc (with a stage win or two for landa and high placings all mtn stages this week), mvdp to win stage 18 and finish the race, cort and arensman to pull multiple magic days out of the riding cap.