diphthong

bleepin’ op…oh wait…dü ur wurst.

diphthong

should probably have the ole noggin examined (again) but thinking one of the old-timers is gonna take the stage two tt. *caution! horrible prediction alert!* dumou. valverde. mollema. twitchie richie. bilbao could take it but let’s go with twitchie richie.

diphthong

great first stage of the giro. kämna (a fave rider) made what initially looked to be the decisive move in the last 2.5 kms. he's not done by a long shot. normally, he stretches
out on the longer climbs and rolling parcours. the effort today, at the end, suggests he's comfy going on the classics-styled climbs and finishes. just ran out of steam today.
kämna might just have the green light in the first week or so. watch out.

GrainBrain

Keep his eyes on the leading wheels!!??

If you watch the replay I think Girmay had his rhythm disrupted when he got bumped. You can see him react and lower his cadence to control his bike. To bad because he started to have the door close to his left but I think he could've just pipped MvdP.

I wanting to see Ewan give it another go!

slcbob

Screw that.

If that cobble hater gets angry, ooga-booga will take one for the team.

On injuries, allegedly Ewan is just sad and scuffed. Tratnik and Vanhoucke a little more banged up from the crash about 6k out.

slcbob

Lazy ask. I didn't find the answer in a few minutes of spelunking.

Why didn't Ewan get the time of the group he was with? He starts the day at 1:14 on GC. Not as if he cares, but curious.

I thought the organizers classified Stage 1 as a sprint.

slcbob

Lots of MVDP adoration going around. I think he may hang on to pink but I'm with you for today's stage. Throw Wilco in the mix, too. Instead of Dumo (sad). Richie is an interesting call. Wilunga, Visegárd, whatever.

Where will Nibali do something ridiculously Italian? Etna? Probably not today. Though both the Shark and the Green Bullet are with the bunch at 4 turned 14 sec. If MVDP overcooks one, it's wide open for, perhaps, Pello in pink.

diphthong

stage three horrible prediction alert…girmay.

slcbob

Sorry, Tom Dumoulin. Or given my prognostications, perhaps you're welcome. May you ride the mountains just as well and keep rubbing it in my face.

I think Morkov + Cav are going to be tough to beat. Demare has a good train, too, but they won't dial it in just yet.

GrainBrain

They must not have because there were time gaps of 14 seconds in GC for the group vendrame brought across the line.

I thought it took more then 1:14 for Ewan to make it across though.

I like him and feel there's no reason to dismiss. His style is so aero and he puts out big power. I'm interested to see him focus on getting over "lesser" climbs yet still being competitive. I have high hopes of a wonderful green jersey shootout in July.

​​​​​​​Not the greatest result today but WT points are points so it's not like finishing in the top 5 is pointless.

​​​​​

slcbob

It took him 1:04. The other :10 is the winner's time bonus.

I think the answer to my original question is that the organizers declared it a flat stage (no particular difficulties) for various purposes, which is what I saw and keyed on, but did not implement the 3km rule that usually goes with it.

Pretty sure UCI / WT points only go 5 deep here. Unlike the jersey competition points (15 deep?). And the all important VeloGames points.

MinnMan

Stage # 3-skipping the marquee result, I was impressed to see Girmay in the top 5. Added to the podium in stage 1. He's making his presence known.

22 years old....

diphthong

stage four horrible prediction alert: kämna.

slcbob

Girmay looked like he had plenty of legs, too. Just nowhere to go, easing off behind Cav, boxed in by Gaviria and Demare. Stuff like that happens, but maybe a little more often to 22 year olds.

Gaviria took the intermediate sprint's leftover points, too. Might he be back? Might he be the one to ruin my ciclimina Demare prediction? Or was it just something in the air that stage? TBD. More to come in the Cav - Gaviria - Dumoulin resurgence storyline, perhaps on Tuesday.

MinnMan

Tuesday is Etna- it will be the opening salvo for the GC favorites - Yates, Carapaz, etc.
Wednesday is a sprinter's day, probably.

slcbob

Yup. Tuesday is when we see if Mountain Tom Dumoulin is back or it's only TT Tom. Nothing to see there for the sprinters except who is competing for intermediate points.

Wed & Thurs it'll be interesting to see if/how the sprinters get it together. That's a big lump on Wed, albeit 100k from the finish. I doubt there's any reason for the GC race to be on to make and hold an unbridgeable gap, particularly with so many teams looking for a sprint stage. But we'll see.

I'm going to get ahead of things and guess Ewan for Wed and Girmay for Thurs.

MinnMan

Regarding stage 3, I would say that Cav was the beneficiary of a perfect classic Quickstep leadout.

But! He started his sprint from so far out and it's kind of amazing that Demare couldn't come around him across all that distance. I would love to see Cav's power numbers for that effort.

slcbob

^ yes to that. The work QuickStep did to get to the roundabout in first place was impeccable and they drilled the lead out to just ~100m shy of perfect. Cav's sprint went on and on, it was amazing he didn't fade.

He mentioned in one of the post-race clips that one of his teammates didn't turn up in the final kms so they ran it a man down.

In the GCN post-show, Robbie McEwen and Adam Blythe were gushing over Morkov, who was drilling it seated for a while next to a standing MVDP (leading out Morescko (sp?)) and holding his own, before standing at the end himself for a last hurrah.

MinnMan

Morkov must be a remarkable person. to be that great a racer and to stay in the background, with only reflected glory. The aficionados all know he's great, but his palmares don't show it.

I am a little surprised that Quickstep doesn't support him for team leadership in lesser events, so he can go for a little of the limelight. Anybody with that kind of power has got to want to win some races.

slcbob

Lead out men are like the bass players of cycling. Except for Roger Waters. He's an ass.

sincos

The other climber question for me is Yates. He looked great at the end of Paris-Nice but lost 11'+ on a not very hard mountain stage in Asturias in the lead up to the Giro. He said it was the first hot climbing stage of the year, which is fair enough, and I expect he'll do well Tuesday (Etna should be fairly cool) but he does have previous with the showstopper jour sans.

MinnMan

Eyes on Almeida

diphthong

i’d be happy with him putting up a top five showing this early…okay…top ten.

semroc

Very nice pick. When I saw him in the break I was pulling for you. Who's going to win stage 5?

GrainBrain

Beautiful.