diphthong

may hafta get up early/stay up late to catch this stage sixteen. bleepy weather predicted along with major mountain hijinks
and the corresponding fuzzy/choppy/broken camera feed plus announcers gamely attempting to piece together an incomplete narrative
leave me with that too many ipa's feeling-kinda like this sentence. stage sixteen of the 2021 giro...all the mental side effects of overindulgence
without the physical comedown.

diphthong

biggie stage. thinking carthy ftw on 16. would like to see he and vlasov inch a little closer to the podium. do ciccone and caruso hang tough?
thinking one of them has a bad day (my guess-ciccone) nd falls out of podium contention. bardet has been pretty quiet but he's within striking
distance of a podium spot if he's got the legs and decides to go on a little bender and the boys ahead on the gc can't/won't/don't follow.
could be the stage where remco slides off the back big time and almeida climbs back into the leader's spot...or remco could burn that whole book
of matches and go for the stage win. inclined to think the former. should be some huge tracts of land losses amongst the boys strung out
across the great divide.

slcbob

Longshot prediction: Fabbro from the break. Too much for Sagan and no GC player left. Fly & be free.

I think Almeida will finish in Milan ahead of Evenepoel on GC. I'm not convinced he gets it all back on stage 16, but what the heck, I'll Jeane Dixon that for tomorrow.

dstrong 

"My Man Victor Campenaerts!"
Chris Horner

I'm still in the brown jersey but what a show by Victor!

MinnMan

As soon as I saw who had won the race, I knew exactly what today's Butterfly Effect would sound like. Horner loves the guy.

I was volunteering at a local amateur road race yesterday, and I got to talking with some people about following pro racing and where people get their information. Several of us had reached the same conclusion - Chris Horner is entertaining and knowledgeable and his videos are about the right length. The Lantern Rouge has video rights which helps, but he's a bore and his race summaries go on for too long.

Just my opinion. And that of the other guys I was chatting with.

GrainBrain

Großschatner with the win, Simon Yates and bike exchange form an early break up la crosetta, forcing Bernal to ditch Moscon, puccio and Ganna....

MinnMan

What exactly are you smoking?

diphthong

stranger things have already happened this giro. felix da hauscat...bring it!

slcbob

I've been waiting for GrainBrain the keyboard master to throw a ß at us. If he's right, that bodes poorly for my other ßora Hansgrohe prediction of Faßßro, ßut I like the way you're thinking. Go, Grosschartner! Get in that break with Fabbro and make some magic.

diphthong

chances are above average that the stage will be modified in some aspect-likely shortened.

GrainBrain

Just trying to think of how they're going to isolate Bernal. Wondered if bike exchange could've put in a dig on the first climb and put some Ineos domestiques under pressure.

Doesn't matter now that they've shortened up the stage and removed the Fedaia and Pordoi climbs. I'm pretty sure Yates has been waiting for this stage to make a move.

​​​​​

diphthong

and stage is shortened. scratch the hugh carthy prediction. in need of a decent climber and great descender with a healthy disregard for personal safety on that downhill finish.

...nibbles.

so much for post #127.

diphthong

well well well...look who's in the break...also felix the housecat...get those keyboard emoji & symbols ready...

some decent pedigree in that break.

03:37:26These are the riders in the attack. There's some quality and talented riders in there.

Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroen), Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix), Natnael Tesfatsion (Androni-Sidermec), Gorka Izagirre (Astana-PremierTech), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-Victorious), Matteo Fabbro, Felix Großschartner (Bora-hansgrohe), Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Marton Dina (EOLO-Kometa), Jan Hirt (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma), Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal), Antonio Pedrero, Einer Rubio, Davide Villella (Movistar), Tanel Kangert (Team BikeExchange), Nicolas Roche (Team DSM), Vincenzo Nibali, Gianluca Brambilla, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Trek-Segafredo), Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates).

diphthong

i've got a five-spot that says the riders are missing the tour of california (rip) right about now...

slcbob

Ribs, wrist, geritol, and all. It's nice to see the shark going for a swim. Appropriate weather, too.

I'm feeling all Jeane Dixony with some predictions here but: a) if you make enough of them, something will stick; b) still plenty of time for it to fall apart.

diphthong

no (horrible) predictions = no skin in the game. kinda like complaining about the state of the union/politics without voting.

GrainBrain

Absolute carnage for Yates. Once again look at Damian Caruso! Bahrain-Victorias was super strong coming in to this giro! My man Hugh seems to be hanging on!

Wow Bernal wow!

Bigger surprise - Romain Bardet for second on the stage!!

Remco twenty minutes off currently. Wouldn't be surprised to read he hopped into the team car.

slcbob

I'm sure somewhere in all the video that we missed, Fabbro and Grosschartner touched wheels right in front of Nibali and took all three of them out of the running. Maybe it will come out in the on-bike cams.

Sorry for the curse, lads.

Ed Wiser

Remco’s sports director said he would pull him after this stage if he lost time.

diphthong

bernal killing it so unless the back pulls a
todd rundgren “hello, it’s me” or there’s a crash out or un jour sans or a failed you know what, we’ve got your winner. still plenty of climbing to go. impressive resilience from carthy and caruso. nice ride by bardet today.

diphthong

close to digging out that list of similarities between the secretaries of Lincoln and Kennedy...

slcbob

For tomorrow, I think Remco might get the rest day award of most aggressively resting rider. He can drive home with a little red number plate.

For Wednesday, there's a lot of downhill before the hard work of the last 60k. Bernal has his stage win. Will Ineos try to control it? Secretly I hope Dani Martinez goes for the break and the 2nd through 7th place GC contenders' teams have to work. But probably not. Maybe Ineos let's a group of non-contenders go, risks a challenger's domestique or two up the road and bets some teams will contribute to defend their top tens. One of these days the break has to stay away, right? You know. For a change. Perhaps with a couple of my DQS guys still riding and not Portuguese. And no more free passes for you, Romain, but France rejoices.

I'm shocked and stunned de Gendt won't be around to drive that break. He's been anonymous so I figured he was off. Sad to see the old school hard man go. They're now down to Lotto Twoudal.

Just to mix it up, maybe Pellaud and Bouchard will make a run at it in his absence.

diphthong

bernal seems to be retreading the simon yates plan to win the giro...yatesie blew a fuse a few years ago around this time...there's still a mountain stage or two or three left.
bernal will likely finish the job tho since he's used to the altitude and the back seems to be behaving.

slcbob

Egan: back to the future.

In cycling there's always the chance the fat lady sits on you, but if it were to happen to Bernal here I think it would be more like the inflatable crashing on our Adam rather than our Simon just running out of Schlitz. He seems to be on top of the things he can control. Large Marge will be singing sweetly for him in Milan. Perhaps from a comfy perch on top of our Simon.

GrainBrain

How brutal was stage 16? How about Simon Guglielmi finishing the stage 49 minutes after Bernal. Oof. Did they waive timecuts for this stage?

Hoping Yates gets better, disappointing to see considering his strength earlier. On the flip it looks like EF took it upon their selves to drill the peloton. EF have been quite active and good this giro, noticable on the gravel stage and 16.

Going to be a fight for second place, can Caruso defend second? It seems so with him getting third on 16. Who are the contenders for second, Carthy, Vlasov, Ciccone ... Bardet? Maybe if Bardet keeps performing, maybe yesterday was his attempt at a stage win?