diphthong

nibbles is in the catbird seat. i can see him just staying near the front the brutal last week of the giro whilst the other gc contenders yo-yo
with good days/bad days. altho the other riders within 5 mins of the pink jersey have youth on their side, he and valverde have the most gt experience.
predicting a nibbles, majka, chaves final podium in that order.

slcbob

^ did that prognostication change any after the TT?

It might play out like you say. But I'd say the odds are just as good that Majka and/or Zakarin jump the shark as they are that the shark jumps Kruijswijk.

Nibali limited damage like a champ in stage 14. Stage 15 showed that 14 wasn't a one-off bad day for him. Should be an interesting week ahead.

Gallo

Typical Giro you just don't know who's going to win. Valverde had his bad day and bounced. Nibali had bad luck and I am sure will bounce. Chaves and Kruijswijk look very very strong. They will be attacked that is certain. Just like any Giro it will be ultimately decided in the last week. Certainly Astana and Moviestar have domestiques that can inflict pain and it looks like in their best interest to work together. They are two very strong teams. I do not think Majka will sit back either and he is a good climber. My Fantasy team is a nightmare so far but I could care less this will be a good week of racing

diphthong

naah. i'll stick with nibbles, majka and chaves as 1-2-3. kruijswijk will have his hands full the last few stages in the high mountains with his rivals-
especially valverde and nibali-seemingly having stronger teams/support. counting on majka to finish strong as he has in the past. zakarin is a bit
more of an unknown variable to me than the others. surprised he's where he is.

if kruijswijk can keep riding as strongly as he has w/o a bad day/mechanical/crash and limit any losses to rivals to 20-30 seconds a stage, he's got the trophy.
as much as i would like to see an attacking alliance form with the other contenders vs the pink jersey, that kinda thing rarely happens. we'll see what comes
out of the rest day. someone usually has an off day because of it.

sprince

Nibali, Vaverde and Majka. Kruijswijk is just a little too skinny, reminds me of the chicken. Think he will fade in the final week.

Gallo

theyre not wasting time fireworks on the first climb

dstrong 

So far, I'm performing as poorly as I expected. At least I'm competing for the Lantern Rouge (or whatever the Italian term is for DFL).

diphthong

^maglia nera?

Gallo

Giovanni Pinarello won the magila nera one year. His team did not want the jersey on one of its riders on the Giro and paid Giovanni not to race and hired a new rider. Giovanni took that modest amount of money and opened a little bike shop in Treviso called Cicli Pinarello

slcbob

So much for my bevvy of GC riders giving me some love in the last week. TTFN, Zakarin. Get well, Rigoberto. Little Domenico, oh well. But maybe I'll get the maglia rosa with Chavito. Along with most of you.

diphthong

little barnburner of a stage today, eh?
mañana looks to promise more fireworks.

cthenn

Hilarious! Nibali today would make 2006 Landis blush. Cycling is such a farce, it's basically the WWE. This is why I only watch the Classics season races now...GT racing is so over the top now, it's a joke, and doesn't even pretend to be legitimate.

diphthong

well...this is a fantasy giro thread after all...

diphthong

looks like we are primed to have a change at the top of the fantasy leaderboard. those of you with any combo of nibali, valverde, nizzolo and modolo
are sitting pretty for the remaining two stages. with only 4 remaining riders pulling in points and no reasonable chance of contesting the last sprint stage,
i'm forced to pray for a roche or visconti or majka win on stage 20 along with a nibali and/or valverde bad day and corresponding drop in the gc (or abandon).
getting ready to be overtaken in the final 200 meters.

slcbob

I wish George would update things at Velogames so I can see how good or bad it is. Still on stage 17 there, I think. I hope he hasn't fallen off his bike.

sprince

Not too far off.

Everyone has one bad day, Kruijswijk's was really bad.

The Uran/Chaves alliance for the pink was looking good there for a while, makes me question Uran's lack of effort for himself on all the other days.

Gallo

another great giro

diphthong

congrats to Canam73 on taking the first gt of the year! that's a heavy trophy!

canam73

Thanks.

I had good luck in that the only riders I had drop (Hesjedal and Dumoulin) also seemed to be on everybody elses roster. Usually I end up with about 5 guys finishing.

slcbob

Has the fat lady sung yet? Last tweet is that it is scored through stage 20. As Nibali told Kruiswicjk and Chaves, it ain't over until it's over. Ha ha. But it's over for me!

diphthong

no pressure on Canam 73 but fancy doing the fantasy gt triple crown? see y'all for the tour de france.

slcbob

I would have rather had a Kruijswijk / ooga-booga style fall from grace than my unremarkable mid-peloton finish. I must follow the advice of those two great Germans, Rommel and Voigt, and ATTACK! If only I knew what that looked like in Velogames.

Well won to the winners and well played by the players.

It was quite a tumultuous Giro. Shocking to me to see the huge point totals across the board. The guy who won the whole thing scored more than twice my middle-of-the-pack total (8642 vs 4305), and our fearless leader The Bounty only just barely sailed into the top 20% overall (19.7%).