Giro d'Italia Stage 8 – May 11th, Gabicce Mare - Saltara (ITT), **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

The 55km route today looks straightforward, but in reality only about 20km are flat. Beyond that it’s bumpy and technical, with a stiff ramp up to the finish. It starts out gently with 3.6% but the last kilometre kicks up with 13%.

On a normal day, Wiggins would hammer the rest of the GC contenders, there's no two ways about it. BUT this isn't a normal day. He's supposedly sick, along with the rest of Team Sky. And there is a good chance of some heavy rain, and Wiggo was like Bambi on ice yesterday after he fell in the wet.





The complete start list can be found here. The Blaaman has the last 30 starters below.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Eurosport1 at 10.45pm, and on Sky Sports 4 at 8pm.
Live ticker here.

Inquitus

For the sake of the Giro it would be nice to see Wiggins end today narrowly in Pink.

TheBlaaMan

Zero-hour for the top 30 - remember these times are CET, so one hour earlier for us.

172 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 15:01:00
173 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Lampre-Merida 15:02:00
174 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 15:03:00
175 Michal Golas (Pol) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 15:04:00
176 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team 15:05:00
177 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling 15:06:00
178 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 15:07:00
179 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 15:08:00
180 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 15:09:00
181 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) AG2R 15:10:00
182 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli 15:11:00
183 Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 15:12:00
184 Yury Trofimov (Rus) Katusha 15:13:00
185 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Vacansoleil-DCM 15:14:00
186 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Sharp 15:15:00
187 Luca Paolini (Ita) Katusha 15:18:00
188 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida 15:21:00
189 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida 15:24:00
190 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Blanco Pro 15:27:00
191 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel 15:30:00
192 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) RadioShack Leopard 15:33:00
193 Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge 15:36:00
194 Ivan Santaromita (Ita) BMC Racing Team 15:39:00
195 Robert Gesink (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team 15:42:00
196 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 15:45:00
197 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle 15:48:00
198 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha 15:51:00
199 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp 15:54:00
200 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 15:57:00
201 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) Movistar Team 16:00:00

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This post has been deleted.

Dermot Illogical

dastardly00 wrote: »

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Eurosport1 at 10.45pm, and on Sky Sports 4 at 8pm.
Live ticker here.

Also just started on Rai Sport 1, for those with a pointy dish looking at Hotbird.

mistermatthew

Linda Rapping Joint wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No drafting allowed. Yes there are rules, and where wiggo is positioned in the start lineup its likely he will catch maybe 4 to 6 of those ahead of him, the commissures are very wary of drafting incase you are worried. Wiggo don't need drafting to get in pink or near it I'd imagine.

mistermatthew

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

Also just started on Rai Sport 1, for those with a pointy dish looking at Hotbird.

If ur watching wats the weather like? Any rain on the course?

Dermot Illogical

mistermatthew wrote: »

If ur watching wats the weather like? Any rain on the course?

They're just showing the start at the moment, interspersed with highlights from yesterday's sliding competition. Dry so far.

Dermot Illogical

Hansen was just interviewed and is expecting a little rain at some stage.

TheBlaaMan

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng 3h
La Gazzetta says Nibali will use 52/42 chainrings with 11-29 cassette at the back

David Walsh ‏@DavidWalshST 35m
Standing talking to Dave Brailsford and Tim Kerrison at the start of TT, rain seems an hour away which is when Bradley Wiggins starts.

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng 6m
Several reports of rain starting to fall on the Giro. @LucaGialanella reports the wind is starting to gust too


Sounds like it could be a fun day..... !

Dermot Illogical

Umbrellas are out!

MPFG

There is no one who peddals so smootly as Wiggins...he is like liquid gold on a bike

( also love to watch Sylvan Chavenel who is so smooth espcially on corners)

el tel

Wiggins not using o symmetric chain rings?

Dermot Illogical

He's not a happy man!

AIR-AUSSIE

Wiggins just swapped bikes

Dermot Illogical

Sky tweeting about how nice BW's bike was, and he goes and throws it in a ditch

Rastadoyle

Wiggo's face has been a sight in this giro ha

MPFG

oh ..here comes Sammy !

mistermatthew

Some way to treat the prototype pinarello lol. I wonder if its the bike he doesn't like, he didn't ride it in the team time trial either

Zyzz

Love how he just threw the bike into a ditch..

DominoDub

Wiggo does not like these bends

TheBlaaMan

That looked like Wiggins was only 7th fastest @ 26km.........?

This will be his 'negative split' business then....

Uran 5th !

mistermatthew

Wonder how Cadel will go, decent TTer in the past and a great bike handler so perhaps can go close to pink

IM0

wiggins really is crap through the corners, Id say he'll concede about a minute to nibili just in the corners!

lol osted this in the wrong thread much earlier http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=84562015&postcount=13

Rastadoyle

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

That looked like Wiggins was only 7th fastest @ 26km.........?

This will be his 'negative split' business then....

Uran 5th !

i think they may regret bringing uran back for Wiggo yday. he looks the stronger!

mistermatthew

Rastadoyle wrote: »

i think they may regret bringing uran back for Wiggo yday. he looks the stronger!

Yeah but wiggo had the bike change too, he'll blast the 2nd half if these rumours of sickness aren't true.

Inquitus

He's sick, he'll take no time off of Nibali, Hyjesdal and Evans, and wouldn't surprise me if he abandons in the coming days.

DominoDub

From Eurosport feed :eek:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/livematch/561391.html

NEWSFLASH: The reason why Wiggins is so slow is that he crashed before that bike change. It was not caught on TV images.

TheBlaaMan

Scarponi !!! 20sec faster than Wiggo @ 26km - maybe he did crash : he was fiddling with that cut on his right knee - but was that fresh, or from yesterday?

mistermatthew

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Scarponi !!! 20sec faster than Wiggo @ 26km - maybe he did crash : he was fiddling with that cut on his right knee - but was that fresh, or from yesterday?

I thought that was him getting out a gel. ridiculous lack of time checks on this tt. None till 4k from finish now.

DominoDub

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Scarponi !!! 20sec faster than Wiggo @ 26km - maybe he did crash : he was fiddling with that cut on his right knee - but was that fresh, or from yesterday?

He was just getting a gel.

14:33 - Wiggins unwraps an energy gel and discards the wrapper on the side of the road. You can see the scabs on his right knee and elbow from that crash yesterday. He had that gel tucked into his shorts.

mirv

Love sean. Tan-tan-tanel ka-kangert.

retalivity

Jesus what stream is Quigley watching? Kangert had 25 seconds to get 250m up a hill....no chance he was going to beat dowsett

retalivity

wiggins made up 50 secs in the last 4km up that hill...

Dermot Illogical

Wiggins clawed some serious time back over the last few km.

TheBlaaMan

retalivity wrote: »

Jesus what stream is Quigley watching? Kangert had 25 seconds to get 250m up a hill....no chance he was going to beat dowsett

Was wondering about this too. They were very slow to call out Wiggins 1st time check (or many of the others) and didn't call the second one at the base of the Saltara climb at all (it was 59sec off Dowsett)

Wiggins has just put in a phenomenal final climb to the finish though, only 10s down on Dowsett so he pull back 49seconds in that last 4km or so.....

mistermatthew

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

Wiggins clawed some serious time back over the last few km.

Bike change cost him the stage, some ride though

DDC1990

Hmm great time for Dowsett when you see that.

Also puts Evans' split into perspective, he's flying.

Rastadoyle

was that nibali goin thru faster than Dowsett? time checks or lack off is a problem

DDC1990

Wow Nibali with the fastest 1/2 way split.

happytramp

DDC1990 wrote: »

Wow Nibali with the fastest 1/2 way split.

Probably won't quite be able to maintain it but there goes any possibility of loosing 2min+ to Wiggins.

Inquitus

He could blow badly, that was an exceptionally fast first sector

happytramp

As much as I dread the dreaded skytrain. Not sure I want to see Nibali riding defensively for two weeks in the mountains. It seems wrong.

mistermatthew

Great time from evans. Everyone had wrote him off, mans got some form seemingly

dastardly00

Very good ride by Evans.
From having very little form coming into the Giro, he's performing extremely well so far.

TheBlaaMan

Evans also saved 50s on the final climb, so more a case of Dowsett dropping 50-60s in the finale rather than the other picking it up...

Nibali will surely be similar, so as he hits the base of the climb, expect fireworks if he is less than 1m15 sec down.

Hesjedal the big loser........2m44 off on T2


EDIT. Yep Nibali 1.07 down..........he could take the stage and will be no more than 10-15 sec off Wiggins. Arriveaderci Giro Wiggo

retalivity

nibali is going to catch hesjedal!

edit:.....maybe not

Dermot Illogical

Inquitus wrote: »

He could blow badly, that was an exceptionally fast first sector

Whatever about blowing, he's dropping time alright. 8 seconds slower than Wiggins so far.

dastardly00

Hesjedal is losing a bucket of time!

MPFG

I think Henao could be third now but for yesterday's rescue of Wiggins and he is a better climber

Oh well still along way to go .....Nibali has to keep the jersey and that will be hard .....should make for some good racing though

Hesjedal is not out yet ....expect he will have to attack more on some of the hillier stages

Inquitus

Nibbles 8/13
Wiggo 4/1
Cuddles 10/1
Hesjedal 10/1
Kiserlovski 10/1

Thats the betting after todays stage, almost 40/1 or more bar those 5.