Giro d'Italia Stage 10 – May 20th, Modena - Salsomaggiore 173km **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 10 – Tuesday May 20th, Modena - Salsomaggiore 173km (*)

Flat as a pancake for 164km, then a small bump followed by a few twists and turns!

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Weather - Modena: Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 25C. Winds light and variable. Salsomaggiore: Partly cloudy. High near 24C. Winds light and variable.

Stage Betting: Nacer Bouhanni 11/8; Luka Mezgec 4/1; Giacomo Nizzolo 5/1; Elia Vivani 7/1.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 3 at 9pm and Eurosport1 at 10.30pm.

Live text ticker here.

pelevin

Chris Horner for this one.

antogz1979

Nizzola for me, he just needs to get his positioning right, Ferrari for an outside bet.

Dr. Bre

swift might be suited by the lump at the end

MPFG

That is the flattest stage I have ever seen in my life.......
It's got long day written all over it
Any chance of any wind to spice it up a bit

couerdelion

Going to be a sprinters Stage with all the GC contenders and their teams doing sweet FA.

I'm going to say that it will be Vivianni followed by Bouhani and Nizzolo. It would be poetic though if Roberto Ferrari wins the stage starting off in the home of Ferrari.

bazermc

Whats the point of these pan flat stages? Sounds like, unless there is cross winds, it will all come down to the last couple of Kms

Ultegra

Maybe the peleton will miscalulate their calculayshin and breakway stays away to the finish

pelevin

Ultegra wrote: »

Maybe the peleton will miscalulate their calculayshin and breakway stays away to the finish

I wouldn't be making any predictions like that at this stage. I think the wise thing to do is to just play the waiting game and see how things are panning out.

dastardly00

Normally the stage following a rest day is lightning quick.... so at least the peloton should get to the finish quicker.....

Manuel Quinziato is well rested anyway. He tweeted:

Slept 10h the night before rest day, 2h in the afternoon + 10h this night = 22h. Today 1st stage of @giroditalia for me! #reset hehe

Taxuser1

Swfity today. the left and rights into the town and out to the finish are very like the Dublin finish. The road gently rises to the finish if you look at it on Google Maps. Couple of very dodgy roundabouts as well one only 1 km from the finish. Swift then Viviani and Mezgec -

retalivity

I know these stages are required and you cant go up and down mountains every day but they aren't half boring...

MPFG

They could make these alot shorter ...there is no need for such a long flat stage

Might be better if shorter and also throw in a second category climb 20km from end with a downhill and flat run in....might mix it up a bit

Lumen

MPFG wrote: »

They could make these a lot shorter ...there is no need for such a long flat stage

Careful now!

If they didn't have to ride their bikes for 4-5 hours before the sprint, the sprint wouldn't be the same sort of test.

MPFG

Lumen wrote: »

Careful now!

If they didn't have to ride their bikes for 4-5 hours before the sprint, the sprint wouldn't be the same sort of test.

In fact just let the sprinters start at 10km to go and see who wins ..and the rest can watch from the stands :pac:

retalivity

nico??

Pudsy33

Roche to the front for some reason

godtabh

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Roche to the front for some reason

Never afraid of a sprint

Pudsy33

Sky did great to up the tempo and then lose the front.

BofaDeezNuhtz

retalivity wrote: »

nico??

Is it just me or does he do these half-arsed attacks that within 1k he's back
in the pack?

Pudsy33

Roche just got ****ed into the barriers in that crash!

neris

Big crash at 700m

Pudsy33

Suzuki_TL1000R wrote: »

Is it just me or does he do these half-arsed attacks that within 1k he's back
in the pack?

It was never a fully fledged attack. I think he was hedging his bets that skys upping the pace broke up the peloton and he'd be in a front group.

Pudsy33

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Roche just got ****ed into the barriers in that crash!

It wasn't him! :pac:

BofaDeezNuhtz

Pudsy33 wrote: »

It was never a fully fledged attack. I think he was hedging his bets that skys upping the pace broke up the peloton and he'd be in a front group.

I get ya. But isnt it like the 3rd time he's done it just in this race alone?

I think its very inconsiderate of him not to let me know on twitter first not to get
excited that he's just moving ahead to let off a fart or something rather than subject
the lads in the pack to it etc. my 2c :P

Pudsy33

Second time I think, although today's one was even more half arsed then the previous one I think. Tomorrow could be his day though GC lads will have sights set on the following day.

MPFG

I think Nico is testing his form TBH....I think in his training he has increased his turn of speed on smaller climbs ...can see that but not going to win from that far out unless there is a break

But I guess nothing ventured etc

Better than sitting around feeling sorry for your self I suppose

He did look back alot so maybe he expected Rafal Majka to come with him out of danger ???

Evans is so lucky at every crash......maybe lucky enough to win it

Looked like Tyler Farrar fell first

dastardly00

MPFG wrote: »

Looked like Tyler Farrar fell first

He hasn't crashed in a couple of days so he was due one

gordongekko

dastardly00 wrote: »

He hasn't crashed in a couple of days so he was due one

In hindsight it's probably better Dan crashed out on day one. He'd be in some state by now.

dastardly00

Yannick Eussen was a DNF. First rider from BMC to drop out.

el tel

MPFG wrote: »

They could make these alot shorter ...there is no need for such a long flat stage

Might be better if shorter and also throw in a second category climb 20km from end with a downhill and flat run in....might mix it up a bit

I think they should make them blow into a machine every morning and the one with the biggest Vo2 max wins the stage. Or stick them on a watt bike for 10 mins and measure their watts if it's a tt stage

Leroy42

On a stage like this, how do the main GC treat them? There is little danger of their rivals gaining any time, and if they do manage to slip away they will just get their team to drive it at the front.

Are these stages just a waste of time for them, a time to simply avoid crashing and a glorified training ride?

MPFG

el tel wrote: »

I think they should make them blow into a machine every morning and the one with the biggest Vo2 max wins the stage. Or stick them on a watt bike for 10 mins and measure their watts if it's a tt stage

Oi ...less of the sarcasm

MPFG

Did you hear the cycling podcast say that Dan Martin does NOT want to ride the Tour but the team are insisting he does ...Neil told yer man from ITV Ned Boulting - Dan wants to wait for the Vuelta ....but I think he could ride both as didn't ride much of Giro

check_six

A regulation flat stage is better than those blasted "fake" mountain stages they had in the Tour de France a couple of years ago (2012).

-"Look, we're going up a big mountain and the leaders are getting churned up a bit. This is interesting."

-"Waitaminute, whaddya mean there is another 20km of downhill and flat racing after the climb?"

-"Oh, they're all back together again. Great...!"

MPFG

I quite like the downhill ending stages .....suits people with good descending abilities for a change

check_six

MPFG wrote: »

I quite like the downhill ending stages .....suits people with good descending abilities for a change

Yeah, they're good fun, but not when there are bleedin' loads of them!

retalivity

check_six wrote: »

Yeah, they're good fun, but not when there are bleedin' loads of them!

Or the ones with 20k of flat road after coming off a mountain.
I remember one that had loads of high pyrnees mountains in the middle and finished in lourdes with 30k of flat before the end. Nothing happened

el tel

MPFG wrote: »

Oi ...less of the sarcasm

I was being serious!!

MPFG

el tel wrote: »

I was being serious!!

Really ...I suppose you only want mountain stages so

neris

check_six wrote: »

A regulation flat stage is better than those blasted "fake" mountain stages they had in the Tour de France a couple of years ago (2012).

-"Look, we're going up a big mountain and the leaders are getting churned up a bit. This is interesting."

-"Waitaminute, whaddya mean there is another 20km of downhill and flat racing after the climb?"

-"Oh, they're all back together again. Great...!"

was not that not coz the french lad who sprinted up the mountain shat his pants on the way down so they wanted to give him time to catch up when hed let go of his brakes :rolleyes: