Giro d'Italia Stage 1 9/5 (TTT) San Lorenzo - San Remo *contains unmasked spoilers*

Darkglasses

Flat team time trial to kick off this year's Giro, straight down along the coast. Nothing technical about the profile, but the roads are quite narrow, with twists and bends and even tunnels. Good bike handling essential. Think a TTT on Howth Cycle Path maybe.

Orica Greenedge as usual will be favourites for this stage, with their heavily stacked team of time trialists including Hepburn, Durbridge, Bewley and Lancaster.

The GC battle will start in earnest tomorrow too, with neither Tinkoff Saxo nor Team Sky wanting to start off on the back foot. Both are expected to push OGE close, although Sky may slightly edge TST in terms of personnel. Sivtsov, Kiryienka, Eisel, Viviani and of course Porte himself all have excellent TTT capabilities. Etixx Quickstep, formerly one of the best at the TTT, are more likely to be hoping to limit their losses tomorrow, with Uran the only one who could really match the likes of OGE and Sky.

Oddschecker - OGE 4/6, Sky 11/2, TST 11/2, Katusha 7/1, Etixx 33/1

Darkglasses

Not an awful lot of room to work with.

https://twitter.com/Procyclingeu/status/596763268213006336

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB_QS_L-5pE

NeedMoreGears

Looks like a few of the locals went down the strava rankings yesterday

https://www.strava.com/segments/4443989

(I feel their pain after the Giro basically covered my commute last year!)

MPFG

Everyone is backing OGE

How's about Movistar ??

Brian?

MPFG wrote: »

Everyone is backing OGE

How's about Movistar ??

No GC contender and a mostly 2nd string lineup.

Solobally8

Can't wait for this to get started! Will be a bit tight for team cars I'd say. Should be interesting

MPFG

Brian? wrote: »

No GC contender and a mostly 2nd string lineup.

I ma talking about the TTT ...they have very good TTers

Brian?

MPFG wrote: »

I ma talking about the TTT ...they have very good TTers

So was I. I don't think they have the strength or motivation.

bazermc

Tom Boonens first Giro - incredible! Wonder why?

Darkglasses

Sky probably not terribly happy with that, didn't use all their riders.

dastardly00

bazermc wrote: »

Tom Boonens first Giro - incredible! Wonder why?

He would always have been pretty wrecked from riding all the cobbled spring classics, and he would have needed to be back in shape for le Tour, so it always made sense for him to skip the Giro.

dastardly00

Darkglasses wrote: »

Sky probably not terribly happy with that, didn't use all their riders.

A lot of teams are finishing with 7 or 8 riders for some reason.
Astana and BMC both finished with 7 riders I think.

Darkglasses

dastardly00 wrote: »

A lot of teams are finishing with 7 or 8 riders for some reason.
Astana and BMC both finished with 7 riders I think.

EQS look to have shed at least two already, and the fastest at the first intemediate. Good riding

Edit - just finished! :pac:

MPFG

Well Movistar didn't do too bad

dastardly00

Another class performance from Orica.
Looks like Simon Gerrans will be in pink tonight.

Brian?

dastardly00 wrote: »

Another class performance from Orica.
Looks like Simon Gerrans will be in pink tonight.

Only Tinkoff-Saxo can beat that time IMO. But they probably won't.

Darkglasses

1 Orica
2 Tinkoff+7
3 Astana+13
4 Etixx+19
5 Movistar+21
6 BMC+25
7 IAM+25
8 FDJ+26
9 Sky+27
10 Katusha+27


Excellent ride by Tinkoff, a 20 second head-start for Contador over Porte isn't what Sky would have wanted.

Brian?

Very poor show by Sky.

Darkglasses

Simon Richardson and Hutch are both convinced on twitter that Contador won't win the Giro, on the basis of him not being able to hold onto his team-mate's wheel briefly today. I think that's a heck of leap personally. Tinkoff gave Sky a fair wallop today, 20 seconds is quite a gap. I think it just shows that Contador's men are in significantly better condition than Astana or Sky's.

MPFG

The gap wasn't left by Contador ..it was Basso and another and then Contador had to chase back on

Team looks strong but an old team so may wilt towards end of race
Mind you Roman Kreuziger is a top Dom to have

pelevin

Darkglasses wrote: »

Simon Richardson and Hutch are both convinced on twitter that Contador won't win the Giro, on the basis of him not being able to hold onto his team-mate's wheel briefly today. I think that's a heck of leap personally. Tinkoff gave Sky a fair wallop today, 20 seconds is quite a gap. I think it just shows that Contador's men are in significantly better condition than Astana or Sky's.

Talk about jumping to conclusions. Stage 1, Contador gains time on his rivals but gets written off in the process!

MPFG

I like this analysis from team SKY data guy on TTT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARK1L-SPA7c&app=desktop

MPFG

And the OGE backstage pass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=65&v=FhCC0KB25hg