Giro Stage 12

pelevin

Looks like it's a game of who's gonna blink first on the Giro thread side of things. Don't have much spare time so all I can do is kickstart the thread, anyone looking to fill in the details can do so.

Brian?

Gilbert to win today, he's been looking hungry and strong.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/giro-ditalia/stage-12/preview

MPFG

Aru wants pink today so expect some attacks

Pudsy33

Matthews throwing his team under the bus there.

godtabh

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Matthews throwing his team under the bus there.

What did he do?

Didn't Orica implode last year after the first week? They finished with 4 riders or something

Pudsy33

godtabh wrote: »

What did he do?

Didn't Orica implode last year after the first week? They finished with 4 riders or something

He was interviewed and was giving out that he wanted to ride for the stage but was told to work for Gerrans today. Didn'tseem happy at all, whwhich is strange because they seem like a very harmonious team.

godtabh

Except for Bling Matthews. The rest of the team seem to be a well knitted group of riders who will work for each other but dont get that impression from him He has an ego (bigger than most pros!).

dastardly00

31km left. Tinkoff-Saxo are really drilling it at the moment. The peloton are ahead of the fastest predicted time.

dastardly00

Jaysus this is steep.

dastardly00

I think if Contador attacked now then he would be able to drop the rest, but it's just too far out from the finish.

godtabh

a bit of a wobble there!

dastardly00

Simon Gerrans has crashed heavily on the descent with 22km to go.

There is some nuts FDJ rider out the front who is descending like a madman.

Sfef Clement and an unidentified Sky rider have gone off-road as well.

dastardly00

10km left. Pellizotti has a 16 second lead over a reduced peloton.

godtabh

Brian? wrote: »

Gilbert to win today, he's been looking hungry and strong.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/giro-ditalia/stage-12/preview

Mystic Brian?

dastardly00

Great win for Gilbert. I'm delighted.

2nd place for Bertie. Aru is fcuked.

Morrisseeee

Hmmmm..............interesting finish with Aru struggling a little!
Brilliant for my velogames team tho

Brian?

Brian? wrote: »

Gilbert to win today, he's been looking hungry and strong.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/giro-ditalia/stage-12/preview

Why didn't I put money on it !!

godtabh

The 12 days of high intensity is catching up. Porte didnt look good either

Sandwell

Poor Aru. Must be the after-effects of the dysentery.

MPFG

godtabh wrote: »

The 12 days of high intensity is catching up. Porte didnt look good either

I thought Porte didn't look good some days

For me SKY look lack lustre as if they did all their amasing work in spring...Nieve & Kiriyenka not as strong as usual ...not sure about Konig....he is following wheels alright but never riding near Porte ...(none of the team seem to be on the climbs)

Uran for a big comeback onto the podium ...hope so

Brian?

godtabh wrote: »

The 12 days of high intensity is catching up. Porte didnt look good either

Contador has a history here, his form tends to hold up better than anyone over 3 weeks. He's never lost a Grand Tour he started well, only those he's started badly like the 2013 tour.

It should be noted that his biological passport is pretty special. He has a naturally very high red blood cell count. This has to be a factor over 3 weeks.

MPFG

Brian? wrote: »

Contador has a history here, his form tends to hold up better than anyone over 3 weeks. He's never lost a Grand Tour he started well, only those he's started badly like the 2013 tour.

It should be noted that his biological passport is pretty special. He has a naturally very high red blood cell count. This has to be a factor over 3 weeks.

Yeah...so many things in being good in a GT not just climbing ability...including powers of recovery

That is why I think riders like Uran , JVdB & Ryder H will come up the leader board in the last part while others drop down

Contador is blessed with amasing physical attributes

pelevin

A thing he & Nibali seem to have in common is bodies that are indifferent to extremes of weather conditions, be it heat, cold or wet.

dastardly00

Aru is on a serious downward spiral and looks completely cooked. If he was a boxer.... any sort of decent punch would knock him out.

He could lose a serious amount of time in the ITT and the mountain-top finish this weekend.

Porte is weird. He doesn't look like he is struggling physically as much as Aru, but today he was hanging really far back on the climbs. There was Contador and Kreuziger/Rogers up front, then Aru with a couple of team mates, then a few Movistar riders and a couple of guys from other teams, AND then Porte. When BMC put the hammer down in the final kilometre, he was always going to lose time to Contador because of the distance that he was behind him

dastardly00

This is worth a watch if you haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdXnTu7OGlA

ThisRegard

He was brutal wasn't he, although that's easily said from an armchair, or a bed in my case.

Kelly called him out on it from the beginning too.

dastardly00

ThisRegard wrote: »

He was brutal wasn't he, although that's easily said from an armchair, or a bed in my case.

Kelly called him out on it from the beginning too.

It took the rider himself a good while to realise that he was brutal though. I don't know how he didn't manage to completely lamp himself

Darkglasses

dastardly00 wrote: »

This is worth a watch if you haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdXnTu7OGlA

Tired mind, if I'd done 12 days of GT riding I'd be on my butt too!