Giro d'Italia 2015 - Stage 20: Saint Vincent - Sestriere **unmasked spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 20: Saint Vincent - Sestriere (199km)

It's the penultimate stage of the Giro and the last in the mountains, and as such it's Alberto Contador's final chance to win a stage.

An in-depth preview can be found here.

There are just (:pac:) two climbs for the peloton to tackle: Colle delle Finestre (HC) and Sestriere (Cat. 3).

Colle delle Finestre is 18.5km long with an average gradient of 9.2 % :eek:
There are 42 hairpin bends :eek:
The final 8km of the climb are on dirt roads :eek:

It's going to be great

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm.

The boys from GCN have cycled up Colle delle Finestre and you can watch the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsTS1TRN9Tg

godtabh

Th GCN video is very good. The describe it as a scribble more or less!

Does Bertie have the legs? Probably. Will he use them? Not sure. I think he will be saving himself for tdf

omri

dastardly00 wrote: »

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm.

Unless they'll be showing the end of an important tennis match..

dastardly00

omri wrote: »

Unless they'll be showing the end of an important tennis match..

Yeah
Djokovic, Murray, Serena Williams, and Nadal are all due to play today.
Hopefully we won't miss any of the climb to Finestre.

Eamonnator

omri wrote: »

Unless they'll be showing the end of an important tennis match..

no such thing exists

dastardly00

There is less than 113km to go, and a nine-man breakaway have about a two minute advantage over the peloton. It's been hovering around that time for a good while; the peloton aren't too keen on giving them much more of a gap.

Julien Berard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocattoli), Nicola Boem (Bardiani CSF), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling), Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida), Jon Izagirre (Movistar), Giacomo Berlato (Nippo VIni Fantini), Matteo Busato (Southeast), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha).

Dr. Bre

hesjedal for me today

bazermc

Dr. Bre wrote: »

hesjedal for me today

Ditto. Would love to see him get a stage. Would be well deserved. Hope it ain't another boring stage with Astana all over the front.

Stupid tennis still on both ES channels. !!!!!!!!

niceonetom

Bertie. No question.

dastardly00

The tennis has finished on Eurosport1

mhiggy09

Giro coverage on now! Will be a cracker of a day.

pelevin

Another part of what's made Contador's Giro so impressive is in terms of mental stress & strength he's generally been almost wholly isolated on the climbs surrounded by Astana men. After the recent goings-on, he wouldn't want a mechanical issue going up the Finestre, though his buffer is so sizeable any threat to the overall besides a serious accident is surely way too unlikely.

Daroxtar

F***ing hell, it's gonna be tough on that track!!!

Morrisseeee

Just another bit now until we hit the 'booster' button, and then all hell will be unleashed !!! (I hope :pac:)

dastardly00

Less than 25km to go before the start of the Colle delle Finestre.
It's the Cima Coppi (the highest mountain of the race) so there are a lot of points available for the KOM jersey (45 / 30 / 20 / 14 / 10 / 6 / 4 / 2 /1).

1 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team 125 pts
2 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 109
3 Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar Team 107
4 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Astana Pro Team 76

Morrisseeee

FYP

dastardly00 wrote: »

Less than 2.5km to go before the start of the Colle delle Finestre.

pelevin

Much prefer to see mountain stages on these kind of narrow roads. Wide roads seem to suck some of the sense of drama out of them. I suppose the narrowness creates a sense of intimacy.

Talib Fiasco

Zakarin is almost like Froome going up the mountain

Morrisseeee

Contador wants this win

Talib Fiasco

Zakarin has this...far too strong

pelevin

Talib Fiasco wrote: »

Zakarin has this...far too strong

Long long way to go yet though.

funnights74

They're on the dirt, jeez no thanks, some very bad patches, at least it's not raining. Astana up to all kinds here.

pelevin

The motorhome could really struggle on these kind of roads.

Talib Fiasco

Landa is a monster

godtabh

berie struggling

mhiggy09

Go hesjedal!!

MPFG

Landa showing he is the best climber in this Giro

pelevin

Think the commentary have oddly underestimated Landa for a while.

dastardly00

I'm surprised a team car hasn't either knocked down a rider, or else fallen off the side of the road!

spock.

Contador could lose huge time here.

Talib Fiasco

He's dropped...now it gets interesting

Morrisseeee

Contador struggling, could this be exciting yet ?!>?

Daroxtar

Bertie staying in z3 there I assume....

mhiggy09

theres stil 28km left!!

godtabh

He looks cooked

Talib Fiasco

Looks like he is in desperate need of some food.

pelevin

Real test of Contador's calmness under pressure to ride the right way now that the legs are against him too.

gordongekko

What's the time gap?

Doc07

pelevin wrote: »

Real test of Contador's calmness under pressure to ride the right way now that the legs are against him too.

With his 5 minute GC lead he should be safe but atleast makes the last 25k interesting. Should stop for a Mars bar and a can of coke. Best Grand Tour in he last couple of years IMO

oconnpad

he's 1'33" down on landa, about 50" on aru

Talib Fiasco

Closer to 2 mins to Landa...if not 2"10.

Morrisseeee

We'd need another Col de Finestre I think to really make this interesting, the last climb isn't long or hard enough to lose 4+minutes

pelevin

Basically not having a teammate in the mountains for an entire 3 week tour finally comes home to roost, whatever the final damage will be.

funnights74

oconnpad wrote: »

he's 1'33" down on landa, about 50" on aru

And sestriere to come, after watching the gcn clip earlier its seriously difficult,he could easily lose this.

pelevin

Is Kangert waiting on to ride on Contador's wheel just to add some psychological torture?

oconnpad

pelevin wrote: »

Is Kangert waiting on to ride on Contador's wheel just to add some psychological torture?

seems that way alright, he'd bug the f*ck out of you just hanging there

MPFG

pelevin wrote: »

Basically not having a teammate in the mountains for an entire 3 week tour finally comes home to roost, whatever the final damage will be.

Hesjedal , Uran , Stevie K and others have no team mates with them in the mountains...Still listening to comms ?

He over cooked it the other day by attacking Astana when he needed to save energy for the Tour and there was no need...I said he looked tired at the time

godtabh

FInal climb starting and I have to head out. Procrastination levels high!

Talib Fiasco

That crazy attack the other day that looked like revenge where he gained a minute might just save his Giro.

Morrisseeee

What was that quote from Kelly earlier:

a quiet priest never gets his parish

godtabh

I think contador is playing the percentages now. Still relatively safe