Tuesday 17th May: Giro stage 10 - Campi Bisenzio › Sestola

Pudsy33

I’ll let the roadbook do the talking first.

Giro roadbook

After the first 25 km, this mountain stage does not even feature a single flat metre. Just past Pistoia, the route climbs up Passo della Collina (on wide and ever-bending roads) and across the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. After dropping quickly into Porretta Terme, the route climbs up again to tackle the Pietracolora categorised climb, leading into Valle del Samone. A short flat sector follows, leading to Marano sul Panaro. Here the route starts to climb and descend constantly over 70 km (with milder or harsher gradients), all the way up to the Pian del Falco KOM. The final part of the climb features long stretches with double-digit gradients (topping out at 14%). The last 15 km run half downhill and half uphill.

The last climb is 7.4km at 5%, with a max of 8%. Not a leg breaker, but it will a hard ask after 210km of up and down.



Contenders

After a relaxing rest day, the GC men should come back to the fore on stage 10. Valverde, Landa, and Nibali had a very solid time trial performance and will be looking to take more time out of the other hopefuls. Valverde in particular should be very comfortable on this type of finish. Another man who has an impressive TT was Kruisjik, teammate of stage winner Primoz Roglic. He will be more comfortable back in the hills, and should go well. While Astana and Movistar try to control the pace, riders who lost time on Sunday will be eager to attack and try get it back. The like of Chavez, Zakarin, and Uran are further down then they’d have hoped, and I suspect we will see them on the offensive tomorrow.
It’s one of those days where a breakaway could make it, and if this happens keep an eye out for Wellens again. He’ll be locked in a mountain points battle with Cunego. Other breakaway candidates are Ciccone, Bongiorno, Mohoric, Martinez, and Denifl.

MPFGLB

Terrible and all as I am at predicting ...but I think stage si going to be a cracker

Attacks and races within races. PIty I can't see it live but

Melodeon

Check out the 20Km loop to the finish:


There's hardly a straight piece of road in it anywhere!

dastardly00

This has the potential to be a cracker of a stage! Plenty of climbing (but not too steep) and technical descents, and it's after a rest stage too.

pelevin

You'd imagine Nibali & Valverde will be looking earnestly for any chances to get time out of Landa from here on, though whether they can achieve it is obviously a very different matter, but anyway riding defensively will hardly be their go-to method.

pelevin

I see an interesting side-story where Katusha pulled their own rider frmo teh Giro as punishment for slip-streaming Tobias Ludviggson in the time trial.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/katusha-pull-tsatevich-from-giro-ditalia-after-excessive-time-trial-drafting/

"UCI commissaires struck the 26-year-old with a 100 CHF fine and a time penalty of nearly seven minutes for 'failure to respect regulation distances and gaps between riders' but Katusha felt the punishment wasn't severe enough and took the unprecedented step of taking their own rider out of the race.
"First of all, on behalf of Team Katusha, I would like to apologize for Alexey Tsatevich's behavior during the time trial. The way Tsatevich rode yesterday's stage was absolutely unacceptable," said directeur sportif Dmitry Konyshev.

"First of all, he broke the clear rule, known by every professional rider. In addition, he also showed a great lack of respect for his rival, the rider who caught him on the course."
His behavior has a huge and negative impact on the image of cycling in general and Team Katusha in particular," continued Konyshev.

"Accepting the commissaires penalty was not enough for us; we had to take more severe measures. It is not easy to enter the second week of the race with just 8 riders, but I am convinced we've made the right decision."

neris

pelevin wrote: »

I see an interesting side-story where Katusha pulled their own rider frmo teh Giro as punishment for slip-streaming Tobias Ludviggson in the time trial.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/katusha-pull-tsatevich-from-giro-ditalia-after-excessive-time-trial-drafting/

"UCI commissaires struck the 26-year-old with a 100 CHF fine and a time penalty of nearly seven minutes for 'failure to respect regulation distances and gaps between riders' but Katusha felt the punishment wasn't severe enough and took the unprecedented step of taking their own rider out of the race.
"First of all, on behalf of Team Katusha, I would like to apologize for Alexey Tsatevich's behavior during the time trial. The way Tsatevich rode yesterday's stage was absolutely unacceptable," said directeur sportif Dmitry Konyshev.

"First of all, he broke the clear rule, known by every professional rider. In addition, he also showed a great lack of respect for his rival, the rider who caught him on the course."
His behavior has a huge and negative impact on the image of cycling in general and Team Katusha in particular," continued Konyshev.

"Accepting the commissaires penalty was not enough for us; we had to take more severe measures. It is not easy to enter the second week of the race with just 8 riders, but I am convinced we've made the right decision."

i couldnt imagine any other team pulling a rider from a race after a commisares penalty, fair play to them.

happytramp

Apparently Landa 3min off the back on the first climb..yikes.

dastardly00

pelevin wrote: »

I see an interesting side-story where Katusha pulled their own rider frmo teh Giro as punishment for slip-streaming Tobias Ludviggson in the time trial.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/katusha-pull-tsatevich-from-giro-ditalia-after-excessive-time-trial-drafting/

"UCI commissaires struck the 26-year-old with a 100 CHF fine and a time penalty of nearly seven minutes for 'failure to respect regulation distances and gaps between riders' but Katusha felt the punishment wasn't severe enough and took the unprecedented step of taking their own rider out of the race.
"First of all, on behalf of Team Katusha, I would like to apologize for Alexey Tsatevich's behavior during the time trial. The way Tsatevich rode yesterday's stage was absolutely unacceptable," said directeur sportif Dmitry Konyshev.

"First of all, he broke the clear rule, known by every professional rider. In addition, he also showed a great lack of respect for his rival, the rider who caught him on the course."
His behavior has a huge and negative impact on the image of cycling in general and Team Katusha in particular," continued Konyshev.

"Accepting the commissaires penalty was not enough for us; we had to take more severe measures. It is not easy to enter the second week of the race with just 8 riders, but I am convinced we've made the right decision."

Tsatevich has since responded. From http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tsatevich-responds-to-giro-ditalia-withdrawal/

"I am very upset about this situation. During all race I tried to show good results. I fell several times, I got up and continued race again, through feeling of pain, in order to be useful to team," wrote Tsatevich. "On my feelings during ITT, I keep a distance. The judge didn't warn me about violation of a distance, and so, I continued the race."

Tsatevich also suggested that he wasn't the only guilt party, adding "Also, I want to note, that I didn't ignore the requirement and request of the sporting director.

"Anyway, I wish good luck to guys! I will support team at home as the viewer. I apologize for the inconvenience."

happytramp

Apparently he was feeling good before the stage and looking to attack.... twitter reports saying he's 6min back now...:eek:

dastardly00

https://twitter.com/TeamSky/status/732518661752270848

dastardly00

Maybe Landa has food poisoning :eek: :pac:

https://twitter.com/TeamSky/status/732281041646432256

dastardly00

Landa 6'06" behind according to some tweets.
Crazy crazy!

Peterx

12:50:30 CEST
With Landa in trouble, Team Sky may have to look to their next best placed rider who is Nicolas Roche at 6:47.

Disaster for Sky. I suppose plan B has lads going for breakaway stage wins from here on?

Opportunities for Deignan, Roche and the remainder of the team now - assuming Landa is ill and pulls out of the race today.
I wonder would a tactical DS have Nico lose another shedload of time today??

ThisRegard

It's not the first time a contender from a Sky team has a brutal start to a stage the day after a rest day is it?

Peterx wrote: »

12:50:30 CEST
With Landa in trouble, Team Sky may have to look to their next best placed rider who is Nicolas Roche at 6:47.

I can't make it out from the photo above, or see on the Giro live website, is Roche one of the riders hanging back with Landa, giving himself a mountain to climb in more ways than one to get back with the peleton?

dastardly00

ThisRegard wrote: »

I can't make it out from the photo above, or see on the Giro live website, is Roche one of the riders hanging back with Landa, giving himself a mountain to climb in more ways than one to get back with the peleton?

I can't make out the other riders either. I can't see any tri-colours on the sleeve so maybe Nico is in the peloton.

dastardly00

Seemingly Astana have started upping the pace in the peloton.
Which is to be expected of course.

godtabh

Sounds like Landa is having a mare.

neris

dastardly00 wrote: »

Maybe Landa has food poisoning :eek: :pac:

https://twitter.com/TeamSky/status/732281041646432256

i cant imagine thats the best meal for a grand tour rider, but you cant beat a bbq & a few beers after a days cycling when your an overweight weekend warrior

dastardly00

I've read on Twitter that Nieve and Lopez are with Landa. No mention of Nico.

dastardly00

Official Giro website has said that Landa has abandoned.

neris

Landas gone according to twitter

neris

Team SkyVerified account
‏@TeamSky
Unfortunately Mikel Landa has been forced to abandon the #Giro through illness. We will provide more details as soon as we have them.

.

happytramp

Very disappointing for the race.

Paddigol

Pity Nico lost so much time the other day. Could have been an interesting GC plan b for sky

happytramp

So apparently it's abdominal pains (according to twitter source).... food poisoning? It'd be fairly shocking if this was the case. Would have expected Sky to be all over riders nutrition.

kilns

If I were Paul Kimmage I would be questioning 2 days after doing the ride of his life, he is sick as a dog...

But I am not Paul Kimmage

The way Roche was going it doesnt look he could have been a serious GT contender but hopefully now he will be agressive as we have seen in the past and nab a stage or two. Deignan has it in him too

godtabh

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landa-abandons-giro-ditalia/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cyclingnews%2Fnews+%28Cyclingnews%3A+News+%29

godtabh

Roche is the next best sky rider but nearly 7 minutes down. I wonder now will he be allowed to attack and go stage hunting.

dastardly00

https://twitter.com/robhatchtv/status/732542468680495104

pelevin

Real shame for the race. Sky's big Giro hopes of last few years in Wiggins, Porte & now Landa have all come down to earth pretty dramatically.

neris

jaysus thats a very pointy red jersey

neris

pelevin wrote: »

Real shame for the race. Sky's big Giro hopes of last few years in Wiggins, Porte & now Landa have all come down to earth pretty dramatically.

wonder do sky put to much emphasis on the TDF and save all their big riders and support riders for that?

pelevin

neris wrote: »

wonder do sky put to much emphasis on the TDF and save all their big riders and support riders for that?

Though to a big degree what's happened here is bad luck. Maybe though with Porte, their huge emphasis on the TDF meant he never developed the hardness of attitude of a grand tour contender, instead happy in the much easier role of domestique for Froome. That at this stage in his career, winning week long stage races regularly, never to have properly contended in a grand tour is pretty poor.

Also to be in the situation of Sky in this year's Giro with Landa gone but in terms of back-up no one else anywhere - given their resources is pretty poor.

Andre 3000

Pretty strange how a guy as competent a climber as Landa struggled so badly today, he must really be goosed with illness. Twitter has exploded with theories of course. However, Chris Froome's tour bid has just been boosted incredibly. Sad to see him abandon though, he's a top cyclist.

neris

Nibali looks like the only 1 in that group with support of team mates

godtabh

What sky rider is in the chasing group?

kilns

This descent is chaotic

kilns

Its Henao in there for Sky

dastardly00

Kruijswijk nearly takes Majka out of it on the descent!
Amador makes a balls of a corner apex.

I think the Sky rider in the maglia rosa group is #184 Sebastian Henao.

dastardly00

It's looking like Amador will be the new leader after the stage.

Pudsy33

I called Ciccone in the OP and had a tiny punt on him at 100/1

dastardly00

Amador gained sweet feck all time on the rest of the GC guys after all that effort.

Jungles in pink.

retalivity

Not watching, reading updates online, did valverde lead the peleton hone catching teammate amador in the process??

dastardly00

Just saw the clip of where Pirazzi nudged Cunego at the corner where Ciccone subsequently launched his attack for victory. That looked a bit controversial...

Edit: here's a video

https://twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/732582566176411652

dastardly00

retalivity wrote: »

Not watching, reading updates online, did valverde lead the peleton hone catching teammate amador in the process??

He led the peloton home but we didn't really see them in the last kilometre or two, so I'm not sure who was leading it then.

But yeah, Amador was probably extremely píssed off when he turned around to see Valverde of all people behind him!

That being said, Valverde for his effort has managed to gain a four seconds on Nibali, Majka, Jungels, Kruijswijk, Uran, Pozzovivo and Zakarin.

lissard

Dumoulin lost 13 minutes today - grand tours really are brutal tests and we're not even into the 3rd week.

neris

[QUOTE=dastardly00;99750294
But yeah, Amador was probably extremely píssed off when he turned around to see Valverde of all people behind him!

That being said, Valverde for his effort has managed to gain a four seconds on Nibali, Majka, Jungels, Kruijswijk, Uran, Pozzovivo and Zakarin.[/QUOTE]

valverde was being interviewed on eurosport and didnt seem very happy that amador had the chance to take the lead. said the team would have to discuss what went on today

Borderfox

Jungles is massive :-)

dastardly00

Nico finished in 33rd place, 4'29" behind the winner, and 2'19" behind Amador.

Nico is still Sky's best placed rider in GC.... 26th overall at 9 minutes behind Jungles

Pudsy33

dastardly00 wrote: »

Nico finished in 33rd place, 4'29" behind the winner, and 2'19" behind Amador.

Nico is still Sky's best placed rider in GC.... 26th overall at 9 minutes behind Jungles

Attack attack attack attack attack