Giro D'Italia Stage 11: Perugia to Montalcino (162km)

mr spuckler

A potential corker of a stage today, with 35.2km of dust/gravel roads in the last 70km!

A similar stage in 2010 was won by Cadel Evans in some pretty iconic scenes, with the rain making that a hellish affair. That stage however featured less than half of the amount included in today's stage. It should be great to watch even without rain, with rain we could see some big gaps opening up.

Add to the above a nice spiky elevation profile in the second half and the differing reactions after a rest day and who knows what's going to happen!











Odds from Bet365
Egan Bernal 4/1
Remco Evenepoel 8/1
Alberto Bettiol 10/1
Quinten Hermans 16/1
Davide Formolo 16/1
Guilio Ciccone 16/1
Diego Ulissi 16/1
Dan Martin 22/1

retalivity

Bardet as my outside pick, he was positively salivating about this stage during an interview yesterday.
Came 2nd in Strade Bianche a few years back.

mr spuckler

And on the flipside Yates was cursing the inclusion of this stage...

2010 race, skip to about an hour in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__WabDQY4Gc

Tim76

retalivity wrote: »

Bardet as my outside pick, he was positively salivating about this stage during an interview yesterday.
Came 2nd in Strade Bianche a few years back.

Not a bad call. 25/1 with some bookies. Stage wins are all he's got going for him these days.

Mefistofelino

I'd be concerned for Dan M today. I think Ineos and QuickStep are going to drive hard into the first sector to keep Bernal and Evenepoel upfront and then "cork the bottle" which will make it difficult for others to move up in the bunch. Dan would probably need to be top 10-20 heading onto the sector and I'm not sure ISN have sufficiently pointy elbows to achieve this.

Paddigol

Mefistofelino wrote: »

I'd be concerned for Dan M today. I think Ineos and QuickStep are going to drive hard into the first sector to keep Bernal and Evenepoel upfront and then "cork the bottle" which will make it difficult for others to move up in the bunch. Dan would probably need to be top 10-20 heading onto the sector and I'm not sure ISN have sufficiently pointy elbows to achieve this.

Will be intriguing to see how this all plays out for sure...

(guaranteed to be a massive let down of a stage now!)

Tim76

Deleted User wrote: »

2010 race, skip to about an hour in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__WabDQY4Gc

The wife would have her work cut out cleaning the gear after that

mewso

Paddigol wrote: »

Will be intriguing to see how this all plays out for sure...

(guaranteed to be a massive let down of a stage now!)

Was just going to say after all the hype for this one hopefully it lives up to it. I'll go for Dan out of hope more than anything.

MPFGLB

I hope its a GC battle fro the stage ...I htink it will be


Sagan saying its too steep for him

dastardly00

I am worried about Dan since his bike handling skills wouldn't be renowned for being brilliant. Also typically his positioning within the peloton is also not great.

MPFGLB

De Marchi and co will need to stay with Dan today

Richard Hillman

First fines of the day for urinating in front of a bit of a crowd :pac:

De Bhál

could be a boring enough stage now with the break out to almost 11mins. Maybe Evenpol might try get some time on the rough ground. Hard to know

dastardly00

De Bhál wrote: »

could be a boring enough stage now with the break out to almost 11mins. Maybe Evenpol might try get some time on the rough ground. Hard to know

I still think Bernal/Ineos will do their best to distance GC rivals. Bernal looked great on the gravel the other day and in Strade Bianche earlier this year

odyssey06

What would be the approx finish time (Irish) today for the GC contenders?

30km from the first gravel section.

odyssey06

odyssey06 wrote: »

What would be the approx finish time (Irish) today for the GC contenders?

at the pace they are going I'd say you'd be safe tuning in around 15:30 to catch the end.

dastardly00

odyssey06 wrote: »

What would be the approx finish time (Irish) today for the GC contenders?

According to the road book, it will be between 4-4.30pm Irish time. Given that the average speed is quite slow so far, it's probably close to 4.30pm.

dastardly00

So who is going to win the stage? Because it almost certainly seems like it will be from the breakaway.

Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Guglielmi (Groupama-FDJ), Lawrence Naesen (AG2R Citroën), Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix), Harm Vanhoucke, Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal), Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Bert-Jan Lindeman, Mauro Schmid (Qhubeka Assos), Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa)

There are no obvious stand out contenders.

dastardly00

Adam Blythe is great as a co-commentator

MPFGLB

maybe its another Taco day

Inquitus

https://twitter.com/giroditalia/status/1394996089439367171

Dodge

dastardly00 wrote: »

Adam Blythe is great as a co-commentator

His excitement at the prospect of rain there was funny

REBELSAFC

Nico Roche has been very quiet this Giro. I would have expected him to be in a few breakaways by now but no sign of him. Any idea as to what his goals or aims for this Giro are?

Mefistofelino

dastardly00 wrote: »

Adam Blythe is great as a co-commentator

I know the accent is a bit different but his delivery keeps reminding me of Jon Richardson

Oymyakon

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Nico Roche has been very quiet this giro. I would have expected him to be in a few breakaways by now but no sign of him. Any idea as to what his goals or aims for this Giro are?

I think as road captain for DSM he is primarily looking after Bardet and Hindley. I would have expected a couple of breakaway attempts as well but maybe not until week 3, and only if Bardet is out of the GC battle.

MPFGLB

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Nico Roche has been very quiet this giro. I would have expected him to be in a few breakaways by now but no sign of him. Any idea as to what his goals or aims for this Giro are?

Nico is Bardet's personal body guard this Giro

Isnt allowed in most breaks ..well not today anyway

Maybe in next weeks

Paddigol

dastardly00 wrote: »

Adam Blythe is great as a co-commentator

Yeah, I've enjoyed himself and Dan Lloyd. I can just about tolerate Rob Hatch for the closing 'stages' when I haven't had to listen to him for the entire preceding 4 hours.

odyssey06

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Nico Roche has been very quiet this giro. I would have expected him to be in a few breakaways by now but no sign of him. Any idea as to what his goals or aims for this Giro are?

He has a tour diary in the Independent but it's premium content so you only get a few free a month. He's mainly riding to protect Bardet while he still has GC aspirations.

Can't remember which stage over the weekend, but he was earmarked to try for breakaway but the composition didn't suit DSM so he stayed put.

Paddigol

Oymyakon wrote: »

I think as road captain for DSM he is primarily looking after Bardet and Hindley. I would have expected a couple of breakaway attempts as well but maybe not until week 3, and only if Bardet is out of the GC battle.

He mentioned, I think on Sunday, that he had tried to get in the break that his teammate ended up in and came 3rd on stage.

Dodge

Even though he’s not riding, there’s a 60% chance Richie Porte gets a puncture on today’s stage

MPFGLB

Breakaways are such a lottery but they have had good chances this Giro

Many riders in the peloton would have loved to be in today's but weren't allowed

MangleBadger

Mefistofelino wrote: »

I know the accent is a bit different but his delivery keeps reminding me of Jon Richardson

Wife says the same thing

Searchers

‘There’s enuffa crulety out there’ - what a classic from the King!!

Mefistofelino

How can Ganna put down 600-700 Watts on gravel - it must be like getting shot in the face with shrapnel if you're on his wheel

Squeaky bum moment for Ganna there.

Mefistofelino

If Evenepoel gets dropped on these sort of roads, he'll have to surrender his Belgian passport.

Brian?

Remco has about 10 minutes to get his team organised or his Giro challenge is over

Brian?

Mefistofelino wrote: »

If Evenepoel gets dropped on these sort of roads, he'll have to surrender his Belgian passport.

There are no gravel roads in Belgium!

Richard Hillman

I am really liking this slow passing of the torch of being the Peletons Alpha Male between Sagan and Ganna. Sagan knows he is on the way out but still likes to remind Ganna that he is still the biggest bollox.

Dodge

In fairness to Ineos, they do try and make the race as hard as possible

Doesn’t look like Dan made the cut there but so hard to see

dastardly00

I can't see Dan in either chase group #1 (Bernal) or chase group #2 (Remco)

Brian?

Remco is in serious trouble here. Could lose minutes here.


Edit: he WILL lose minutes

mewso

Brian? wrote: »

Remco is in serious trouble here. Could lose minutes here.


Edit: he WILL lose minutes

Back on but at what cost?

This is the kind of racing you expect to see on the weekend in March or April. Loving it.

Dodge

Brian? wrote: »

Remco is in serious trouble here. Could lose minutes here.


Edit: he WILL lose minutes

He’s in the leaders group now

Looks like Martin, Carthy and Vlasov aren’t

Edit - think Vlasov is there

Mefistofelino

Any chance the RAI director could keep the helicopter shot on the chasing group for more than 2 seconds? Impossible to see who is in it.

dastardly00

Phew... Adam Blythe just said he saw Dan Martin in the Bernal group.

EDIT: feck, he just said he hasn't seen Dan

Brian?

mewso wrote: »

Back on but at what cost?

Yep. Back on, burned all his team mates bar one. Massive effort at the end.

Dodge

dastardly00 wrote: »

Phew... Adam Blythe just said he saw Dan Martin in the Bernal group.

I don’t think that’s right