Giro d' Italia 2014

[Cav']

8.8km to go and Paolini is right near the back and with Duarte on his wheel.

[Cav']

There's one rider currently clear. I think he's from Omega but cant' tell with all the rain. Yes, it's Brambilla.

[Cav']

Matthews is in the main field and there's a crash for an Astana rider.

[Cav']

It's Landa on the deck.

[Cav']

His front wheel goes on one of the tight bends that litter this descent.

[Cav']

Brambilla is still clear of the field.

[Cellar]

Eish, I'm sure you are more clued up than me, but I'll give it a go.

 

I think your pick of Tiralongo might be a very good one. Depends how Scarponi performs in the mountains (esp. after his crash) whether Tiralongo will be given freer reign in the hilly stuff. He loves the Giro climbs and always does well. After all, it was Contador who specifically asked for him to join him at Astana in 2010 from Lampre - he seems to be highly rated by other riders.

 

Like you, I've got Majka in my team. I'm expecting him to be minimum Top 5. Top rider!

 

Roche - with 5th overall in the Vuelta last year, a good pick too. I reckon he's fully developed as a GC rider now, and at his peak at 29 years old.

 

Basso - should give you points for GC and overall mountain points.

 

Hesjedal - eish. Would have been a good GC points pick. But might get you some stage points if the other GC guys reckon he's not a threat anymore and let him go for some individual glory here and there, so definitely not a dud.

 

Gorka Izagirre - saved from the Euskaltel-Euskadi collapse by Movistar. 26 years old and been a domestique for Sammy for the past few years, but now has a chance to make his mark in a big team with lots of support. I'll be interested to see what he does this year.

 

 

How was that?

 

Nice. I was playing the long game.

[Cav']

The Europcar rider is about to caught by the peloton.

[Cav']

The lone leader has 28 seconds on the peloton. He could move into pink at this rate.

[Cav']

Sky are leading the chase now from the peloton and Rolland has a little dig but it's not going to work. Brambilla has 18 seconds with 3km to go. This could be very close but here come Katusha.

[Cav']

The peloton are down to less than 50 riders.

[Cav']

The gap is down to 9 seconds now.

[Cav']

Into the final 1000m.

[Cav']

Ulissi from Lampre takes the stage

[Cav']

The top three:

1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida

2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team

3 Julian David Arredondo Moreno (Col) Trek Factory Racing

['Dale]

That Ulissi did something similar against a strong field at TDU.

Brilliant and by quite a margin.