The Giro, my favourite tour of the year is only 2 weeks....

[kosmonooit]

Seems like every do dog is having his day at this Giro, maybe it will be Rigo tomorrow?

[Zatopek]

Indeed, it was Nibali who went ahead and took advantage, Chavez just rode wheel,.. maybe it was on instructions from team Astana, who knows,... but taking advantage of someones misfortune sort of goes against the spirit of sport, in my opinion, its similar to a cricketer breaking his bat and been expected to play on, No, he gets another bat and the game is neutralized while he does so, they dont suddenly bowl him out because he cant defend his wicket, sport is meant to be a fair game between matched opponents,... or at least as Puncheur says, "its was."

 

I kinda miss that. 

 

On any other day I'm a strong fair play fan, but I'm ok with today's situation & think it was fair.

Everybody had a mini-race against a none-pink jersey as motivation to keep riding. Lotto could have a rider in the breakaway as well - but they didnt. There was no bad luck, just a skills problem / lack of focus.

 

If you break your bat (bad luck), someone would not throw the next ball at your stumps, but if you trip over your own feet (skills issue) and get run out, then you walk the walk.

 

edit - i got a lot of respect for SK today.. a mental rock, no tantrums etc.

[Oxter]

https://youtu.be/h0VAexrGXZ4

 

I will be happy with what happen yesterday if this guy wins. If not, im rooting for a sk comeback

 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[Frosty]

Assume SK had to retire as a result of the crash, and the others slowed waiting for him. It would result in Valverde, Uran and Majka getting back to them and they would also be disadvantaged.

 

It's a fine line, and I feel for SK. The fact that he was over the top of the climb with VB and EB meant he was in a prime position to win the Giro. I hope it doesn't affect him mentally as it's great to have another GC contender in the mix.

[tombeej]

I see that the Giro is being broadcast on ch 198 (Supersport overflow channel) from 13h00, just in case folks were looking for it on the regular channels and couldn't find it.

[jimmycool]

I see that the Giro is being broadcast on ch 198 (Supersport overflow channel) from 13h00, just in case folks were looking for it on the regular channels and couldn't find it.

I just came here to let everyone know. I see you beat me to it.[emoji4]

['Dale]

As you can see, we're climbing from the very start of this stage. The three main climbs are beasts - long and high - while there's also a steep final kick to the line.

['Dale]

So, climbing from the gun... that means no time to ease into the stage - it's going to be race on from KM0.

 

That means many riders are warming up in advance on the rollers and turbo trainers

['Dale]

You have to feel for Steven Kruijswijk, and you have to admire him, too. He battled on to limit his losses yesterday after a crash saw him lose his commanding grip on the race, and today, despite injuries that include a broken rib, he's going to fight on in this race.

['Dale]

Riders are off!

 

This is the first climb of the day - the Col de Vars. It's 18.2km long with an average gradient of 6 per cent. That may not seem like a lot but that's partly due to a flat 2.5km section in the middle of the ascent.

['Dale]

Team Sky's Mikel Nieve, who has already won a stage and was second yesterday, is the first to put in an acceleration.

['Dale]

 

No gap for Nieve but the peloton is strung out into one long line. Cunego is right up there. This is going to put some riders in trouble straight away.

['Dale]

Cunego goes now and Nieve takes a while to get back on terms, dragging the rest of the bunch with him.

['Dale]

Alexander Foliforov, the Gazprom rider who won the uphill time trial last week, is the next to attack.

['Dale]

Foliforov is caught as a group appears at the head of the race, inclduing Joe Dombrowski, Tanel Kangert, and Damiano Dunego.

['Dale]

Foliforov puts in another huge acceleration to distance the other members of this group. Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani-CSF) is the only rider who can bridge across at the moment.