Giro D'Italia 2026: Chirps, Buzz and Updates

[Eugene Oppelt]

Can the 22 year old Magnier hold on to the Maglia Rosa?

The breakaway artists will be licking their lips.

There may be an audacious GC attack. Hmmm. Let's see.

[Eugene Oppelt]

Going through the Balkan mountains today. Bulgaria, I've never been.

With 14km to go the climb of out Lyaskovets stings. It’s 2.5km at 9.5% and has long parts of 12% and even an 18% moment on the way up thanks to some tight hairpins. It’s all on a small road in woodland so moving up is costly or probably impossible making this a crunch point for stage contenders and GC riders alike. 

Sauce: The Inner Ring

[babse]

Adam Yates out. So far disastrous start in terms of crashes... Hopefully no more serious crashes. 

[DieselnDust]

more and more and more crashes

[milky4130]

Eish UAE is 3 men down today.

[Eugene Oppelt]

Magnier!!!

Wearing the Maglia Rosa so far from home is a massive achievement and career milestone for Guillermo Thomas Silva, the man from Uruguay.

📸 Getty Images

[Eugene Oppelt]

Today's task - very short stage with a key climb that sets up the perfect dramatic finish.

Today is all about the climb midway. The race manual says it’s “easy” and 17km at 5% sounds steady but zoom in because there’s 14km at 6% and the first 8km are close to 7% which is Alpine enough to drop plenty, all on a twisting side road too.

Sauce: Inner Ring

[milky4130]

a couple of scenarios can play out today...

1. Sprinters that can climb to contest the stage win...if they get drop can they chase back in time?

2. Breakaway stays away

3. GC Battle for Stage honors & Bonus Seconds

[NGM]

1 hour ago, milky4130 said:

a couple of scenarios can play out today...

1. Sprinters that can climb to contest the stage win...if they get drop can they chase back in time?

2. Breakaway stays away

3. GC Battle for Stage honors & Bonus Seconds

Such a weird stage to call because of where the climb is, and because the stage is kinda short. As a GC rider is it worth trying to put 30s into a rival and then have to defend it solo for the last 40km? For a pragmatic/clinical team like Visma whose GC rider also wants to do the TdF, it makes the most sense for Jonas to only target a handful of key mountain stages and this isn't one of them. Especially since a lot of his key rivals either crashed out or didn't make the start line. So for me it's a "sprinter who can climb" stage: Tobias Lund is a good shout. Even Magnier might be a dark horse here because apparently he was also a decent climber before he decided to focus more on sprinting. He's riding a wave at the moment. 

My uninformed opinion. 

Edited 8 hours ago by NGM
kaden groves removed from convo as he's abandonned.

[Eugene Oppelt]

The puncheurs had their way today and at, roughly 5 w/kg, they could distance the men with the big thighs and top end speed.

The GC guns kept their powder dry because tomorrow will be a good test with a 4000 m + vert tomorrow. And 3 weeks is a long time.

[milky4130]

3 hours ago, NGM said:

Such a weird stage to call because of where the climb is, and because the stage is kinda short. As a GC rider is it worth trying to put 30s into a rival and then have to defend it solo for the last 40km? For a pragmatic/clinical team like Visma whose GC rider also wants to do the TdF, it makes the most sense for Jonas to only target a handful of key mountain stages and this isn't one of them. Especially since a lot of his key rivals either crashed out or didn't make the start line. So for me it's a "sprinter who can climb" stage: Tobias Lund is a good shout. Even Magnier might be a dark horse here because apparently he was also a decent climber before he decided to focus more on sprinting. He's riding a wave at the moment. 

My uninformed opinion. 

Was not suggesting a GC contender would break away on the climb and attempt a solo ride to the finish, it’s hardly a tough climb for that, nor was I suggesting that Jonas would want the scraps of Bonus Seconds but more for those targeting top 5-10 on GC , Jonas will/can take minutes in the mountains if he so wishes to but it would be better for him to not go too deep and save something for the tour if that is even possible.

[DieselnDust]

Quote

 

Bernal didn't have a great day did he

[milky4130]

20 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Bernal didn't have a great day did he

He never lost time, did I miss something on/off camera?

[Spookie]

18 minutes ago, milky4130 said:

He never lost time, did I miss something on/off camera?

Got dropped just over a km from the top of the climb, spent aaaaages chasing back with Ben Turner (who dropped back to help him), Gee (puncture) and a couple of others. Would have taken a lot of unnecessary energy. Hopefully just one of those bad days and legs will come to the party tomorrow…

[milky4130]

21 minutes ago, Spookie said:

Got dropped just over a km from the top of the climb, spent aaaaages chasing back with Ben Turner (who dropped back to help him), Gee (puncture) and a couple of others. Would have taken a lot of unnecessary energy. Hopefully just one of those bad days and legs will come to the party tomorrow…

thanks just caught that now on the replay.

[NGM]

2 hours ago, milky4130 said:

Was not suggesting a GC contender would break away on the climb and attempt a solo ride to the finish, it’s hardly a tough climb for that, nor was I suggesting that Jonas would want the scraps of Bonus Seconds but more for those targeting top 5-10 on GC , Jonas will/can take minutes in the mountains if he so wishes to but it would be better for him to not go too deep and save something for the tour if that is even possible.

Ya all good man. My post was really just me thinking out loud about the 3 possible outcomes you mentioned. Option 1 sounded most likely. Turns out the guys I fancied for the win got dropped about 3km into the climb. Good stage though.