The Giro

Decuc500

I must say it's nice to actually read a thread about the sport of cycling in the cycling sport forum for once!

Philip Deignan seems to be going along nicely in the Giro. I'm impressed. Hopefully he can really show in a mountain stage.

I reckon we've got three good young pros in Deignan, Nicholas Roche and Daniel Martin.

Beached

Anyone know what happened to Phillip Deignan yesterday. He finished in the last bunch 21 min back from the stage winner.. Is it just the long week of racing catching up on him??
I didnt see much of the stage. Just poor picture quality due to the weather and what seemed like a lot of crashes.

Chips Lovell

It's probably that. He's still quite a young rider and is really only making his comeback this year.

Yesterday's stage looked vicious. The relentless attacks from the Di Luca and Ricco would have left a lot of guys shattered. Still not entirely sure what they're up to. I think both may feel that the Astana boys form isn't there yet and they're trying to rattle them early on before they peak. Not working so far. Contador's TT the other day was scarily good. It's almost unbelievable how such a slight guy can put out so much power.

Raam

Baliani was a bit unlucky last night hitting that one cobblestone that happened to be sticking up.

TinyExplosions

Raam wrote: »

Baliani was a bit unlucky last night hitting that one cobblestone that happened to be sticking up.

Yeah, that was heart breaking for him alright, the poor guy.

Contador's TT was a thing of beauty, and I still think he can pull off a win

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Contador's TT was a thing of beauty, and I still think he can pull off a win

I'm waiting for Simoni to call him an extraterrestrial

bunnygreen

Baliani was unlucky for sure,but Bertolini was like a bull,the agression in his riding,fantastic,his face said i will not be beaten,he did most of the work and timed his finish brilliantly,lets hear it for the old boys

sy

Here here!

Funkyzeit

Just watched today's stage. Cav is looking better and better and it's a scary thought to think he's only 23 and already consistantly beating some of the top sprinters

Funkyzeit

And Sella is unreal...after yesterdays win he attacked after 10k with 5 climbs to go....and he's just attacked again on the final climb....unreal....

Beached

Sella is fantastic to watch at the moment,
i thought he was gonna go all out for the mountain points jersey and be nowhere to be seen towards the finsh of a stage. Yesterday the chasing pack didnt even eat into his lead. Outstanding cycling.
And somehow Contador is in pink, without doing anything of note yet.
today will tell a lot in the TT

Chips Lovell

Contador's in pink because of the time he put into everyone else at the first ITT. He's not as strong a rider as he was in the Tour last year, but he's been able to limit is losses well against the other favourites. Yesterday was their chance to really break him and no one could. He's vulernable, but its hard to see him losing a ton of time today, or on the final TT.

EDIT: By the way, what's really interesting about today's TT is that the last section of road is unpaved. I'd be curious to see who copes best with it. Simoni's been racing mountain bikes for the past few years as well, so it might hand him a bit of an advantage.

toombah

Just looked at the profile for todays time trial:

http://velonews.com/graphics/maps/giro_2008/giro_profiles/T16_alt.jpg

Pretty sick.

Beached

Good Time Trial by Deignan today. Finished 30th, 3 and a half min behind the winner

Planet X

Wow.

On the 12.85k TT up to the Plan De Corones today, apparently, Ricco and probably a few others, but Ricco anyway "spun his rear wheel on the gravel a couple of times"
40:56 for 12.85K.........good pics on Cycling News.
:eek::eek::eek:

Planet X

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2008/giro08/giro0816/bettiniphoto_0027751_1_full.jpg

Chips Lovell

Contador said he was using a 34/30 as his lowest gear. A lot of guys looked like they had compacts on today and Bruseghin looked like he was on a triple.

sy

el tonto wrote: »

Contador said he was using a 34/30 as his lowest gear. A lot of guys looked like they had compacts on today and Bruseghin looked like he was on a triple.

Would't we all if we had to ride up a 24% gradient!:eek: Maybe a 30/34 for me!!

bunnygreen

i see the coverage of the bleedin giro has been moved to the evening on eurosport,i was about to settle down with a nice cup of rosey,whats the story?,poxy tennis.

penexpers

Rest day innit?

Chips Lovell

I know. I arrived home last night to discover that my taping of the entire afternoon on Eurosport had yielded just tennis. Hopefully they won't muck things around too much. The Giro ends on Saturday after all. It's also very tricky to find out when stuff is being shown. The website has different listings from the NTL guide. Sometimes one is right, sometimes the other is. Won't be too pleased if we only see 20 minute highlights of the Gavia/Mortirolo/Aprica stage.

penexpers

The live Giro coverage has moved to Eurosport 2. And today is a rest day.

Chips Lovell

Crap. Don't have Eurosport 2 with my NTL.

penexpers

Sky ftw.

Chips Lovell

Looks like I'm stuck watching the highlights so.

Funkyzeit

I ws nearly puking looking at them going up that gradient in near off-road conditions.....and so much for my tip at start - any chance Di Luca had went yesterday !

TinyExplosions

Funkyzeit wrote: »

I ws nearly puking looking at them going up that gradient in near off-road conditions.....and so much for my tip at start - any chance Di Luca had went yesterday !

I'm happy I went with Contador on here with the tips, but kind of annoyed I didn't put any money on it -reckon he'll go on to win now, and could probably have got good odds a couple weeks ago! 8-15 on now is no good to me!

niceonetom

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/livematch/234156.html

can any of yee get the streaming audio from eurosport to work? i certaintly can't. need big sean to make sense of rai because my i-tallon is majorly majorly bad. big time.

penexpers

Well that was a bizarre finish.

Raam

I know he's the leader of the GC, but what on earth is Contador doing with pink bar tape and pink hoods?