Giro d'Italia Stage 1 – May 9th, Belfast (TTT) 21km, **Warning: Unmasked Spoilers**

EB_2013

After seeing Dan's crash and and some footage leading up to Stormont I'm shocked at the lack of crash barriers on the course. It looked more like a mountain stage with crowds jumping in front of the riders.

martin.mcevoy

EB_2013 wrote: »

After seeing Dan's crash and and some footage leading up to Stormont I'm shocked at the lack of crash barriers on the course. It looked more like a mountain stage with crowds jumping in front of the riders.

In fairness I don't think that the crowds caused the crash, and I only saw one rider gesticulate at the crowd for getting too close.

MPFG

I think there maybe could have been more crash barriers esp near that tricky point where the road narrowed and team found very difficult

Crankymonkey

that crash had zero to do with fans. And there were loads.

Darkglasses

One of my favourite bits was seeing all the bikes roll up for mechanical doping tests..



Then there was a lot of pictures of bikes at the paddock. Pro cycling photographers do a lot better than me, but here's a stack of Katusha TT bikes that might entertain ye.



After a generous wander around the paddock, I chose my position in front of the big screen at the fan park. Beer was very good quality, the "Twisted Hop" was delicious. I plopped on the grass here



While the riders rode by just on the other side of this fence :cool:

pab01

Cadel Evans just tweeted that 'The Giro 2014 has started.....messy and erratic conditions; not good enough for the stage but a good start for bmc'. Suspect a few more may be thinking along same lines.

To Alcohol

Gutted for Dan. Hope the injury ain't too serious> Time to open that bottle of Belfast Black I've been keeping Its going to be bitter tasting tonight.

retalivity

Gutted for dan...I shouldn't have cursed him by picking him in my velogames team.

And was gonna pick tuft and thought he was too old...

MPFG

retalivity wrote: »

Gutted for dan...I shouldn't have cursed him by picking him in my velogames team.

And was gonna pick tuft and thought he was too old...

I picked him as well so it was probably my jinx

Tweet from BMC rider -
Manuel Quinziato ‏@manuelquinziato
"Nice to start with the right foot with @BMCProTeam this @giroditalia! Tricky but amazing parcours here in #Belfast! Great crowd!"

Harrybelafonte

Lay off the marshalls. They volunteered to do something we didn't. Got f'all in return for it bar being ignored on the course and people complaining about them on the internet. I watched "fans" and people on bikes repeatedly ignore cops on the route near Titanic and blatantly ignore marshalls on the sharp left hander off the bridge.

For the most part though people were sensible and really seemed to enjoy it all.

What a way to get close to riders though. Seriously. We were on a street way off down past the finish and for a minute it was just us and the Lampre riders. I almost knocked 194 Team Sky off his bike by accident and I got to thank the physio from Garmin for his foam roller video. How lame and awesome is that.

wirelessdude01

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Lay off the marshalls. They volunteered to do something we didn't. Got f'all in return for it bar being ignored on the course and people complaining about them on the internet. I watched "fans" and people on bikes repeatedly ignore cops on the route near Titanic and blatantly ignore marshalls on the sharp left hander off the bridge.

How many regulars on here volunteered to marshal in Dublin on Sunday? Not that many would be my guess.

iwillhtfu

neris wrote: »

on a city circuit can they not mark the manhole covers? surely a big circle of paint will give some warning especially like tonight when it was wet.

They've known the course for a while now surely it wouldn't have been a huge effort to put some sort of abrasive coating on the manhole covers.

As others have said though suspect line from the lead man.

funkey_monkey

I was at Stranmillis roundabout and the ascent up from the roundabout to the village was ridiculous. Marshals were thin on the ground but they did shout themselves hoarse trying to get people out of the way. Thankless task - most filtered in for them but as they went down the line they all came out again. Not much they could do about it, but to those of you who were not there, it was not for their lack of trying.

Darkglasses

Well turns out I was right to be suspect about Lampre seeing their practice runs this morning. Strikes me as a team with effectively no direction, wouldn't put a penny on Cunego or Niemiec at any point in this Giro.

The only solid piece of intel I got was from the Astana Directeur Sportif, who said they were definitely going for stages instead of the GC, so I wouldn't have high hopes for Scarponi going for top 5.

Darkglasses

Super picture of Tinkoff Saxo rolling out of the Titanic quarter

irishrover99

irishrover99 wrote: »

I'm picking Orica-GreenEdge for the win. Very strong team
Second will be Omega Pharma-Quick Step

Wish i had put some money on my predictions

neris

stecleary wrote: »

so dublin city centre would be just painted yellow for the weekend :mad:

i dunno was just a question i dont race and just cycle wen i do for leisure and fitness

MPFG

Chris Juul Jensen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YduQK8iy2EU&feature=youtu.be

Zyzz

Quite possibly the worst bit of luck Ive ever seen.

Edit - Mods if Im not allowed post please delete!

iwillhtfu

Just watched some footage of the crash looks like it was a case of not one but two manholes.

The first unsettling him and went over the second with a bit of a wobble and down he went.

Still reckon they could cover them with something.

TheBlaaMan

‏@velonews
Garmin-Sharp officials confirm broken collarbone for Dan Martin. http://ow.ly/wGhkW

carnage.

Harrybelafonte

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Still reckon they could cover them with something.

Maybe you should change your username then.

iwillhtfu

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Maybe you should change your username then.

Gladly. If I get to the point of racing in a ttt in the giro d'italia with no man holes on the circuit.

DDC1990

Some (terrible) shots I took this morning during the warm up session. Amazing to get so close to these top class riders.

Knew on course that something had gone wrong with Garmin. They were taking ages to come down University Road, and then when they passed I only saw 5 riders and no Dan Martin. But they passed so quickly I convinced myself that I had missed him. Then when I saw CSF Bardiani (I think) come so soon after them and before some of the other riders I knew something had happened. Gutted when I found out.

All hopes on Nico now.











p.s RTE still have those ridiculous captions up.

blobbie

Darkglasses wrote: »

After a generous wander around the paddock, I chose my position in front of the big screen at the fan park. Beer was very good quality, the "Twisted Hop" was delicious. I plopped on the grass here

Ye filthy beast ;-)

letape

So disappointed for Dan. I was really looking forward to watching him over the next three weeks. What a few bad weeks he has after the crash in the finish in Liege-Bastonne-Liege.

wirelessdude01

One of the garmin lads that picked himself up off the floor to finish the TTT also had a broken collarbone.

kenmc

Darkglasses wrote: »

One of my favourite bits was seeing all the bikes roll up for mechanical doping tests..



Then there was a lot of pictures of bikes at the paddock. Pro cycling photographers do a lot better than me, but here's a stack of Katusha TT bikes that might entertain ye.



After a generous wander around the paddock, I chose my position in front of the big screen at the fan park. Beer was very good quality, the "Twisted Hop" was delicious. I plopped on the grass here



While the riders rode by just on the other side of this fence :cool:

who brews that? hilden?

kenmc

To Alcohol wrote: »

Gutted for Dan. Hope the injury ain't too serious> Time to open that bottle of Belfast Black I've been keeping Its going to be bitter tasting tonight.

not a beer worth saving tbh, bit meh. Belfast ale much nicer, but clothworthy dobbin is yer only man from whitewater

Darkglasses

kenmc wrote: »

who brews that? hilden?

Yep, Hilden brewed everything in the beer tent at the big screen.