Giro d'Italia 2015 May 9th - 31st (please use spoiler tags)

TheBlaaMan

Not wanting to start off a 2015 Giro thread, as individual stage threads will probably follow (anyone...?), but Tinkoff-Saxo have named their squad to support Contador in the first leg of his Giro-Tour double attempt, and its great to see Juul-Jensen get a berth in the team. More here....http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tinkoff-saxo-names-experienced-squad-to-back-contador-at-the-giro-ditalia

Darkglasses

This years first grand tour is just around the corner, and the startlists are beginning to come out. It begins this Saturday with a 17km TTT in San Remo, with the first rest day coming the Sunday after next.

The course is considered a fair and balanced one, with 6 mountain finishes, 6 sprint stages, and a lengthy 59km TT. Alberto Contador enters as the easy favourite for the GC, with his nearest competition coming from Rigoberto Uran, Richie Porte, and Fabio Aru. Andre Greipel and Michael Matthews will be vying for the sprint points, with Tom Boonen and Phillipe Gilbert also present.

List of stages and startlists here

Stage threads to follow

bazermc

Any Irish or Dan and Roche focusing to tdf? Deignan perhaps to support Porte?

TheBlaaMan

Philip Deignan will be doing the Tour of California which begins next weekend too, so no.

neris

Looking forward to this. Looking forward to seeing the La Spezia parts spent few weekends not too far from there and lumpy & bumpy it is but beautiful part of the world on the boarder of Tuscany & Liguria. Have a soft spot for Orica and Matt White was saying on one of their vids theyd be going for it and to protect the jersey if they got it so Id say Matthews be pushing the front at the start

(on reflection now wishing my interest and enthusiasm for being on the bike were as high last year as they are now when I barely gave a crap till the week before the Giro and didnt get back on the bike properly till late summer)

pelevin

Hard to see anyone stopping Zakarin.

TheBlaaMan

32 countries represented in the start list, but no Irish or GB riders...is that a first for a long time, heres the nationalities for the notified starters:
Italy (62)
France (14)
Belgium (12)
Spain (12)
Netherlands (11)
Australia (10)
Germany (9)
Russia (9)
Poland (8)
Colombia (7)
United-States (5)
Czech-Republic (3)
New-Zealand (3)
Belarus (3)
Portugal (3)
Switzerland (3)
People's-Republic-of-China (2)
Brazil (2)
Denmark (2)
Slovenia (2)
Japan (2)
Estonia (1)
Ethiopia (1)
Panama (1)
Finland (1)
Argentina (1)
Romania (1)
Venezuela (1)
Costa-Rica (1)
Kazakhstan (1)
Sweden (1)
Latvia (1)

pelevin

Seems very odd the population of GB, the huge upsurge in cycling there, & not a single rider. Hard to equate Sky with particularly being a British team not to have single 'home' rider on the team.

bazermc

Richie Porte is kind of British. At least part of the Australian flag has a union jack in it!

pelevin

The UK media will certainly treat Porte as such if he's challenging!

Morrisseeee

Do we have a Velogames (fantasy Giro) group set-up for boards.ie?

Darkglasses

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Do we have a Velogames (fantasy Giro) group set-up for boards.ie?

Yes we do

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057424815

Dr. Bre

disappointing enough field for me this year. if one of porte contador crashes out early the other could cruise it

Doc07

Dr. Bre wrote: »

disappointing enough field for me this year. if one of porte contador crashes out early the other could cruise it

Exactly. Contador all day long as long as he stays upright. Hopefully Porte and Uran peak at the timetrial to keep it interesting atleast.

Melodeon

Here's the official Garibaldi (low-res, unfortunately ):
http://www.gazzetta.it/Giroditalia/2015/download/Garibaldi2015.pdf

Darkglasses

GCN's preview just went up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IZK2qfBpaU

letape

Given his very strong performances this year to date, I think Porte could beat Contador.

Contador hasn't been that good this year and definitely appears to be beatable - not like in 2011 at the Giro or indeed at the Tour last year.

Zakarin and Aru could also be there or thereabouts.

Brian?

letape wrote: »

Given his very strong performances this year to date, I think Porte could beat Contador.

Contador hasn't been that good this year and definitely appears to be beatable - not like in 2011 at the Giro or indeed at the Tour last year.

Zakarin and Aru could also be there or thereabouts.

I've backed Zakarin each way at 25/1. But I can't see anyone beating Contador. Porte has at least one bad day in every GT and loses +5 mins.

neris

Porte blows hot and cold in the grand tours, cant see him beating contador. not the most exciting line up either on paper but that may change during the race

godtabh

Porte has show a lot of consistency in the racing he has done this year. Just look at his many stage race wins. The TT and the stage the next day will probably decide things

Brian?

godtabh wrote: »

Porte has show a lot of consistency in the racing he has done this year. Just look at his many stage race wins. The TT and the stage the next day will probably decide things

Porte has shown consistency in shorter stage races for a while now. He can't maintain that over a 3 week tour yet.

Contrast this to Contador, his consistency in grand tours is the best of his generation.

MPFG

Contador for me for this one ....Also Uran & JvDB

godtabh

Brian? wrote: »

Porte has shown consistency in shorter stage races for a while now. He can't maintain that over a 3 week tour yet.

Contrast this to Contador, his consistency in grand tours is the best of his generation.

I'd still put an each way bet on him (not a betting man so wont actually do this!)

Brian?

godtabh wrote: »

I'd still put an each way bet on him (not a betting man so wont actually do this!)

His odds are too low to be value EW. Only bet EW at odds over 8/1. A place pays 0.25 the odds, so at 8/1 you're getting 2/1 for a place. Since you're doubling your stake to bet EW, you need at least 8/1 to break even on the bet.

godtabh

Brian? wrote: »

His odds are too low to be value EW. Only bet EW at odds over 8/1. A place pays 0.25 the odds, so at 8/1 you're getting 2/1 for a place. Since you're doubling your stake to bet EW, you need at least 8/1 to break even on the bet.

There you go. I havent got a clue

neris

More GCN. Riders to watch

pelevin

I think Porte has to be seen as a serious contender. That he's had bad days before is of course relevant but not a guarantee his body'll crash & burn again. Aru I'd have thought surely hasn't had a lead-in to the Giro in terms of health to be a GC factor. Uran I'd expect to be more a factor but unlikely to genuinely challenge a fit & mishap free Contador. God alone knows what'll happen with Zakarin.
I actually got Contador 3/1 with BetVictor back a few months when they seemed to expect he'd be going head-to-head with Froome & the lads.

Brian?

pelevin wrote: »

I think Porte has to be seen as a serious contender. That he's had bad days before is of course relevant but not a guarantee his body'll crash & burn again. Aru I'd have thought surely hasn't had a lead-in to the Giro in terms of health to be a GC factor. Uran I'd expect to be more a factor but unlikely to genuinely challenge a fit & mishap free Contador. God alone knows what'll happen with Zakarin.
I actually got Contador 3/1 with BetVictor back a few months when they seemed to expect he'd be going head-to-head with Froome & the lads.

Nice one. I'd should have looked at it earlier, 3/1 is a decent price. He's 10/11 now.

I'm not dismissing Porte as a contender, I just think he's not quite up to it.

Darkglasses

Brian? wrote: »

Nice one. I'd should have looked at it earlier, 3/1 is a decent price. He's 10/11 now.

I'm not dismissing Porte as a contender, I just think he's not quite up to it.

Agree completely, there's good and then there's Contador-level good. I haven't seen enough to suggest Porte can overhaul Contador.

pelevin

Brian? wrote: »

I'm not dismissing Porte as a contender, I just think he's not quite up to it.

I hope ultimately you're right!

eeeee

Well this is happening :

www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/oleg-tinkov/oleg-tinkov-blog-i-think-im-a-good-substitution-for-bjarne-riis

:eek:

Darkglasses

gadetra wrote: »

Well this is happening :

www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/oleg-tinkov/oleg-tinkov-blog-i-think-im-a-good-substitution-for-bjarne-riis

:eek:

It's hard to know what's a joke with him. At least we know Bertie's a 12 year pro with 5 grand tour wins, not someone a bit greener like Quintana. Even if Oleg's a mentaller, I think Contador can control his team-mates well enough.

Brian?

Darkglasses wrote: »

It's hard to know what's a joke with him. At least we know Bertie's a 12 year pro with 5 grand tour wins, not someone a bit greener like Quintana. Even if Oleg's a mentaller, I think Contador can control his team-mates well enough.

Between Contador and Rogers as road captain I'd there's enough experience there to make up for Riis departure.

dastardly00

Has Fabio Aru recovered fully from his "illness"?

dastardly00

No crazy or unusual predictions here:

***** Contador
**** Porte, Aru, Uran
*** Pozzovivo, Hesjedal
** Van den Broeck
* Paterski, Atapuma, König

neris

gadetra wrote: »

Well this is happening :

www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/oleg-tinkov/oleg-tinkov-blog-i-think-im-a-good-substitution-for-bjarne-riis

:eek:

Off topic but interesting what he says about Sagan and others not being able to do anything for him.

pelevin

neris wrote: »

Off topic but interesting what he says about Sagan and others not being able to do anything for him.

Whether Sagan appreciates it being so public is one thing but probably in itself fair enough that it's in Sagan's court whether he'll rise to somewhere near his expected heights or things will slip away from him.

Brian?

dastardly00 wrote: »

Has Fabio Aru recovered fully from his "illness"?

Why the quotation marks? He had diphtheria.

death1234567

dastardly00 wrote: »

No crazy or unusual predictions here:

***** Contador
**** Porte, Aru, Uran
*** Pozzovivo, Hesjedal
** Van den Broeck
* Paterski, Atapuma, König

I think Porte will win it TBH.

ludermor

Brian? wrote: »

His odds are too low to be value EW. Only bet EW at odds over 8/1. A place pays 0.25 the odds, so at 8/1 you're getting 2/1 for a place. Since you're doubling your stake to bet EW, you need at least 8/1 to break even on the bet.

You also get back your bet so you should only go each way on odds over 4/1.

If you bet £10ew @ 4/1 (with .25 for a place) and the rider came third you would get back £10 * (4*0.25=)1 plus the £10 bet giving total return of £20.

Brian?

ludermor wrote: »

You also get back your bet so you should only go each way on odds over 4/1.

If you bet £10ew @ 4/1 (with .25 for a place) and the rider came third you would get back £10 * (4*0.25=)1 plus the £10 bet giving total return of £20.

No. You don't get your €10 stake back. You're betting 5 on the win and 5 on the place. So you lose the 5 on the win if you only get the place. That's why 8/1 is break even.

boysinblack

Brian? wrote: »

No. You don't get your €10 stake back. You're betting 5 on the win and 5 on the place. So you lose the 5 on the win if you only get the place. That's why 8/1 is break even.

4/1 on each way 1/4 is break even

Bet 10 euro =
5 on win
5 on place multiply by quarter of the odds = 5 plus the stake on the each way back 5 = Total return 10

Brian?

boysinblack wrote: »

4/1 on each way 1/4 is break even

Bet 10 euro =
5 on win
5 on place multiply by quarter of the odds = 5 plus the stake on the each way back 5 = Total return 10

Sorry you're right!

Bugsy2000

After much pontificating I hit confirm on Betancur for one of my climbers on Velogames but I just couldn't live with it. 10mins later I was back at the PC ditching him.

He's the one rider who, everytime I see him, I just think 'He's gonna pull it out of the bag here & blitz everyone'. I'm wrong more often than not

MPFG

Bugsy2000 wrote: »

After much pontificating I hit confirm on Betancur for one of my climbers on Velogames but I just couldn't live with it. 10mins later I was back at the PC ditching him.

He's the one rider who, everytime I see him, I just think 'He's gonna pull it out of the bag here & blitz everyone'. I'm wrong more often than not

Super talented but super messed up

Looked like he lost weight at the presentation but still bigger than the whole Ag2R team ...Maybe by the third week he might have lost enough and if not too tired he could come out and win a stage or 2 or 3....Ag2R all behind Pozzo though

MPFG

I have changed by Velogames team at least 5 times already

Ir is set up to make you pick riders you wouldn't usually with a strange list on climbers

downwiththatsor

Cyclingnews tour tracker app now €2.50 for pro if you want live updates

Eurosport doing a 15min preview and review with Greg Lemond it seems.

13:15Live Cycling: Giro Extra Greg Lemond looks ahead to today's Giro d'Italia stage. 13:30Live Cycling: Giro d'Italia Stage three of the 2015 Giro d'Italia takes riders 136km from Rapallo to Sestri Levante. 16:30Live Cycling: Giro Extra A closer look at today's action from the Giro d'Italia.

sbs2010

Apart from Eurosport, is anyone doing evening highlights? ITV maybe??

Brian?

sbs2010 wrote: »

Apart from Eurosport, is anyone doing evening highlights? ITV maybe??

Don't think so. If access to Eurosport is an issue you could pay for the online player, it's very good value IMO.

dastardly00

Brian? wrote: »

Why the quotation marks? He had diphtheria.

I thought it was a stomach virus? Where did you read it was diphtheria?

eeeee

dastardly00 wrote: »

I thought it was a stomach virus? Where did you read it was diphtheria?

Heard he had diptheria too on GCN. Apparently he's list 4kg as a result too in a week or something crazy like that.