Giro d'Italia 2015 Stage 4 Chiavari - La Spezia

pelevin

Images & all that high tech stuff are beyond me so linking to CyclingQuotes preview: http://cyclingquotes.com/news/2015_giro_ditalia_stage_4_preview/

Apparently not long but very lumpy, Ardennes type day in the saddle. 3 strong favourites, the Aussies Matthews & Gerrans &, flying the flag for Europe, Philippe Gilbert.

pelevin

Good news on the Pozzovivo health front. “I’m ok but it was a very heavy fall. I don’t remember what happened because I fell.”

Dr. Paolo Moscatelli, the head of the accident and emergency unit at San Martino hospital, said that Pozzovivo had not suffered any fractures in the incident, although the cut above his eye was a deep one that had required the extraction of dirt and pebbles from road.

“It was a long night and I even made some plans for the future,” said Pozzovivo. “I was in the best condition of my life and I’m thinking about returning at the Tour de Suisse and being competitive.”

Inquitus

Entire stage is on the box today.

Morrisseeee

Not sure the top GC guys will be tempted as the breakaway might bag this one, but I'm guessing Contador will find it hard not to suppress his race instincts !
/Mathews/Gilbert/Aru or Conti FTW to spruce up my velogames

dastardly00

A lot of riders are desperate to get into the breakaway. A nice bit of action early on.

Darkglasses

I do love these short races. Not a thing wrong with sub 150km stages for me.

dastardly00

I'm starting to get annoyed when Rob Hatch mentions Franco Pelizotti's previous doping offences in such a nonchalant manner, stating that he 'had a run-in with the UCI' and he got a 'slap on the wrist' etc.

If he is going to mention it, he should state that Pelizotti got a two-year ban for Biological Passport violations.

death1234567

Darkglasses wrote: »

I do love these short races. Not a thing wrong with sub 150km stages for me.

Yep they are great. A 3 week stage race should have room for all sorts of different stages. Also the shorter stages take less out of the riders so they aren't as likely to need artificial assistance to recover. In past there was far too much focus on making every tour the longest tour ever.

Inquitus

These time gaps don't seem to reliable......

MPFG

Fascinating stage so far ...Hope Kreuziger stays away cos it will prove very interesting in future stages

Agree re Hatch & doping comments ...No Rob he was NOT being a naughty boy ..he was a doping cheat

Darkglasses

I'm away from screens again today so any and all updates are appreciated

Inquitus

Tinkoff chasing Kreuzinger.......

Pudsy33

Inquitus wrote: »

Tinkoff chasing Kreuzinger.......

I dont think they'll be killing themselves, but will try control the tempo.

Inquitus

Pudsy33 wrote: »

I dont think they'll be killing themselves, but will try control the tempo.

If he took big time today hes probably the best GC rider out front right now, and with 20 riders in the break if it comes together there's every chance this stays away and takes minutes.

MPFG

Pudsy33 wrote: »

I dont think they'll be killing themselves, but will try control the tempo.

They are chasing alright otherwise the smart thing to do would be to let EQS , SKY & Astana chase

So Bertie must be worried

Inquitus

MPFG wrote: »

They are chasing alright otherwise the smart thing to do would be to let EQS , SKY & Astana chase

So Bertie must be worried

Sky have 2 in the front group can't see them chasing here.

Pudsy33

MPFG wrote: »

They are chasing alright otherwise the smart thing to do would be to let EQS , SKY & Astana chase

So Bertie must be worried

Kreuziger and co have joined the front group. He could gain 6 or 7 mins today.

MPFG

SKY would have to chase Kreuziger for GC ....both SKY riders are not viable GC contenders but Kreuziger is

MPFG

Anyway its fascinating racing ...bet there is some commotion in DS cars

pelevin

Like I said yesterday, the few minutes I've managed to see of the Giro so far, every time I see Tinkoff Saxo driving pretty hard at the front. But today I turn on to see them saying Kreuziger is joining a dangerous break up the road so that'll not be the case now. Eh . . . no, there are the men in yellow leading the chase from behind.

Inquitus

There's a few people in the break can win the Giro if they take several minutes.

Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Garmin), Tom Danielson (Cannondale-Garmin), Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli), Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge), Amaël Moinard (BMC), Andrey Zeits (Astana), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge), Chad Haga (Giant-Alpecin), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R-La Mondiale), Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo), Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF), Mauro Finetto (Southeast), Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Yonathan Mosalve (Southeast). Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Davide Malacarne (Astana), Eduard Michael Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Salvatore Puccio (Team Sky), Kanstantsin Siutsou (Team Sky), Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), Sylvester Szmyd (CCC Sprandi), Simone Stortoni (Androni Giocattoli), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge), Eduardo Zardini (Bardiani CSF) and Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal).

pelevin

But why should SaxoT be doing the work? Am I right in saying of all those riders in the break, Kreuziger would be by far the most established in terms of riding 3 week GTs?

dastardly00

The Movistar lads are really trying to shake things up.

Darkglasses

Interesting to see Kochetkov there again, he could be the new Zakarin.

Hope Grmay gets something out of this, such a nice guy.

Pudsy33

Darkglasses wrote: »

Interesting to see Kochetkov there again, he could be the new Zakarin.

Hope Grmay gets something out of this, such a nice guy.

I sincerely hope he is not the new Zakarin..

Inquitus

They are pissing away their advantage here messing with 65km to go.

MPFG

Mental Tinkov tactics ....Oleg must have read cycling tactics for dummies before he took over in the car

MPFG

Sky not looking too strong ...where is Porte

Solobally8

Poor Michael Matthews looked very lonely going up that climb

MPFG

Left in peloton

"Kangert, Rosa, Tiralongo, Aru, Landa, Rogers, Contador, Porte, König, Nieve, Caruso, Izagirre, Uran, VDB, Cunego, Niemiec, Trogimov, Geniez, and Herrada."

Inquitus

Had the day off today, happy to get an interesting stage. Astana led peleton peg the gap back to 6 minutes with 38km to go. Astana also detonated the peleton on that last climb.

Inquitus

Bertie just has one helper left, Porte has two but he also has 2 lads up the road.

Inquitus

Astana with 5 on the front and 2 up the road look super strong of the big GC teams.

dastardly00

We've struck gold today with coverage of the whole stage being shown live.

griffin100

Inquitus wrote: »

Astana with 5 on the front and 2 up the road look super strong of the big GC teams.

Imagine how boring the race would be if they hadn't been given their world tour licence Their General Manager must be very happy.

MPFG

Inquitus wrote: »

Bertie just has one helper left, Porte has two but he also has 2 lads up the road.

Bertie has one helper left and one competitor up the road

Darkglasses

Anyone got the latest on the gap and how far to go?

Pudsy33

Darkglasses wrote: »

Anyone got the latest on the gap and how far to go?

Peloton at circa 4 minutes with 30km to go

Inquitus

4:20 and 30km

Darkglasses

Inquitus wrote: »

4:20 and 30km

4'20? Must be blazing along.

pelevin

That gap is seriously tumbling - saying under 3 minutes. Looking a lot less race defining day now.

neris

2,40 now 24km left

dastardly00

Gap is only 2 min 45 sec with 24km to go.
The gap is tumbling at a rate of knots.

pelevin

Eurosport tend to be good in terms of ad breaks but they seem to be much worse today

Inquitus

2mins 17km left. Probably about 3-4km to the final climb.

neris

pelevin wrote: »

Eurosport tend to be good in terms of ad breaks but they seem to be much worse today

they normally stick a load on in a short space of time and then go ages towards the end of the race without any

Darkglasses

Is Kreuziger fresh-ish or has he been doing work in the break?

MPFG

Uran dropped

Pudsy33

Forza Formolo!

Morrisseeee

Hopefully Formolo can hang on now :cool:

neris

this the 1st thing of note garmin have done this season?