Giro d'Italia Stage 6 - Montecatini - Castiglione - *contains unmasked spoilers*

Darkglasses

Back to what should be a fairly straight-forward sprinters stage, although nothing is certain. The middle section is challenging, and if Tinkoff go back to their old trick of chasing hard unnecessarily it could well be enough to scupper the stage favourite, Andre Greipel. Greipel I think is priced terribly at 7/4, even if he can get over the middle section unscathed I am not convinced he has the legs to overhaul Viviani, Matthews and the rest. Some great value on the market tomorrow if you fancy a bet. Matthews at 22/1 and Felline at 150/1 are
particularly tempting I think.

oddschecker

dastardly00

Given the relatively short length of the last couple of stages and the massive time gaps back to the grupetto, some of the sprinters and non-climbers have defintely been taking it easy. So there should be a lot of riders who fancy this.

neris

no eurosport coverage coz of a storm in Paris

bazermc

neris wrote: »

no eurosport coverage coz of a storm in Paris

Ah ffs, what am I going to watch this evening with me cup of tea

neris

back on now. very funny that they go for a break and come back to live pics

ThisRegard

Caught the start of the Eurosport coverage, they were discussing Mario Cipollini's tv show last night and how they implied that Contador's bike change with 30k or so to go was suspicious with the rumours around with hidden motors in bikes these days.

dragratchet

ThisRegard wrote: »

Caught the start of the Eurosport coverage, they were discussing Mario Cipollini's tv show last night and how they implied that Contador's bike change with 30k or so to go was suspicious with the rumours around with hidden motors in bikes these days.

The Italian pundit wasnt fussed. his suggested reasons for the bike change included, higher tyre pressure, F1 quality oil, and ceramic bearings..as marginal as your gains get.

dastardly00

I wouldn't read much into what Mario said. He was arguing the point that the rest of the peloton should attack Contador when he stopped to change his bike. I'm presuming Mario wants Aru to win.

Also, Mario complaining about Contador 'cheating' ..... talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

neris

am i hearing matt stephens say some nutter cycled straight into the peleton and took a load of riders out of it?

Pudsy33

neris wrote: »

am i hearing matt stephens say some nutter cycled straight into the peleton and took a load of riders out of it?

Yeah in stage 2, some lad on a fixie cycled into the bunch

letape

dastardly00 wrote: »

Also, Mario complaining about Contador 'cheating' ..... talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to which Kettle is the blacker!

dastardly00

Less than 10km to go now.

Pudsy33

Was that a nasty broken arm!?

neris

bertie down in a crash in last few meters. greipel takes sprint

qwabercd

That arm looked nasty!

Bambaata

Ouch!

dastardly00

I nearly puked when I saw the arm.

afatbollix

It was a photographer who he hit. Very nasty.

Zyzz

Looks like a dislocated shoulder and broken arm..

Not for the faint hearted..

Nsfw - http://i.imgur.com/32WtWwK.jpg

ThisRegard

afatbollix wrote: »

It was a photographer who he hit. Very nasty.

Just someone in the crowd with a long lens camera.

Darkglasses

Brian Smith suggests double barriers at the finish. Sounds like the way to go. Gives a better frame of vision if everyone is a few feet further back too.

neris

that does not look good for contador. left arm down by side and wont take put the jersey on

RobertKK

No Contador would really spoil the race.

Hopefully just being very cautious there on the podium, but looks bad.

neris

so is Oleg the owner or the DS?

REBELSAFC

dastardly00 wrote: »

I wouldn't read much into what Mario said. He was arguing the point that the rest of the peloton should attack Contador when he stopped to change his bike. I'm presuming Mario wants Aru to win.

Also, Mario complaining about Contador 'cheating' ..... talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

I think he is right about the attacking part though. If Contador wants to change his bike for tactical reasons then it should be acceptable for other riders to attack him while doing so. An F1 driver won't ease up because his opponent is in the pits

ThisRegard

Didn't Contador himself attack Schleck when he dropped a chain a couple of years ago? All bets should be off for tactical switches and it was even argued at the time that Contador attacking Schleck that time was fine because his mechanical was own fault.

neris

ThisRegard wrote: »

Didn't Contador himself attack Schleck when he dropped a chain a couple of years ago? All bets should be off for tactical switches and it was even argued at the time that Contador attacking Schleck that time was fine because his mechanical was own fault.

think that was 2010 TDF

godtabh

Bloody hell just saw a photo of the arm brake. Sickening

omri

Bad luck for Contador - was it last years TDF he broke the leg or was it Giro ?

Pudsy33

omri wrote: »

Bad luck for Contador - was it last years TDF he broke the leg or was it Giro ?

Broke it in the Tour, then won the Vuelta

ThisRegard

His press guy says just sore, speculation is it's broken. Just have to wait for official word I suppose.

Talib Fiasco

Confirmed dislocated shoulder apparently. The double is more than less over. Shame

ThisRegard

That's a bloody balls that is. Although he might manage having it popped back in? After all he managed with one leg for a bit last year.

Did he need to be that far up front at that stage in the race?

Talib Fiasco

Tour-Vuelta could be his goal now but he'd have to pull out of the Giro now

Darkglasses

According to the Spanish sports newspaper AS, Contador suffered a dislocated shoulder. However it appears it was a temporary dislocation of a joint followed by an immediate return to its normal position. The correct medical term in this case is a subluxation of the shoulder.

Contador got up quickly after his crash and rode to the finish. However he was unable to pull on the pink jersey on the podium and quickly left for his hotel.

Not looking good but I'm keeping everything crossed.

neris

Talib Fiasco wrote: »

Tour-Vuelta could be his goal now

was thinking the same

Talib Fiasco

Contador's face told the whole story in my opinion...he's done

Darkglasses

*sigh*

nealcassidy

jesus. just lucking forward to the giro. all these injuries are ruining the grand tours methinks

Darkglasses

Not that it's any comfort to me at all, but Aru vs. Porte will probably be closer than Contador vs. Aru and Porte.

Darkglasses

I imagine he won't withdraw til tomorrow if he does it at all.

godtabh

Darkglasses wrote: »

I imagine he won't withdraw til tomorrow if he does it at all.

Some injuries on Colli

ThisRegard

The team don't sound very confident about his starting tomorrow
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tinkoff-saxo-impossible-to-say-with-certainty-that-contador-can-continue-giro-ditalia

oconnpad

godtabh wrote: »

Some injuries on Colli

Just seen his arm in the video above, bleedin nasty for him alright.

Darkglasses

Colli will be having an operation on his fractured arm tomorrow, he's been tweeting and putting a brave face on. Well done him.

Such a rotten day to have after 5 days of great racing.

ThisRegard

Contador just tweeted that he hopes to start tomorrow, no fractures.

godtabh

https://twitter.com/albertocontador/status/598948228273446914

Darkglasses

If he can hang in for the rest of this, it would be really something.

dastardly00

At least it's not a mountain stage tomorrow. Although it is the longest stage of this Giro at 264km in length.

Pudsy33

Darkglasses wrote: »

If he can hang in for the rest of this, it would be really something.

No more amazing than Aru recovery from dysentery!

Darkglasses

Pudsy33 wrote: »

No more amazing than Aru recovery from dysentery!

Wouldn't remotely compare the two myself.