Stage 18 » Muggiò › Pinerolo (244k)

Pudsy33

The route

Stage 18 of the Giro is not a day for the GC man, definitely too hard for the sprinters, so it’s a nailed on breakaway day. This stage leaves from Muggio, taking the riders on 170kms of flat before the first challenge of the day, two lumpy uncatagorised climbs. Next is the ascent of the Pramartino, 5kms at a 10% average. The run in looks flat but it is anything but. 2500 metres from the finish we hit the Via Principi d’Acaja, a 450m long ramp which peaks at 20%. This ramp will definitely separate the break, and the first man over will have a good of soloing to the finish.






Contenders

Like I said above, I think this is a definite day for the break. A man we will most likely see up the road is Diego Ullissi. He has a good chance to win the stage, and he’s chasing points for the red jersey competition. I also expect the Italian teams to be represented, so look out for one of Pirazzi, Ciccone, or Bongiorno contesting the stage. The run in could suit our own Nico Roche, so I hope to see him involved. Cannondale have got nothing from the race so far, so maybe Formolo or Dombrowki make the break.

Prediction

Roche!

Random Trivia

The "Man in the Iron Mask" was imprisoned in Pinerolo from 1669.

MPFGLB

Love the little history titbits

neris

What is the point in a 244km stage? These long long stages are normally dull & drab.

Taxuser1

Adam Hansen is my man today! This stage is set to be epic

Pudsy33

So much for my break predictions! A motley crew gone up the road not including any of the above

Taxuser1

Pudsy33 wrote: »

So much for my break predictions! A motley crew gone up the road not including any of the above

is this is a GC day after all !

Chavez attcking the steep 4 km climb and then the ramp at the end ?!

Taxuser1

Was just looking at the strava section of the final climb. Only 5 kms long but 20 minutes of climbing

I've a feeling some GC rider is gonna go pop today.

https://www.strava.com/segments/2555484

dastardly00

The breakaway have a lead of 11'28"with 73 km remaining.

Axel Domont (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Malacarne (Astana), Stefan Kung, Daniel Oss (BMC), Moreno Moser, Ramunas Navadauskas (Cannondale), Gianluca Brambilla, Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep), Olivier le Gac (FDJ), Andrey Solomennikov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling), Sacha Modolo, Matej Mohoric (Lampre-Merida), Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal), Genki Yammamoto, Gianfranco Zilioli (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Nikias Arndt, Alberto Timmer (Giant-Alpecin), Christian Knees (Team Sky), Pavel Brutt, Jay McCarthy, Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff), Matteo Busato and Julen Amezqueta Moreno (Wilier Triestina-Southeast).

dastardly00

It's pretty definite that the stage winner will be from the breakaway.

Who will it be? Brambilla is the obvious choice, but there are a lot of other good candidates also, and some teams have more than one rider in the group as well.

Andre 3000

The organisers f*cked up by not having the finish at the top of the climb. Would have been a brilliant stage then.

godtabh

I'll I can say is fair play to Brambilla. He ambused Mosser to allow Trentin the win

Trojan

Andre 3000 wrote: »

The organisers f*cked up by not having the finish at the top of the climb. Would have been a brilliant stage then.

That was a pretty awesome finish. No complaints here!

dastardly00

Andre 3000 wrote: »

The organisers f*cked up by not having the finish at the top of the climb. Would have been a brilliant stage then.

I'd have to disagree.

If the stage finish was at the top of the climb, we probably wouldn't have seen any attacking from the riders until there were 4.5 km to go (i.e. at the bottom of the climb). Whereas having 20 km remaining after the summit meant that we got to see way more more action! Sometimes having the finish at the top of a climb isn't always the ideal scenario (La Fleche Wallone and the Mur de Huy being a good example).

Just my opinion obviously

dastardly00

Nico came home in a bunch of 13 riders which also contained 10 out of the top-11 in the GC standings. Maybe a sign that his legs are good for tomorrow or Saturday....

irishrover99

dastardly00 wrote: »

Nico came home in a bunch of 13 riders which also contained 10 out of the top-11 in the GC standings. Maybe a sign that his legs are good for tomorrow or Saturday....

I think It's time we stopped wishful thinking that nico will win a stage. He's just not in the form at the moment and really hasn't been for a while now.

MPFGLB

irishrover99 wrote: »

I think It's time we stopped wishful thinking that nico will win a stage. He's just not in the form at the moment and really hasn't been for a while now.

Don't agree ...he could have won this stage today if in the break...how the hell did he miss the break...you get such few chances to win a stage in a grand tour and very few opportunities at SKY

As for his form...not great in the high mountains as he said in Sticky Bottle the other day as too heavy but fine form for a stage like today (and as it was in Yorkshire) as seen when he came home with the favourites ....


Remember todays finish at 2011 Tour and Tommy V riding into someone's back yard ...Also the Schlecks complaining about the descent

velo.2010

MPFGLB wrote: »

Remember todays finish at 2011 Tour and Tommy V riding into someone's back yard ...Also the Schlecks complaining about the descent

Today's climb was approached from the opposite side as it was in 2011 so the descent was not a feature.

JA Flecha reckons a group of 30 or so riders will arrive at the bottom of the final climb. Team mates might prove useful but Kruiswijk looks ready to cope with anything.

MPFGLB

velo.2010 wrote: »

Today's climb was approached from the opposite side as it was in 2011 so the descent was not a feature.

JA Flecha reckons a group of 30 or so riders will arrive at the bottom of the final climb. Team mates might prove useful but Kruiswijk looks ready to cope with anything.

The same descent as in 2011 today

Lusk_Doyle

What a great mugging by Trentin!

dastardly00

irishrover99 wrote: »

I think It's time we stopped wishful thinking that nico will win a stage. He's just not in the form at the moment and really hasn't been for a while now.

Ah sure no harm in wishful thinking
After the next couple of days we won't see much of Nico until the Vuelta.

dastardly00

Bit of a random query.... The website Cyclingnews have a three minute or so highlights video of each stage on their YouTube channel. They have Dan Lloyd and another guy commentating. What TV station is this feed from does anyone know?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3O05CUZpR8

Pudsy33

irishrover99 wrote: »

I think It's time we stopped wishful thinking that nico will win a stage. He's just not in the form at the moment and really hasn't been for a while now.

Hasn't had form for a while? Did you see Yorkshire? He has quite good form if anything, as today proved.

Pudsy33

dastardly00 wrote: »

Bit of a random query.... The website Cyclingnews have a three minute or so highlights video of each stage on their YouTube channel. They have Dan Lloyd and another guy commentating. What TV station is this feed from does anyone know?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3O05CUZpR8

It's the international feed, so English language stations abroad.

neris

dastardly00 wrote: »

Bit of a random query.... The website Cyclingnews have a three minute or so highlights video of each stage on their YouTube channel. They have Dan Lloyd and another guy commentating. What TV station is this feed from does anyone know?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3O05CUZpR8

Dan lloyd and ned boulting. Theres a video on gcn hes done on a commentators day and the whole tv/press set up at the giro

irishrover99

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Hasn't had form for a while? Did you see Yorkshire? He has quite good form if anything, as today proved.

Didn't he get mugged by a 37 year old Tommy Voeckler and this is the giro, not the tour of Yorkshire . Different class of rider and stages

Pudsy33

irishrover99 wrote: »

Didn't he get mugged by a 37 year old Tommy Voeckler and this is the giro, not the tour of Yorkshire . Different class of rider and stages

Yeah, Voeckler who has a palmares with some serious victories. Hardly a scrub. Roche was the best climber in that race by a distance and is clearly in form. Hanging with the GC guys today showed that. I don't expect him to go too well on the big alpine climbs but I'm not buying the form argument.

Edit: all that said I think he may have struggled on the kicker at the end

JK.BMC

irishrover99 wrote: »

I think It's time we stopped wishful thinking that nico will win a stage. He's just not in the form at the moment and really hasn't been for a while now.

Ah the usual armchair critique of Nicolas Roche! I suppose to be fair he said himself that he is carrying a bit more weight than ideal. However, over the 3 weeks he has shown plenty of form, if not anything good enough to challenge on GC. I still think he has a decent chance of winning either of the next 2 stages, maybe Saturday is the better chance as a group of non-contenders are a shoo in to be up the road. Actually getting in such a break is perhaps the hardest part

velo.2010

MPFGLB wrote: »

The same descent as in 2011 today

Not the same, no. They climbed it today and descended the way they climbed in 2011 - if that makes sense. Shame, it might have seen some attacking had they followed the Tour route.

dastardly00

Thanks Pudsy33 and neris.

Countries seem to include USA (beIN Sports), South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and UAE.

I had a look at the GCN video 'A day in the life of cycling commentator' as well. Very interesting. I had a good laugh at Dan's comment about Juan Antonio Flecha... "The housewives favourite" :pac:

MPFGLB

irishrover99 wrote: »

Didn't he get mugged by a 37 year old Tommy Voeckler and this is the giro, not the tour of Yorkshire . Different class of rider and stages

What happened at the end does not take from the fact he was best on the whole stage at Yorkshire which included Kruijswijk and he is the best at the Giro...

I will continue to wishful think for the Irish riders every day .
And I see no reason to think either cannot win a stage

MPFGLB

dastardly00 wrote: »

Ah sure no harm in wishful thinking
After the next couple of days we won't see much of Nico until the Vuelta.

I'd say he'll do Suisse and/or Poland and maybe San Sebastian

Will need to race more to get an Olympic place

Looks like he is resigning for SKY also