Giro d'Italia Stage 2: Olbia - Tortoli 221 km (NO Dan Martin)

neris

Great win for Bora on stage 1 but not the winner we would have liked. A lumpy bumpy stage 2 with what looks like a sprint finish but possibly a smaller sprint bunch.

What to expect:
Again, very hard to call, but this time I can rule out a full bunch sprint. I do expect a reduced bunch sprint, something similar to stage 3 of the Giro 2015, and we might even be lucky and get something more similar to stage 3 of the Giro 2013. Breakaways have of course more than a chance here, but in recent times they haven't been lucky with this kind of stage at the very beginning of a Giro. GC action is very unlikely. (cyclingnews.com)

1 Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 5:13:35
2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-Scott
3 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
4 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
5 Sacha Modolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
6 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Dimension Data
7 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
8 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) Dimension Data
9 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe
10 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb

153 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors

167 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky

will he still be in it Saturday night??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKaXepy_1Rs

TheBlaaMan

Looks like a good profile for a breakaway to succeed, but no way they are going to be allowed off the leash at this early stage in the event. It will be interesting to see Bora-Hansgrohe defend the jersey - with another sprinters stage on Sunday, they will surely want to retain it till the Giro gets to Sicily on Tuesday


EDIT:
Actually...........this looks far harder than I had thought. Lots of commentary online about it being the same amount of climbing as LBL, that the climbs are very long and that some of the pure sprinters will be lucky to make the time cut! GC guys should all be OK, but add in cross-winds and this could be pretty dramatic

seanin4711

What happened Dan the man?

Pudsy33

seanin4711 wrote: »

What happened Dan the man?

He's not racing here

greenspurs

Crosswinds will play a role today i reckon, and there are some nice (tough) climbs and we will have Wilier + Gazprom + CCC etc send riders up the road.

Im gonna go for - Formolo or Visconti.

Allez Allez..

pelevin

Could be a good stage for Dan Martin.

MPFGLB

Sam Bennett diary


http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/what-will-i-do-he-asked-i-pinched-the-little-mic-and-shouted-go-35685928.html

velo.2010

Just switched on Eurosport. Jaysus, they're going full on with their coverage. A lot more anglicised too. No harm, but I fear more Team Sky/Thomas flag waving from the presenters.

edit. Brian Smith looks nothing like I thought he would!

CrowdedHouse

^^^ Luckily the raw feed is on the eurosport player

Whyner

Help a tick out, what's that part for under the saddle? Where you would normally clip the saddle bag on.

robyntmorton

Control box for the electronic gears IIRC.

cython

Whyner wrote: »

Help a tick out, what's that part for under the saddle? Where you would normally clip the saddle bag on.

robyntmorton wrote: »

Control box for the electronic gears IIRC.

Think it's actually part of some wireless telemetry system. While I'm not au fait with eTap or Campy EPS, I know Shimano Di2 requires nothing at the saddle, and given the "out of the way" nature of that location, I'd be surprised if there were anything related to gearing there. However it's an ideal place to mount an extraneous device like telemetry without impacting aerodynamics much.

retalivity

Sam Bennett dropped from the peloton on the climb...

Inquitus

retalivity wrote: »

Sam Bennett dropped from the peloton on the climb...

Aye he made it back but he's been dropped again, clearly suffering today, apparently he was sick last night.

Mr. Grieves

Go Dan!

dastardly00

This stage feels like it has gone on forever

dastardly00

Average race speed for today so far: 34 km/h. Jaysus that's slow... For the pros

Some cracking shots from the helicopter there of them in the tunnel along the slope.

dastardly00

Bahrain-Merida have been pushing the pace on the front of the peloton since they summited the Cat. 2 climb. Any reason why? Don't think they have anyone who could win today.

Oh what happened katusha Came back there and they're 25 seconds adrift.

Edit: Back on now nicely done 1.5 to go

Inquitus

Poor Caleb Ewan, lucky to stay up there.

CrowdedHouse

Janey-Sam was over 12mins down

dastardly00

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Janey-Sam was over 12mins down

He should be able to recover a bit tomorrow as it's a flat stage, but he could struggle to stay within the time limit on the stage to Etna if his health doesn't improve

dastardly00

Dan finished 151st, 2'58" behind the winner

Somedude9

Nice try from Postlberger opening his sprint from a kilometre out Thomas comes in 8th

Keeks

dastardly00 wrote: »

He should be able to recover a bit tomorrow as it's a flat stage, but he could struggle to stay within the time limit on the stage to Etna if his health doesn't improve

Whats wrong with Sam now?

dastardly00

Keeks wrote: »

Whats wrong with Sam now?

Not sure exactly other than he wasn't 'feeling good'

http://www.stickybottle.com/races-results/below-par-sam-bennett-opts-out-of-giro-ditalia-sprint-final/

devonp

PÖSTLBERGER, Lukas
just remembered he won the Ras a few yrs back..2015

MediaMan

devonp wrote: »

PÖSTLBERGER, Lukas
just remembered he won the Ras a few yrs back..2015

Or the "Rass" as Rob Hatch referred to it a couple of times. Surprised that Sean didn't correct his pronunciation!

pelevin

MediaMan wrote: »

Or the "Rass" as Rob Hatch referred to it a couple of times. Surprised that Sean didn't correct his pronunciation!

Perhaps puts into perspective all his other fancy pronunciations. This isn't a nationalistic attack or anything but amongst the English there seems a tendency to be staggeringly bad at getting foreign pronunciations right, especially Irish ones. How hard can Ras be for instance. The a is the same as in wall, & the 's' the same as the ce in ice. It's one bloody syllable! Similarly if you hear Stuart Barnes trying to get Tomas o Leary in a Munster rugby match - can he pronounce an 'a' sound that sounds like the a in wall? No he can't.