Giro d'Italia 2018 stage 9: Pesco Sannita–Gran Sasso 225 km

neris

Technical Overview:
Another MTF, this time on a completely different kind of climb. We start in Pesco Sannita and head north-west following the Appennines for quite a long and tough stage. The first categorized climb of the day follows a gentle drag of 8.2 km at 4.3% and its descent. Roccaraso (GPM2, 6.9 km at 6.5%) is a classic climb that has been ridden countless times. It features 11 km of false flat at the top, after which a long and gentle descent will bring the peloton into the Abruzzo region. Here, 40 km of false flat will lead to the foot of the Gran Sasso d'Italia, the highest mountain of the Appennines. In order to reach the finish in Campo Imperatore, the riders will have to climb for the next 45 km, that the organizers have divided into two sections. The first one is Calascio (GPM1, 13.5 km at 6%), a very regular climb. After it the peloton reaches the second section, simply named Gran Sasso d'Italia (26.5 km at 3.9%). This section opens with 10 km at 4% to reach a plateau of another 10 km, with some rolling terrain. Finally, the last ramp begins at 4.5 km to go (8.2% average), which is by far the hardest ramp of the whole stage. The initial part of this ramp is the steepest, with 1.5 km at over 9% (max 13%), after which there is a 500m false flat, and the last 2 km have an average of 8.1%

What to Expect:
The stage should be long and hard, but the profile of the last climb makes hard to believe the favourites would try anything before the last 4 km... Hopefully a few second tiers will attack during the Calascio climb. The wind might be a problem however, especially on the plateau.

neris

67KM to go now and the break have 7 minutes

MPFGLB

KIrby bull abounds


Wonder will Astana pull back the break

mr spuckler

some brilliant scenery towards the end of this stage tbf

this climb is really beginning to bite, poor Masnada

dastardly00

Froome dropped on a not so steep section

mr spuckler

that was a cracking finish. Domoulin held on very well.

Froome couldn't even hold onto that chase group :eek:

at1withmyself

dastardly00 wrote: »

Froome dropped on a not so steep section

Is it wrong of me to have a huge smile on my face as he drops back

Kaisr Sose

Yess! Yates timed that to perfection and very strong. The same could not be said for Froome

selwyn froggitt

Great finish from Yates

Sprinter Sacre

At least Froome is looking human again.

dastardly00

Chris Froome... (In the words of Eamon Dunphy) is a busted flush in this race

neris

if froome goes the TDF and wins it with domination again theres got to be serious questions to be asked

Kaisr Sose

Sprinter Sacre wrote: »

At least Froome is looking human again.

He is just waiting for the next medical/science breakthrough

Hurrache

dastardly00 wrote: »

Froome dropped on a not so steep section

Coincidence that he couldn't climb a stairs when he's under the doping microscope and scrutiny?

retalivity

Jack haig is making a serious name for himself, he's up there every day

sy

Terrific finish to a tough stage. Wind was brutal looking at the flags. Pinot burned a few matches in the last km and had nothing left to challenge the deserving winner. Loved how Yates dropped back into the group when the wind was an issue ( also eyeballing Froome and Tom ) before slowly closing down the accelerations in the last 500m. Love the Giro, always exciting and unpredictable. Next weekend should be fun on the Zoncolan!! and in the meantime Sam might bag another stage. Froome looks fooked

triggermortis

Excellent win and a great stage

Absolutely breathtaking in terms of the views over the last 20km or so. Crazy they haven't used it since 1999 I think they said. Reminds me of one of the reasons why the Giro is the best of the Grand Tours.

coco0981

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Absolutely breathtaking in terms of the views over the last 20km or so. Crazy they haven't used it since 1999 I think they said. Reminds me of one of the reasons why the Giro is the best of the Grand Tours.

Lopez has been a big disappointment so far, thought he could get a top 3 if he was in form. Yates looks like he has the freshest legs by far

dastardly00

neris wrote: »

if froome goes the TDF and wins it with domination again theres got to be serious questions to be asked

Why though?

Riders can have bad GTs and then perform well in the next race.
And it's the first time since 2010 that he's ridden the Giro. Should we be that surprised that he's not performing??
Aru is having a bad Giro also

I've said already the team don't seem to be as good as a TdF squad. We're not seeing the sky train here at all. Even Kiryienka is getting burned out fast here.

In the TdF we'd be seeing more riders left around Froome in the later end of a stage like today.

coco0981

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I've said already the team don't seem to be as good as a TdF squad. We're not seeing the sky train here at all. Even Kiryienka is getting burned out fast here.

In the TdF we'd be seeing more riders left around Froome in the later end of a stage like today.

It's a strong sky squad at the Giro but not the same as they will have at the TDF. Poels is clearly still not 100%

Lumen

Sky train not much use if it drops its leader.

Froome is a minor distraction from an otherwise interesting race.

It's currently a climber vs generalist battle. Climbers don't generally win GTs. Yates is going to need 70 seconds. That's a lot of seconds.

Macy0161

neris wrote: »

if froome goes the TDF and wins it with domination again theres got to be serious questions to be asked

Really don't see why it should raise anymore questions tbh. I'd say he'll be heading home today citing injury, but it's not him or even his team have a great record in the giro. Unless he gets chucked off for holding on to a car, again.

Also, I wouldn't have said he was all that dominate last year anyway - the other GC guys left a lot of opportunities out there.

TheBlaaMan

Early days, but Yates is looking very strong.

With the tests ahead, the GC could get a real shake up yet. Yates is improving his TT'ing but I had a quick check to see how he stacked up in previous head-to-head TTs with Dumoulin - and info is scarce! They rarely seem to have overlapping programs, but I'm sure someone will have access to better info. I can see the ITT at the start of the 2015 Tour where in a 13Km TT around Utrecht (so similarly flat to this years ITT in the Giro) Dumoulin put 38 seconds into Yates - so might be expected to put ~90 sec into him on the Stage 16ITT this year. There may have been a 'home' advantage to TD that day though, and Yates certainly seems to have improved. Pinot is also pretty handy against the clock so if they all stage healthy, it could be very tight after the TT and going into the last two, 5 star, stages.

First up however, is the Zoncolan....

dastardly00

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Early days, but Yates is looking very strong.

With the tests ahead, the GC could get a real shake up yet. Yates is improving his TT'ing but I had a quick check to see how he stacked up in previous head-to-head TTs with Dumoulin - and info is scarce! They rarely seem to have overlapping programs, but I'm sure someone will have access to better info. I can see the ITT at the start of the 2015 Tour where in a 13Km TT around Utrecht (so similarly flat to this years ITT in the Giro) Dumoulin put 38 seconds into Yates - so might be expected to put ~90 sec into him on the Stage 16ITT this year. There may have been a 'home' advantage to TD that day though, and Yates certainly seems to have improved. Pinot is also pretty handy against the clock so if they all stage healthy, it could be very tight after the TT and going into the last two, 5 star, stages.

First up however, is the Zoncolan....

ProCyclingStats has all the head-to-head ITT info:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider.php?id=134456&c=6&rider1=134456&rider2=140118

TheBlaaMan

dastardly00 wrote: »

ProCyclingStats has all the head-to-head ITT info:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider.php?id=134456&c=6&rider1=134456&rider2=140118

Thanks !
Very handy site indeed.....
Looking at the head-to-head in recent ITTs, Dumoulin is 6/0 up against Yates, and that estimate of 90sec over 34km is pretty consistent. He said today that he expects to loose 4sec per km, but methinks he is sandbagging !0
If Yates continues to grab time bonuses at the end of the stages, he is really improving his position relative to the potential loss of time on the ITT.