Giro d'Italia Stage 1 ITT Monreale › Palermo (15.1k)

A downhill ITT to kick things off this year. It'll be Ineos in the pink after this I'd say.

Dodge

Yeah the only question is Ganna or Thomas. I’m going to say Thomas

Going to be crazy speeds here.

Wow early drama already. Youngest came running out to tell me "Daddy the man fell, will he get a plaster for his knee?" while I was making the lunches.

wirelessdude01

Dowsett hit 106kmph.

retalivity

Got to love the giro for the crazy setups - having KOM points 1.1km into the prologue and lads going balls out straightaway.
Windy as hell as well...leaves everywhere

Dodge

retalivity wrote: »

Got to love the giro for the crazy setups - having KOM points 1.1km into the prologue and lads going balls out straightaway.
Windy as hell as well...leaves everywhere

cycling news have said Sagan went all out for that KOM. Held it for a while but taken over.

Looks very like Ganna will win today. Thomas nearly 30 secs ahead of Yates

velo.2010

It wouldn't be the Giro d'Italia without some good auld picture break up!

Daroxtar

Superman... Ooof.

velo.2010

Tut Tut Rob Hatch. He said just now... 'Arnaud Demare is probably the best sprinter in the world at the moment'. No Rob, Sam Bennett is the best sprinter in the world at the moment!

Oymyakon

Thomas already putting serious time into all the other GC lads!

neris

What happened to Lopez

vicwatson

neris wrote: »

What happened to Lopez

Twas weird, he just went down in a heap, looked like his front wheel gave way or something, then went into the barrier, taken away in ambulance

EDIT - just saw a replay, looks like he hits a cats eye or the likes and lost control

Another EDIT - one another look it looks as if he had mech failure and didn’t hit anything at all

wirelessdude01

neris wrote: »

What happened to Lopez

Looked like he either hit a manhole cover or a bump in the road. Totally lost control on a straight section just as he was moving from the TT bars.

Yeah exactly that, bump as he was moving between the bars.

GC guys lost a fair bit of time there , Yates I think was the best of the rest in terms of GC with the rest a minute or more down on Thomas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu5jnNV9U_g

dastardly00

To me it looks like it will be between Thomas & Yates for the overall classification. The other GC contenders will lose too much in the time trials.

Melodeon

Sound like Lopez was lucky to not suffer something catastrophic:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/no-fractures-for-miguel-angel-lopez-after-crashing-out-of-giro-ditalia-time-trial/

www.cyclingnews.com wrote:

“The X-ray has shown no fractures, he suffered a deep wound very close to the iliac arteria, which he had a surgery to repair and which will heal in the upcoming weeks,” said Astana doctor Serge Niamke.

“Regarding this crash Miguel Angel hasn’t sustained any further serious injuries. He was able to leave the hospital on foot and returned back to the team's hotel. We will see how he is feeling tomorrow about returning back home.”

:eek::eek::eek:

Yeah he got away ok there. Was reading about poor Fabio Jakobson earlier needing an operation to take bone from his hip to reconstruct his jaw next week. Poor bastard lost every tooth in his head save for one in the crash in Poland.

Chivito550

Dodge wrote: »

cycling news have said Sagan went all out for that KOM. Held it for a while but taken over.

Looks very like Ganna will win today. Thomas nearly 30 secs ahead of Yates

Excuse my ignorance but why would Sagan be after KOM jersey when he's a points classification guy?

Unrelated question. How many who started the Tour are starting the Giro?

Dodge

Chivito550 wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but why would Sagan be after KOM jersey when he's a points classification guy?

To say he did it, to wear a jersey he normally wouldn’t and to get on the podium. Sagan wouldn’t have a hope of winning the stage today so the only bit of glory he might have got was to wear the KOM jersey for one day. In the end, another sprinter Rick Zabel got the 3 points on offer so he’ll wear the jersey tomorrow.

They went out fast at the start specifically for the KOM

Richard Hillman

I wonder will Lopez be good for the Vuelta now in 2 weeks. I thought it was a bit much for him to riding the Giro considering was clearly suffering in the last TT in the TdF