Giro D'Italia 2015

Who will win?

  • Alberto Contadour

    Votes: 5 50.0%
  • Rigoberto Uran

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Richie Porte

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Fabio Aru

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

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Mar 20, 2007
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Snooze stage
Do you reckon there is a solution for boring flat stages?
I understand that sprint teams need them, and you cant have all stages on climbs, but surely there must be some way to increase watch-ability of stages like this (outside the last 5km or so)
I like the time bonuses that they offer at the Giro
 
Jul 7, 2012
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Certainly an interesting end to the race with the breakaway surviving until the end due to their very good teamwork. Shame for Oscar Gatto who was amongst the breakaway suffering a puncture with about 12km to go and by the time he had a replacement wheel the breakaway was already 40 seconds up on him. He was eventually swept up by the peloton who were a further 40 seconds behind him and had finally decided to put on the pedal and try to reign in the breakaway.

Even bigger news was the mechanical failure suffered by Richie Porte with about 5km to go. He got back on the road and was being helped by his teammates and surprisingly Michael Matthews to attempt to catch back up to the peloton. However he seemed to struggle with the pace his teammates were setting and kept on losing their wheel. Finally he crossed the finish line 1.05 after Nicola Boem crossed to win the stage, losing valuable time against Contador and Aru. He now sits in 4th place 1.09 behind Contador with a pretty reasonable amount of time to make up during the ITT
 

grouse mate

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Well there goes a lot of interest in the race. Porte has been docked a further 2 minutes for getting the replacement wheel from Simon Clarke rather than wait for the team car. Now 12th overall and down over 3 minutes behind Contador. Would any other race than Giro organisers do this?
 

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Oct 14, 2005
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Snooze stage
How wrong you were.. Despite having all the hallmarks of a snooze-fest, this turned out to be one of the more interesting stages to date. First we had the breakaway go all the way to the line, then Porte lost time on the other GC contenders, then Porte was docked 2 minutes by the race officials...

Firstly to the Porte situation. Porte suffered a puncture with 7km to go. Simon Clarke from OGE gave him the wheel from his bike and Porte rejoined the race. By that stage the peleton was flying, with the finish line rapidly approaching. Porte, working with Michael Matthews (OGE) and several of his UK Postal teammates, was unable to catch up to the peleton and lost 47 seconds. He was then docked a further 2 minutes by the race jury, for receiving assistance from a member of another team. The relevant UCI rule is produced below:
UCI rule 12.1.040 prohibits “non-regulation assistance to a rider from another team” with a two-minute penalty and a fine of 200 Swiss Francs for a first offence, while a rider risks outright disqualification in the event of a fourth such infraction during the same stage race.

Porte is now in 12th position, 3:09 behind Contador. He can no longer rely on gaining sufficient time in the ITT. If he wants to win the Giro, then he's going to have to go on the attack. That's a good thing, because UK Postal's tactic of sucking wheels was very boring and didn't deserve to win them the race. It wasn't possible to win the Giro on yesterday's stage, but Porte may well have lost it.

Secondly, to the breakaway... Last night's stage was ideally suited to the sprinters. It was long and relatively flat, other than a Cat4 climb in the middle of the stage. Why was the breakaway able to survive? There were several factors at work here, the combination of which resulted in the breakaway winning by 18 seconds.
  • There was a significant tailwind for most of the stage, particularly towards the end. This meant that the aerodynamic advantage of the peleton was significantly reduced. It also meant that the breakaway riders weren't forced to work as hard and still had relatively fresh legs at the end of the stage.
  • Lotto-Soudal suck when it comes to chasing breakaways. We also saw this on Stage 6, when they failed dismally in chasing the breakaway as well. On that occasion Saxo Tinkoff pulled their fat out of the fire by taking over the chase, catching the breakaway, and setting the tempo all the way to the 3km mark. This time Saxo left them to their own devices and they failed miserably.
  • Lotto-Soudal received almost no help from any other team when it came driving the peleton in the chase. Giant-Alpecin sent Ji Cheng to the front briefly, but other than that it was all down to the men in red. I can understand their reasoning. Greipel is easily the best sprinter in the bunch and he would have been an unbackable favourite if he was allowed to get to the finish with his lead-out train intact. By refusing to help, they forced Lotto-Soudal to burn off his lead-out riders, making him more vulnerable. It worked, with Nizzolo and Modolo both beating him in the sprint to the line.
In the end the breakaway won by 18 seconds, with Bardiani's Nicola Boem taking line honours. The hard luck story of the group belongs to Oscar Gatto, who was the favourite to win, until he punctured 12km out from the finish line.

All in all, the stage turned out to be far more interesting than we had any right to expect.
 
Oct 14, 2005
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Well there goes a lot of interest in the race. Porte has been docked a further 2 minutes for getting the replacement wheel from Simon Clarke rather than wait for the team car. Now 12th overall and down over 3 minutes behind Contador. Would any other race than Giro organisers do this?
I don't think they had much choice in the matter. The race director didn't seem to be overly enthusiastic about having to enforce the penalty, but the rules are the rules.
 

grouse mate

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I don't think they had much choice in the matter. The race director didn't seem to be overly enthusiastic about having to enforce the penalty, but the rules are the rules.

I cast my mind back Quintana riding away from the bunch under a neutral flag last year which ended up winning him the race and they did nothing. Same goes Froome getting food delivered from the team car in the last 10k's of a stage in the year he won TDF. Days like this make the sport s**t, this is what the race organisers tweeted after the stage.

giro_italia_porte_penalised.jpg


Ok to have rules but when they applies penalties in such a sporadic manner it turns the whole thing into a joke.
 
Oct 14, 2005
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I cast my mind back Quintana riding away from the bunch under a neutral flag last year which ended up winning him the race and they did nothing. Same goes Froome getting food delivered from the team car in the last 10k's of a stage in the year he won TDF. Days like this make the sport s**t, this is what the race organisers tweeted after the stage.
Actually, I think the Quintana incident is exactly why they had to penalise Porte. Last year they copped a fair bollocking for allowing one of the favourites to break race rules without penalty. As a result, they've tightened up considerably on several of the rules (including the neutral flag conditions). They had to be seen to be upholding the rules in order to validate the changes they made to the system after last year's race.

The TdF is a bit different. It's run by a different organisation. The TdF is run by the ASO, Giro is run by RCS Sport. Not really fair to use one organisation's failings as a precedent for another organisation.

Don't get me wrong. What Porte & Clarke did was strictly wrong according to the letter of the law, and the penalty applied is correct when viewed from that perspective. The spirit of the law is entirely a different matter...
 
Oct 4, 2003
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I want to know why none of Porte's teammates on UK Postal gave up their own wheels. Why was it Clarke who gave up his? There wouldn't have been a problem if another UK Postal rider had swapped front wheels.
Yep i agreee, but I do suspect it was in the moment and it just happened so quickly in an effort to minimise the time loss.
 
Oct 14, 2005
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Yep i agreee, but I do suspect it was in the moment and it just happened so quickly in an effort to minimise the time loss.
Clarke is to be congratulated for his display of sportsmanship, but Brailsford should have been giving Porte's teammates an absolute rocket over the fact that none of them bothered to cough up a wheel at such a critical stage of the race.
 
Oct 4, 2003
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Clarke is to be congratulated for his display of sportsmanship, but Brailsford should have been giving Porte's teammates an absolute rocket over the fact that none of them bothered to cough up a wheel at such a critical stage of the race.
Agreed. For a man so meticulous with his planning, Brailsford really f***ed this one up. What do you think the chances are of the Peloton doing something to "square" this up?
 

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Oct 14, 2005
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Agreed. For a man so meticulous with his planning, Brailsford really f***ed this one up. What do you think the chances are of the Peloton doing something to "square" this up?
Highly doubtful. How many riders are going to stop mid-race, find someone from another team, and swap wheels with them? Seriously?
 

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Clarke is to be congratulated for his display of sportsmanship, but Brailsford should have been giving Porte's teammates an absolute rocket over the fact that none of them bothered to cough up a wheel at such a critical stage of the race.

Haven't actually seen the stage yet, but assumed based on the reports that there were no Sky riders around him?

It's a bit galling considering what Quintana was able to get away with last year, but I guess rules are rules. As grouse mate said though, the way they are heavy handed on some things and completely ignore others is a joke.

Love the seediness of this photo of Boem:

CORVOS_00025039-004-1024x600.jpg
 
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The Sky riders were trapped on the other side of the road. When Porte punctured he swung straight off left at full speed but his team went right (whether due to their position or brain fade) and couldn't get across to him as the dumbass drivers in the convoy wouldn't stop. Clarke had realized this and did the right thing and helped him. The UCI stuffed up big time with this one.

It violates the team aspect of it, especially as Simon Clarke is a fellow australian and it's not a good look for Porte getting twice the help as others.

Please. If it was Contador in the same position I guarantee ALL of the Movistar squad would have given him what ever he needed due to being a Spanish team.
Porte is now in 12th position, 3:09 behind Contador. He can no longer rely on gaining sufficient time in the ITT. If he wants to win the Giro, then he's going to have to go on the attack. That's a good thing, because UK Postal's tactic of sucking wheels was very boring and didn't deserve to win them the race. It wasn't possible to win the Giro on yesterday's stage, but Porte may well have lost it.

Why would Porte attack, of the three he is the strongest against the clock. Why would he waste energy attacking on a climb knowing he isn't likely to succeed when he has a great chance to do it in the TT. It's not boring it's intelligent racing. GC stands for General Clasification, meaning best overall rider including climbing and TT'ing. It's akin to whining that Gripel never tries to break away and sucks wheels just to win at the end of the stage. Ride to your strengths.
 
Mar 20, 2007
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Why would Porte attack, of the three he is the strongest against the clock. Why would he waste energy attacking on a climb knowing he isn't likely to succeed when he has a great chance to do it in the TT. It's not boring it's intelligent racing. GC stands for General Clasification, meaning best overall rider including climbing and TT'ing. It's akin to whining that Gripel never tries to break away and sucks wheels just to win at the end of the stage. Ride to your strengths.

But its highly unlikely that he will be able to make up that kind of time on the ITT, so he may have to try and make a move despite the fact that Aru and Contador seem stronger on the climbs
 

grouse mate

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But its highly unlikely that he will be able to make up that kind of time on the ITT, so he may have to try and make a move despite the fact that Aru and Contador seem stronger on the climbs

Its a 56km TT with 2 hills in it. There will be a big chance for the guys suited to the course to pick up minutes rather than seconds.
 
Oct 4, 2003
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The Sky riders were trapped on the other side of the road. When Porte punctured he swung straight off left at full speed but his team went right (whether due to their position or brain fade) and couldn't get across to him as the dumbass drivers in the convoy wouldn't stop. Clarke had realized this and did the right thing and helped him. The UCI stuffed up big time with this one.



Please. If it was Contador in the same position I guarantee ALL of the Movistar squad would have given him what ever he needed due to being a Spanish team.


Why would Porte attack, of the three he is the strongest against the clock. Why would he waste energy attacking on a climb knowing he isn't likely to succeed when he has a great chance to do it in the TT. It's not boring it's intelligent racing. GC stands for General Clasification, meaning best overall rider including climbing and TT'ing. It's akin to whining that Gripel never tries to break away and sucks wheels just to win at the end of the stage. Ride to your strengths.
This is right. I think Porte can still finish on the podium. The top step may be a bit too steep. He will smack Aru in the TT - i can see at least 4 mins being put into him over that distance. As for Contador, i think he will beat him but not by that much.
 
Oct 14, 2005
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Bit of a nothing stage in the end last night, though it was amusing watching the peleton failing again to catch the breakaway. We're now 11 stages into the race and only twice has the breakaway been caught. One of those stages was a TTT, so there was no breakaway, but 2/10 is still a poor effort by the peleton.

Last night the peleton, led at the time by BMC (riding for Gilbert), closed to within 40 seconds of the breakaway, before easing off - they didn't to catch them too early and encourage fresh attacks. That was the closest they ever got.

Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) attacked from the breakaway with around 23km to go. He's the Russian TT champion and he rode away to a solo victory, perhaps helped by the breakaway riders failing to make even a solitary attempt to catch him.

Uran made a bad Giro (for him) even worse by falling off, while apparently riding in a straight line. Unlike Porte, the peleton wasn't going flat out at the time and he came off with 12km to to, not 6.5km, so he was able to make it back into the safety of the peleton well before they reached the finish line.

Contador tried a small attack just before the top of the last climb, but he was quickly brought back into the fold and all of the GC contenders crossed the line together a minute behind Zakarin.
 
Oct 14, 2005
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Why would Porte attack, of the three he is the strongest against the clock. Why would he waste energy attacking on a climb knowing he isn't likely to succeed when he has a great chance to do it in the TT. It's not boring it's intelligent racing. GC stands for General Clasification, meaning best overall rider including climbing and TT'ing. It's akin to whining that Gripel never tries to break away and sucks wheels just to win at the end of the stage. Ride to your strengths.
I accept that sucking wheels was the most intelligent tactic for him (before the time lost on Tuesday night). It's just boring to watch.
 

grouse mate

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Back on the wheel change, this photo is from this years Roubaix, Sep Van Marcke's bike.

mavic1.jpg


No pro team rider is riding around on a $200 wheel like this. The story is that a spectator gave him the wheel after he punctured. Obviously the UCI weren't watching....
 
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