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Post by stokeuk474 on May 5, 2022 8:05:20 GMT
Can't believe it's already time for the first grand tour of the year. Grande Partenza in Hungary this year. Just had a look at the first stage profile, and there's tricky little 5km climb up to the finish line at the castle. So no sprinter in the Maglia Rosa, more likely a puncheur or maybe even one of the GC guys if they fancy it. Not really paid that much attention to the build up this year, but nice to see Cav back at the Giro, even though i'm sure he's gutted at likely missing out on the Tour. Ineos gone all out for GC with Carapaz(very strong) and I can't see past him winning it really, particularly having won it before and off the back of a really strong last couple of seasons. No Ganna(superstar) so looks like he will be going to the Tour. I haven't got Eurosport this year, so will mainly be following on highlights and online, so if anyone's got any thoughts it'd be nice to hear what people think. Apparently it's free to air on S4C, but with Welsh commentary
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Post by deeside2 on May 5, 2022 8:12:20 GMT
Yes, really looking forward to the Giro. I'm a big Sky/Ineos fan so really hope they can pull off the GC win. They've had a good Classics season culminating with a great win at Paris-Roubaux.
Can't wait.
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Post by thehartshillbadger on May 5, 2022 17:41:04 GMT
Can't believe it's already time for the first grand tour of the year. Grande Partenza in Hungary this year. Just had a look at the first stage profile, and there's tricky little 5km climb up to the finish line at the castle. So no sprinter in the Maglia Rosa, more likely a puncheur or maybe even one of the GC guys if they fancy it. Not really paid that much attention to the build up this year, but nice to see Cav back at the Giro, even though i'm sure he's gutted at likely missing out on the Tour. Ineos gone all out for GC with Carapaz(very strong) and I can't see past him winning it really, particularly having won it before and off the back of a really strong last couple of seasons. No Ganna(superstar) so looks like he will be going to the Tour. I haven't got Eurosport this year, so will mainly be following on highlights and online, so if anyone's got any thoughts it'd be nice to hear what people think. Apparently it's free to air on S4C, but with Welsh commentary It’s the commentary that makes it, love all the facts and stuff when passing historic monuments and the like. When does the Tour de France start this year?
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Post by Mason_Stokie on May 5, 2022 17:55:25 GMT
Can't believe it's already time for the first grand tour of the year. Grande Partenza in Hungary this year. Just had a look at the first stage profile, and there's tricky little 5km climb up to the finish line at the castle. So no sprinter in the Maglia Rosa, more likely a puncheur or maybe even one of the GC guys if they fancy it. Not really paid that much attention to the build up this year, but nice to see Cav back at the Giro, even though i'm sure he's gutted at likely missing out on the Tour. Ineos gone all out for GC with Carapaz(very strong) and I can't see past him winning it really, particularly having won it before and off the back of a really strong last couple of seasons. No Ganna(superstar) so looks like he will be going to the Tour. I haven't got Eurosport this year, so will mainly be following on highlights and online, so if anyone's got any thoughts it'd be nice to hear what people think. Apparently it's free to air on S4C, but with Welsh commentary It’s the commentary that makes it, love all the facts and stuff when passing historic monuments and the like. When does the Tour de France start this year? July 1st in Copenhagen. Love the TDF. Makes good summer mornings viewing.
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Post by teenagefanclub on May 5, 2022 19:07:59 GMT
I love Orla season
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Post by backintheday on May 6, 2022 10:53:04 GMT
After the spring classics (quality racing this year) the Giro is my favourite of the Grand Tours. Told the mrs don't expect too much to be done in the afternoons for a while.
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Post by Bod on May 6, 2022 11:03:34 GMT
Tour de France is the big dog, but the Giro is almost always tougher in terms of the parcours. The severity of the climbs and potential for volatile weather makes it a great race for me. The line-up isn’t exactly stellar this year, but that could make for some open racing. Carapaz should start as favourite but the chances of all the GC contenders making it through the first week (which is always carnage in any GT) is slim. Yes, I’m looking at you Kelderman. I’m hoping to see Bilbao perform well and watching him descend is a combination of fascinating and terrifying. MVDP riding makes every race better too as he is not someone who races to get into shape, so if he can win a stage he’ll go for it but I would guess he doesn’t make it past the stage to Blockhaus? Would like to see Ineos adopt a similar approach to the GT’s as they have done with the Classics as they’ve completely altered how they race and are one of the most exciting teams out there after years of being successful but formulaic.
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Post by Bod on May 6, 2022 21:26:11 GMT
Standard fare opening stage but made up for it with the final 5/10km. Won’t do any spoilers in case it’s still to be watched.
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Post by deeside2 on May 6, 2022 22:28:27 GMT
I thought they'd open with a prologue today but in the end it was an interesting finish to stage 1. Tomorrow's time trial should be entertaining amongst the top few TT riders.
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Post by Bod on May 7, 2022 17:24:39 GMT
I thought they'd open with a prologue today but in the end it was an interesting finish to stage 1. Tomorrow's time trial should be entertaining amongst the top few TT riders. I think it was originally scheduled to be a prologue when Hungary was announced as the start but it was altered. Anyhow, that’s the prologue out of the way now and be time to see if Cavendish is up to anything tomorrow and if Ewan can try sprinting with his head up for a change. I know MVDP is a superstar, but Girmay is going to be one. That guy just has ‘It.’
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Post by Bod on May 9, 2022 21:43:07 GMT
The Giro hits Italy and kicks off for real tomorrow for me. Breakaway to win is where the smart money is, or rather, breakaways have been successful when it’s been used as a finish recently. All the contenders have made it through the first week unscathed and three big hitters have won stages so far. Jeferson Cepeda to get in a break and win it!***
*** Not a chance this will happen.
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Post by deeside2 on May 10, 2022 5:55:17 GMT
It's been interesting so far. MVDP wins stage one, Yates superb TT on stage 2, and Cav winning stage 3. The race starts properly now it's back in Italy. Good to see Ben Tulett has started well for Ineos, and I'm pleased to see Tom Dumoulin is back.
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Post by salopstick on May 10, 2022 6:14:12 GMT
I just finished Cavs book on last years tour. A scandal he isn’t going this year, I can’t understand why quickstep don’t want the record in their colours
An excellent read btw
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Post by Bod on May 10, 2022 7:34:04 GMT
I just finished Cavs book on last years tour. A scandal he isn’t going this year, I can’t understand why quickstep don’t want the record in their colours An excellent read btw Lefevre is a bit crackers at the best of times but he’s gone with the option that Jakobsen being the future of the team (in sprinting terms) has to be kept pacified. It makes it tricky that in terms of pure speed, Jakobsen is the quickest out there but Cavendish is Cavendish and is a winner. Quickstep have had a pretty shocking season and trying to salvage something at the Giro was a necessity and in that respect Cav is pretty safe hands for multiple wins if he makes it into the final week. For me, MVDP is the most exciting rider I can remember in many, many years. Just a thoroughbred racer.
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Post by salopstick on May 10, 2022 11:13:36 GMT
I just finished Cavs book on last years tour. A scandal he isn’t going this year, I can’t understand why quickstep don’t want the record in their colours An excellent read btw Lefevre is a bit crackers at the best of times but he’s gone with the option that Jakobsen being the future of the team (in sprinting terms) has to be kept pacified. It makes it tricky that in terms of pure speed, Jakobsen is the quickest out there but Cavendish is Cavendish and is a winner. Quickstep have had a pretty shocking season and trying to salvage something at the Giro was a necessity and in that respect Cav is pretty safe hands for multiple wins if he makes it into the final week. For me, MVDP is the most exciting rider I can remember in many, many years. Just a thoroughbred racer. Even Jacobsen could have been kept content to give him one more tour I generally believe this will be his last year.
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Post by Bod on May 10, 2022 20:58:30 GMT
Lefevre is a bit crackers at the best of times but he’s gone with the option that Jakobsen being the future of the team (in sprinting terms) has to be kept pacified. It makes it tricky that in terms of pure speed, Jakobsen is the quickest out there but Cavendish is Cavendish and is a winner. Quickstep have had a pretty shocking season and trying to salvage something at the Giro was a necessity and in that respect Cav is pretty safe hands for multiple wins if he makes it into the final week. For me, MVDP is the most exciting rider I can remember in many, many years. Just a thoroughbred racer. Even Jacobsen could have been kept content to give him one more tour I generally believe this will be his last year. I do agree re Jakobsen but riding on a Belgian team as a Dutchman when Quickstep have a large presence in The Netherlands is strong pull. I do wonder if Lefevre is also just a cock at times because he can be. Stage today was definitely attritional rather than explosive but ‘Superman’ Lopez’s nickname (is it self-appointed?) becomes less applicable every day.
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Post by Bod on May 11, 2022 21:34:24 GMT
Masterclass in how to turn a comparatively easy stage into one where you alienate the fastest finishers. Alpecin fucking drilled it, to use one of Sean Kelly’s favourite expressions. Not sure what happened with MVDP at the end though. Possibly a mechanical of some kind? He just sat up when he was right in the mix in the final few hundred metres.
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Post by deeside2 on May 12, 2022 4:05:56 GMT
Interesting stage. Looks like Dumoulin is not the rider he once was, and age has caught up with Nibali. I thought Carapaz and Ineos rode well. I thimk MVDP must have had a mechanical at the finish. Early days yet in a three week Grand Tour, but the gaps are forming in the G.C., good to see Yates still up there.
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Post by Bod on May 12, 2022 17:38:26 GMT
Interesting stage. Looks like Dumoulin is not the rider he once was, and age has caught up with Nibali. I thought Carapaz and Ineos rode well. I thimk MVDP must have had a mechanical at the finish. Early days yet in a three week Grand Tour, but the gaps are forming in the G.C., good to see Yates still up there. Dumoulin is physically and mentally fragile it seems. When he looks good, he really looks good but I think he’s pretty much done now. Nibali has managed to ride at the top level for a ridiculous amount of years and I hope that he plays it very canny over the next few weeks and drops lots of time where he can so he gets the freedom to get in decent breakaways and look for stages. I’m a big fan of both the Yates brothers but with Simon, I’d like to see him reign his instincts in a little and ride a bit smarter with a view to the long game. He’s susceptible to some major implosions too, but I’d love to see him win it. Takeaways from the last few days are that - Gaviria is going to knock someone out - MVDP is suffering a little with something - Demare is flying - The sprints have been old-school sketchy by some of the lead out trains For tomorrow, I think it’s going to be a real battle to get in the break and could take a while to form as there are a lot of teams who need to show something and a few riders who have eyes on pink who aren’t GC contenders, but could hold the jersey for a little while.
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Post by Bod on May 12, 2022 19:41:52 GMT
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Post by deeside2 on May 12, 2022 20:00:24 GMT
I watched today's stage and it seemed impossible to separate the two of them at the finish. That photo shows it must have literally been 4 or 5 millimetres !
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Post by Bod on May 12, 2022 20:44:29 GMT
I watched today's stage and it seemed impossible to separate the two of them at the finish. That photo shows it must have literally been 4 or 5 millimetres ! One side showed Ewan edging it for me or at least dead level. Demare is definitely a confidence sprinter and he played it perfectly again. Cavendish had the look of ‘I ballsed that up a bit.’ He led it out but that bit of headwind probably hit him a touch. Mind you, Van Leberghe got taken out in the lead out and that will have hurt Cav. A lead out man being taken out by another lead out man in that fashion was almost comical, but the guy from Cofidis must have spatial awareness issues or he was so fatigued that his brain stopped functioning.
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Post by deeside2 on May 12, 2022 22:16:13 GMT
Tomorrow's stage should be interesting going into the mountains, and with a Cat 1 climb along the way.
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Post by Bod on May 13, 2022 10:37:23 GMT
Tomorrow's stage should be interesting going into the mountains, and with a Cat 1 climb along the way. Has potential to be much better than some of the stages which look more impressive on paper. If a decent breakaway forms (and I think it could be a tough one to get into) it could lead to some hard racing from a fair way out. Lots of teams will be targeting this stage so the balance of the break will have to be perfect if it is allowed some leeway.
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Post by Bod on May 14, 2022 20:59:18 GMT
Good stage today. Nothing really going on in the GC (Martin excluded) but it was like a high quality one day race on a great circuit. TDG is still a beast.
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Post by deeside2 on May 15, 2022 6:47:48 GMT
As soon as TDG hit the front it was game over - we've seen him do it so many times in the past. I have to say that overall I've found it all a bit disappointing so far. It's been enjoyable at times but overall disappointing. I'm actually enjoying the Eurosport commentary more than the racing.
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Post by deeside2 on May 15, 2022 15:42:51 GMT
Stage 9 with Hindley just beating Bardet and Carapaz after there was a big crash earlier in the stage. Lopez keeps the lead going into the rest day. Good to see Carapaz climbing the GC and now in 4th place only 15 seconds off the lead.
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Post by Bod on May 15, 2022 20:59:55 GMT
As soon as TDG hit the front it was game over - we've seen him do it so many times in the past. I have to say that overall I've found it all a bit disappointing so far. It's been enjoyable at times but overall disappointing. I'm actually enjoying the Eurosport commentary more than the racing. I think if you analyse the GT’s from the past decade or so, there have been more hits than misses. It’s usually why week 2 and 3 are more interesting as once riders have shipped a lot of time they are free to race a bit more and so the stages can pick up. At least the GC battle is still close. Knee or not, when Yates blows up, he really, really blows up! McEwen is an excellent commentator and analyst. Blyth is tolerable when he remembers that the focus is on the race and not him, as that guy fucking loves himself in front of camera.
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Post by Bod on May 17, 2022 19:28:08 GMT
If you haven’t seen today’s stage, go and find it and watch the last 20km or so. Brilliant racing.
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Post by salopstick on May 17, 2022 19:44:24 GMT
If you haven’t seen today’s stage, go and find it and watch the last 20km or so. Brilliant racing. Inspirational
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