Vincenzo Nibali won the Giro going downhill.
I spy with my little eye a certain Michele Scarponi, who sadly lost his life while out training near his home two weeks ago, in there amongst his teammates after his captain, Nibbles, won the race. I’m torn about a death like Michele’s – we subject ourselves to similar risks every time we climb aboard our bikes and we accept it as part and parcel of our craft. Yet, while every day members of our tribe lose their lives to their trade, it takes a high profile rider to remind us how real that risk is.
But onto lighter topics, Nibali won the Giro last year going downhill, and it happened on the one stage I managed to sleep through which is another way of saying I missed it. But I love waking up to a that WTF feeling only a reshuffled GS can give you.
The race starts Friday morning, which is sooner than I expected, so I’ll stop typing so you can start picking. Get them in by the time the clock goes to zero, and remember that our Grand Tour scoring rules are a little different than the smaller events. So jump on that start list and get prognosticating!
Good luck!
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View Comments
@stooge
Yup. Anyone got watts per kilo on that ride from TD? Guys like Yates and Nibbles must surely be wondering how to counter giving they're losing time trying to follow wheels!
that was some nice work today by Dumolin. very impressive indeed.
@Cary
That was a wonderful ride. TT'ing himself right back up to Nairo, even had his hands over the bars at one point, and then boom. Tom D has made this race interesting for sure. That was great fun to watch. And the stage was perfect in it's timing as wasn't tailor made for Nairo to simply ride away up the mtn. The Mtn's on stages 16, 18 and 20 ? We'll see.
And just when I was thinking that once again the ATOC was the better race...
Cheers
@harminator
The seafood diet thing was a bit of a troll - I don't really think it's anything fishy. I didn't expect TD to lose any time this week, but I didn't expect him to be putting time into the small climbers yesterday (even though the climb kinda suited the likes of him and Zakarin). Can he keep it up in the big multi climbs? Whatever happens, his performance this year will be talked about for many to come.
Apparently, in the press conference, someone pointed out that his ride was only 10 seconds slower over the last 6kms than Pantani's. I don't think there's much t be made of it.
Pinot looked like he'd gassed big time, then steadily made up ground and caught some for the remainder. That was good to see, too.
was Gaviria actually trying to win today? it seems likely. why would he chase points, now, with the lead he has? i really think he had designs on the stage. and WTF is up with Movistar clogging the road with a team car? in a corner, on a descent, no less! they're all lucky that foolishness didn't get anybody REALLY hurt.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
@john @Gianni
Dat you who diddat?
Out of town all weekend in northern WI doing the Bear 100 gravel ride in Laona. (www.thebear100.com) Insanely hard ride, but I'll be back at it next year.
This might be heresy, but watching the stage Tom D won, I thought, "big man in pink, up with the climbers, chasing down a wee man, not giving up and crushing his rivals in the sprint? That's Merckxian in style. The race leader calling a truce while a major rival gets sorted after a crash? That's patron-like behavior." Other riders might have kept wee Nairo in their sights, but not Dumoulin - . he kept at it. His rivals must be getting nervous and hope he has a really bad day this week.
@wiscot
I can't see how TD is going to lose. if he's going to lose a chunk of time, it'll be tomorrow. Quintana's last chance?
I loved Dumoulin's comments about it not being right to gain time on a rival when they've had a crash...aimed at Movistar, y'think? Class, anyway.
Ref Kangert's horrendous crash. Could have been so much worse in the scheme of things BUT.......when I saw it live (and the replay) it looked like he intentionally went to hop the curb and did not see the sign. OK so he may have been forced into that line, it wasn't clear from the shot but I did wonder whether the fact that the pro peloton are so used to hopping curbs that he chose to go that way and just did not see the sign. Almost impossible to police but hopping curbs at the sort of speeds the peloton goes, it's always going to go badly wrong at some time or other.
@Teocalli
I was going to mention that -I thought he was lucky not to get impaled on the pole! Looked like he was going at such a speed he smashed the sign out of the way.