Duke of Kent

You guys need to turn the Giro on now. NOW.

Race is blown to smithereens; Phil Gilbert and Sylvain Chavanel in a chase group of 4, 30" behind another group of 4, with Amael Moinard, Gilbert's teammate, bombing down a mountain, 25km to go, all downhill or flat.

...With Contador and Hesjedal, and Hesjedal's teammate David Villela, on a rampage, 1:45 up on Landa. Aru dropped from Landa group.

Update 1: Gilbert has attacked the break, 21 seconds up with 13km to go and looking smooth. Meanwhile, Moinard is catching a free ride with the remainder of the break.


Awesome bike racing today.

tetonrider

not sure if you've seen it already, but check out the pantani flick. there's an incredible scene--i forget which race it was, but he flats. the whole team drops back to help. they do a team time trial to and through a 200-rider field.........and then pantani, on a climb, just continues on alone. he was so doped up that the other riders felt he was embarrassing them.

if you don't have it, i can send it to you. i learned a bunch about him. really sad story of how one went from a passionate, talented junior to where he ended up.

anyway, you think contador/astana have suddenly seen the light? there are alarm bells for me.

channeling your inner paul?

echappist

for once, it seems that BMC has shown some racing smarts. textbook attack there, going otf just when the junction is made

Duke of Kent

I'm watching the post-race show right now.

I think what most impresses me is the post race hostess. She can rap with these dudes in like 12 different languages. She's got a Walloon (Gilbert), a Frenchmen (Chavanel), multiple Italians, and a dude from Costa Rica, on the set right now. Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese and others in days past. She isn't wearing an earpiece, her responses aren't delayed, and she's asking questions in these dudes native languages. Amazing.

mattm

love it!!

mattm

Yeah good stage today.

Loved that Contador went on the offensive again just to add more nails to the coffin of Landa/Aru.

However didn't totally get why he didn't help Ryder & the other Cannondale guy with their efforts. I get that he didn't need to, but it seemed dickish not to nonetheless.

Great ride by Gilbert. Good to see him do well again (finally) after (what I assume was) his post-doping phase..

save10

they were all working together pretty well from what i saw

Doge

Do you think the camera man (bike) is touching the breaks more than a USA race?

mattm

Tour of Belgium is fun to watch.

Tour of Norway isn't bad either - better scenery there for sure.

I guess my timing of crashing is good, and also having BeIN sports & Universal Sports is nice.

Hermes

I got BeIN for the Giro and the announcers are putting my feet to sleep.

Hermes

Watching Contador and Aru suffer on the Queen stage confirmed why I became an engineer.

mattm

Ha I know right.. the one guy does a good final sprint call, but besides that they are pretty sleep-worthy. Better than someone yelling at me in Dutch I guess.

What's worse though is the guy with Todd Gogulski (Bill Seward I think) on Universal Sports - holy **** he doesn't know cycling from nascar it seems. I feel bad for him b/c I bet he gets tons of **** about it on twitter, etc..

mattm

Good final Giro stage today.

Going through grand tour withdrawal already..

save10

best little story every...One of the Trek boys...the guy in last place got fined for holding on the barrier for like 6 minutes right before the finish of stage 20 so he could keep the 'maglia nero'

Marco Coledan waits before Giro d'Italia finish line to ensure he finishes last - Cycling Weekly

TMonk

That's actually pretty cool

Grumpy McTrumpy

I admit to be happy that Wiggins is setting a new hour record but even more so that he left some room for others to challenge it.

mattm

bouhanni!! that sprint was super exciting, elbows flying everywhere.

KingShakes

Who read the most recent secret pro on Cycling Tips? Pretty damning.

globecanvas

Fun read.

I still think it's Gerrans.

abhirama

It may not be Gerrans because (if my memory isnt failing me) he talks about some stages after Gerrans withdrew. It's obviously an Australian. He also said the USA would be perfect for their prime sponsors, hmm - BMC? Rohan Dennis? But most likely it's somebody from Orica.

KingShakes

There are some red herrings thrown out there I'm sure in stages he didn't compete in.

Meanwhile, the Dauphine Stage 4 was pretty exciting, just exploded in the last 13 KM.

globecanvas

Yeah the "California is perfect for our title sponsor" line seems like a red herring/joke... Orica manufactures explosives.

mattm

Always good stuff from the Secret Pro.

But what's funny though is that Orica won the TTT and Matthews took a stage - against the accused dopers. Dopers can be beaten, but still.. makes you wonder.

mattm

Great Dauhpine stage today - awesome descending!!

KingShakes

'Merica - Ever since that USA Pro Challenge performance, he looked ready to make the next step to me.