Road Bike Racing - Giro d'Italia *SPOILER*

In a daring move, the cricket takes the first stage. He hasn't had the best year so far - hopefully he has a great Giro. :)

***someone kindly fix my spelling***

Yeah, looks like Il Grillo has shaken off his illnesses. First stage win ever in the Giro and his first maglia rosa.. I hope he can defend tomorrow, and he should be able to keep it because I think Ale-Jet will win the stage (what's the time bonus for a stage win?).

I thought it was a great attack. excellent timing. He probably looked around at all the sprinters and knew he could get a gap on the hill. With the narrow roads, anyone back farther than 4th or 5th place had no chance to get his wheel

Phil, Paul and Bob just not know the course? They kept predicting the Petachi train the whole time but no way that was going to happen with that finish - narrow, windy, and uphill. I liked it though! :)

Fabulous, I can't think of anything more boring than watching Petacchi win stages.

Fabulous, I can't think of anything more boring than watching Petacchi win stages.

Watching Lance win stages?! :)

Nope, most of Lance's stage wins last year were fairly exciting.

How predictable, Lance always comes up when discussing other riders...

In a daring move, the cricket takes the first stage. He hasn't had the best year so far - hopefully he has a great Giro. :)

I love beautifully executed surprise moves like that. I was cheering as Bettini slung himself through that corner.



***someone kindly fix my spelling***

Done.

Did anyone else find the last few K of yesterdays stage a bit terrifying? These guys have some serious cajones.

From the way that Phil, Paul and Bobke were talking you would have
thought no one else was racing other than petacchi.
Bettini's move was pure poetry.
yah, major cajones.
Marty

Did anyone else find the last few K of yesterdays stage a bit terrifying? These guys have some serious cajones.

Yes, I was in a road race that very morning, and as I sat watching that incredible peloton, I was thinking how happy I was sitting in front of the TV rather than anticipating a potential mob sprint. Had it not strung out towards the end, there would assuredly have been some crashes. The finish though was incredible!

yeah.... yesterday totally made up for the incredibly boring coverage of the first day's tt. man... that should have been tape delayed and compressed to 15 minutes. thank god for tivo.

Yes, I was in a road race that very morning, and as I sat watching that incredible peloton, I was thinking how happy I was sitting in front of the TV rather than anticipating a potential mob sprint. Had it not strung out towards the end, there would assuredly have been some crashes. The finish though was incredible!

I wonder how nasty it would have been if everyone had the balls to do what Bettini did right before that sharp left corner. Or if even they knew what he was about to do and tried to preempt. That surely would have been some major carnage.

yeah.... yesterday totally made up for the incredibly boring coverage of the first day's tt. man... that should have been tape delayed and compressed to 15 minutes. thank god for tivo.


No doubt. Why 2 hours on that?

Did anyone else find the last few K of yesterdays stage a bit terrifying? These guys have some serious cajones.

Not only was the road getting more and more narrow, but the sides of the course were the walls of houses. I was half expecting someone to catch a bar or elbow against them in a squeeze near the end.

It was an exciting finish, but also beautiful views as they were tooling down the hill...

So how about that McEwen...

clearly Aussies are the best bike racers in the world. Add it to:
swimming
cricket
rugby
tennis
league
hockey

:D

clearly Aussies are the best bike racers in the world. Add it to:
swimming
cricket
rugby
tennis
league
hockey

:D

second that !! :D

+ surfing !!

and SBK!!

come again ? :(

Superbikes.....like MotoGP but bigger and slower and cheaper.

Troy Corser (big cycling fan)
Chris Vermuelen
etc
etc

Casey Stoner on the charge also in the 250's !!

And we're moving on in to WRC and F1 with a top driver in each.

Plus we have Chad Reed in Supercross as World Champ !

Baden quote:

"It was pretty dangerous today. I got Petacchi's wheel which is normally the best place to be, but Kirsipuu moved up on the outside and head-butted him"

Stuey had a few choice words about it also, funny stuff!

"welcome to our world....it's not soccer" Gold from Stu!!!

Stoopid Ale-Jet looks sideways and all he sees is Aussies coming past in the 11....


Fantastic!

yep, a classic !! I was cacking on the floor over that one. :)

Fairly average form by Petacchi to suggest collusion.


How do you spell sore loser??

Fairly average form by Petacchi to suggest collusion.


How do you spell sore loser??

OGrady hit the nail on the head - if Kirsipu could move up they weren't going quick enough.

I just posted here coz of my avatar :)

Okay fellas, the Giro ain't on telly, right? Best bet is to get the info from cyclingnews or something??

Gawd, is Petacchi a cry-baby or what. See, that's generally why I don't like racing or racers. They're either boring media-savvy automatons like Armstrong, or cry-baby ****** sprinters. Why can't Petacchi just say "Wow, that was a tight scary finish. We were all boxed in and McEwan somehow squeezed through. Good on him."

And it's not like he's alone. McEwan made up all sorts of excuses for when things didn't go as planned in some of the early flat stages of last years TdF.

It's called 'sportsmanship', people. See if you can squeeze some of that either side of the old ego.

I saw it on Eurosport this morning. Just looked like a tight, close finish. There could have easily been crashes, but there wasn't. No one got hooked or put into the fence, so the fastest man in the best position won.

Build a bridge and bring on stage 3.

The RAI stream showed a replay of Petacchi getting headbutted, definitely made it less of a fair, "best man" finish due to the interference.

there are headbutts in 9 out of ten sprints. Especially if the final is narrow.

Petacchi got boxed in - that's his and his teams fault. And if Jaan the man gave him a kiss on the way past, good on him.

Right, it just "happened" to be Patacchi getting the love taps, could have been anyone, eh?

Petacchi is hardly mr innocent in this respect. He should have got kicked off the Giro two years ago for PUNCHING someone.

As ed073 said, headbutts are common. Sprints are rough, sh*t happens, no one got knocked off, there's another stage tomorrow....plus it's all good fun for the viewers at home!

Well, I'd say he's less innocent because he was camped out behind his team. So maybe he did deserve it. Anyway to that effect, from the various quotes it sounds like the peloton has it out for Petacchi. :rolleyes:

bunny, they'd say that about anyone in the same situation, it's not because it's Petacchi.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time us Aussies have heard Bob Roll,
and I've noticed he suffers from "foreign accent fraud": like many
news readers, he only pronounces the 'sexy' accents of the names from
the west and southern Europe :)

Petacchi cracked the sooks because he got rolled. He got rolled because of tactical errors, not because of the second gunman on the grassy knoll.

ah yes, Bob has some unique pronunciations of his own too, just like Phil. What did you hear him on? OLN?

ah yes, Bob has some unique pronunciations of his own too, just like Phil. What did you hear him on? OLN? Bob Roll was on the LBL highlights on SBS on Sunday.

Did you like his "Veeenokooroff"?:)

Petacchi cracked the sooks because he got rolled. He got rolled because of tactical errors, not because of the second gunman on the grassy knoll. Can't wait to see the soft-legged Fassa boy get rolled by our lovable yobbo on tonight's news

Ok, I'm starting to understand. So you have to punch someone before it's against the rules? If you head-butt someone and they go down, do you get punished for that? What if an entire team wipes out threatening riders with a massive coordinated head-butt assault, is that allowed? What about spitting, throwing bottles, food, and sunglasses, knee-kicks, handlebar charging, seat-grabbing, covering eyes, swerving, slowing down, etc etc. Is it okay just as long as the majority of people are happy at the end?

I'm pretty sure this is the first time us Aussies have heard Bob Roll,
and I've noticed he suffers from "foreign accent fraud": like many
news readers, he only pronounces the 'sexy' accents of the names from
the west and southern Europe :)



Bob is good. Knows his sh1t.

Ok, I'm starting to understand. So you have to punch someone before it's against the rules? If you head-butt someone and they go down, do you get punished for that? What if an entire team wipes out threatening riders with a massive coordinated head-butt assault, is that allowed? What about spitting, throwing bottles, food, and sunglasses, knee-kicks, handlebar charging, seat-grabbing, covering eyes, swerving, slowing down, etc etc. Is it okay just as long as the majority of people are happy at the end?yep, all that's allowed, but a few years ago, if you messed up Cipollini's hair during a final sprint in the Giro, you went the jail

http://www.mariocipollini.net/images/Supermario_giallo2_en.jpg
http://www.mariocipollini.net/default.asp

I miss Mario already.....:(

Bob Roll was on the LBL highlights on SBS on Sunday.

Did you like his "Veeenokooroff"?:)

he's a bit of a cracker old Bobke !

Ok, I'm starting to understand. So you have to punch someone before it's against the rules? If you head-butt someone and they go down, do you get punished for that? What if an entire team wipes out threatening riders with a massive coordinated head-butt assault, is that allowed? What about spitting, throwing bottles, food, and sunglasses, knee-kicks, handlebar charging, seat-grabbing, covering eyes, swerving, slowing down, etc etc. Is it okay just as long as the majority of people are happy at the end?

Bunnyrabbit, I've told you a million times not to exaggerate! :)

oo, my big chance:p:

"Brad Pitt told me 1,000,000,000 times never to drop names, exagerate, and avoid cliches like the plague

oo, my big chance:p:

"Brad Pitt told me 1,000,000,000 times never to drop names, exagerate, and avoid cliches like the plague

And I thought my quote was lame :D

bunny, i believe its something like winners write the history, the losers ***** about it. its a field sprint, its not pretty or polite, hell I'm only a piddling racer and I get my fair share of helmets and elbows and knees. its unfortunate but its part of the part of the sport, you want non-contact...play golf...;)