Professional Cycling For the Fans - Giro - Stage 5 125 km, San Martino di Castrozza → Alpe di Siusi, Wednesday, May 13

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this will be a fascinating giro for sure. especially interested in seeing how joaquim rodriguez fares
on his own without having to protect & assist valverde for 3 weeks.

I'd not be surprised if Arroyo finishes higher up the GC than Rodriguez.

good call-arroyo very well may chase the kom green jersey and end up in the top 3-8
much like the kom the last couple of years. don't remember offhand which
(arroyo or rodriguez) is the better overall time trialist.

some others capable of impacting the race overall (efimkin & valjavec from ag2r, soler
from barloworld, michael rogers-columbia & jurgen van goolen-saxo-bank) have been really
quiet so far. hoping at least a few of them aren't just using this as training for july;
it's a great field and we've got the potential for possibly 6-10 gc contenders leading into the
blockhaus/vesuvio/rome tt stages.

Soler FTW? asking not telling. He looks hungry. Columbia will work their butts off to keep the jersey for Lovkvist. I'm surprised how much time efimkin lost today, pegged him for high GC but maybe he's more focused on the TDF.

I'm thinking Simoni will have a major dig on this last climb.

soler is 3 minutes down already so it's about time for him to go chiappucci or rasmussen or...soler
on everybody. he doesn't strike me as overly patient so expecting a breakaway on this stage or
another mountainous one before the big tt. di luca's got to grab his 10 seconds here, a minute
there before & after the tt to remain in contention. disappointed with pozzato & efimkin too but valjavec is still there for ag2r. simoni's always a threat to have a go on a mountain stage & i gotta believe
that one of the caisse big boys will strike to improve the morale on that team (in lieu of valverde's
exclusion). the tandems of cunego/bruseghin, pellizotti/basso & leipheimer/armstrong will likely bide their
time and try to stay close. at this rate, being patient until stage 12 (shakes the gc apple tree) will likely
eliminate another handful of contenders from crashes/illness/jour un sans/"training" dropouts.

I'm calling Arroyo and a Katusha rider being amongst the break.

of course there's always a Katusha rider on the break.

I'm glad I don't have to ride up that last climb of the stage, but it'll be fun watching them do it! ;)

Sally

anyone have universal sports working? this is my first attempt at watching it and nothing bot a black screen.

edit: its working now...

Chad

Serpa is a climber I have seen up close. He won Genting Highlands climb At the Tour of Langkawi (Malaysia) in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

I am unable to watch from work, is there a good site to at least see the detailed results/standings and perhaps a highlight or two (either video or text) after the fact?

Preferably for free. ;)

I am getting tired just watching them.

Di Luca is just trying to wind you up USAZorro ;)

Boring, boring finish...where's the panache? Why no attacks? Stage not long enough? What a let down. Armstrong clearly doing the race for training.

Di Luca is just trying to wind you up USAZorro ;)

There's a time trial coming up. He'll lose ground to all the others who are in close contention.

I was looking for Levi to attack, he was looking pretty relaxed during the climb. But I guess not having to defend the pink jersey this early on is a good thing.

I was looking for Levi to attack, he was looking pretty relaxed during the climb. But I guess not having to defend the pink jersey this early on is a good thing.


Astana's race strategy is not to get the leader's jersey this early. They don't want to have to defend it.

i have questions about protecting lance. why does lance have two guys watching out for him when he's 3 mins back. They should be up there tearing it up with liquigas to put cunego in further trouble.

Why would Levi burn matches attacking for a few seconds when he's got a long TT to look forward to?

bc the point of having a strong team is to be able use them to control the race and to exploit weaknesses. Cunego, simoni and soler had an off day and if you have men up front (ie. liquigas) you gotta use em up. What i'm saying is levi and horner should be protected. Not lance.

why move your guys up front when another team as stepped up the last 2 days and done it for you.

1. you have a few more potential GC threats if you have more dudes in the top 10, so guys like a voigt or hincapie you can send up with a break to make another team work.

2. you can control the break, and in a long and not-too-steep climb like today, some domestiques can pull out a greater time gap and put some of the guys in trouble. Like loqvist and sastre were hanging off the back for a while.

Maybe those other guys are training for the Tour also.

Another reason to have those other riders nearby is to protect in the event of a mechanical problem. I'm pretty sure that most of the Astana riders who were riding near Lance weren't guys who Levi could just swap bikes with. Besides, why run your whole team into the ground on week one? Some of those riders who were shadowing Lance will be a bit fresher, and more able to help Levi as the race draws on. Soler and Simoni are absolutely not threats on the time trial, so putting more time into them today makes zero sense.

I am unable to watch from work, is there a good site to at least see the detailed results/standings and perhaps a highlight or two (either video or text) after the fact?

Preferably for free. ;)

cyclingnews.com...... But you already knew that right?

Basso was the only one of the contenders really pushing today, everyone else just watching wheels and trying to hang on. No real surprises except for Di Luca staying the course and going for the sprint, I thought he'd suffer a tad more. Levi looks good and should have a good TT. Horner was the man though, awesome ride for him.

i have questions about protecting lance. why does lance have two guys watching out for him when he's 3 mins back. They should be up there tearing it up with liquigas to put cunego in further trouble.

Haven't you realized yet. It's the Lance Armstrong show with a few Italians thrown in.

It does get a little old focusing on LA so much and yeah...three team mates surrounding him. Come on. Rubiera should have been up with Horner!

The reason some of the guys were around Lance, was only that they were riding to the finish. They had done their work.

Lance wanted to try to finish within two minutes of the leader(s) of the stage. That's, for him, a measure of fitness. He didn't get that done. Remember, he's still coming back from a broken collarbone.

Rubiera had done his work. He was riding to the finish as well. Astana was the only team with two riders in the final group. The closest to that was Mick Rogers, who was 20 seconds or so back. But he was not riding with Lovkvist. Horner and Levi were working together. There was no point to do any more than they were doing.

Look at this this way: A grand tour is like a marathon. This is like evaluating the race at mile 7.

Astana does not want the leader's jersey yet. There's too much racing left to go to do that.

BTW...Basso was not in difficulty. He's evaluating his fitness and his competition. What you don't know is who used a lot of powder, and who was in great shape. Basso seems to be in real good shape right now.

Bottom line...somebody's going to have to put some good time into Leipheimer before stage 12 to have any chance. After that, it's stages 16 and 17 that could tell the final tale. On 16 and 17, if Lance gets fitness (which I think he will) imagine Levi being escorted by Armstrong, Horner, and Rubiera.