Professional Cycling For the Fans - Giro 2010 - Stage 15 - May 23 - Mestre - Monte Zoncolan - 222 Km

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http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Giroditalia/2010/img/planimetrie/pla_15.jpg

here comes the pain. at least there is a rest day before next stage's uphill tt. this stage will likely
narrow the podium contenders down to 4-5 riders.

OMG... the pain, the pain... can't wait to watch this one.

has simoni got one more trick up his sleeve for this? it's his mountain but i think sastre or garzelli take the stage here.

I'm seeing Sastre all over this one.

A sunday morning after birthday libations & celebrations watching this? oh man.... Sweet!

It is gonna be so ON for this stage.

I'm sticking with my Sastre call. He sat on all day on stage 14. He's gotta do something in this race. If its not tomorrow, its never.

Plus, he's on my fantasy team and I got him pegged for wild card points. He's been killing me.

Will there be any sprinters left after that stage?

Gonna be epic. Go Cadel!

Sastre showed today that he has no temper, he lacks something that cadel and vino have, desire of winning and who knows what else. Cadel is not a lcimber but who knows if he will do something, Vino for sure will try to get more minutes back tomorrow. Tomorrow will be epic.

time for team cervelo to have a go. i can see sastre launching an attack.
if he stays away-great, tondo can sit on and let the others chase.
if sastre gets caught, time for tondo to make his move.
liquigas had the tactical advantage on stage 14, let's see if cervelo can up the ante.
neither tondo nor sastre are excellent time-trialists-even if it is a mountain tt-
so they will likely want to make a power play here with a rest day afterwards.

A sunday morning after birthday libations & celebrations watching this? oh man.... Sweet!

Can't wait! 9am, Universal Sports, nursing this hangover with this stage! YES!

Bring on the pain.

Giro live feed up now... http://bit.ly/df1rHY

"Well Paul, they've got the dinner plates on now"

After riding most of the climbs in this stage, including the Zoncolan... I feel for these guys. Simply brutal. Simoni's winning pace on this summit (last time it was used) was barely 15k an hour! My time was a bit slower ;)

Love this stage. Just not nice!

Love this stage. Just not nice!

Still got the worst part of it to come. Looks like Liquigas is looking to weed out some more contenders. They're setting a pretty hard pace considering what's still to come.

Here it comes.

Whew, I'm tired already watching it from my couch.

Does Sastre even realize he's in a bike race?

Wow, it's so steep it almost looks like they would be faster pushing the bikes. :D

I keep expecting someone to start walking!

C'mon Evans! Hang in there!

Basso and Evans...head to head...awesome

These dudes are freakish strong. This is an insane climb and loooooong way to go.

It's an excellent ride by Evans, but it seems to me like Basso is just a bit stronger.

It's an excellent ride by Evans, but it seems to me like Basso is just a bit stronger.

+1...Still have a 22% to go

Here's the attack, I don't think Evans is coming back. But still long to go, the last km took forever.

goodbye, cadel

So much for the issue of who the leader of Liquigas was, Nibali or Basso...

Jeeezus.

Is that the sound of snapping elastic?

one word...pain. you gotta wonder if evans and scarponi are thinking "is this worth it? so much easier to just give in".

Evans isn't conceding-conceding, but yeah, looks like Basso's may get this (unless he absolutely blows up, doubtful by now).

Wish they'd time check Pink.

There we go... 3:14" on pink for basso.

That was an epic finishing scene.

Great win for Basso - very, very impressive.

Evans isn't conceding-conceding, but yeah, looks like Basso's may get this (unless he absolutely blows up, doubtful by now).

Great rides by Evans and Scarponi too.

Could this be Sastre in pink?
eta: I guess not, I thought Arroyo was farther behind.

Could this be Sastre in pink?
eta: I guess not, I thought Arroyo was farther behind.

Sastre kinda surprised me finishing in 6th or 7th? He looked like he wasn't looking very good at the bottom.

Yes, he was only 2:44 behind, obviously that's not great for him but alright I think.

What an amazing stage to watch!!! =D Props to Sastre, thought he was down & out by the way the commentors were talking but he wasn't too far back. Evans was wonderful to watch, but I'd have to think all that time out of the saddle HAD to hurt, right? And Basso, just on autopilot, was amazing.

Edit - oh, and Vino hung in there too!

Sastre is so weird, he doesn't bother getting on the leader's wheel at the bottom, and then has a much harder time climber because he losses time at the bottom, and then munches through the rest of the climb, that's 2 days in a row he's screwed up the bottom and it's cost him both times!


Sastre kinda surprised me finishing in 6th or 7th? He looked like he wasn't looking very good at the bottom.

This is going to ruin Basso fans day. Basso has had a pretty strong team surrounding him this whole race. Evans has nearly always been up at the front, without any teammates, attacking, sometimes with his fists! Yesterday Basso sat in all day on Evans and a couple other riders and then took the sprint at the end. That had to have helped him today, he did not even look tired.

A fantastic stage, great to see Basso back and how amazing was the crowd at the top in that natural amphitheater?!?!?! Had to have been 100k fans in the last 1k of the race.

Sastre is so weird, he doesn't bother getting on the leader's wheel at the bottom, and then has a much harder time climber because he losses time at the bottom, and then munches through the rest of the climb, that's 2 days in a row he's screwed up the bottom and it's cost him both times!

Yeah. Sastre is just weird. There is no predicting the guy. He looked shot at the bottom. Then he comes rolling in at 6th. I still would not be surprised to him win one of these mountain stages. Thing about Sastre, he's sitting 4th overall and less than a minute behind Basso. There are still some serious mountain stages to go. One bad day from any of the contenders will be disastrous. Ask Wiggins about it.

I wish there were more motorcycle cameras. Its hard to figure out who was passing who and when on a climb like that. Its hard when guys are strung out all up and down the mountain.

Evans looks like he wants to just will his way to victory. He's pretty much had no help the whole tour. Plus, he's had bad luck. He ain't pretty watch climb, but he's getting the job done.

Basso looked very smooth. With a rest day tomorrow, he looks like a good pick for the TT on tuesday.

For all the talk about Vino not handling the big steep climbs well, he didn't look to bad today.

Farrar, McEwen, Goss DNF'd

Read the velo or cyclingnews write up on the stage... didn't realize how far back Wiggins made it up. Like 104th place.... oof. Not his giro.

Wiggins never claimed to be riding for the GC, I thought he was using this Giro as a warm up
for his TdF campaign.

Marty

Wiggins never claimed to be riding for the GC, I thought he was using this Giro as a warm up for his TdF campaign.

Marty

Possibly, but he was in the mix for a bit and then after the crazy breakaway day, got some more time, I have a hard time imaging anyone not wanting it.

But either way.. for a GC contender for the Tour, I'm surprised he fell so far back yesterday.

Possibly, but he was in the mix for a bit and then after the crazy breakaway day, got some more time, I have a hard time imaging anyone not wanting it.

But either way.. for a GC contender for the Tour, I'm surprised he fell so far back yesterday.

I agree. It may not have been his primary goal at the beginning. But as things got going and considering his position, I find it hard to believe he didn't think about winning it all. Why else would have launched that attack the day before? Could be he realized he didn't have much after that attack and threw in the towel.