PepeM

Gilbert has been really good this Giro. Astana should just do a Porte and go home.

Marcus_Ti

I'm still laughing a bit at how pretty much all of Team Sky got dropped due to that pile-up...and their one car that was there apparently didn't have enough bikes on its roof.

cthenn

Sky are hilarious. They are like US Postal without any of the racing sense. They just put out these freaks who are watt-robots, but they have no race sense or riding skills.

As far as Astana goes, I still don't think they have a clue what to do with Aru/Landa. They made a huge mess of the day, and still aren't letting their in-house Froomedawg off the leash. Something tells me Aru is going to slip off the podium anyway, and meanwhile Landa is losing time when he clearly is much stronger.

Marcus_Ti

Sky seems to have mistook the need for a DS babysitting the team telling it what to do, for needing remedial bike handling class. But Contador is simply in a different performance league than anyone else in the race...and there really is simply nothing Astana can do about it, they've literally tried everything there is to try.

Contador smashed the ITT (he really could have actually won it)...then a few days later wastes the combined teams of Astana and Katusha trying to drop him after a mechanical delay and completely flips the tables dropping them...then today attacks and drops the rest of the peloton (incl. Astana yet again), and then soft pedals in behind Ryder. And he still has more gas in the tank, and will probably do something similar tomorrow. Last time I saw a spanking this bad was Jan Ullrich vs. Lance.

Blue Belly

Sky seemed to come into this race with a "let's wait & see what happens" attitude. Right off the bat, Astana & Tinkoff were leading things. It's no surprise they are out of the race.
I think Astana are trying to salvage 2&3 on the podium, now.
With that said, conti has been showing he is not just going to win this race. He is going to dominate it. Sending a message to all those who are out prepping for the tour. It's fun to watch!

badger1

A great stage all around.

1. I agree with Marcus_Ti -- admit to a bit of a chuckle over Team Sky (Is Falling) today. Don't particularly dislike it/them, but don't care much for it/them either.
2. Gilbert: deserved winner. Class cyclist without question; class person from what I've been able to tell from the media over the years.
3. Contador: solidifies his hold on the maglia rosa, and dishes out a little well-deserved payback (for Tuesday) to Astana in the process.
4. Hesjedal: what can I say? I'm Canadian; happy to see him ride well yet again this Giro, and creep up another spot (to 9th) on GC. Worked very well with AC.

Marcus_Ti

It is especially funny for Sky since they're probably the best funded team in the sport at the moment, with a friggin Jaguar for a team car...and they still manage to do get egg this badly in their face.

Gallo

Today's attack was marvelous. Contrador exposes the best team and forces them to answer who is your GC captain. Astana waffles and is clearly still behind Aru for whatever reason. Tomorrow will be a brutal stage and we will see if the Sardinian can be exposed again and if the second best Spaniard on the Giro is let loose to compete. Ryder is showing the world how a champion rides. Beaten down but not caving and simply riding at his best level day after day Inching up the standings even with no hope of winning or a podium. Porte should take notes on his performance. What is going on with Uran? I expected a big burst from him on a climb for the sake of honor but it just seems like this is not his ride this year.

jyl

Really impressed with Ryder. What a fighter. Does Canada proud.

Contador is not only the most successful GC rider of our time, but the classiest too - bold, attacking, full of style. Can you imagine Froome fighting off the massed Astana riders and taking off alone at 42 km? As documented, his performances aren't "alien" like in the "big doping" days, they are impressive in the "less doping" racing world of today.

Astana didn't put all the wood behind Landa because they've given up on P1. They are trying to protect P3.

TCR Rider

Really impress​ed with Ryder. What a fighter. Does Canada proud.



Agreed. Keeping pace with Contadore all the way to the finish. Apparently the UCI took note as well. They saw fit to check his bike for a motor.



Hesjedal bike tested for motor: "It?s the most ridiculous thing I?ve ever heard of" - VeloNews.com

jyl

I found this amusing video about Contador's climbing style.

How to climb like Alberto Contador | CyclingTips

jyl

Aru attacks and takes the stage and #2 GC place, Ryder second and climbs to #7 GC, Contador rode conservatively to finish with Landa 1:18 down.

GC gaps are 4:37 to Aru #2 , 5:15 to Landa #3 . Amador #4 was dropped but still has a big gap to protect. Ryder has about 1 min to #6 Trofimov, about 1:20 to #5 Konig, I'm rooting for him to winch himself to a top five GC spot. Props to Aru, considering his illness, his youth, and his opponents, he's shown a lot of fight and this has been a very successful Giro for him. Landa will get a nice contract from someone next year.

rousseau

Again, not meaning to be a hoser homer, but it just kills me how well Ryder has been riding in the latter half of the race. He'd probably be on the podium if he hadn't lost so much time in stage 4. Realistically, nobody is going to beat Contador, of course, but it would have been really cool to see the 2012 winner on the podium. Oh well.

Leinster

I bet Hesjedal is wishing the race could be a week longer. He's been outstanding since the TT. Between him and Kruiswijck for Man Of The Match in the 2nd and 3rd week.

txags92

I say this a bit tongue in cheek, but a bit seriously...I think it is interesting to look at the trajectory of Sky in grand tours since they booted the former Rabobank doping doctor off the team staff. They still win lots of smaller early season races and short tours, but since Froome won the tour, they have been a disaster in grand tours. Granted, a lot of their misfortune has come from poor bike handling and lousy team tactics. But they just have not been the overwhelmingly dominant team they were just a couple of years ago.

Leinster

There have been 4 GTs since Froome won the Tour. They didn't really contest the '13 Vuelta or last year's Giro, Froome crashed out in the Tour, and finished 2nd in the Vuelta, and without their primary GC leader in this Giro, they've still won 2 stages and have Konig sitting 5th overall. That's a pretty good record, by most teams' standards. And that's before you get into them being the most consistent team (along with EQS) this year across the early season classics and stage races (though it was funny seeing them come away completely empty handed from the monuments, especially Flanders).

Their performance levels haven't dipped. If Froome was at this Giro, Contador wouldn't have made up a minute on him on the Mortirolo (might've caught him on the descent though).

Marcus_Ti

Yea their heads and hearts just don't seem in it. They have a large enough squad to have an A and B team at different races at once....and the folks at the Giro have been doing a B-grade showing for the most part. I'm not even focusing on the GC (which is often the most boring thing drawn out forever), but all around...they've barely been even noticed at the Giro aside from their screwups.

Maybe they were thinking of making this a glorified training cruise? I remember back a few years *everyone* in interviews at the Giro was saying, "I'm training for the TdF" and no one with any kind of palmares was interested in winning it....resulting in lots of little-known folks duking it out that made for some fun racing.

Leinster

Again, apart from their 2 stage wins and the guy sitting 5th in GC.

Jed19

Chapeau to Aru. I was starting to think of him along the same line as Andy Schleck. Nope, Aru is gonna be "major good" in another two/three years or so. Hope he puts in some work on his TT skills.

Rich Gibson 

It must be embarrassing for Contador to run the last half of every stage by himself surrounded by seven Astana riders. For all Tinkoff's jabbering and money spent it looks like his team consists of three riders. How can a world tour team show up with such a group of crap talent?

Rich

Leinster

IIRC, Oleg said in his "I'm gonna cut Sagan's wages" interview something along the lines that the current Saxo squad wouldn't necessarily all have been his choice. It'd be interesting to know who of the ones he wanted in/out are the ones who are/aren't performing.

They do have riders on the books who can get up and down big mountains, but it seems they only brought Rogers, Kreuziger and Basso to the Giro. And then wore them out defending the maglia rosa even in the first week when they didn't even have it yet.

jyl

Tinkov probably brought the B support team to the Giro. As did Sky, Movistar, etc.

The scary thing (unless you're Nibali) is that Astana probably did too.

Leinster

Dunno about this being an Astana B-team, but they'll definitely bring Fuglsang, Taramae, Westra and Boom to the Tour. Westra and Boom wouldn't have been much use to them at this Giro.

Sky will add Thomas, Roche, and maybe Deignan or Henao, or possibly Stannard depending on how important they think the cobbles stages will be.

Tinkoff will add Majka and maybe Breschel, but Sagan has looked lonely in his races too, so it's not as if they're hiding some uber-domestique at some other event. Going by the Tour of California, Sagan could probably survive some mountain stages longer than Basso or Kreuziger.

Movistar brought nothing to the Giro, and they're probably as surprised as anyone that Amador's going so well. They are all out, 100%, for Quintana to win the Tour, with Valverde et al supporting.

Gallo

It is a good point. More importantly is how will Tinkoff without Riis contend with the Astana A team. Vino clearly after today today looks to be the premiere RD. What a strategy. Landa is the GC oh no wait we send Aru to solidify p2 and p3. Now we hit Alberto tomorrow with our 2-3 combo tomorrow and soften him up for Nibali. Then Tinkoff deals with Aru Fulsang and Aru. Wow Astana has only one real problem. Alberto looks very good, He is very savvy and has ridden the most dominating performance without team help I have ever witnessed. Ryder is the man I root for and continues to do Canada proud and another amazing performance. He is the beast of this ride late in the game beating off adversity one pedal stroke at a time, what a ride what a show of guts and determination #champion #respect

jyl

Quintana is my pick for the Tour, in fact.