chasm54

Very interesting first stage today, with Wiggins, of all people, attacking off the front at the top of the final climb and leading out a very strong group of 13 riders for a fast final 15km. Panic in the peloton but absolutely nothing they could do about it.

Valverde, Wiggins, Rodriguez, Scarponi, Gesink all in great shape for the GC.

Kind of Blued

The best climber in the world right now, it seems, is a Catalan who can't time trial, and this race has no time trial. Rodriguez gets my bet.

ultraman6970

Uff... sky cut the group going down hill, actually wiggo did, only the ones that were not looking at the sky catched the move. A usual darn euzkatel got nobody in the move.


Rodriguez can TT compared with other guys, SchRECK!!!!!!

Rodriguez or valverde will win this race.

Ken Brown

I am enjoying this race. We are getting much more cycling this season on Sportsnet in Canada, and this race is the first this spring to pick up the feed from Universal Sports. Zap2it claimed it was Live at 8:00 p.m. eastern, but I knew that wasn't true because it would have been 1:00 a.m. in Spain.

It was nice to see good weather after the rain and snow in Italy, but that will probably change in the mountains. By the way, I think "volta" is the Catalan equivalent to the Spanish word "vuelta".

ultraman6970

I think "volta" is the Catalan equivalent to the Spanish word "vuelta". <---- IT IS.

Tony N.

If anyone on the east coast is watching this either live or replay, how are you doing it?

ultraman6970

Go to steephill tv and there is a link for the whole replay, spanish comments tho. Sometimes perico delgado or miguelon indurain show up in the panel of commentators.

ultraman6970

1st stage

https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/c...868/?media=tve

2nd stage:

https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/c...yoles/1726498/

Tony N.

Thanks for the replies but I dont speak spanish.

chasm54

Excellent finish today, Quintana blowing everyone away on the final climb. Wiggins very aggressive again, taking it on from the red kite and shattering what was still a pretty big group. He, Valverde and Rodriguez all finishing with the same time but the latter two nose ahead of him on the GC courtesy of bonus seconds.

This is turning into a pretty good race. Some very big guns in really good form so early in the year. Bodes well for the Giro.

jwill87ta

I thought they neutralized the time bonuses on the mountain top finishes?

jwill87ta

Anyone watching the race on Eurosport think the announcers might be slightly biased toward Sir Wiggo? He attacked for probably the first time on a climb ever, and you would have thought that he put a 100m gap on the rest of the group in mere seconds. They could barely contain themselves.

chasm54

That's true, to an extent. It"'s a Brit commentary team and nobody has quite got over the fact that a Brit won the Tour last year. He's a hero. Plus, to be fair to him (and them) he has ridden very aggressively so far in this race, which is not how he won the Tour, so he does deserve some credit for that.

They're very fond of Rodriguez, too. Can't blame them, he's usually good to watch.

As for the mountain stage bonuses, Rodriguez is ahead in the GC despite having finished in the same group as Wiggo in all three stages, so I can't see that they can have been neutralised.

ultraman6970

Wiggo has been doing great, clearly the comentators are happy, I did not see his attack from today coming at all... bam!! before 50 meters the whole group with 20 guys was only dead bodies, for a non climber he is doing fantastic. Valverde and Rodriguez were eating pop corn when wiggo attacked too, I even thought they were not going to catch him at all. Rodriguez has one more day to assure the race or this one will go to valverde.

Caretaker

Dan Martin. Gutsy performance to win and take yellow.

chasm54

Didn't see that one coming. Remarkable performance to put time into Rodriguez and Quintana. Bad luck on Valverde.

Ken Brown

Great result for Garmin but what about Hesjedal? He was almost 20 minutes off the lead. He has got a lot to do if he is to be the team's leader for the Giro, let alone win it. I heard Dan Martin was team leader for the Volta, but Hesjedal wasn't even able to support him.

ultraman6970

Hesjedal pulled like maniac for martin because he was way far back in the standings and martin was just 30 secs behind so at the end Hesjedal blown the fuses. Hesjedal was in the same group than martin, maybe you did not know.

Thats the nice about garmin, they play the cards according to what they have at that moment so they take advantage of the situation, other teams just stick to the leader and that IMO plays against the unity of the team, everybody deserves a chance, right? In the peloton besides the stars some times you have super riders that will die as domestiques because of this pro type philosophy.

Ken Brown

Thanks, I only got to see the final hour. After I posted the announcers during stage 5 mentioned that Ryder was a big help to Martin in stage 4.

Caretaker

Final stage tomorrow should be interesting. Can Garmin support Martin enough? Is 17sec. Enough of a gap to hold off Rodriguez?

HigherGround

As a Garmin fan, I sure hope so!

ultraman6970

Have a question, hope you guys can answer it because still cant figure it out why this happened ok?

Like 2 stages ago rodriguez was like 10 secs behind and now he is like 17 seconds behind, that I know of martin did not win any bonus sprint or anything (maybe he did) but from where the hell those extra seconds are coming from??? Anybody knows?

The last 2 stages had been flat and everbody got the same time at the sprints, so cant figure it out why of those extra seconds.

Thanks.

ultraman6970

Unless tomorrow some weird crap happens Martin has the race won.

chasm54

I can't figure that out either, but the only possible explanation is that he picked up some intermediate sprint bonus somewhere.

Caretaker

He picked up intermediate Sprint bonuses over the last two stages and 3 secs on Friday at the finish when he came 9th and there was a split in the pack.