chasm54

177 km, a "medium mountain" stage. The way the race has gone so far, I suspect the smaller teams will make this hard and difficult to control.

Darkglasses

Link to profile - https://www.grassyknolltv.com/2013/gi...profile-07.jpg

I'm cramping up just looking at it.

YMCA

Pozzato for the win

diphthong

^good call on pozzato. i'll go with kessiakoff from astana instead of gusev or brutt from katusha. a few of the usual suspects for a stage win here are too close to the top
of the leaderboard to be let out of sight. hope it's as exciting and animated of a stage as it looks to be on paper

YMCA

^^^
Taking an Astana rider would not be wise.
They'll be fully dedicated to Nibali this Giro.
DiLuca would be a good choice, but I'll stick with my pick of FP

Darkglasses

Yikes, like riding sheet ice out there. Nibali's even gone down once.

Edit: And there goes Wiggo!

chasm54

Love this race. Year after year, it is more animated than the TdF. A really tough day for the big boys, today. More like skiing than cycling on the final descent.

YMCA

Exactly why pros are pros.
Fitness is only one part of the game.
Skills, technique, etc... are paramount at this level of the sport.
Great day to watch a bike race

Kind of Blued

Nibali's crash management skills are as artful as his descending skills. So Pro.

After riding all three Grand Tours last year, Hansen definitely deserved that.

Ken Brown

+1

Darkglasses

Bradley has dropped to 23rd, 1.32 behind the leader Intxausti. Not impressed with him today, lots of riders hit the deck but nobody else that I could see just freewheeled home afterwards. Lots of dropped riders were bombing passed him on his way to the line. He'd better have an absolutely extraordinary time trial tomorrow. Anything less and the rest of the field should start getting their hopes up. There's been plenty of big and small names who are better placed and have shown much more desire for the maglia rosa.

Ken Brown

I got the impression that Wiggins had tires that were not as suited to the wet as the other riders. Probably wrong, I think he just lost his nerve. He couldn't even keep up with his teammates.

Question: In Formula 1 the drivers head for the pits for rain tires when it starts to rain. Could cyclists change their tires? They would have to be the same size or they would not fit the brake clearance, but they could have a softer compound and different tread pattern. Better yet, change to a bike that has been set up for the wet. They never do it so I presume it is against regulations. I have never raced and never thought of this until I saw Bradley tiptoeing the final 6 km today.

Darkglasses

A few people have been tweeting into the Eurosport commentators about that lately. Apparently, specialist wet weather tires were briefly experimented with by Michelin (and another, less well known maker that I can't remember) in the early 90s but weren't continued. Sean Kelly was of the opinion that ordinary bike tyres just aren't that bad that it's necessary, unlike F1 slick tyres which just plain don't work in the rain. Plus, the profile of bike tyres is so tiny and the friction levels are so much smaller, that even having more tread on bike tyres wouldn't have all that big an effect.

Just impractical for very minimal gains.

Microtom

It's understandable that Wiggins wouldn't want to hurt himself since he's the main contender for the tour de france. Even going slowly, he still fell, so the risks were high. However, all I was thinking about seeing him riding down the wet hills was that my little sister would probably have been faster.

I'm cheering for Ryder tho, so Wiggins can be last and I'll be happy.

wabbit

pretty treacherous descents!

chasm54

Not just impractical for minimum gains, but impractical because using tread would actually make things worse.

The narrowness of bicycle tyres makes it impossible for them to aquaplane, so being treadless actually improves traction by maximising the small contact point. Having tread would simply reduce the amount of rubber on the road, so traction would be reduced, not increased. If you read the schwalbe website they address this, explaining that slick is better than treaded but that having a slightly rough or serrated surface is best, because it helps the tyre lock onto micro roughnesses in the tarmac.

There are some specialist wet weather tyres. One of the schwalbe ultremos, for example, uses a softer compund for grip in the wet. And there is nothing to prevent teams using them. But they roll slightly less well than the others and may be even more likely to pick up debris and puncture, so one wouldn't want to use them all the time. And swapping to them in wet conditions would be problematic because it would entail either changing both wheels - time-consuming - or carrying sufficient extra bikes to re-equip everyone every time. I guess the latter could be done, but one would have to be very convinced of the advantages.

Ken Brown

When I suggested a separate bike for wet conditions I was thinking of wider tires. Wiggins could have ridden my touring bike faster than his racing bike. Fully loaded. You are right that they couldn't carry wet bikes for all, but one for the GC contender might be possible.

Darkglasses

*Whisper* This is the Giro D'Italia, Froome is going to be the main contender for the Tour de France!

Homebrew01

He looked like big baby out there.