Originally Posted by Csson
True, but most of it is a pretty gentle grade (dropping 800 metres in 36 kilometres) and a rather big (by Alpine standards) so probably not very technical -> bad for Savoldelli. The GC (top 4) is almost perfectly balanced after today for a spectacular stage tomorrow.
most of that descent isn't that steep is it... which means that if one of the leaders can get some team mates over that climb with him.. or if the team mates where in an early break so they can meet up with him on the other side, he has a chance at staying away and getting to the Finestre climb with a gap without doing that much work... that's really only an option for Simoni i think... or Basso might try that to take some glory... i have a feeling the leaders are going to completely ignore Basso like they did on Thursday though... he is 40mins down so who cares what he does. if he or his team is there they can be opportunistic, but they are not going to bet the farm on using Basso... plus Basso is going to expect you to do some work too... if you depend on your own team they are going to go until they drop for you. This is being pretty bold though and I think the Finestre climb is well suited to Simoni especially and Rujano so they will likely wait and use the 1st Sestriere climb to soften everyone up and make a move on the Finestre... i can't believe they are going to wait 'til the go back up the Sestriere climb again to attack Salvodelli. Salvodelli needs to just hang on. It's been a nice ride, but it looks as if the writing is on the wall for Di Luca... what's up with Cioni not helping him on Thursday? you know, Garate has an outside chance too...