MinnMan

Supposedly bad weather coming. Rain in the mountains might favor Carapaz.

But the Bora Hanshgroh team is very strong (and fun to watch), so even though I am usually rooting for the Ecuadorian, I'd also be happy to see Hindley take it.

sincos

Forgot to mention a major low: Bardet. Completely changed the complexion of the race. Still sad about that.

MinnMan

Agreed about Bardet. The race hasn't had a large cohort of true GC contenders. Yates fell out of contention and then Bardet, who was looking great, fell ill. This coming week would be more exciting if the two of them were still in the race and in GC contention.

GrainBrain

Some Valverde fans I think

semroc

Does Almeida even have a team behind him? Maybe UAE only cares about the TDF. Seems like he's by himself a lot. That was cool seeing Cav in the early break. Glad he made the time cut. Great win for Hirt today, it was pretty close there at the end.

MinnMan

To be honest, I don't think I could have told you one thing about Intermarche prior to this season. I had no idea who they were.

diphthong

dämna.

sincos

Actually he has decent support on paper -- Formolo, Costa, Covi, Ulissi, maybe Oliveira. But none are in particular form, and this being the Giro, it seems the Italians have a bit of license to raid if they're feeling good. UAE remain a bit of a work in progress to me: a lot (as in a LOT) of shortcomings are irrelevant when you've got a Pogacar. But when you don't ...

Me neither. I hope they can keep this up in the Tour and bag a stage for Kristoff.

slcbob

Re IWG: I thought this was their first year at the World Tour level but, looking it up just now, 2021 was. Wanty Goubert has been a Pro or Pro Conti fixture for a while, throwing chum into the breaks on an occasional World race. They bought the old BMC turned CCC license from Jim Ochowitz after that team folded in 2020.

slcbob

Whatever the outcome today, full marks to MVDP. I thought he'd bail in the middle of the race but he's competing like the competing fiend he is.

It's looks like it is only Leeimreize with a chance to prevent all of Italy from having to guzzle down some Hawaiian pizza.

Also tremendous to see Cav pushing to the end. Training? Honoring the race? Going to take another shot? Ride on.

GrainBrain

Second Giro in a row where Almeida was overlooked for the "home boys" -- Remco with the Belgians now Formolo for the Italians. Crazy Almeida had to lose a minute.

MinnMan

You lost me there.

sincos

What with that penultimate stage to come, Almeida's chances for a podium are looking slim. But he'd still be in the thick of things if he had a little help from his team, as you imply. There is a lot of talent here -- Covi was 3rd on Zoncolan last year, Ulissi's won stages here, Formolo's a key engine in the Tour squad -- but no focus, no sense of team. Richese's towing Gaviria around, the Italians are doing their own thing, I don't know what's up with Costa and Oliveira, and Almeida's basically on his own.

Tactically crude, profligate with energy, so strong he makes it work. And he did say he wanted to finish a GT.

Telling Lefevere "You're a moron if you don't sign me?" Other DSs "Hey, need a few wins"?

GrainBrain

https://twitter.com/giroditalia/stat...hcQ3_yYxg&s=19

cyclezen

totally !
MVDP is in 'training', I believe using the Giro to bring his level up to 'National Championship level... for the Dutch Championships, late June. Riding at a level no one else is doing...
Seeing his recovery in the early part of the year, he has remarkable abilities to make incredible fitness jumps in short time frames.
I don;t think he has any expectations to win 'stages', and he'll hold the level he brings thru the Giro, thru June with his race/training plan.
Championshps are Limburg area - Amstel Gold - punchy climbs and crushing flats... I expect him to punish the competitors until the final sprint.
If it works, I would expect the same plan for the Worlds...
Ride On
Yuri

GrainBrain

Vendrame's wild decent 35km to go was pretty awesome on today's stage 19. Had to laugh a little at Guillaume Martin doing his yoyo thing towards the very end.

GrainBrain

I'm super excited to see Hugh Carthy riding into form. I hope he gets another leadership role soon - but honestly who else besides Uran would that be?

sincos

Possibly Padun. I don't think EF have fully settled on their Tour roster, Dauphine and TdS will help sort that out.

As for the Giro, first off, congrats to Hindley, great result for him. He never showed weakness in the mountains and had a parcours perfectly matched to his strengths. That said, the stages were nearly all great but the race .. .not one of the epic ones. Bardet (who'd been in good form) and Almeida (who'd been saying he wasn't feeling great for several days before retiring) getting sick and pulling out completely changed the race. A decent TT earlier in the race would have kept the climbers honest and attacking more. Still, we got stage 10 and Girmay's crazy l o o o ng sprint, MVdP finishing a GT, Hindley's win and Lopez defending mightily on the Blockhaus, the ever awesome Dolomites. As someone won over by IWG, I'll add Hirt in the top 10 (my one correct pre-race prediction -- which is much better than I usually do) along with Pozzovivo, Also Covi's 50km solo over the Pordoi and up the Fedaia.

Speaking of which, it would turn out to be academic but why didn't UAE help Almeida more. Covi's solo showed he had strength to burn after three weeks, and some help in the valleys and Covi on the mountains would have helped Almeida conserve energy. Not clear how UAE are going to keep both Covi and Almeida happy now. Even more baffling was Bahrain on that penultimate stage. Novak was sitting on, sitting on, sitting on in the break, then suddenly attacks and tries to close down Covi on the Fedaia. Meanwhile, his team leader still has an outside chance for pink, a chance that would be greater if Novak, who clearly still had good legs, had dropped back to help him as Kamna did for Hindley. All that sitting on would have made sense if it was about conserving energy to help Landa, but he didn't do that and didn't even get the stage. Most likely it would not have been enough but you have to try.