Caretaker

ITT
1. David Millar 2. Alex Rasmussen (0:07) 3. Alberto Contador (0:37)


Giro d'Italia 2011 Results

G.C (Pink Jersey)
1. Alberto Contador 2. Scarponi 06:10 3. Nibali 06:56 4. Gadret 10:04 5. Rodriguez 11:05

Points (Red Jersey) 1. Contador 2. Scarponi 3. Nibali
KOM (Green Jersey) 1. Garzelli 2. Contador 3. Rujano

Bacciagalupe

Good to see Millar finally win a Grand Tour TT, it's been a few years.

OK, I know the answer is kind of obvious, but...

What the %$#@!! happened in this year's Giro?

Were Contador, Nibali and Scarponi (and maybe Gadret and Kreuzinger) the only ones even trying? Were Sastre and Menchov treating this like a training for Le Tour? Was it just too hard?

crocodilefundy

I think the giro was just to hard. Way to much climbing. I know not may ppl like the tour formula where the riders all wait till the last climbing stage but this was just too much.

OrionKhan

Contador happened. He took the lead early and expanded it every chance he got. It wasn't that the others weren't trying. But Contador's method of "defending" the leader's jersey is to attack the competition. Especially on mountain top finish stages. The others spent all of their time trying to limit their losses. Nibali probably would have gotten second, but he blew himself up on a couple of the earlier stages going all out after AC. Probably cost him a placing.

As for Sastre and Menchov. They look like they're done as far as being grand tour contenders. Menchov hasn't won a race since the 2009 Giro. Sastre doesn't look like he has his climbing legs anymore. And that's all that he pretty much had.

FogVilleLad

Contador has the legs and he's a superb, spontaneous tactician who knows when to attack. He also gives knows his equipment. I think that he changed bikes on the first of the three successive climbing stages. On Universal Sports the announcer said that the replacement bike had a 36 tooth inner chainring and a 32 tooth granny gear.

Caretaker

On Eurosport David Harmon asked Sean Kelly why he was changing bikes so often and what advantage could this be. Kelly replied that maybe he had a motor and the battery had run down. This was delivered in his usual deadpan style.

Namenda

Looks like Rasmussen may well have won, if not for some untimely bad luck. Not to take anything away from Millar, of course.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/punc...ditalia-finale

Namenda

I imagine many riders went into the Giro with high hopes, only to see them dashed by an on-form Contador. At that point, the prudent thing to do is claim "I'm only here to prepare for the TdF", I guess.

Personally, I was glad to see Jose Rujano put in a good effort. He's gotten so much flack since 2005, and moved around to so many teams, that it looked for a while like he would fade away into obscurity. Maybe he finally has his head screwed on straight. Good for him.

kenji666

They were the only ones who were doping. The rest of the peloton decided to ride clean.