You know I've come 180 degrees on my opinion of the Pro Tour. At first, I thought it was lame... for various now seemingly unfounded reasons but now I'm really appreciating the competitions and field it's been building. Also, the TV coverage seems to be much better because of it... at least on OLN. That said, I'm still getting the daily coverage of the Giro via streaming webcast.

I've always like the Giro, my favourite of the grand tours.
This year is better so far than most.
Pro Tour? I don't know I just hope whatever it is it stays
this way from now on.
Just how good a climber is Bettini?

Marty

He's got the power to make it up the shorter climbs. He is not the type of climber though who will be in contention in the Alps.

everyone that thinks Bettini should not have been relegated is a moron. Robbie was relegated for the same thing in the Giro last year and Baldato DID NOT go down.

Bugger! The only Kiwi in the Giro (Julian Dean) crashed and may have broken his collarbone.

Now I'll either have to support the Aussies or just say "Giro, what Giro?"

come join us, 3 wins and plenty of action with us at the moment

A number of riders have noted how good Tom Danielson looks every time the road turns up so far in this Giro. We might need to watch out for Tom in the high mountains.

I am following the progress of Joseba Beloki. I'm glad he is riding this race. It should help him return to solid form after 2 miserable years. He will suffer though in the big mountains to come. I remember that lemond did the Giro in '89 when he too was having great difficulties related to his gun shot accident during the turkey hunt. He too suffered like a dog in that Giro and even considered retirement. But the suffering did pay off because he finally found his form and won the Tour de France that year. I hope Beloki hangs in there because it will pay big dividends for him later. I honestly believe that he was the strongest rider in that Tour when he fell and broke his leg. Even Lance thought so. Who knows what might have been had Beloki not crashed out of that Tour? He was in the best form of his life. He was an animal!

Yeah I'm definitely on the side of Cooke on the whole sprint finish thing. I'm amazed he's finished as far up the field as he has in the last two stages. He must have been hurting after that stack into the hoardings.

Robbie can wear his maglia rosa trophy jersey to the mardi gras with Cipo in his pink skinsuit. Cipo would be a certainty to score

Yeah, Beloki is 18 minutes down on the GC and it's only the sixth stage, and there've only been some hills so far, no huge climbs. It's sad, but I also think he's done.

flythebike can you please stop harping on about the fact that you think Bettini fouled Cooke.. this is the at least the 5th time i'm saying I AGREE WITH YOU... are you completely daft or something??

our only difference is that I do not think in anyway that Bettini is responsible for Cooke going down. Cooke went down because of his own bad riding... loss of concentration whatever it was, but it had nothing to do with Bettini... how can a rider leave you a metre of road and then you blame him for crashing you... sorry if you can't keep you bike upright and you have a metre of road in front of you there is something wrong with you... so I guess Cooke crashes evertime he goes down a bike path then?

once you commit to passing someone? why do you commit to passing somone through a metre wide hole when there is 15-20 metres on the other side of the road?? Cooke messed up, how can you not see that??

and you obviously don't know anything about sprinting, good luck this weekend. anyone knows that the first thing you do if you lead out the sprint is to go to one side of the road... instantly you eliminate half your competition.. you don't want people coming at you from both sides... you only have one side to watch if they are coming around you. no one, including Cooke would EVER lead out a sprint from the center of the road.. if you don't know that, then you know NOTHING about sprinting.. look at any sprint in the pro peleton and see how many riders lead out from the center of the road... NONE!!.. because it's stupid!! The more I read from you, the more i'm realizing that i'm having a conversation with a cat 5 racer who has no clue what they are talking about... "on your left"?? no one would ever yell something like that... he might yell "on your right" to try to mess with Bettini... what you think Bettini is going to then get out of the way once he knows Cooke is on the left, but I think even you figured out that would be a pretty dumb move...

Cooke had a 50-50 chance of choosing sides and he chose wrong, then to compound it he lost his concentration while lifting his hands off his bars and fell... what does that have to do with Bettini? it's just bad judgement and bad riding by Cooke...

look at it this way if Cook was smart, when Bettini 'swerved' from the center of the road to the barrier he should have said to himself... hmmm... you know what i'm not going to go to that side, because i'm going to be boxed in if i do that (no sh*t sherlock!!) and kept right, went around him on the right. like i said we're not talking rocket science here.. as it is their wheels weren't overlapping that much he shoud have just eased up a little and still tried to go on the right... with his speed he might have made it too. and even if he ended up second he would have put in his protest and would have been given the stage... crashing 100m from the line they're not going to give you the stage. he's stupid he f**ked it up... as it is he he ended up with NOTHHING except bruises. if he would have sprinted intelligently he wouldn't have been boxed-in and wouldn't have crashed either and would have won the stage... even if he placed second on the road.

I don't want to get into a pissing contest with you about racing experience... but just to set the record straight, I've just recently started racing again but, I have 10 years of racing experience, starting as junior, and three of those years as a Sr 1 and have ridden in 4 National championships and numberous international races.. i know a little bit about racing.

anyway i'm done.. if you can't understand that, you're never going to get it, and remember to yell out your position in sprints and ride down the center of the road on the painted white lines... i'm sure you'll get really far in racing... NOT!

Ya know, when I see team mates celebtrating a stage win by another team member so demonstrably, I can't believe they are that fond of each other.
https://www.velonews.com/

Team members MUST get bonuses when their sprinter takes the stage?

Ya know, maybe it's because Vogels was almost killed, trained his arse off and got back to the top of the sport because Robbie insisted he be on the team.

Ya know, maybe it's because Vogels respects Robbie for giving him the chance to win a stage at a Grand Tour until the very last seconds, and when it wasnt possible, took the sprint to win.

Ya know, maybe they are great friends and truly happy for each other's successes.

Ya know, maybe you should take your foot out of your mouth?

YEEEEOUCH!!

didn't know it was Vogels, but still, I was OBVIOUSLY just commenting in general.

We see it happen often, and the cynic in me says that part of the team mate's enthusiasm could be motivated by CASH$$$$$$$$$$

No, the reason you sprint down one side of the road is to force the other riders to sprint into the wind. Of course, with your international experience you knew that....

In most cases yes, that is an important part of it (straight on tailwind or headwind it's not a factor though), but Cooke claimed wind was not a factor that day and he was not trying to take the sheltered route on the left... i'm guessing it must have been a tailwind.. there are some unwritten rules in cyclying too.. like you come around on the outside and if you try to squeeze youself though on the sheltered side you accept whatever you get... Bettini gave him a meter of road.. most of the pure sprinter lot would have just given him a quick elbow fo trying that. so the only thing Bettini was trying to do was control Cooke and be able to know where and when he was going to try to come around him... why make your work twice as hard as it has to be. i'm sure he started his sprint and then said... sh*t! what the hell am I doing over here and then made a bee line for the side of the road.. i don't think he purposely fouled Cooke, he just realized he was out of postition and tried to correct that.

man, Basso didn't look good today...Cunego is a MONSTER though, that guy just loves to win, not even to win as to compete. wouldn't have expectected to see Di Luca up there holding tough on a stage where Basso gets dropped, has he upped his game this year? Was Basso on a bad day or is that a little more revealing... and how did Gil stay away... he was an a mission? I think Danielson got a taste of what the real deal is today. I wonder if Cunego can up his time trialing game this year... his achilles heel

Here's a question I'll pose to everyone, I haven't decided for myself yet, but:

Do you think Cunego is flashing his form a little early in this Giro? He's been up there in the front mixing it up with specialists who won't even be there when it gets to the final week. One of two things is happening then, he's either being cocky and going to burn himself out before the real mountain stages, or he's being cocky and he has the form to back it up and no one else in this 88th edition has a chance.

There is a 3rd option... what if Lampre is as they said they are giving Simoni the Giro and Cunego the Tour. Maybe Cunego is just out there getting publicity for the team in the early going and wearing out the competition who have to follow him if he goes and Simoni who will be well rested will take over later in the high mountains?

but it may just be that he's the new superman in the sport.. I think this maybe a real possibility too.

doctorSpoc: Actually, Lampre did say that they are giving Gilberto the Giro and Cunego the Tour. I read it in cyclingnews just before the Giro started. I do, however, still think that Cunego will win - although Simoni certainly is showing excellent form.

As for Cunego peaking a little early, don't forget that by this point last year he had already won two stages.

How about Di Luca? Anyone think he has the ability to win this Giro?

Just to feed the trolls, if this race were in Belgium and Bettini were Belgian, he would not have been relegated. There, I said it.

Di Luca is on fire. Giro or not, he's having a great season. A Giro victory would be well deserved.

as i think about it now Cunego is not really doing much more work than any of the other GC contenders... he just contests the sprints at the end of stages, where GC contenders typically wouldn't, but he has the legs so why not? i don't think it's really costing him that much. plus he's gained valuable bonus seconds by placing in those stages that will probably offset any deficit that might arise from the timetrials.. though he did a pretty good time trial at the Tour de Romandie...

A couple comments...

I don't think Cunego is hurting himself by showing early form. With the time bonus, he picked up 40+ seconds on Basso. If this race ends up coming down to the final time trial, you know that Cunego will be glad for every second he's got. You have to go for the jugular at every opportunity. Just like last year's TdF, when Mayo got caught in the second group on the early stage with the cobbles. The other contenders didn't let him climb back onto the ledge; they stomped on his fingers.

I'd be interested to know how much Danielson is putting into these early stages. If he's really working for Savoldelli, he may have been told to sit up and save himself for the latter stages when he's really needed. We'll see.

I think the team has placed Danielson firmly in the pecking order behind Savoldelli by this shot of him pacing Savoldelli back to the peleton after a wheel change... they might let him go for a stage or something but seems like Savoldelli is their GC man... he has experience, Danielson is still somewhat of an untested commodity in the big races.

Remeber Gianni Bugno? Wow he looks like he could jump on a bike a win a stage. He obviously is still riding his bike. Looks great!

https://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...=giro058/FS069

hee hee hee hee

ROBBIEEEEEEEEE...MAAAAAAATE