Giro d'Italia 2016 - Week 2 (17th - 22nd May)
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Forever the Best |
Posted on 21-05-2016 18:49
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Some bad luck today as Zakarin had to stop and change bikes and wait for a bit after Kruijswijk/Chaves attacked, says he thinks he could have got across to Nibali but did manage to catch up to Majka and Uran at least. |
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Riis123 |
Posted on 21-05-2016 18:54
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Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Had to give my little man a ride after the stage finished, he was not happy with Chaves winning i guess.
So here i am now for some words.
Great, absolutely great stage, that is what Giro can bring to a fan year after year. I quite expected explosion of Movistar, those two are not top climbers afterall, Valverde is classics man who can climb very well, but not against very top climbers, even last years Tour was thanks to great first week.
Great to see Chaves and Kruijswijk doing so well, spoiling it somehow for usual suspects like Nibali, we have it settled for epic 3rd week between now top2. Two 3rd week specialists battling it for the win should be nice showdown.
Agree, but Valverde's podium last year wasn't due to his first week, rather his climbing abilities the last week in the Alps. The first week which suited Valverde, he was almost nonexistent and very mediocre. Which was why I expected much better from him today. |
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Posted on 24-11-2024 17:47
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Stromeon |
Posted on 21-05-2016 19:16
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alexkr00 wrote:
Could Kruijswijk actually do this?
At the start of Il Giro I was hoping Nibali would peak in the 3rd week. Now, I don't.
Also, Cunego already has more KoM points than Visconti had last year at the end of the race. The points structure on the climbs might have changed though.
I think the points structure has changed so that the riders first over the passes get more points relative to the others, for a 1st cat it's 35-18-12-9-6-4-2-1 for example whereas last year I think (and for 2014 I think, that was when they majorly reformed it and the number of points increased loads across the board) it was 32-20-14-10-7-4-2-1. Last year there were a bunch of people who had quite a few points but no-one going for it quite so day-after-day, break-after-break madly as Cunego has done so far without any real concerted challenge so far. In fact Visconti won it almost by accident last year as he was a fair way down in the mountains classification but attacked on the Cervinia stage and picked up 64 points from crossing St-Barthelemy and St-Pantaleon first.
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Roextro |
Posted on 21-05-2016 19:32
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Edited by Roextro on 21-05-2016 21:18
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Dusen |
Posted on 21-05-2016 20:16
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Give that motorbike man a cookie |
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baseballlover312 |
Posted on 21-05-2016 20:59
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I hate to reiterate what I've already said, but I loved this stage. All afternoon now, I've had a craving for cycling. This year in general, I've been kind of passive in cycling. I've only seen some of the classics live. I've been so busy it's been very hard to pay any full attention. The races in the weekdays always fall during school obviously with my time zone, and after school i've had so much work and exams to prepare for that until today I was really only watching the last few kilometers of the Giro stages, and this was actually the first stage I saw live. But even though Hesjedal, who was pretty much who I was rooting for, withdrew today, this stage gripped me. it reminded me why I started watching cycling and why it hung with me. All day I've just wanted more. I even played PCM just to fill that craving. That hasn't happened in a very, VERY, long time.
Of course, now we have a TT and a rest day, which will probably kill that feeling. I usually hate watching TT's, but we'll see since it's a mountain one. But seriously, I just feel back into it. Expect me to be posting a lot more than I have been recently. And expect a lot of those upcoming posts to be about Dombrowski.
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alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-05-2016 21:49
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Am I the only one surprised by how well Battaglin seems to be going on the big mountains? It looks like he is Kruijswijk's last domestique and not Roglic.
I've always thought he is more of a puncheur than an actual climber.
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ruben |
Posted on 21-05-2016 23:00
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Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Awesome work from Nibbles to reduce the damage. He will win the Giro, no doubts for me. Kruijswijks 3rd week is normally his strongest week. So I'm not sure. |
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ruben |
Posted on 21-05-2016 23:04
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but yeah, wtf is happening. Poels winning a monument, Ves winning an F1 race and now Kruijswijk in the lead of the Giro, after Dumo also had the lead.
Crazy. Though still one week to go. Kruijswijk has the weakest team, although Chaves also has a weak team.
So I still think it's nibali's too lose. But yeah, if Stevo stays this strong I do not see how they will drop him.
Last year he was equal to contador in the final week and just below Landa. Now those guys aren't there and Nibali, sorry to say, is simply not of that level... |
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Forever the Best |
Posted on 21-05-2016 23:08
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ruben wrote:
Last year he was equal to contador in the final week and just below Landa. Now those guys aren't there and Nibali, sorry to say, is simply not of that level... If Nibs gets to his 2014 level he should still win it pretty easily.But I don't think he will get to that level so there is a great chance that Stevo can win. |
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Kirchen_75 |
Posted on 21-05-2016 23:13
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ruben wrote:
but yeah, wtf is happening. Poels winning a monument, Ves winning an F1 race and now Kruijswijk in the lead of the Giro, after Dumo also had the lead.
It will be topped when you win the euros. Oh hang on a sec... |
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ruben |
Posted on 21-05-2016 23:21
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Meh I dont care. The worlds 2014 was already a miracle with what I consider the poorest squad in 20 years.
Many people see me as a chauvinist, which is true, because I like to see Dutch people win. But in all those years I've also become a realist. I know when things are impossible.
I never truelly believed in dumoulin winning Vuelta last year. I never believed in the dutch team from 2014 and for qualification of euro 2016. You can see they are not strong enough.
Same way I never believe Mollema or Gesink can win a Tour because they can simple not match any sort of acceleration by a top rider.
However. With Kruijswijk, I do believe. And there is ample evidence of that. He's one of the few Dutch riders I've ever seen answering accelerations by top climbers in a 3rd week of a GT. And his weak point used to be the first week. Now... he's in the lead after almost 2 weeks. Which is why I think it's gonne be an incredibly hard job for Nibali and co to ride him out of the jersey.
Too add to that, I actually think Chaves has more chance than Nibali. Because I believe Chaves is an exceptional climbing talent who might even eclipse Quintana before long. |
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ruben |
Posted on 21-05-2016 23:21
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Meh I dont care. The worlds 2014 was already a miracle with what I consider the poorest squad in 20 years.
Many people see me as a chauvinist, which is true, because I like to see Dutch people win. But in all those years I've also become a realist. I know when things are impossible.
I never truelly believed in dumoulin winning Vuelta last year. I never believed in the dutch team from 2014 and for qualification of euro 2016. You can see they are not strong enough.
Same way I never believe Mollema or Gesink can win a Tour because they can simple not match any sort of acceleration by a top rider.
However. With Kruijswijk, I do believe. And there is ample evidence of that. He's one of the few Dutch riders I've ever seen answering accelerations by top climbers in a 3rd week of a GT. And his weak point used to be the first week. Now... he's in the lead after almost 2 weeks. Which is why I think it's gonne be an incredibly hard job for Nibali and co to ride him out of the jersey.
Too add to that, I actually think Chaves has more chance than Nibali. Because I believe Chaves is an exceptional climbing talent who might even eclipse Quintana before long. |
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baseballlover312 |
Posted on 22-05-2016 00:00
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ruben wrote:
Too add to that, I actually think Chaves has more chance than Nibali. Because I believe Chaves is an exceptional climbing talent who might even eclipse Quintana before long.
I wouldn't get ahead of yourself. It's easy to forget that Chaves is actually older than Quintana, so he doesn't necessarily have more room to progress than Nairo would.
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Shonak |
Posted on 22-05-2016 00:17
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He was halted by some nerve problem though so in his developmemt he is likely to grow more still. Fairly impressed by Chaves too. The backstage video is golden.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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Strydz |
Posted on 22-05-2016 05:50
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alexkr00 wrote:
Am I the only one surprised by how well Battaglin seems to be going on the big mountains? It looks like he is Kruijswijk's last domestique and not Roglic.
I've always thought he is more of a puncheur than an actual climber.
He is more of a puncheur than climber but he's burying himself to help his team leader
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jandal7 |
Posted on 22-05-2016 05:54
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<3
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Honestly I'm just more excited with the performance than the win itself. He's got a fantastic chance of a podium now and who knows what else. Great to see Kruiswijk doing well, honestly despite seeing the win coming when Atapuma got caught I was a bit gutted for Atapuma at the same time. Hopefully his girlfriend stays after he got so close
I think the podium will change because of something unexpected but I expect little change, venga Chaves!
Don't want to fanboy out and ruin the development conversation but backing up what Shonak said, full list of injuries/nerve problems from his Laguigelia crash here:
In the crash, he suffered brain trauma, and fractures in his right collarbone, the petrous and sphenoid bones (at the base of the skull) and his right cheekbone was damaged, his sinuses and numerous abrasions. Another diagnosis revealed a fractured jaw, broken inner ear bones, and torn quadriceps. It was later discovered that his axillary nerve was torn apart and the suprascapular nerve partially so from his arm being pulled so far back. He had a second operation in Bogota on his right arm that had lost movement that lasted nine hours for nerves to be taken from his foot to replace the damaged ones, and then faced three months of rehabilitation.
Also is reason for his cross/right arm raised celebration he does sometimes.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
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11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
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Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 22-05-2016 07:12
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ruben wrote:
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Awesome work from Nibbles to reduce the damage. He will win the Giro, no doubts for me. Kruijswijks 3rd week is normally his strongest week. So I'm not sure.
I know that he is a 3rd week specialist, but so is Nibali somewhat, he always was there in his GT wins.
Also there is the option that Kruijswijk this time mistimed his preparation and insted strong 3rd week had a strong 2nd week, that would be perfectly legit. He was better than Nibbles in first week, so while one could go down, other one could go up.
We will see though, i would have nothing against Kruijswijk winning the Giro, would be cool to have a dutch GT winner.
Chaves looks really strong too, but has larger gap to first place.
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ruben |
Posted on 22-05-2016 07:56
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baseballlover312 wrote:
ruben wrote:
Too add to that, I actually think Chaves has more chance than Nibali. Because I believe Chaves is an exceptional climbing talent who might even eclipse Quintana before long.
I wouldn't get ahead of yourself. It's easy to forget that Chaves is actually older than Quintana, so he doesn't necessarily have more room to progress than Nairo would. He actually does, since his progress was halted by a severe injury. He's now just on his way up |
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Riis123 |
Posted on 22-05-2016 09:12
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ruben wrote:
baseballlover312 wrote:
ruben wrote:
Too add to that, I actually think Chaves has more chance than Nibali. Because I believe Chaves is an exceptional climbing talent who might even eclipse Quintana before long.
I wouldn't get ahead of yourself. It's easy to forget that Chaves is actually older than Quintana, so he doesn't necessarily have more room to progress than Nairo would. He actually does, since his progress was halted by a severe injury. He's now just on his way up
While thats true, Quintana is probably the best climber in the peloton right now. This year he has won Romandie and Catalunya and podiumed in Pais Vasco while sick. He has out climbed Froome in the last week 2 years in a row in TdF and he even finished ahead of Chaves en last year's Vuelta after he lost 4 minutes in Andorra after being terribly sick (he was dropped the day before on a flat day), the Vuelta was Chaves' big goal that season. Quintana was obviously much worse than we are accustomed to seeing him.
Chaves is the more explosive rider, he has a good sprint, a nice acceleration, but will never be the GT-rider and pure climber, the diesel, of Quintana. He can win the Vuelta, the Giro, but I very much doubt he will win the Tour one day.
And while its true that Chaves possibly has more room for improvement (its vague to discuss something like this when he really dont know), lets not forget that Quintana has taken one step up from 2015 and has been brilliant on the few MTFs this year. |
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