A big congratulations on running this story for so long without dropping in quality.
Sadly I've probably only seen 2 or 3% of the story, so I've missed most of it. But, damn, this is impressive.
And, of course, the triple reward!
Ian Butler wrote:
A big congratulations on running this story for so long without dropping in quality.
Sadly I've probably only seen 2 or 3% of the story, so I've missed most of it. But, damn, this is impressive.
And, of course, the triple reward!
Many thanks for the kind words, means a lot coming from of the living legends of the story section. If you're willing to catch up, now could be the time. The pace is set to remain low for at least the next couple of weeks.
Ian Butler wrote:
A big congratulations on running this story for so long without dropping in quality.
Sadly I've probably only seen 2 or 3% of the story, so I've missed most of it. But, damn, this is impressive.
And, of course, the triple reward!
While I've seen more than 3% of this story, I'm definitely amongst those, who missed (and probably will miss) too much of it. It's without any doubt the best story for quite a while now and it deserves all the credit it received.
May not comment on regular base, but I'm still looking forward to the TdF variant for this season
As for the Giro, good luck of course! I may cheer for Lachlan Morton here, but of course I'm hoping for some Caja Ruralish success, too
Ian Butler wrote:
A big congratulations on running this story for so long without dropping in quality.
Sadly I've probably only seen 2 or 3% of the story, so I've missed most of it. But, damn, this is impressive.
And, of course, the triple reward!
While I've seen more than 3% of this story, I'm definitely amongst those, who missed (and probably will miss) too much of it. It's without any doubt the best story for quite a while now and it deserves all the credit it received.
May not comment on regular base, but I'm still looking forward to the TdF variant for this season
As for the Giro, good luck of course! I may cheer for Lachlan Morton here, but of course I'm hoping for some Caja Ruralish success, too
Thanks tsmoha! I personally look forward to racing down in Africa too, yet it will probably take several weeks to several months to get there.
As for the Giro, Morton's had a great start with his team coming third in the TTT.
Rota, Bryon and Reinders formed the trio which was allowed to go clear. Astana's thin Italian won the KoM sprint atop 2nd cat.Passo del Cavallo.
Coming second on the next climb was enough for Rota to claim the first mountain jersey. Their lead dropped to 1'50" with still 30 kilometers left.
The three got caught inside the final 5 kms, after which FDJ was the first sprint team to take the upper hand, though they probably were at least one man short. Movistar's train was close, as we tried to move up on the opposite side of the road. Oliveira dug deep in order to make it happen.
As predicted, FDJ's Sam Bennett had to launch from very far out, leaving much space for others to jump from his wheel. We had failed to keep up.
Gaviria left Colbrelli's wheel a tad too late and got surprised when Owen and Cavendish launching from behind. Good old Cavendish took the lead and held off the others. Just like last season, he'll be leaving Italy with at least a stage win. Manuel Martínez sprinted to a 9th place for the team.
The bunch only allowed five riders into the break of the day. On Passo di San Lugano, the first climb, the group already lost Wilfried Köhler. Brkic, Martinez, Rota, Nguyen simply were much more suited to the mountains.
Near the foot of the second climb, the riders covered the last kilometer in opposite direction. Due to the very long false flat section leading to Passo Pordoi, the breakaway had seen its time advantage melt away hurriedly.
Not much action on the third climb itself. However on the top, FDJ's Brkic showed having his eye on the prestigious blue mountain jersey this year.
In the subsequent descent, Edoardo hit the tarmac, along with some 30 other riders. Ruben Guerreiro, who he was protecting, avoided crashing but the likes of Nibali, Pinot, Kudus, Gorbunov all weren't that fortunate.
With the break being caught, it was time for the protected riders to make their moves. Arredondo did so on the third cat. Passo Campolongo. With the crash of Zardini and Sam dealing with the first symptoms of illness, Ruben only had Fiorenzo with him. A few answered Arredondo's move.
Arredondo crashed in the next descent, which meant above group of four started the 2nd cat.Passo Gardena with a small gap. Miguel Ángel López, Landa, teammate Mamykin and Morton put 30" into Ruben and Carthy.
Carthy was dropped, but Ruben didn't manage to close the gap on Passo Sella, the ultimate climb. Pierre Latour and Rob Power were dead weight sitting in his wheel, whilst Matvey Mamykin was done in the front group.
As Mamykin was reeled in by Ruben, Landa's long-awaited acceleration arrived, 800m from the top. López had overplayed his hand and it was up to Morton to keep him from taking much time on the first mountain test.
The Australian did great to lose only 35", and Mikel Landa already dealt a huge blow to the rest. Today was his third stage win of the year. It came at the back of victories in Catalunya and Romandie, two races he finished in 2nd overall. He does, however, seem fixed on doing even better here.
Ruben eventually managed to shake both Latour and Power, only to get caught and outsprinted for 4th by Nibali and König after a tough descent. A strong showing of Guerreiro, who's looking to peak in the third week.
Strong finish your you, but I have to stop by and cheer for Morton's performance as well if only he could be so strong in both real life and the ManGame here!
His final position was great indeed, yet the time gap is worrying already. Landa seems to confirm he's the top favorite right away.
tsmoha wrote:
Strong finish your you, but I have to stop by and cheer for Morton's performance as well if only he could be so strong in both real life and the ManGame here!
Thumbs up to Lachlan to keep a little suspense near the end! He's definitely looking to improve on his best overall Giro result, which was 18th two years ago. You better give the guy a little (more) time, he's also been a late bloomer in game.
Having dealt with Passo Pennes, the 7-rider breakaway group passed at the intermediate sprint with a time gap of 2'25". Nélson was with them.
On Passo delle Erbe, the group quickly lost four riders, including Nélson and KoM leader Brkic. Jin Guo, Kruijswijk and Mannion also started to put more time into the pack. To be precise: 4' with 15 kilometers to the top.
China's Jin Guo was too strong for his last two of his companions as well. He dropped them both at the second KoM sprint, keeping the lead intact.
Contador came to the fore to set the pace for Landa on Passo Furcia, the day's last climb. With the road being quite narrow, Ruben did his best to sit as close as possible. He could until the former escapees boxed him in.
Hence why our leader sat a little too far back when Formolo accelerated. Just like López, the Italian was determined to make up some of the time lost yesterday. However López failed to match Formolo's very high pace.
The Italian caught up with Jin Guo on his own, as they were about to hit the last 5 ultra steep kms on the way to Plan de Corones, aka Kronplatz.
Formolo knew he had to keep up a high pace, but his wasn't high enough to prevent getting destroyed by Landa himself. The Basque just flew by.
Landa won again. On the dirt road, he increased his lead in the GC to an impressive 4'. Even Formolo ended up losing more than a minute today.
König, López & Nibali finishing in the E3 group was bad news for Ruben.
Ruben crossed the finish almost 5' later than Maglia Rosa Landa in 10th.
Giro d'Italia (2.GT) 
