So what did your riders throw behind them to cause that?
Should have give the win to Lambrecht. Would have been nice to win in he national colors. Or Mollema. He seems to always be there but there quite good enough to win.
And, indeed, Kwiatek looks to have been set for the triple given the outcome behind your riders.
Just caught up with the latest reports. Hadn't commented here for a while now. Almost replicating that P-R win sometime in the beginning of the century, despite the rivals' fall. Perhaps a 1-2 would have been feasible, even though.
cunego59 wrote:
Well that's something you don't see every day
Yeah, I have really benefited from crashes this classic campaign. Im wondering if the crash ratio is too high again. It helped me a lot in the first season I think too. Too many big riders injured, ruining their fitness peaks or they crash in a race, making it easier for me.
alexkr00 wrote:
So what did your riders throw behind them to cause that?
Should have give the win to Lambrecht. Would have been nice to win in he national colors. Or Mollema. He seems to always be there but there quite good enough to win.
And, indeed, Kwiatek looks to have been set for the triple given the outcome behind your riders.
It was definitely not one of these...
Spoiler
I wish I had thought about letting Lambrecht win. I actually just put them all on 95 and let them race it out.
FreitasPCM wrote:
Just caught up with the latest reports. Hadn't commented here for a while now. Almost replicating that P-R win sometime in the beginning of the century, despite the rivals' fall. Perhaps a 1-2 would have been feasible, even though.
Thanks. I think Kwiat probably would have won if not for the fall, but VdP was feeling stronger than the other two races for sure. He actually had a +2 increase to his MO, which helps him a lot in hilly races I find, so perhaps he had a chance. Evenepoel was the real surprise for me. He is more of a MO rider stat wise, but in terms of his energy bars he was probably our 2nd best rider in LBL and LFW. Makes me wonder, with a HILL increase he could maybe be Hill leader in the not too distant future.
Deceuninck ride to a 7th place on the day, a disappointing result for the team, who expected better.
Result
Rank
Team
Time
1
Team Jumbo - Visma
21'16
2
Trek - Segafredo
+ 11
3
Team INEOS
+ 22
4
CCC Team
+ 25
5
Mitchelton - Scott
s.t.
6
Groupama - FDJ
+ 28
7
Deceuninck - Corendon
+ 37
8
BORA - hansgrohe
+ 42
9
Lotto - Soudal
+ 45
10
UAE - Team Emirates
+ 49
Stage 2
Kwiatkowski sprints to the win, in a select group of 20 riders.
Result
1
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team INEOS
+00:00
2
Primoz Roglic
Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
3
Patrick Konrad
Astana
+00:00
4
Rigoberto Uran
EF Education First
+00:00
5
Peter Kennaugh
BORA
+00:00
Stage 3
Result
1
Dion Smith
Total Direct Energie
+00:00
2
Sergey Chernetskiy
Katusha - Alpecin
+00:00
3
Jai Hindley
Sunweb
+00:00
4
Hermann Pernsteiner
Bahrain McLaren
+00:00
5
Zdenek Stybar
Deceuninck
+00:33
Stage 4
Result
1
Oscar Gatto
BORA
+00:00
2
Ruben Guerreiro
Katusha - Alpecin
+00:00
3
Justin Jules
Vital Concept
+00:00
4
Mickael Delage
AG2R
+00:00
5
Rémi Cavagna
Cofidis
+00:00
Stage 5
Geraint Thomas wins the stage. There were several attacks on the final climb, and at one point the lead group almost came to a stand still, but INEOS was the strongest overall and their leader capped off a great stage, with Kwiatkowski and Carapaz both riding well too.
Tom Dumoulin is heading into the race as the premier stage racer of the season. He started the season with a 2nd place at the Tour of Oman, and followed that up with a GC win at Paris - Nice, despite crashing on the final stage, taking both Mountain top finishes as well. He moved on to the Volta a Catalunya with another GC win, before a break, which lasted until just recently where he won the Tour of Romandie, the most popular tune up race for riders heading to the Giro. He has a very strong team behind him, with Primoz Roglic also on the team, and Hernan Aguirre as a super domestique. Jos Van Emden will be crucial for the opening team time trial, and they should be one of the top teams on the opening stage. With the winner from 2 seasons ago on his team, Dumoulin has to be seen as the top favourite, as probably the best TT rider of the GC men.
Miguel Angel Lopez
Miguel Angel Lopez is looking to win his first Grand Tour after being touted to be on the top step of one for a few years now. He has moved teams this season, to see if that can help him. So far this season, his best result is a 2nd place at the Tour of the Alps, so he is probably heading here on good form, but apart from that, his season has been very quiet. He is joined by two other top Colombian climbers, Rigo Uran and Daniel Martinez. They should provide solid support in the mountains, and from a team standpoint, if Lopez crashes out, like he has in the past, they have a rider in Uran who has finished on the podium before, and Martinez who is a very promising rider.
Davide Formolo
Formolo finished 3rd two seasons ago, and 5th last year, so he has been fairly consistent at the Giro. As the top Italian favourite this time, having surpassed Nibali in many of the tifosi's eyes, he looks to climb into the podium again, and this time, the bottom step is not his goal, but the top one. Of the top 3 favourites, he probably has the strongest team on paper, with basically all his teammates being climbers. He is looking to fill in the shoes of other strong Italians at Astana, like Fabio Aru and Nibali, who have also done well at the Giro in the past. He raced the Tour of the Alps as a warm up race for this years Giro and came in ahead of Miguel Angel Lopez in first place, perhaps showing he's the stronger of the two.
The opening stage of the Giro, is a Team Time Trial around the famous cycling city of San Remo, where the Monument Classic, Milan San Remo finishes every year. As just a 17.8 KM ride, no rider will be too far out of the race today, but the winners could set themselves up nicely for a tough first week of the race, something not typically seen in most Grand Tours. Deceuninck are the 5th team out of the gates and take 1st at all the time checks, but when they cross the line, they take 2nd place. They end up the day, 24 seconds down on the eventual winners, a disappointing ride for a team that had hoped to win the opening day.
Mitchelton Scott are one of the last teams to go out, and they have so far beaten all the time checks on the day, maybe a bit of a surprise. They cross the line 4 seconds ahead of Trek Segafredo. Barta, the Yates twins and Macejiuk were surely the strongest riders that helped pull off the victory today.
Results
Rank
Team
Time
1
Mitchelton - Scott
19'16
2
Trek - Segafredo
+ 4
3
Groupama - FDJ
+ 11
4
Team Jumbo - Visma
s.t.
5
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
+ 13
Stage 2
Result
1
Matteo Moschetti
EF Education First
+00:00
2
Davide Ballerini
Deceuninck
+00:00
3
Sam Bennett
NTT
+00:00
4
Álvaro José Hodeg
Deceuninck
+00:00
5
Caleb Ewan
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
Stage 3
The first abandonee of the race is Carstensen of INEOS. They already had one of the weaker teams, and losing a valuable teammate will not be good for them. With the weather looking treacherous today, we may still see more abandons to come.
And like clockwork, we see one which the local fans will be quite upset by. Fausto Masnada, one of the riders who often livens up the breakaway at the Giro is forced to abandon after a crash on the descent just before the final CAT2 climb. This will also give better odds to riders hoping to target the mountain jersey.
Meanwhile, up the road, Alexander Evans of Mitchelton is making an attack from the breakaway. They look to have a large gap today, and may hold off the peloton. If Evans wins, he will be taking the Maglia Rosa away from his teammate, so it must have been the plan to go in the breakaway today.
The break does hold on, as Marco Canola takes the win. Evans looked the weakest in the sprint, as he was brought back by the breakaway group after his attack, but was last in the sprint. He might not mind though, as he moves into the overall lead of the race.
The sprint for 7th place is won by Hodeg, with Ballerini taking 8th. The peloton didn't have much interest in the sprint it seems, but with that result, Ballerini moves into first in the Ciclamino jersey.
We start another stage along the beautiful Ligurian Sea coast, and Davide Ballerini, the Italian Champion is wearing the Ciclamino jersey as the leader of the points category to start the day.
We are still along the coast at the end of the day too. The peloton has been reduced to a group of 60 or so riders, but just from the days steady climbing, no attacks have been made.
The sprinters all dropped today, so Simon Yates wins the sprint ahead of his brother Adam. Bob Jungels manages 4th place, a really solid result for him.
Results
1
Simon Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:00
2
Adam Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:00
3
Davide Formolo
Astana
+00:00
4
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck
+00:00
5
Romain Bardet
AG2R
+00:00
Stage 5
Its only stage 5 and we are already facing a mountain top finish to end the day. Lets see if Evenepoel can hold on to his white jersey lead when its all said and done! It looks like it will be a typical Giro d'Italia stage with rain and winds to further test the riders abilities.
And on the second and last descent of the day, we see a major crash, with lots of favourites down. Roglic, Buchmann, Mas, Adam Yates and Aru.
These are the time gaps.
At the foot of the final climb, we already see attacks. Formolo, followed by Geoghan Hart and Lopez. The favourites that crashed are still a long way behind, and will all lose several minutes today. A shame to be taken out of contention so early.
Further up the climb, the leading trio is still ahead. They have a gap of 45 seconds, and the group behind looks happy to slowly reel them back in. But riders are starting to look a lot more on the limit, and the fog caused from the weather is making it hard to see where the groups on the road are, which gives a mental advantage to the leaders.
Lopez, hangs on from the leading group to take an iconic stage win. This stage may be remembered for years to come. The chasing favourites group managed to mostly bring the gaps down and sprint for the line, limiting the time gaps today. Geoghan Hart, who was in the leaders group cracked hard and finished 52 seconds down. In comparison, the chasing group that was behind the 3 leaders for most of the climb only finished 18 seconds back, so a tough day for INEOS. EF, Astana and Deceuninck all had 2 in the Top 10, great days for them, as Evenepoel keeps white.
Results
1
Miguel Angel Lopez
EF Education First
+00:00
2
Tom Dumoulin
Jumbo - Visma
+00:08
3
Rigoberto Uran
EF Education First
+00:08
4
Davide Formolo
Astana
+00:08
5
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck
+00:18
6
Remco Evenepoel
Deceuninck
+00:18
7
Patrick Konrad
Astana
+00:18
8
Mikel Landa
Bahrain McLaren
+00:18
9
Simon Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:18
10
Sergio Luis Henao
UAE - Emirates
+00:18
Stage 6
It was a tight sprint today, but Ewan takes it ahead of Bennett and Hodeg. Hodeg just hasn't had the luck so far this race, but has atleast remained consistent. Leaving without a stage win would be a massive disappointment for him and the team though, so he will want to improve as the race continues.
alexkr00 wrote:
Looking good for Jungels so far. And could there also be a white jersey on the cards?
Thanks Yeah, Jungels is looking really solid so far. He has the TT advantage over most of the others. TBH, Evenepoel or Padun will probably win White. The AI doesn't really seem to ever care about it, and most of the young guys are working for a leader, and they never seem to be able to handle still saving a bit of energy to challenge for it. But I'm hoping Martinez makes it a good fight.
It takes until Stage 7, but we finally have a rider in the breakaway, Zdenek Stybar.
As we get later into the day, Stybar clearly can't hang in the breakaway, and its actually looking pretty dangerous today, so Deceuninck try to bring it back.
On the descent before the final run up to the last climb, a group of 50 riders lose contact with the front group. Some big names like Landa, Mas, Adam Yates and more are losing ground today.
Jungels tries an attack, but he's followed by Dumoulin, Buchmann and Nibali.
Nibali cant keep up, but the trio get a gap of 45 seconds on the climb, and look set to fight for the win with 1km left now.
But somehow some top level sprinters have survived and Caleb Ewan blows past everyone and sprints across a 45 second gap in the last 500m to take an easy victory, despite reaching gradients of nearly 9% at some points on the last climb....
Results
1
Caleb Ewan
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
2
Simon Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:00
3
Davide Formolo
Astana
+00:00
4
Miguel Angel Lopez
EF Education First
+00:00
5
Sergio Luis Henao
UAE - Emirates
+00:00
Stage 8
The breakaway has some dangerous riders in it today. Quintana maybe looking to get some time back, and Ballerini, wearing the Tricolore as well.
We hit the bottom of the final climb with the breakaway caught. Sam Oomen tries his move right at the base of the climb, and Formolo and Lopez both try to follow.
Lopez tries to shake the others shortly after and has a gap. It seems like a lot of attacks today, as the group of leaders always seems to slowly drag the attackers back.
It happens again, so this time Jungels tries and attack! One of these moves has got to work at some point right?
Inside the last kilometer and its a smaller group now, but none of the attacks have really worked. Lopez looks by far the strongest rider, and Jungels looks to barely be hanging on, as he slowly caught the others after riding his own pace up the last few kms following his unsuccessful attack.
It looks like Jungels strategy to ride tempo really worked. He passed the others in the sprint, and even took 8 seconds on them! What an amazing ride from him, after he looked like he was out of contention for the win!
Results
1
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck
+00:00
2
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Team INEOS
+00:08
3
Tom Dumoulin
Jumbo - Visma
+00:08
4
Miguel Angel Lopez
EF Education First
+00:08
5
Simon Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:08
Stage 9
Jungels and Evenepoel in two of the four leaders jerseys to start the day. Jungels moved into the lead of the KOM with his mountain top finish the day before.
Today was all about the breakaway. Giovanni Carboni took 60 KOM points on the day, to take a massive lead, and they will fight for the win as well.
Conti takes the win in front of his Italian fans. A great win for Androni one of the wildcard teams.
Gallopin leads the favourites group in, but theres big loses behind...
Mas, Geoghan Hart, Pinot, Bardet, and Adam Yates are again all losing time, and are probably out of contention now after so many slip ups already.
Stage 7: Very annoying that those sprinter came back on that last bit of flat, was looking quite good for Jungels.
Stage 8: Fantastic comeback from yesterdays miss.
GC: Overall very nice with two in top5 at this point.
Tamijo wrote:
Stage 7: Very annoying that those sprinter came back on that last bit of flat, was looking quite good for Jungels.
Stage 8: Fantastic comeback from yesterdays miss.
GC: Overall very nice with two in top5 at this point.
Thanks! Jungels win was not something I was expecting. Mountain top finishes are quite hard to win if you dont have the strongest rider. And yeah, Evenepoel is really doing well at the moment.
Todays stage finished in a sprint after the peloton controlled the race for the day, not allowing the breakaway to gather more than a 3 minute lead. Gaviria wins ahead of Moschetti, who has been having a very solid Giro, and Hodeg.
Results
1
Fernando Gaviria
UAE - Emirates
+00:00
2
Matteo Moschetti
EF Education First
+00:00
3
Álvaro José Hodeg
Deceuninck
+00:00
4
Simone Consonni
Bahrain McLaren
+00:00
5
Daniel McLay
Astana
+00:00
Stage 11
Another less than exciting stage, as the peloton put on lots of pressure in the final 30kms, and with the climbs that eliminated all the sprinters this time, leaving the GC conteders and hill specialists to challenge for the win, and Maglia Rosa wearer, Simon Yates had the fastest sprint of the group to take a great result.
Results
1
Simon Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:00
2
Davide Formolo
Astana
+00:00
3
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Team INEOS
+00:00
4
Romain Bardet
AG2R
+00:00
5
Enric Mas
Movistar
+00:00
Stage 12
Much like yesterdays stage, the sprinters were dropped from the lead group. Deceuninck had tried to raise the tempo on some of the earlier climbs, most likely as they thought Hodeg was having a good day, but he was later dropped and they stopped pacing on the front. Landa won the sprint from the favorites group, in what was a close as nails sprint up the short climb in the last 500 meters of the stage.
It was a day for the sprinters today and Elia Viviani took his first stage win of the race. Gaviria and Ewan couldn't challenge for the win which helped Hodeg and Philipsen get onto the podium today.
Results
1
Elia Viviani
Trek - Segafredo
+00:00
2
Jasper Philipsen
Sunweb
+00:00
3
Álvaro José Hodeg
Deceuninck
+00:00
4
Sam Bennett
NTT
+00:00
5
Fernando Gaviria
UAE - Emirates
+00:00
Stage 14 (ITT)
Tom Dumoulin is the big favourite for the stage, as probably the best time trial rider in the race, and one of the best climbers. It was a bit of a surprise though, as his teammate, Primoz Roglic took the win. Dumoulin finished 25 seconds back of the Slovenian.
Bob Jungels, who is a bit weaker than Dumoulin rides to a time of 1:18 off that of Roglic's, meaning he's lost just about a minute to Dumoulin on the day. Its not a horrible day though, as he's 4th on the day, and put big time into Nibali, Yates, BUchmann and Formolo.
Results
1
Primoz Roglic
Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
2
Tom Dumoulin
Jumbo - Visma
+00:25
3
Ilnur Zakarin
CCC Team
+01:16
4
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck
+01:18
5
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Team INEOS
+01:24
6
Enric Mas
Movistar
+01:34
7
Remco Evenepoel
Deceuninck
+01:58
8
Sam Oomen
Sunweb
+02:07
9
Simon Yates
Mitchelton - Scott
+02:46
10
Damiano Caruso
Bahrain McLaren
+03:09
Stage 15
Theres a huge breakaway today. Almost 30 riders. Bagioli and Ballerini for Deceuninck. Quintana and Anacona are in the break for Movistar, as is Adam Yates, Meintjes, Zakarain who had a good result yesterday, Sosa, Henao and Gallopin.
The breakaway still has a good advantage as we hit the 2nd last climb of the day. Gaviria was forced to abandon earlier, but the leaders group only has 19 riders in it. Evenepoel looks to be pacing Jungels up the climb, trying to put pressure on the others who now dont have teammates, apart from Dumoulin.
Bagioli and Ballerini were still up the road, so they have dropped back to help support Evenepoel and Jungels on the last climb to the finish today. But just as they hit the foot of the climb, Uran attacks!
It was obviously a decoy attack though, as just a few kms later, Lopez attacks and this one looks like it has some bite too it. He's followed by a few other riders, but Dumoulin and Jungels both look around and wait, not responding to the move.
The move was slowly brought back, and now the group of leaders is slowing down. Evenepoel tries an attack to see if he can gain back some time. He's sitting in 6th overall, but about 3 minutes down, so he's not an immediate danger to those in front of him. His gap hits 2 minutes, as the leaders almost slow to a standstill.
But now some major action. Formolo and Lopez attack and are not met with a response from the others. They quickly destroy the gap Evenepoel got, and are now chasing Henao and Sosa, who is all thats in front from the breakaway.
Inside the last km, and Sosa looks set to win the stage, but big time gaps are starting to form. Jungels can't stay with the Dumoulin group, who is just behind the Formolo/Lopez group.
But Formolo and Lopez just outsprint Sosa to the win, with the Italian taking a great win for the home fans. Jungels finishes a minute down, but loses only 20 seconds to Dumoulin, and Evenepoel blows up, losing around 3 minutes
alexkr00 wrote:
Hopefully Jungels can hold on good in what I assume are going to be some massive last mountain stages.
Remco will definitely be in trouble but those 10 minutes look comfortable.
Yeah there’s only 2 flat stages left I think. It should be exciting. Lopez and Formolo look like the best climbers but they’re further behind so they will need to do a lot of attacking
