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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 04-01-2024 10:19
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Thijssen struggling in the sprints which isn't great to see but ah well!
Very disappointed with Rodriguez though. Not the first time he's been in the breakaway and he really should be good enough to stay ahead much longer and stick with those battling for stage honours. Some time gain to jump into the Top 30 would be great. Mas looking solid although his early losses hurting him. Hoping he can move into the Top 40.
Thank you for the report consistency both in timing and quality 
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 04-01-2024 10:21
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Let's hope the proper lower Top10-GC contenders can strike back tomorrow, great reporting!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 04-01-2024 10:37
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Well.. kinda risky game, letting strong guys moving up the GC to 3rd left and right now. I would rather have at least one notable stage result for Haig on the board and ofc He needs at least one attempt to attack Dombrowski or gain bonus seconds somehow.. at this point though, it seems like those Top-10 riders will fight for the final couple of line honours.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 04-01-2024 10:43
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....okay now has Bennett lost enough places to go in the breakaway?
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[PT]  Xero Racing
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 01:05
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 04-01-2024 11:38
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Obviously don't like Amezawa and Giannoutsos moving so high up, but with the Top 2 being firmly established and having no interest in reeling in the break, well, I guess that's what can happen when you're a bit lucky. Hopefully Stüssi can strike back tomorrow!
Congrats to Aker, another great show by Amezawa!
Thanks for the report.
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| knockout |
Posted on 04-01-2024 12:38
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Finally a good stage for su. Foss and Blums both making the break is great, Foss gets a few stage points and gets into a good gc position to attck once more. I like it.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 04-01-2024 13:26
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Wow, I'm honestly kind of shocked. I guess the GT breakaway shenanigans people have always talked about are true after all. Hirt clearly is coming good in the third week (opposite of Galta), so the podium is out of reach. But falling out of the top 5 to two objectively weaker stage racers is pretty rough. I guess that tracks why we were chasing in the peloton, but it clearly didn't work.
Still a couple of stages left, but to lose out on the top 5 like that after such a strong two weeks would really suck.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| SotD |
Posted on 04-01-2024 14:15
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It's always sad to end up with "nothing" from the stage, when you are in the finale - but what a ride. This was exactly what we came to the Giro for.
It might have been a tad to early in terms of getting that big GC reward, but I'd rather have the moment of glory than not at all...
For the first time in the race we played it perfect putting our 3 strongest climbers into a huge breakaway for the stage. In the end it didn't pay off, but we made a huge jump in the GC.
Obviously those spots will be lost again in a combination of others now getting that freedom for the final two mountainstages, and the fact that Giannoutsos just isn't strong enough to keep those small gaps behind him - But it was great nontheless. Also a good move by Mavrikakis to get back into the top 20.
If we could just stop the race now it would be a huge succes. Time to see if we can somewhat salvage anything from the race or if the energy is now gone, and we will drop to worse than what we came from.
Also big congrats to finally getting that brilliant win!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 04-01-2024 14:57
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Quite the Norwegian day here, with 2nd, 3rd and 9th for Norwegian riders and also a stage win for a Norwegian team. Big congrats to ember, brilliant ride from Amezawa, who's certainly taken a big step up this season.
Also happy with Nesset, who's on track to deliver once more a steady result in a GT. Hopefully he and the other guys still have some left for the final two days in the mountains.
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| ember |
Posted on 04-01-2024 17:17
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Wow, huge win! Amazing stage by Amezawa. I got worried early when he was our only rider up front, fearing he would exhaust himself too early. He clearly managed his resources in a perfect way, and what a Giro he's having stage wise.
Thank you for the congratulations messages!
All the way up to 5th in the overall is also far more than we came for. Must say I'm a bit surprised by the AI, seemingly allowing the riders just outside the top 10 to go all the way up to top 5s in the GC. Not sure that happened a lot previously, it was more breakaways to claim the lower top 10 positions.
He will of course be tired tomorrow, but what a final climb he delivered here. Assuming the gaps given were at the foot of the climb, he only lost 20 seconds to the two top guns, and everyone else he kept pace or went faster than. Keeping Galta, Carthy and maybe Shikai behind will be difficult, assuming none of them are allowed in breakaways, and then who knows who might threaten from the deep behind the top 8... It's of course selfish, but I hope future potential breakaways get "back to normal" to threaten the lower top 10s and not a top 5  
Thank you for the report, Abhi. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 04-01-2024 18:54
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A true breakout performance by TJH today!
Amezawa wins this deservedly, but what a ride to drop everyone but him.
Strong help from Schinnagel got him into the lead group over the top, and he made the most out of that position.
Fouche rode well to preserve his U25 lead which looks unassailable, but I hope Johannessen hasn't spent too much energy to attack second place in that over the next two, very hard stages.
That would be a great result after the dumb 20-minute loss early on.
Zwiehoff and Zimmermann should also become more active before the race finishes, if only to support TJH now.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 04-01-2024 19:57
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I know he's trained and I know I wouldnt have been able to do that, but watching this Giro really makes me sad I did not try harder to figure out a way to get Amezawa onto my team despite enquiring about him in the past two transfer windows!
Such a tidy rider, congrats Ember!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 04-01-2024 20:13
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Congrats ember!
Good for Vosekalns to not join the break, saving energy for further stages. Chamorro and Dombrowski didn't score much but a few new challengers have joined the battle. Rubio sadly not cut out for these type of races.
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| redordead |
Posted on 05-01-2024 09:58
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We are not strong enough to make an impact in the breakaway. At the very least Bouchard and Habtemichael are maintaining solid GC positions. Saying that, they'll probably bonk tomorrow
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 05-01-2024 11:31
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Shame we no longer seem to be able to control the breaks. They are too big and have too many strong climbers. Congrats ember and SN!
But other than that Dombrowski is doing a good job of not losing any time to Haig and even gaining some in the most recent stage.
Tomorrow is crucial. 148 km of constant climbing and descending. We need one more strong performance to keep Haig and the swarm of attackers behind us in GC.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 05-01-2024 13:18
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Obviously not a fan of those breakaways and Haig not fighting for line honours anymore. The third week hasn't given us too many points with also Groves not able to repeat his earlier success. One more chance to at least attack JD.. or to suffer a huge failure with a breakaway rider moving up to 2nd in the GC..
Congrats to all winners anyway
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 05-01-2024 13:42
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Huh, so that's cool. I guess it was actually better to be bad for two and a half week so you can leap into the top 5 with a breakaway win and end up scoring way better than those who have been consistent all three weeks. Not sure what I expected since everyone was talking up the GT breaks to begin with, but damn, that was crazy. Everyone behind just handed Godoy the top 5. He didn't just hold on from the break, they gifted him 5 minutes. I mean, damn.
Absolutely no idea what to expect now. Godoy is strong enough to hold tomorrow, and then we have to expect another 2-3 riders below us to gain huge time and leapfrog us in the GC. Even if we pass Stussi again tomorrow, it seems like the top 5 is almost impossible given the AI. We're kind of caught in no mans land where we can't go in the break, but everyone below us can. We just gotta hope we can keep our top 10 goal. Really putting a damper on what was an awesome race for us most of the way through.
Thanks for the report
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 05-01-2024 14:09
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Oh yes, he did! Great performance to hold onto Bennett until the end, with only Godoy clearly stronger today! Moving up to 6th is great, but...
Indeed, despite being among the beneficiaries today, I have similar feelings as bbl concerning the breakaways. No clue why the pack would allow someone to almost get a GC podium out of nowhere, consistency really looks to be a disadvantage here. No idea whether that's "only" GTs or stage races in general, but it doesn't feel great.
No clue what to expect tomorrow, apart from the fact that there will be a monstrous breakaway again. 5th to 10th are really close, so whoever among these will be allowed to join the break could be a big winner in the end - if none of them is allowed, then it could be Shikai's turn to gain big time.
Glad to see that at least the Top 2 are still uncontested, they're clearly the strongest and should definitely take the first two spots. Would be nice to get a true fight on the final mountain stage, though!
Thanks for the report, and congrats to SN on yet another big win this year!
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| SotD |
Posted on 05-01-2024 15:10
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It was a great fight from Giannoutsos, but I reckon losing another couple of spots would have been the best possible move, so he could attack tomorrow and claim 2-3 spots back, to finish 7-8th. Instead he will now fall to 11th or so. Mavrikakis also with a fall back despite attacking. He did the only right thing though, but just didn’t have the power.
In the ideal world I have Giannoutsos and Mavrikakis in the final break to see if anything Can be gained.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 05-01-2024 16:18
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Ah, yes the late-race breakaways...
So these are indeed a feature, but to be fair to the game, in any regular DB, the MO gaps are usually big enough to the lower Top 10 and beyond that even massive gaps are comparatively easy to bring back, and furthermore riders benefiting from such a move usually struggle a lot the following day.
Let's see how it plays out tomorrow in this regard first before casting full judgement.
So far, it's also not as bad as missing out on a Vuelta podium to a 75mo breakaway beneficiary in PCM23 which happened to me recently, and hopefully it never gets this egregious.
Regarding our performance, this was a very good day all things considered.
Yes, we did again unfortunato-ly send Fortunato into a winning break instead of literally any other climber, but Johannessen apparently was very well protected in the peloton and finished extremely high up on the day from there.
Now we're in that second place in the U25s that I hoped for, with an outside chance to even still win it if Johannessen gets breakaway clearance tomorrow and makes it to the finish, or alternatively if Fouche gets into a doomed break and we can make up big time on him late in the day with all that climbing.
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