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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| Smowz |
Posted on 14-05-2013 21:29
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It's a habit of Van Heerden's from last year that he tends to go a bit too early from time to time. Again he was too early on the trigger here.
It was a strange sprint with the guys coming fast from behind and Swift fastest of all of course. The young Brit is serious fast and the red devil has a very promising sprinting future. Already eclipsing Bennie in his back yard. Is Swift going to the Vuelta as well SN?
Time Trial next --- I best get my coat 
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 14-05-2013 21:37
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Nah Smowz, having a GC rider and a top sprinter at a GT does not mix well. Ive no desire for Frank Schleck to be working on the front of the peloton in the Vuelta!
And SotD, Will you try to read what I actually write rather than jumping to conclusions? Is it so hard for you have any respect for my posts rather than assume I am out to get you?
Did I say you are only negative? No. I said that post was, which was true.
There's nothing wrong with being negative, either, but Im going to call anyone up if you are going to wildly over exaggerate or have a moan while showing a lack of attention to the reports. Feel free to make your Team HQ a haven for over-exaggeration, but don't post it in the race discussion if you then avoid backing up your claims.
Having any sort of sprinter means a team wont attack? / Nobody in your team has attacked. Not true, as the reports show.
Fothen's Top 10 hopes long gone? Extremely unlikely. I see you didnt include in your post the 10 riders who you believe he cannot beat...
Nice to see you are a member of the Swift fanclub though, with that ability to recite his results
Edited by SportingNonsense on 14-05-2013 21:38
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 14-05-2013 21:41
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From the neutral point of view it's been a very entertaining and well reported opening week and I hope it continues in the same fashion through the TT and the remaining 2 weeks thereafter.
Edited by sammyt93 on 14-05-2013 21:42
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 15-05-2013 06:53
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sammyt93 wrote:
From the neutral point of view it's been a very entertaining and well reported opening week and I hope it continues in the same fashion through the TT and the remaining 2 weeks thereafter.
+1
I just enjoy the race and lovely reports. It seems that GT can even create some time gaps in the hilly stages (even when the way that gaps happen can look rather odd).
I would not be so surprised SotD with Fothen loosing time, he is 75 hilly rider in the end, so staying near likes of Trofimov in the hilly stage would be rather stupid AI, so you can hardly call this stupid AI. Ullisi yes, that was pretty strange...times of Fothen will come in high mountains and time trials, i see him still as top10 material pretty likely, as SN says.
Great another win for Swift and Vesuvio, i think that when Bennati and Swift are dividing their sprint poits like that, Trofimov can laugh in red in the end. So many interesting battles to come, great race so far. And Cisco representing our division nicely, congrats too Pelli! Still, Caruso is crap.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 15-05-2013 06:53
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 11-12-2025 06:55
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-05-2013 09:05
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SportingNonsense wrote:
Nah Smowz, having a GC rider and a top sprinter at a GT does not mix well. Ive no desire for Frank Schleck to be working on the front of the peloton in the Vuelta!
And SotD, Will you try to read what I actually write rather than jumping to conclusions? Is it so hard for you have any respect for my posts rather than assume I am out to get you?
Did I say you are only negative? No. I said that post was, which was true.
There's nothing wrong with being negative, either, but Im going to call anyone up if you are going to wildly over exaggerate or have a moan while showing a lack of attention to the reports. Feel free to make your Team HQ a haven for over-exaggeration, but don't post it in the race discussion if you then avoid backing up your claims.
Having any sort of sprinter means a team wont attack? / Nobody in your team has attacked. Not true, as the reports show.
Fothen's Top 10 hopes long gone? Extremely unlikely. I see you didnt include in your post the 10 riders who you believe he cannot beat...
Nice to see you are a member of the Swift fanclub though, with that ability to recite his results
Like I said, I was on my iPad... I probably misread you, but "being all negative" meant "always negative" in my head. Probably the main issue - And my problem.
I know Ulissi has "attacked" for stagewins, like he was supposed to do. What I meant was that my team don't try to get in breakaways. Ulissi wanted to go solo for the win. Most teams try to get active in the early breaks - mine doesn't and never does when I have a sprinter (which I always have), and then I jumped to the conclusion that the game decided that my team had a sprinter too strong, hence never wanted to go for breakaways. I see the same happening to the top-sprinter teams, but there it's more understandable.
10 riders might be an overexageration, but while I would have been fighting for 5-6th place I will now more likely be fighting for 9th-10th. I can't possibly see Fothen winning over these riders, when looking at the gaps now, and how the riders perform(ed):
Yuri Trofimov (1'30-2'00 probably, but 4? no)
Simon Spilak
Romain Sicard (already 3mins up)
Taylor Phinney
Riccardo Ricco
Angel Madrazo
Vincenzo Nibali
Emanuele Sella
Those guys are unlikely that I will be able to beat, while on normal circumstances I would be able to fight Trofimov, Sicard and possibly Sella if I had the timegap from TT's. Also riders such as Nico Keinath, Ryan Eastman, Bernhard Kohl and Peter Velits have taken a decent amount of time on Fothen, and if 50% of the flat(ish) stages mean that Fothen will lose a significant amount of time, it doesn't really matter that he is slightly better in the mountains. So I honestly see a real possibility that Fothen will end up somewhere in the region of 9th-13th, while on normal circumstances he would be 5th-8th.
I'm a big fan of Swift. If you remember I tried hard to buy him last season, as I did this season with Kennaugh.
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-05-2013 09:10
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Avin Wargunnson wrote:
sammyt93 wrote:
From the neutral point of view it's been a very entertaining and well reported opening week and I hope it continues in the same fashion through the TT and the remaining 2 weeks thereafter.
+1
I just enjoy the race and lovely reports. It seems that GT can even create some time gaps in the hilly stages (even when the way that gaps happen can look rather odd).
I would not be so surprised SotD with Fothen loosing time, he is 75 hilly rider in the end, so staying near likes of Trofimov in the hilly stage would be rather stupid AI, so you can hardly call this stupid AI. Ullisi yes, that was pretty strange...times of Fothen will come in high mountains and time trials, i see him still as top10 material pretty likely, as SN says.
Great another win for Swift and Vesuvio, i think that when Bennati and Swift are dividing their sprint poits like that, Trofimov can laugh in red in the end. So many interesting battles to come, great race so far. And Cisco representing our division nicely, congrats too Pelli! Still, Caruso is crap.
The problem isn't that Fothen loses 30 seconds to Trofimov on a hilly finish, that is perfectly acceptable, as Fothen should take 30 seconds back on the mountains, the problem is that he is 4minutes behind, despite the fact that there haven't been a single hard stage so far. There have been two stages in which he could lose 30-40 seconds on Trofimov and Spilak/Phinney. That would have been fine, but losing 3 minutes on Sicard f.x. that is down to poor AI/positioning (call it whatever you want). If Sicard attacked and got away with that, then fine, no problem - he deserved it. But Sicard shouldn't have gained on Fothen so far. And if he should, then 30 seconds, and if he was overperforming 1 minute. Which Fothen could claw back in the TT and mountains. He, however, lost 3 minutes on this quite similar, but worse rider. And like I say. If that is the tendency throughout the race when the stage is flat(ish), then Fothen won't be able to fight for top 10, and no way near top 6-7 which was probably realistic looking at the riders participating.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 15-05-2013 10:06
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The is an absolute monster if a win for Phinney.
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| ember |
Posted on 15-05-2013 11:22
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That was brilliant by Spilak! 
Now he has a nice shot at a podium overall, eventhough it will still be very tough. The coming two mountain stages should give a clue about how strong he is compared to the other riders aiming for a podium in the overall classification.
That was a huge win for Phinney, congrats. I do believe this will now be a battle between him and Madrazo for the win, and thinking of the big time trial coming in stage 13 and that Phinney is in pink, it is wide open. Add that the Italians need to attack to make up time in the GC, and I'm sure we'll have some great racing in the mountains
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| cio93 |
Posted on 15-05-2013 11:26
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Don 't like these 6 seconds Trofimov finished too fast today 
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-05-2013 11:31
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Good TT from Fothen, also decent stuff from Dees to get a good GC spot before the first mountainstage.
Fothen losing hardly any time to anyone but Phinney is brilliant, and it was interesting to see him beating Nibali on this TT. Didn't expect that.
Looking forward to see how well Fothen can climb, and just how strong a guy like Trofimov is on the tough climbs.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 15-05-2013 11:59
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Watching this to see how Brus does. Pretty happy so far, even if SotD isn't |
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-05-2013 12:07
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jph27 wrote:
Watching this to see how Brus does. Pretty happy so far, even if SotD isn't
He won't attack that little basterd
This isn't the race where I need him the most, he basically rides here to max him out for you
He is mostly needed when we have a top sprinter lined up, such as Guerao - Then he is a decent first-train-rider.
I hope he will develop well for you. How are my protigees doing? I have been away for 3 weeks and have a hard time catching up with the CT and PCT races.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 15-05-2013 12:13
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Got in a few breaks, Coquard has proven a useful leadout man and Kastrantas and Gougeard got some stage top 10s |
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-05-2013 13:04
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Cool. I'm hoping Coquard will be a potential TdF first week yellow jersey rider. Can't really figure out why I bought Kastrantas though, besides the obvious fact that he's greek and young. Can't figure out how I want him to be.
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| Roman |
Posted on 15-05-2013 15:34
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Well, Henao surely needs to be agressive in mountains if he wants to get at least a solid result from this race.. Hopefully he will attack already in the next two stages..
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| mattiasgt |
Posted on 15-05-2013 21:34
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Noooooooooooooo. I was in desperate need of that pink jersey for the mountain stage. Damn Phinney!
(Previously) Manager of Koenigsegg
Koenigsegg: ( Media)
Livin' Loud |
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| p3druh |
Posted on 16-05-2013 10:01
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Wow, that was way more action from Sicard than I was expecting. Just don't burn yourself out kid.
A nice 3min buffer to keep the top-10 hope alive. Couldn't ask for more.
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| ember |
Posted on 16-05-2013 10:09
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Very good to see Spilak in the front group, and judging by his attacks and his 5th place, he must be quite strong as well. I do fancy his chances for a podium now, that must be our new goal, eventhough there's a long way to go.
Big win for Madrazo and Santander, but he must gap Phinney with more to get pink in the end, that should be a really interesting battle. Next stage could be an opportunity, if the favourites starts to attack on the first category climb.
Thanks for a nice report! |
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| roturn |
Posted on 16-05-2013 10:09
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This was about what I expected for this stage. Madrazo being the strongest but without big time gaps behind him and a rather big group of favourites then.
The Giro course seems to be a bit like that. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 16-05-2013 10:12
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The only stage where I suspect the time limit to play an important role is coming up now...go hard or go home! 
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