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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 09-01-2025 08:39
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World Champion
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Van Poppel finally has a decent sprint, but it's behind the breakaway 
I'm glad that Formolo is chasing the KoM jersey now that he has dropped from the top 10 in the GC. The breakaway fighting for the stage win would have been nice in the last stage, but with that not happening the good news is that he is not back in the GC fight so he should still be allowed in the breakaway in the next stage, which is a must if he wants that blue jersey at the end of the race.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 09-01-2025 11:44
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Team Leader
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A very anonymous Giro from us so far. Sanikwathi's 2nd place in a sprint stage and Chaiyasombat still being in contention for the white jersey are the hightlights so far. I had hoped for a little bit more from breaks. At least we were in the only successful one so far, even if Phodingam couldn't really capitalize on it.
It's nice to see that the gamble of sending Lutsenko here is paying off for Gazelle. Years ago I had the same strategy on a hilly GT with less success. My puncheur here, Quita, obviously suffers from the strong competition in the hilly stages. Probably I could've used his race days better.
Thanks for the great coverage of the race so far. Looking forward to the final stages! |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 09-01-2025 14:16
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Protected Rider
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The stage you all waited for ...
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 09-01-2025 14:32
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Classics Specialist
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Well, with this leader and (T)TT we should have really gone for a podium in the GC, but every mountain stage was disappointing, and add to that some time lost in the hills and you finish behind riders you should have never finished behind. Theoretically sixth or fifth GC might still be possible with the TT, looking at the distance and the TT skills of Choi and Stüssi that are slightly lower than Eastman, but should have never been in this position to start with. Barely top-10 in any mountain stage so nothing scored there either. Very disappointing to say the least, as this was the GT we wanted/needed to score to boost our survival chances. Adding this to some other disappointing hilly/sprint races so far it's starting to look bad for us now.
Congratulations on the win to bbl, and thanks for a very nice report as always, kb 
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| knockout |
Posted on 09-01-2025 14:41
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Grand Tour Champion
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Finally some good stuff
Beautiful ride by Foss, claiming second on the day and securing his GC position. Unfortunatelly, the gaps to the top 10 riders are too large already so that he likely cant really profit from it in terms of GC result. I think Wellens / Hirt / Almeida are just out of reach but we'll see. I wouldnt trust my own TT prediction skills too much 
Plapp also had a pretty good day. He now sits in 29th in GC between a lot of riders with very similar times. None of the riders behind him should be able to overtake him while Aranburu and potentially some guys like Foliforov, Fouche, Chaiyasombat or Brozyna could still be overtaken by him. If I end up looking at a 25th place in the end, that would be pretty good for him.
Bellan in 39th is riding a fantastic race and i think he might be able to defend that spot as well.
Thanks for the report! And congrats to bbl, Carthy to the rescue!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 09-01-2025 14:43
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Hugh Shikai almost did the unthinkable...
I do and will always wonder why such a group would get a huge gap, given the pretty easy first part of the stage where a breakaway should be easily kept under control. But with the current AI, something like this was always going to happen - and we've been lucky that Carthy was the only one of our direct competitors trying to make a Shikai here. Of course, I was hoping to keep Carthy behind, and even losing around 1'30" today would probably have been enough - but now he gets that unexpected 2nd place in GC. Well, I guess he deserves that with the risky move - had the break been caught at the foot of the last climb, it could've backfired pretty hard.
It wasn't a great stage for Stüssi, in particular losing time to Choi sucks. That 19" gap leaves him with a 50:50 chance to get the position back in the final TT. But I don't want to speculate about that stage yet, as I expect another massive breakaway tomorrow (Formolo should be in there for sure to secure the KoM win), so a lot could still happen. So it's too early to draw any final conclusions - although I'm already pretty sure that I'll be happy with our outcome.
Congrats to bbl on a huge win (and GC result), and to Herklotz for holding onto the lead. I guess that jersey should be safe by now, unless all other teams ride against him tomorrow.
Thanks for the report.
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| ryant |
Posted on 09-01-2025 16:13
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Feels like thats another big reason to regret selling Carthy 
Huge performance there to take the stage, KOM and I suspect 2nd overall as I assume he has the gap needed on the rest of the contenders to keep his position after the 50km TT...
Nice to see from a former rider though I have to say. Williams obviously not strong enough in the end to mount a serious KOM challenge but I will still praise the attempt to get in the breaks.
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| SotD |
Posted on 09-01-2025 17:27
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World Champion
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This game really is not good. The other day it was Hirt, now Carthy.
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 09-01-2025 17:45
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This game is a mess 
There's just no way 4th in the GC should be allowed in a breakaway + if allowed for the gap to be that big.
Choi with a fairly good stage himself but it'll be a battle to hold onto that 5th with Stüssi uncomfortably close (shouldn't be that close to him either) and Eastman surprisingly low in the GC but I'd expect should go past them both. If he can hold onto 6th, that'd be a big result.
Conci also in a position to move up a place or 2 with a good TT. Let's see what he can do!
Congrats to bbl on the Carthy stage win, what should be 2nd in the GC, plus the KOM.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 09-01-2025 20:19
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 09-01-2025 17:57
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Wasn't expecting that meltdown from Formolo. He should have been able to follow that group and get a few extra KoM points. I still hope he gets it tomorrow, losing it on the same amount of points would be heartbreaking.
What a ride by Carthy though. There's something about Giro and these breakaways.
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