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Giro d'Italia - Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 23:00
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 27-01-2021 18:03
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shit shit shit this was a horrible last week for us - luckily we got some good racing before, but no GC result at the end and loosing the KOM definitely wasn't good
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-01-2021 18:12
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Finally a gutsy ride by Haig. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold on with it - it looked good until he got reeled in eventually. But at least he tried. And it was enough for him to distance Malecki eventually. A GT podium for Haig is obviously one of the biggest things I could ever achieve in the MG, so it's a pleasant result after a rather disappointing race: the lack of stage points despite finishing on the podium is a pity and the fact that a guy like Malecki (no offense, DD) is easily outscoring our team is ridiculous.
Well. At least we don't have to love with the shame to finish the GC behind him (opposing to many other managers). It's still a rather lame first GT podium for Haig, who deserves a more shiny podium, just because it's him!
Anyway, congrats to all winners so far. Happy to see Taaramae getting the result he deserves. May the final day not bring any more GC upsets. Malecki for the break of the day is still possible, though 
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 27-01-2021 18:38
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A little annoying that we couldnt ever gap Malecki enough to pass him in the GC, but from a neutral perspective what a heroic ride he put in all race. 6th in the Giro with our (arguably) weaker GC rider compared to Quintana is promising. If Quintana can Top 5 the other two GTs I feel we may be able to fend off relegation, which is exactly as I hoped.
I dont think its that much randomness that Gazelle is in the break everyday. I think that team is full of high FGH riders and Malecki is such an allrounder.
Costagli won one stage here which was nice, but he kind of let me down. He was so weak on the climbs, and I expected him to get into the breakaway more. Even when he did, apart from his win he got dropped every time.
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| roturn |
Posted on 27-01-2021 18:55
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From 12th and 29th to 16th and 52nd... Awful last three days really.
Luckily VdP did fantastic in the second week as otherwise those three days would have a more bit taste.
Basically in the attack on every stage and also this stage but missing out on the two most important stages last two days... With similar riders all passing Valls.
Then again 6 riders in the top 100 even though losing the 2nd in team want planned but Velits on a -5 day it seems... Can't be his decline only when being 29th after 19 stages.
Thanks for the report and congrats to Carapaz. Volvo doing fine here with KoM as well. A bit of a pity that my riders never really tried to go for this Jersey properly.
As GT lineup though without clear leader it worked pretty decent and should do similar in Vuelta as well. |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 27-01-2021 19:10
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That was beautiful
Haig made a very clever move by escalating the stage halfway the Finestre, dropping Malecki a long way from the finish line. Luckily Taaramäe and Kritskiy were having none of it and quickly restored order by reeling Haig in. The resulting slowdown allowed Kamil to come back, but these events had clearly cost him a lot of energy. When Wirtgen raised the tempo towards the top, Malecki instantly cracked and passed two full minutes behind the peloton. Had he been alone this would've meant a freefall in GC for sure.
The sight of six teammates instantly dropping back and organizing a thundering downhill chase was glorious. They catapulted Malecki up the foot of the final climb and by the time this momentum ran out, the exhausted young Pole only had to battle through four more kilometers of painful climbing.
Keeping the gap to clever Haig small enough was impossible with destroyed legs. Fair play and congrats to the Aussie. But keeping the fourth GC spot seemed possible and through sheer willpower Malecki made it happen. I'm impressed!
Nice win and KoM grab by Carapaz! Congrats
And Taaramäe did it while looking in control the entire time. Congratulations ember!
I'll save my reaction about the entire Giro for after the last stage. But there's one thing I'd like to get out there already: I completely agree it's a good thing that Malecki didn't win this Giro and probably also that he didn't podium. Him doing so well in GC is a glitch of course and it's good to know that the game will at least correct it to some degree. So no offense taken at people expressing relief that he dropped some places.
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| SotD |
Posted on 28-01-2021 07:13
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Ahh, just one more to go.
I guess (relatively speaking) this was a good stage. Kastrantas and Mavrikakis jumps into top 50, and thus scores 2-3 points more than otherwise. Bongiorno jumps 1 GC spot up and thus score 5 points more, and Nizzolo survived to possibly give us a couple of last ditch points.
In total we expected atleast 350 points, but as far as I can see we will end up with 200 instead, 180-or-so will come from the GC, while I expected to score around the same from stage hunting. There we scored 20 I think.
So it will be very nice to leave this race and get a new chance to fuck up. The next 4 "ardennes"-like races doesn't suit us that well, but I can atleast hope that those 4 races will give a better outcome than the Giro. Koretzky is a bit all over the place, who knows if he can land a couple of decent results to salvage a horrible period (bar Liechtenstein).
Congrats to all successors and then fingers are crossed for a Demare win later today with Nizzolo actually bothering to get some points. I guess he's the worst performing sprinter of all with 79+ SPR stat so far. It would be nice to atleast try to get a top 5 with him.
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| ember |
Posted on 28-01-2021 07:34
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That looks like Maglia Rosa secured for Taaramäe Seeing how the stage played out, once again Taaramäe rode with confidence, and also in a way that made me think he had it all under control. Happy to see him land another podium finish and claim pink in the end. I've got to admit that was probably the most intense GC race I've been part of with a contender, due to the great fight Malecki put up.
Congratulations on the stage win, viking! Great race for you with both Karlsson and Carapaz being very active in the mountains, riding for great GC placings, KoM points and stages. Well played! |
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| matt17br |
Posted on 28-01-2021 08:30
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matt17br wrote:
knockout wrote:
Chiarello had a pretty great day too. Hardly anyone beatable gained time on him while a couple of rivals lost chunks. He is now up to 8th in GC which would be outstanding if he could defend that postion. Spilak is a sure bet to overtake him but Malecki could drop lower.
I will hold you to that, everything is possible for almighty Spilak 
Woohoo gotteeeem
Huge congrats to the big winners of whatever this GC was. I'm happy for ember that Taaramae, as the huge favourite, ended up coming out on top of this whole thing. Malecki's story was cool, and as much as I love Gazelle (big congrats DD! some earlier crap luck should hopefully have evened out now), I truly hope the way this GT unfolded does not become a more regular thing. I assume it's cool to watch from the outside, but I feel like it kinda hurts the dynamics of the MG in the long term.
8th place in the GC is extremely rough honestly. A large chunk of our season depended on Spilak doing his thing here, and obviously that did... not quite happen. Sure he woke up these last couple days (Finestre was a very good performance), but this is the kind of result we were aspiring to get since day 1 with the team we brought here. This is the most disappointing result I got in the MG by far.
Look: I don't wanna come off as a sour loser or something like that, that's not my intention at all let's be clear, and I kinda hate that a lot of this thread feels so negative, because it takes away first of all from the work that has been done by Fabianski in making this race exciting to follow for everyone (he's definitely succeeded - as bad as the AI was here, the race was, in fact, extremely compelling), and I hope it doesn't make people that have benefited from this feel guilty, because I think that's partly how I would feel. That's not how it should be, and if stuff keeps being so random, it's only going to bring the enjoyment of the game down for everyone.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 28-01-2021 12:14
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Similar feelings from me than matt, but I unfortunately don't have Rohan Dennis to fall back to in other races.
It's good to see Reis not having given up completely and being on the attack, but worrying that he cannot even capitalize from that situation when on paper being the strongest rider in the break by far. I hope Hsu can show himself one more time in the sprint for the final stage, but I expect it to go to the break again. Afterwards I'll try to forget this Giro that has started so well for me as quick as possible. |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 28-01-2021 16:43
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A bit worried when I first saw that Nesset is behind a split, but luckily it looks like it won't have an effect. Looks like we have a good amount of riders in that peloton, so unsure if we have anybody left in front...
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| tastasol |
Posted on 28-01-2021 17:01
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A good stage win for Démare to round of the Giro, congrats cio. Not the six stage wins from a couple of years ago, but still a fairly good Giro for him with two stage wins and the Ciclamino.
And big congrats to ember on the GC win! I always enjoy seeing Aker doing well and getting a Grand Tour will always be a highlight in a managers MG-career, I would reckon (as I've never done it myself).
We are very, very pleased with Nesset in 10th place and Iturria in 23rd. We were hoping for Nesset somewhere in the top 20, but all the way up at 10th is a great result for us. Not a huge scoring race, but it was never really going to be that with the lineup we had available.
And to finish off, hats off, chapeau etc etc to Fabianski for some amazing reports. Quality!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 28-01-2021 17:01
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Never checked if Meyer is still in the race, tbh another low Top 10 result for him. Obviously not worth a thing, but at least he had been in the mix for those sprint stages. Surprised to see Demare winning instead of a breakaway. Deserved.
Everything said about Haig, so I'm just going to say thank you, Fabianski, for this huge coverage of a GT. The workload must have been insane! I may not be all-in for too long reports, but the dedication to this MG and the love for details surely deserves nothing else but appreciation.
Congrats to all, who did well.
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 28-01-2021 17:03
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In the end a greatly reported race. Probably one of the best ever. Shikai got 6th which is good enough in the end, and luckily my team was able to finish 8th in the Team GC meaning we just snuck some extra ranking points there as well. Along with the stage win, I cant be too upset about our first GT since returning to the PT, and I think our 2nd best ever. (Or 3rd if we count ToA)
Once again amazing reports, and congrats to everyone that is happy, and commiserations to everyone that isnt.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 28-01-2021 17:12
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Congrats to Aker and Puma for the wins today! Glad a favorite got the jersey in the end.
Huge thank you to Fabianski for truly incredible work. As I've been quarantined in my dorm for my first two weeks back at university, these reports have broken up the monotony and work I've had and offered some entertainment I can count on, even as a completely neutral spectator. For that reason, I have absolutely no problem with the long reports. I've loved them.
AI will be AI and we should have a discussion about that soon. But it was certainly an exciting race to read through.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 28-01-2021 17:15
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Disappointed with the results of our leaders - Van Poppel and Aru. I wasn't expecting miracles, but they've been subpar here.
Still, can't say this was a bad race as we walk away with two stage wins.
Congrats ember and thanks Fabianski for the amazing reports!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 28-01-2021 18:06
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A leadout that justified signing Aregger just for this day.
A Grand Tour like no other, that's for sure. Hundreds of points thrown away, but we leave on a high note.
I'll get around to a more thorough post later.
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 28-01-2021 18:31
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Tour de France Champion
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Thanks for the entertaining reports. We never really had an impact on the race but it was to be expected.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| knockout |
Posted on 28-01-2021 18:40
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Grand Tour Champion
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First of all: Massive applause to Fabianski for outstanding reporting. Immense quality throughout the race. The storylines of the race as well as the success of my team surely contributed to it too but this is easily the Grand Tour i've enjoyed the most.
Then, congrats to ember for winning this race. Taaramae is one of my favourite MG riders so I'm very glad to see him claiming his victory here to cement his standing in MG history. I think he ended up underperformed a bit in terms of scoring due to a lack of stage wins as well as not getting into the leaders jersey earlier but on the other side this kind of scoring would have been acceptable if the startlist would have been tougher and victory is victory. Hopefully it helps them enough in the ranking fight!
The real winner of this Giro has to be Gazelle though. Congrats dd, what an amazing race for you! I was totally fascinated by this race, at the same time cheering for the underdog (that i already liked in the transfer season but didnt target for short term gains. Go figure :P ) and worrying that this might end up biting me at the end of the season as you are definitely back in the race for the top ranking positions now. Kinda wish he would have dropped a bit lower at the end but the rest of the team carried him up the mountains in the end so well. Congrats!
Also congrats to tsmoha, Haig on the podium must feel awesome for you and with him being easily capable to finish a couple of positions lower too this must feel great.
Kritskiy, Barguil and Shikai all finished quite close to what could be expected so their managers should be quite content with the results as well.
Nesset in 10th seems like the biggest overperformer outside of Malecki in GC so Grieg once again scores a bit more than one would have expected so they are not only relying on cobbles and TTs this season.
I'd also highlight ISA who constantly did well via stage results and vd Poel who was way stronger than he had any reason to be :P
Spilak is obviously the biggest underperformer here. I had Generali on my list of PT podium contenders if they deliver constantly like Gazelle last year and happen to have a dominant GT but that thought pretty much died here. I have no idea how someone with those stats in that team can finish a GT behind Chiarello when the race starts with a god damn time trial. For the benefit of the doubt for the AI i'm believing that he punctured on that first week suffer but the AI really played him ugly by not having most of the team (everyone except Talansky?) drop back to lead him back or at least racing more aggressive for the remainder of the race.
Reis another big loser. He is weak enough to "deserve" a higher variance in the fight against those other 79-81 MO guys but finishing 24th is too far below his stats. Hope that those missed points dont end up hurting too much at the end of the season.
Demare added a second stage win in the end to somewhat safe his race with two stage wins, 3 more podiums and the points jersey but i think that he could/should have gone out with 1-2 more stage wins or at least 2-3 more podiums if the peloton wouldnt have done those weird slow-down-when-one-chaser-is-tired stops. Really worries me for the rest of Van Stayens season too.
And then there are obviously those teams that didnt get a single stage podium all race long despite the whole break frenzy we saw. Of those, EA and Vesuvio looked like they had solid stage hunting setups so i feel for those teams too.
Finally, everyone who reads this wall of text, deserves to be on the list of leaders for the waste of time he just had.
Looking at my own team, I must feel very happy about the showing. Chiarello was outstanding all race long. He was always there whenever the favourites showed themselves, often even finished in the front places of the peloton behind the break. As Fabianski wrote, he didnt have a single bad day and was always at least "solid" - in comparison to the bests that is. He didnt join a single break as i hoped he would for the last week but when it is because he is positioned too good in GC, I cannot not be alright with that. His performance here definitely prove that signing him was the right call. And just because its so surreal i want to repeat it again: An Evonik stage racer finished 7th in a GT that started with a TTT.
The second leader we brought here was Eislers and he did quite well too. Considering the low number of mass sprints, i can be very happy with two podiums by him. Hopefully, he will perform like that for the remainder of the season - then i can be very confident that he will deliver in his one prime season next year.
Third Evonik rider that definitely needs a special mention is Budenieks. Very active in the beginning getting a podium result as well as a stint near the top of the GC, KoM and U25 positions and he fought like crazy to hang on as long as possible when he wasnt chasing himself. Getting a top 40 GC result is awesome for him - even beating Vosekalns.
Speaking of Vosekalns: He was the one Evonik rider that disappointed me here. Iirc, he was in 3 breaks so i cant blame his effort but i thought his choice of stages to attack was terrible. When i wanted him to attack, he didnt and when i wanted him to protect Chiarello, he attacked. The only succesful break he entered (?), he also didnt bother to sprint for the stage win for whatever bullshit reason you might come up with. At least, i cant come up with anything reasonable.
The rest of the team did fairly well. Chiarello seemed to have domestiques around him for a long time on most stages. Whether it was Blums, Sergis or one of the earlier mentioned riders changed daily but i am happy with their efforts. Finishing 5th in the team classification speaks for how well the team depth did and is sth i'm sure we never had before here at Evonik in a GT.
Once again, thank you Fabianski for this fantastic Grand Tour coverage. I'm sure it will stay memorable and I'm meaning that in the positive way (unless Gazelle finishes 0-300 points ahead of us at the end of the season) :P
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 28-01-2021 19:25
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Again, Fabianski, thank you a lot for the amazing coverage of the race. It has been the best I've ever seen in my years as a part of this game, and that's definitely not because previous GT coverages have been thin and little, quite the contrary. They've also been brilliant, but this was sensational. Thank you!
Great to get there in the end with Taaramäe A GT win is special, and it's brilliant to see him able to win one this year too. He looked really comfortable in the fight among the GC contenders, but as previously written, it was still the most tense GT I've followed, due to the resistance Malecki and Gazelle put up. Quite a story through the whole Giro, and with Taaramäe managing to get there in the end, I think I'll mostly look back at this Giro and have good thoughts for Malecki's big adventure and heroic performance.
The breakaway bonanza in general was expected going by last season's GT, but the very early breakaway bonanza was a surprise. Thinking strictly ranking points, it obviously hurts us regarding daily GC points and more stage points, but as long as we survive this season, it doesn't really matter for us if we take the points we got or 250-300 points more. If we relegate, it will be a different story, but hopefully we'll be okay. At least it feels like we'll be okay as it stands now 
A lot of teams had a great Giro. Obviously Gazelle has to be considered the big winners seeing what they brought here. Also teams like Evonik, tsmoha's Aussies, Rakuten and Grieg had a huge race. All teams with great GC results, and several of them with good stage placings too. Those things add up in a GT regarding the points. There's also ISA, who it feels like consistently overperforms a bit stage by stage. Well played this transfer season, Scorchio!
The one team at the unlucky end this Giro, has to be Generali, seeing the team and leader they brought here. Very unfortunate to see them have such a bad race after one bad day in the first week.
Also congratulations on the final stage win, cio! Good to see Demare come through and make this a race much better than your worst fears after two weeks. There could, and also should, have been more with more intelligent racing from chasing teams, but you're definitely not leaving empty handed, luckily! |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 29-01-2021 18:21
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Thanks guys, this was a super entertaining and successful Giro indeed.
Despite some strange AI decisions there were still plenty of interesting stories going on and they were expertly brought to life by Fabianski.
Following Malecki's epic battle towards fourth place in a GT was a blast. And the way the entire team helped him through hard moments was awesome.
Obviously I'm also extremely happy with the amount of points scored here. This singlehandedly fixes our awful start to the season. Malecki is the main scorer of course, but there's also Kruijswijk's stage success, the Team Classification and the fact that the entire team finished in the top 55, which adds up.
I like that many different teams enjoyed success at this Giro, with 14 winning at least one stage and 22 at least one podium.
The main congratulations should of course go to our winner: ember & Taaramäe. Kritskiy and Haig also did a great job.
From years of experience with Madrazo I know what it feels like if your big leader underperforms. Spilak finishing 8th is a very bad case of underperformance. Hope that he bounces back in other races, matt.
See you in the Ardennes!
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