Giro d'Italia - Discussion
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jandal7 |
Posted on 19-12-2022 00:45
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World Champion
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Absolutely brilliant ride from the hero Dion Smith, love it! And PHL looking mighty already.
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."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
5x x5
2x x2
2x x2
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OlegTinkov |
Posted on 19-12-2022 04:08
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Small Tour Specialist
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Really pleased so far with our team here in Italy, too bad the group behind got the same time as Sivakov, but being so close to the podium after 9 stages is already great news. Lecuisinier will probably win this race but hopefully Madrazo, Oomen, Barguil, Hirt, Bernal, Galta, Meintjes and Sivakov will make this race entertaining for the other podium places.
Also great reports Ulrich Ulriksen; perfect amount of information and really nice screenshots.
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ember |
Posted on 19-12-2022 05:49
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Galta doing GC rider things he has never done before as a proper GC rider and not a stage hunter. Cool to see!
PHL as expected the strongest, but the GC is still very, very close. 6 riders on 2 minutes and 10 on 3 minutes means this is still an open race for the podium spots, assuming PHL runs away with the maglia rosa.
For us, great to see us put both Amezawa and Van Poucke in the breakaway. Seeing the breakaway riders, I really thought Amezawa should win that stage, or at least fight for KoM points. Must admit I'm surprised he did neither, surely a very bad day, which makes 3rd on the stage probably the best we could get. At least we tried, now we need to go again. |
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Ollfardh |
Posted on 19-12-2022 07:38
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Good effort after that poor TT!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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SotD |
Posted on 19-12-2022 07:45
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Playing it aggressively is far better than passive, and 2nd is a very nice result from Giannoutsos, although the massive loss from Mavrikakis hurt more that Giannoutsos gained in terms of points. Having both pretty far back in the GC - but not ultimately lost in terms of a decent GC could be a good thing though.
First points for us here - it was about time, but nice to see. Smith was just a tad too strong for Giannoutsos here. Congrats!
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SotD |
Posted on 19-12-2022 07:56
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Croatia14 wrote:
Not the best of days for us. We had the numbers with 3 of the Top 6 guys at some point in the race, but we didn't play it smart sadly. Tao also looking more time than we hoped for is not good either. Still we were greatly visible which is nice, and against GT break hunting legend Smith and another Greek on steroids you can't do a lot if they are on one of these days.
It's the first time ever his steroids worked according to his stats though
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cunego59 |
Posted on 19-12-2022 08:02
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Aw man I got worried when I saw Madrazo isolated and not particularly well positioned early, but it's still a big disappointment. I can't figure out what the problem is, either. His hill and acceleration stats aren't great, but no worse than a Galta or Bernal, Oomen just 1 hill stronger. And Madrazo's physical stats are also up there. Team support hasn't been great, but that's true for other contenders as well. Maybe I'm missing something.
If he continues like this, maybe he'll be a breakaway guy in the final week, which is certainly not what I expected (and still unlikely), but would at least be fun. Speaking of, I got a good chuckle out of "K leads the letters with 6 riders". Great report in general Ulrich, balancing the GC and stage win races, thanks for that! And congrats to Bikex, Smith is just such a perfect rider for GC breakaways.
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SotD |
Posted on 19-12-2022 08:46
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Maybe his low FL isn't helping either. I think he spends quite a lot of energy, throughout a race, and when he then also have a low FIG and DH stat, he doesn't really relax ever if the pace is just reasonably high. I would suspect though that tomorrow should suit him well. Another day with only up/down and where his resistance and recuperation can make it work for him, could be his day.
I hope so atleast
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knockout |
Posted on 19-12-2022 09:51
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Grand Tour Champion
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Good stage, particularly good to have gotten quite a big gap to Madrazo already. I'm not too happy about letting the break get away with it but might have been a reasonable decision to not get involved with chasing too early on such a brutal profile at the start of back-to-back-to-back mountain top finishes.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!
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Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 18:43
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cunego59 |
Posted on 19-12-2022 13:33
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SotD wrote:
Maybe his low FL isn't helping either. I think he spends quite a lot of energy, throughout a race, and when he then also have a low FIG and DH stat, he doesn't really relax ever if the pace is just reasonably high. I would suspect though that tomorrow should suit him well. Another day with only up/down and where his resistance and recuperation can make it work for him, could be his day.
I hope so atleast
You'd hope that +2 mountain would make up for -2 flat compared to someone like Galta, but that's an explanation I hadn't considered before, maybe you're right. And hopefully you're right about the prediction for tomorrow, too
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Imladrik |
Posted on 20-12-2022 08:06
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Who said nobody would chase for Lecuisinier? x)
If there were any morale effect in PCM, that victory would be crushing for the opposition.
Thanks Ulrich for the entertaining reports (and Isostar to for the race animation) |
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Croatia14 |
Posted on 20-12-2022 08:43
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What the fuck was that tactic??
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Ollfardh |
Posted on 20-12-2022 08:53
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If only that time trial went better..
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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cunego59 |
Posted on 20-12-2022 09:05
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Happy to see that Madrazo can indeed still be competitive. Almost three minutes on Bernal might be too much already, but at +1'50 to third place, the podium is still theoretically within reach. That being said, if SotD's theory on the impact of the flat stat is correct, the next three mountain stages could be very painful again
Congrats knockout, this seems to be the walk in the park that could be expected before the race. If PHL continues to collect stage wins, this could be one mighty points haul.
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knockout |
Posted on 20-12-2022 09:07
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Who needs an own support team when you can just recruit another team and then send Lecuisinier flying up the mountain on his own
Croatia14 wrote:
It's a runaway startlist for Lecuisinier, but that could also be a problem for him, as why would any team help with the chase.
Thanks for the stage win!
2nd mountain stage, 2nd strong showing and also the first stage win. Things are going well so far. Bit unfortunate that both KoM and points jersey seem secure on Demare and Smith but its more inportant to properly control the gc. Makes controlling the race a lot easier on future stages too since we can more easily let certain second tier leaders ride / force other teams to chase. So far so good
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!
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ember |
Posted on 20-12-2022 09:16
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That was very, very good from us! Just a pity Isostar decided to act as Lecuinisier’s domestiques, if not, it would have been another stage podium for Amezawa. Still, great to see him go for mountain points, really hope he can continue doing so on the mountain stages, and maybe even put up a fight there against Smith.
Congratulations on the first stage win, knockout! Good to see him already mark his authority on this race. |
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Croatia14 |
Posted on 20-12-2022 10:20
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knockout wrote:
Who needs an own support team when you can just recruit another team and then send Lecuisinier flying up the mountain on his own
Croatia14 wrote:
It's a runaway startlist for Lecuisinier, but that could also be a problem for him, as why would any team help with the chase.
Thanks for the stage win!
Hope you return the favor at some point later I'll hand you the adress to send a Pizza soon
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Bikex |
Posted on 20-12-2022 11:29
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My apologies for not having commented so far. I really enjoyed all the reports, thanks Ulrich! So far the race is going very well with both of my Kiwis having won a stage already. On top of that there are two second places. One of them from Mano who I just brought for the two TTs and he seems to deliver, only beaten by his team mate and surprise winner Bevin in the first one.
It's very good to see that Smith still is able to perform this way. Last season I had him more as a domestique for Roglic and Reis. With the former having declined and the latter having been sold, Smith can race for himself again and repays the trust put in him. The gap in the KoM standings is already huge, I hope he does not relax with that in mind and keeps trying.
Roglic is here for the GC and I believe this is the GT I put my top 10 goal on. With that in mind I hope he can up his performance a bit. The first hilly stages already showed that he is present and willing to attack, so I'm optimistic we'll see something from him still. |
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roturn |
Posted on 20-12-2022 14:50
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Not sure what the team is doing there.
First mountain stage, no one in the break when the team has 4-5 climbers supposed to do so. Goos obviously too high placed at that point. Carboni/Ciccone really should have done so.
Todays mountain stage, Vanesevant in the break...better than no rider I guess, but he would be no.6 only just beating the 2 sprinters.
In the end different to the first, the GC riders made it to the finish first, though it would have been in the mix again for the top spots in case of Carboni. Two missed opportunities and most important not getting into the KoM battle this way.
Goos in 17th now slowly a rider in the range of going himself I guess.
Carboni 28th and 17min down should have gone already and is so far really not showing a lot here.
Hopefully the 2nd half can turn it around as so far it`s close to a 0 pointer despite having Groenewegen here, who on paper should do decent but the missing train is hurting him, which goes on me.
Congrats knockout for the win. Lecuisinier looking solid here.
And thanks for the nice report alongside sorry for my unregular comments here. Final 2 busy weeks for me, then it should improve again luckily. |
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alexkr00 |
Posted on 20-12-2022 15:34
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Good to see both Schelling and Conti trying. Too bad neither is strong enough to actually do anything useful points wise
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