Giro D'Italia, who'll be wearing pink in the first grand tour?

[weeksy]

After yesterdays rest day, it's game on again.

[weeksy]

Here's a question then.

Has this Giro been a little weak/easy in terms of competition anyway for Bernal and INEOS ? Missing some of the people like Pogacar and Roglic for example has made this one a bit easier ? Obviously it's been tough in terms of weather.... but it hasn't exactly been a Vuelta in terms of days of climbing has it ?

[weeksy]

Bit of an explosion by Yates on Bernal just after i posted that question LOL.
General Classification after Stage 17
1 BERNAL, Egan (IGD) 71:32:05
2 CARUSO, Damiano (TBV) + 2:21
3 YATES, Simon (BEX) + 3:23
4 VLASOV, Aleksandr (APT) + 6:03
5 CARTHY, Hugh (EFN) + 6:09
6 BARDET, Romain (DSM) + 6:31
7 MARTINEZ, Daniel (IGD) + 7:17
8 ALMEIDA, Joao (DQT) + 8:45
9 FOSS, Tobias (TJV) + 9:18
10 CICCONE, Giulio (TFS) + 11:06

Todays looks far more controllable by INEOS in terms of the GC, i expect they won't be spending too much time on the front, if any... If they do, it'll be Ganna the beast powering them along.

[Dodgy69]

When's the TDF. ?

[weeksy]

When's the TDF. ?

26th June.

[chutzpah]

I haven't been here a few days but to answer your previous question @weeksy (and answering it before yesterday) I guess it's the old cliche that you have to beat what's on the road with you. And to be fair, there's a few solid names there, plus before this no-one knew if we'd see the Bernal of old.

Back to answering it post yesterday's stage (which was an absolute belter, had to do work stuff with 7km to go so made sure I watched it from that point an hour or two after the finish), Bernal says he suffered for not recceing it and he's done a few big efforts over the last couple of days. He definitely did pick up a bit on the last few km where it got a bit steadier but we'll have to see what damage it has done. I think if he just plugs away he'll have the time in hand.

[Ditchfinder]

Big question is Bernal's back - yesterday was the first long and lumpy stage so arguably the biggest test.

Maybe he got punished for those 2 vanity attacks on the Zoncolan and the shortened stage where he appeared to make big efforts but didn't take massive time. If Yates hadn't had a bad day in the cold it would be twitchy bum time I think.

There will be a few angry riders pissed off at whoever (Evenopoel?) caused the crash before the last climb yesterday which should motivate them to get in the break again.

[chutzpah]

I can't help being a nerd... but I also find tracking time gaps over time a good way of keeping an eye on who's climbing and who's going backwards. Especially for spots lower down the pecking order. Annoyingly even procyclingstats don't show the data like this.

Easy to forget from the pictures that Caruso only made 3 seconds up. Maybe they were vanity attacks but he took more time out of Caruso with them then he lost yesterday

Giro.png (103.8 KiB) Viewed 760 times

Edit: nice summation from Inner Ring at inrng.com:

Bernal had a wobble, not a disaster, Yates gained less than a minute and is still over three minutes down. At this rate Yates needs three more summit finishes and there are only two left. But seeing Bernal in distress is like a scene from a nature documentary when the lead beast of the herd starts limping, it gives rivals all sorts of ideas.

[Ditchfinder]

Fair point, it's a shame Caruso couldn't finish him off yesterday and towed him home after he cracked. If Caruso hadn't done that I think he would have lost more time to Yates

[weeksy]

Uppy bits but i think INEOS and Bernal will be fine today

[Ditchfinder]

Shorter stage today so should be some nice aggressive racing. Think it's a battle for the podium places today and then wait and see how it shakes out in the Time Trial.

I can see Almeida having a big dig to test Caruso and Yates, I think Carthy needs a glory day as he is probably the weakest TT'er of the top 10

[chutzpah]

Worthwhile giving this another airing I think.

Bernal still not in a bad position, he only lost time really to Yates (not really counting Almeida here based on how far back he is), and it was a small amount at that. I think at worst his upper edge has dropped off a little, but hasn't fallen off a total cliff. He's not at his best but still better than most of the field.

Yates' attack wasn't even enough to get up to 2nd on the podium but at least he got the stage and a sponsors shot. Makes you wonder what it may have been like if he didn't have a few issues early on in the face.

I left Evenepoel on to give Almeida's performance a bit of perspective. He basically started regaining time once it was clear Remco was beyond saving - but of course he'd lost the time on the cold wet stage 4 early on. I'm not sure if you read the interesting piece Cycling Tips did, all conjecture of course as they make clear https://cyclingtips.com/2021/05/what-if ... evenepoel/

Can I also highlight the continued performance of Martinez. I think he's been the very definition of a super domestique so far in this Giro

Edit: I'll just add, it's not even that Bernal only lost time to Yates and Almedia. Save those two he put time on all others in the top ten, which I think needs to be remembered

[weeksy]

Martinez and of course Ganna in different ways have both been awesome.

It made me laugh as they were talking about Bernal having a bad day, but we'll, it wasn't really was it. Sure he didn't win the stage but he's still relatively in control here and it'll take a mighty effort from someone to take the overall.
I also wonder if he used a bit of brains too and once he'd pulled the main 2/3/4 group back, saw Yates as not a threat so didn't go all in to catch him, because, well, what's the point. Keep it steady and save that extra edge for tomorrow.

[chutzpah]

I think my edit came just after your post, but absolutely. I didn't see a Bernal digging ridiculously deep today. It looked quite measured, especially how they brought the second group back (then passed).

Ganna is a machine, there's a special on him today on the Cycling Podcast: https://thecyclingpodcast.com/episodes/ ... ng-podcast Would love to see him tackling some classics

[Ditchfinder]

The way ganna and puccio went back to the second group after the split on the descent to pull Martinez back up to main group was ridiculous.

[Bigyin]

Ganna and Martinez have really shown just how good they are in this Giro ....... yet again Ineos have domestique riders(for Martinez especially) capable of leading a team in GC of Grand Tour races

[weeksy]

Didn't get to see today's race but just seen the results

[Ditchfinder]

Good to see Caruso take the stage but Martinez was another level today