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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| roturn |
Posted on 20-12-2017 06:47
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Thanks for this excellent report SN.
Loved the Aegon/Villella special paired with history from last year, which surprisingly had lots of parallels. 
Great that he tried again and then twice in the end. Was the obvious must-do with him being disadvantaged in the sprint. Pity it didn`t work out but was nice to follow. 3rd is still a pretty good result and the reason, I did send him to his home GT. He really became a nice valuable rider for my team.
Congrats to SotD for this 2nd stage win. |
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 20-12-2017 09:07
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@viking Thailand was amazing in the mountains we went right along the border near Burhma the views were unbelievable would highly recommend it the Hiking isn't too tough either
Not a bad sprint stage again our lead out train seems to be dominant now Boivon just destroys the last lead out on the other teams the last two stage shame it didn't lead to another win but we should be in a great position for the last two sprints |
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 20-12-2017 09:22
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Congratz sotd, couple of great stages for you lately, both here and in Cali!
Really odd and very unfortunate that some top sprinters are absloute no shows. No clue whats wrong with them, as especially Guarnieri have delivered earlier this season.
Now onto hillier stages again. Very eager to see how this brutal mountain stage is gonna pan out!
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 20-12-2017 09:44
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Festina is on fire lately 
Thanks for the awesome reports SN!
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| SotD |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:02
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Thanks guys. Yeah I guess we are... We won the last 4 stages
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:24
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Well, GC battle might be interesting with Alarcon weakness today and the big time loss he had to Morton.
Really great ride from Bongiorno to win the stage and put himself in the GC top5. Also a shame for Vesuvio to just miss out on the stage win by the third day in-a-row, but at least Konig also jumps to a very great GC place
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| SotD |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:36
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We can't be unhappy that we aren't in the decisive break today. Kastrantas tried, but at this stage of the race we can't get top result from breakaway unless we put Vasyliv in it.
Looking at the winners it was a bummer he didn't make it, as he would have made huge progress in the GC, but keeping 20th was the key thing! Only losing Emerson Santos here is good, I guess, although I don't know why he is so poor. He is 63MO and 64HI and have decent backup stats including REC. Stocker survived and he's much worse, so I guess he is injured from a crash o something. I expect to lose Stocker later on.
Kastrantas keeping his top 50 is good, while Bayly and Affonso are also close enough to maybe get a lucky punch.
Huge result for Bongiorno and König moving well inside the top 10. That will surely see them end up in the region of 10-12th in the GC, which must be very satisfying seeing how they were performing prior to this stage.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:43
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First sign of weakness by Alarcon, aswell by the team. Had to expect some bad days aswell so this is fine. Whats worrying me was the lack of domestiques protecting Alarcon throughout the stage and especially in the finally. Hopefully this was just a one off from the team, as half his safe margin went in a couple kms in that final climb.
We also need to be a little more carefull with breaks like, especially so late in the tour!
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| Heine |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:45
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Not really a good stage for us, loosing 2 places and Mattia not looking strong. Need him to do something on the last mountain stages now, and have a good MTT.
Good to see some weakness from Alarcon, he should still win this though. His second GC win, not bad for a rider that can't time trial and a huge pickup for Hugo Boss
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| roturn |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:46
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Congrats Cio and SN and dubbledekker.
Perfect stage for both of you and totally stupid by all other teams to allow such gap...even more by not sending Olivier to do the same and instead even send Boom to support them to gain that time. 
Olivier now in that position means, I highly ask him to do the same now to gain back some positions.
Not really happy with being that far off those 3 lucky GC climbers and hence would love to see Olivier climb back 2-3 spots as 16th now feels too less.
Last week was Aegon week last year in the GTs. Hence expectation is high on the next couple days. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 19:50
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| ember |
Posted on 20-12-2017 10:47
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Must admit that's a somewhat annoying stage, as I fear it speaks for what's rest of the race as well. Had hoped Galta was our guy for such breakaway attempts, especially when strong riders like Bongiorno and König go for it. Suddenly a top 10 overall is basically impossible, as long as Galta doesn't involve himself in the breakaway stuff on mountain stages. Hopefully he'll pick it up towards the end of the race. After all there's a bunch of difficult stages left.
Nevertheless cool to see Bongiorno and cio93 take the win! That result does wonders for their race overall as well, as now they're suddenly looking to get a lot from this race, a lot more than they probably expected.
Also thank you for another high quality report, SN. It was easy to follow the action both at the front and back with the GC contenders, which is always nice. |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 20-12-2017 11:29
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Aquarius97 wrote:
Also a shame for Vesuvio to just miss out on the stage win by the third day in-a-row, but at least Konig also jumps to a very great GC place
Yep, still no wins all season for me, but that doesn't take it away from being a great result.
Do have to feel for the managers of the teams they leapfrogged - riders who've earned the higher positions, but now losing out. Now they've all slotted down, a few of them are surely more likely to make the break on the next mountain stage - but inevitable there'll be some who do not.
But on the other hand - this was exactly what I was counting on from König this race, and the hope that this could happen was certainly a factor in devoting my transfers to targeting riders like him. And no guarantee that future breakaways will be so successful.
I still need to play the final three mountain stages, so don't actually know what happens next at this point. (Shouldn't affect the pace of posting though!) It's all set up for an intriguing battle up front - and some nerves for the other GC positions: they need to attack each other more and earlier, regardless of whether a breakaway is up the road or not, to gain back that time on Bongiorno and König.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 20-12-2017 11:31
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I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I'VE EVER SAID ABOUT THIS RACE
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 20-12-2017 11:33
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Great stage for us not losing any riders should help on the flat stage in two days time hopefully we have enough to bring the break back and Howard can keep showing this form he has |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 20-12-2017 11:38
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Great ride by Morton, but it's a pity it wasn't for a stage-win. It's cool to gain back time on Velits, I hope this wasn't his last good showing in this final week. Stage 20 should suit him much better than Alacorn, e.g.. and I don't want to drop the big guns just to finish 5th on a stage
Enough whining though. Except of the way too big gap for the winning breakaway, this was surely the best day for Morton so far. Dyball made his work, it seems. So of course this has been a promising start into a week, that has to see Alacorn struggling with his rather bad backup stats.
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 20-12-2017 11:40
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Bollocks.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 20-12-2017 11:52
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Ouch, glad there are stages left for Abal to take back his GC position.
But still good he did not loose time to such as Niblai, Cattaneo...
Loosing 3 guy, one of them a leadout guy is not ideal. But no shock when you think of their mountain stat.
Another really important stage next up, hilltop finish, I hope the mountains stat counts a bit otherwise Abal can lose more places.
Thanks once again for great reporting! |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 20-12-2017 17:47
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cio93 wrote:
I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I'VE EVER SAID ABOUT THIS RACE
Came here to see this  Congrats, man. The game was owing you this one!
Impressive consistency o Vesuvio to claim yet another 2nd place. Mildly annoying alright, but this has summed up to be a nice tally.
Great to see a bit o a reshuffle at the top as well. Alarcon still sitting pretty comfy atop all classifications though.
My team though,... I can't blame them for trying, but come one guys, get it together!
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 20-12-2017 20:23
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Awesome! Very happy Kruijswijk joined that break and was able to finish a couple of minutes in front of the peloton. Together with Formolo and Sosnitskiy he's doing a great job propelling us to the top of the team standings.
Hope he keeps attacking.
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| roturn |
Posted on 21-12-2017 08:35
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Good to see a puncheur being sent into a puncheur stage breakaway.
Villella might have even be the better choice I guess but seeing the outcome Boom might have been smarter as mountain stat probably had a bit impact as well.
Must admit I was thinking Boom had it but then was afraid seeing him never attacking late and instead letting others go. So 2nd is fine but unfortunate from that group.
Olivier gaining a little bit time back is good. Not enough though and his hill training was for such stages to gain a bit on pure climbers. Not working yet. Still taking his TTT loss with him which would see him 5 spots better is not ideal but I am confident, that he might get 1-2 spots up still. More only if he decides to join long breaks.
Congrats to ebuddy for this win and thanks SN for yet another thrilling report.
Spoiler Flamme Rouge 
Pity Frison won`t survive the big mountain stages though... |
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