2013 Giro d'Italia

[Chuck]

Agree with jules, Wiggins form is not an issue, the weather and the descents have gotten into his head a bit. Imho he's still in this up to his ears.

Liking what I'm seeing from Cadel, not just his riding but his whole outlook, feels positive. Like the 2011 Tour I'm trying to temper my excitement, a long way to go and even if form is good luck also needs to play it's part.

[AndyTheMan]

Wiggo rode a strong TT. he wimped it through the technical sections - of which there were many - and got off to swap bikes. and still almost won.

That's a really good point - in the last couple of stages he has been really timid on the descents, probably not helped by a few other riders taking a tumble here and there - and also by his own fall a couple of days back....

But des[ite all his issues in the TT, (including getting a flat and stopping to change bikes)..... he was STILL only about 10 seconds off the pace....

As a side note:

I reckon just the fact that we are on here talking about the race is a good sign!

There are so many opinions this year, and so many possibilties. Wiggins went from being the 'in form' rider to barely keeping up and almost bursting into tears on the descents.....Evans went from barely keeping up to potentially being in a place to have a shot...... a bit of luck, or a strong day by one rider/team and everything changes again ....

Will Wiggins re-gain his composure? Can Nibali hang on to the pink jersey? Will Evans hang on in the mountains and nail the final TT? Has team Sky fallen apart? Will Wiggo and Froome have a punch-up before the TdF starts....

I mean, the TdF last year was so boring, completely dominated by Team Sky in every aspect ... just really didn't inspire me to sit up till all hours watching...

The Giro so far has so many unknowns, so many possibilities, it seems that the picture changes every day - its just brilliant ... and with everyone having their minds on the TdF in a months time, we could be in for some great racing! (throughout both the rest of the Giro and the TdF)

[Walsh95]

There seems to be a lot of bluffing going on this year. I for one have to doubt that Cadel "spontaneously" decided to ride the Giro just as he came into form. Bradley must be slightly annoyed by Froome denying him a chance to defend his crown in the hundredth tour, and so its possible that he's holding something back in the Giro. Contador seems to have slipped in slightly under the radar recently, maybe he's hiding his form? The only person who seems confident enough to have shown his good form up until now is froome...idiot. Marking himself as the favourite in a tour so mountainous and historic must be marking himself as a target like cancellara at roubaix a couple of years ago. When presented with the perfect opportunity to hide behind another's reputation (Bradley) he turned it down. Surely his pride is not so great that he allows it to get in the way of furthering his chances of winning the tour? Whatever happens this years tour seems to be looking in for a far more competitive edge than last years.

[Baldy]

How smooth was Belkov's descending! Very impressive.

[jcjordan]

Bases on how he looked in yesterday's stage andbthe TT it would not surprise me if he is sick.

disagree. Wiggo rode a strong TT. he wimped it through the technical sections - of which there were many - and got off to swap bikes. and still almost won.

his problem yesterday was his lack of descending skills in the wet. these are problems, but not terminal ones.

everyone is getting stuck into Wiggo, when he is clearly in strong form.

Based on his previous TT efforts it was very weak in my opinion.

My main reason for my thinking is based on more on his mental state. He looks cracked already.

Add to this he knows that his team is not strong enough to push the tempo like they did in yhe TDF which means he will have to respond to every attack. This not something he does well and I cat see him doing a Cadel and just building a tempo which gets him back on and rides the other climbers off the wheel.

[MichaelB]

his previous TT efforts it was very weak in my opinion.

My main reason for my thinking is based on more on his mental state. He looks cracked already.

Add to this he knows that his team is not strong enough to push the tempo like they did in yhe TDF which means he will have to respond to every attack. This not something he does well and I cat see him doing a Cadel and just building a tempo which gets him back on and rides the other climbers off the wheel.

+1 to that

[jules21]

Add to this he knows that his team is not strong enough to push the tempo like they did in yhe TDF which means he will have to respond to every attack. This not something he does well and I cat see him doing a Cadel and just building a tempo which gets him back on and rides the other climbers off the wheel.

i still think you're selling Sky short there. they have Henao and Uran for the hills. maybe it's cadel and nibbles who should be worried about being isolated?

[jasonc]

I'd take an isolated nibali over this team sky. cadel is somewhere in between those two.

[clackers]

I'd take an isolated nibali over this team sky. cadel is somewhere in between those two.

Yeah, remember the Tour last year where Nibali and Evans failed with their attacks? But here there's no Rogers, Froome or Porte.

[jasonc]

I'd take an isolated nibali over this team sky. cadel is somewhere in between those two.

Yeah, remember the Tour last year where Nibali and Evans failed with their attacks? But here there's no Rogers, Froome or Porte.

more of a team ground than a team sky.

[ft_critical]

In years gone by you could get full coverage of the stages from YouTube. There seems to be some anecdotal evidence that those paying for the rights are killing that off on YouTube. Whilst I get that I think possibly there should be a statute of limitations or at least those companies Eurosport, Gazetta, should put up more than the pathetic 5min highlight packages onto some media service somewhere.

I ‘watch latered’ some Russian Eurosport coverage but that was taken down…. Dun, dun dah… A few of the saved YouTube names that used to upload cycling say they can’t anymore… Dun, dun, dah….

I have a trainer week this week with the wife O/S so I was all set to watch some of the back stages… nothing. I have had to switch back to Foxtel Sport to record Eurosport. I really wanted to watch the Amalfi stage as I love that area.

No videos on SBS either. Gazetta must be tightly controlling this one.

[ldrcycles]

Just wondering, is it pronounced nibbly or niBAHlee?

[DavidTomic]

Closer to the second one.

http://www.forvo.com/word/vincenzo_nibali/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[find_bruce]

No videos on SBS either. Gazetta must be tightly controlling this one.

SBS have the highlights package you can watch - http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/videos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Only the 5 minute & 30 minute highlight packages though - no full stage coverage though if that is what you are after

[MichaelB]

Wiggo loses more time and Cadel hangs with Nibali, so that's another tough day done.

Wonder if Froomey is smiling just a little ......


On the other hand, if Henao & Uran are wearing themselves out here, will they go to the Tour & still be a good help to Froome ?

[ozdavo]

With Uran being "Allowed" (by Sky) to win the stage, and Wiggo loosing more time & finishing alone; is this evidence team sky has "given up" of this years Giro?

[winstonw]

There's a website called velotorrent or cyclingtorrent or similar if people are looking for full stages.

[TimW]

http://cyclingtorrents.nl/login.php?returnto=%2F" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AndyTheMan]

With Uran being "Allowed" (by Sky) to win the stage, and Wiggo loosing more time & finishing alone; is this evidence team sky has "given up" of this years Giro?

I read some stuff this morning that said that Uran's attacks off the front, might be a tactic by Sky to try and wear out Nibali and Evans...perhaps give Wiggins an opportunity to win some time back later.

IMHO, that tactic would only work if Wiggins stopped losing time ......

Evans keeping up was a good sign - looks like he is playing the game, not letting Nibali get too big a lead ... there is a still a lot of racing left and I guess the plan might be to just keep up/hang on and see whether an opportunity opens up....(next TT? Future attack when Nibali isn't looking?)

Based on the roads, mountains, terrain and weather, if Evans can hang in there then an opportuity might come up later on....

Looks like Wiggo is out of the running though - realistically, you wouldn' want to be continually conceding time to the leaders...

[DavidTomic]

Evans keeping up was a good sign - looks like he is playing the game, not letting Nibali get too big a lead ... there is a still a lot of racing left and I guess the plan might be to just keep up/hang on and see whether an opportunity opens up....(next TT? Future attack when Nibali isn't looking?)

It's still a bit of a shame that Nibali managed to get over the line in front of him and pick up another 12 seconds of time bonus though.

Had their finishing positions been reversed Evans would have only been trailing by 17 seconds, instead of the 41 that he is now.

[biker jk]

Evans keeping up was a good sign - looks like he is playing the game, not letting Nibali get too big a lead ... there is a still a lot of racing left and I guess the plan might be to just keep up/hang on and see whether an opportunity opens up....(next TT? Future attack when Nibali isn't looking?)

It's still a bit of a shame that Nibali managed to get over the line in front of him and pick up another 12 seconds of time bonus though.

Had their finishing positions been reversed Evans would have only been trailing by 17 seconds, instead of the 41 that he is now.

Clearly Nibali had the fresher legs since he had a team mate to pace him up the last steep climb. Again, Evans' team lets him down.

[The_Eggman]

Evans can do fine piggybacking on the Sky riders. No pressure on Cadel or BMC. After all they are focusing on TdF

[jules21]

Evans can do fine piggybacking on the Sky riders. No pressure on Cadel or BMC. After all they are focusing on TdF

i'd suggest Cadel is well and truly shooting for the Giro win now, even if he still has eyes on the Tour.

[AndyTheMan]

Evans can do fine piggybacking on the Sky riders. No pressure on Cadel or BMC. After all they are focusing on TdF

i'd suggest Cadel is well and truly shooting for the Giro win now, even if he still has eyes on the Tour.

I agree, even if you assume that Evans only went into the Giro as a training run/test for the legs or whatever, you would have to think that he would now have one eye on the Giro prize....

It looks like its shaping up to be Nibali vs Evans (over the next couple of days, atleast), with Wiggo seeming to get further behind with each stage....

[The_Eggman]

Bmc squad not deep enuf to cover climbing in both tours