Giro

[Aushiker]

Say What happened ????

Porte, a 25-year-old former swimmer and triathlete, replaced Kazakh veteran Alexandre Vinokourov in pink in a stage won by Russian Evgeni Petrov - celebrating his birthday early as he turns 32 on May 25 - in torrential rain that saw the stage disrupted by a river breaking its banks.

Hi

Do you have more details? Is the suggestion that this caused the split?

Thanks
Andrew

[thomas_cho]

Liquigas are the real losers here. Vino and Cadel' s teams were getting depleted with rider dropping out. With Nibali and Basso riding well, and they almost have a full complement of their team.

Looks like the teams could not broker a deal to chase down the breakaway.

[jules21]

Andrew, from what I read, it just looks like disorganisation on the part of BMC and Astana - failure to organise a chase.

There was confusion right from the gun. When the attacks came, no one really knew what was going on until it was too late.

“We heard over the radio, there were 20 riders gone. We were waiting for the numbers, then we didn’t get the numbers. Then we heard there was another big group of 40 going,” said Astana sport director Lorenzo Lapage. “We didn’t get the numbers of the big group until they had eight minutes, so that was part of the problem.

When the gap was still hovering at 16 minutes at the day’s Cat. 2 Rocarassa climb midway through the stage, it was obviously something was terribly wrong, at least for riders who missed the break.

[Aushiker]

Andrew, from what I read, it just looks like disorganisation on the part of BMC and Astana - failure to organise a chase.

Hi

Thanks for the clarification.

Andrew

[norbs]

Watching a feed last night, the Vino/Evans group kept looking at each other as if they wanted someone to make a decision. The leading group just took off and no one in the main group did anything til it was too late. I heard Astana saying they didn't hear the times until the gap was 8 minutes, but even then you would have thought the Vino/Evans group would have got out of the saddle and went like cut cats. It didn't happen. It was all very confusing.

[Pain Train]

Amazing Giro! Ideally I'd love to see Cadel with 10mins+ on everyone; but this unexpected twist has just opened up so many possibilities, rather than just a Vino/Evans battle in the Mountains. Now Sastre and Wiggins have a sniff and Porte has shown he can climb reasonably well.

Porte has a healthy lead, but do Saxobank have the strength to control the peleton?

[MichaelB]

It will certainly be entertaining now.

Seems that BMC are the only ones not blaming someone else.

Certainly makes it even more important now to have a real crack in the mountains.

Sad thing though is that Evans lost his key climbing assistant Santambogio (sp?) in yesterday's stage.

If he manages to win overall, it will be bl00dy amazing

[toolonglegs]

No one wanted to do the work...hehe. Politics in the bunch is great!. Porte can climb...and now he has the Pink and a good lead, he will dig deep...I wouldn't think he is strong enough to hold it but who knows. BMC wern't exposed for anything,they sent a B team as Cali was a major objective...and they have now lost half their team. Saxo and BMC are probably kicking themselves a wee bit at the moment for not sending stronger teams. But we haven't even got to the really hard stages yet ...there is still some big changes to come.Especially since people now have to risk everything .

[MichaelB]

..... But we haven't even got to the really hard stages yet ...there is still some big changes to come.Especially since people now have to risk everything .

You can say that again. Really looking fwd now to some of the mountain stages.

Wonder if Evans will have to form an alliance of sorts to get working with someone like Cunego/Basso to have a solid break but not contest the stage win and bury the potential competitors such as Vino/Sastre and Arroyo ? As no Italian has won anything yet .....

I'd love to see Porte carry the Pink as long as possible, and this would have to seriously increase his bargaining power for next season.

[jules21]

Wonder if Evans will have to form an alliance of sorts to get working with someone like Cunego/Basso to have a solid break but not contest the stage win and bury the potential competitors such as Vino/Sastre and Arroyo ?

i would have assumed Evans will now look to July, surely?

[toolonglegs]

Wonder if Evans will have to form an alliance of sorts to get working with someone like Cunego/Basso to have a solid break but not contest the stage win and bury the potential competitors such as Vino/Sastre and Arroyo ?

i would have assumed Evans will now look to July, surely?

Why?...he could still win this Giro.The weather is going to improve but the course is going to get harder .Ok it is a big call but one Flandis attack ala 2006 and it all changes again.No strong teams here...and check out some of the stages coming up.
July...no one will beat Contador if he has a good team around him...or even an OK team ...unless he runs out of spare blood .

[sogood]

i would have assumed Evans will now look to July, surely?

July will be a whole lot more pain with the participation of Contador and Schlecks, who are all conveniently absent from the Giro this year. So I am not sure he'll be looking forward to it.

[toolonglegs]

Go Richie

[norbs]

Anyone watching the highlights on SBS 2? Is the picture !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!? And they showed the start, then with 80km to go. What about the important bit?

[Chuck]

How good is it not having a Postal/Discovery/Astana controlling the race, who knows what will happen next

Cadel's not done yet, but this has made it very hard. We know Vinokourov won't die wondering and Cunego and Basso will want to do something on home soil, mouth watering stuff.

Sastre and Wiggins the obvious big name winners on stage 11 but don't forget Arroyo and Tondo.

Aussies are top and tail with Porte and Bobridge, Richie must be pinching himself

It's been a fantastic race so far

[nutsack]

From eurosport comments

How the break happened -
There was­ an aggressive start to the day and the bunch split and­ 25 broke away and then another 25 broke away, on the­ first climb after 20k. It then started raining heavily­ on the descent so the peloton sat up to get their wet­ weather gear, and before anyone had noticed the two­ breakways had grouped and the gap was ten minutes.­

Several of the weaker teams were left in the grupetto­ so the chase wasn't what it could have been. The­ onus was on Astana and BMC to chase, but both had­ already lost several riders out of the back. The­ grupeto was reported to look 'destroyed' by the­ pace and the conditions.

Evans was looking to/blaming­ Vino (as the race leader) to organise the chase, but­ clearly that didn't happen, so at 50 km to go they­ all started to work at the front of the peleton to­ bring it back, but failed.

The peleton were not aware­ that Sastre was in the break till it was too late.­ Sastre is now 2nd fav after Evans with the bookies to­ win the giro, and Vino is now 4th or 5th fav

Stopped to change their clothes ...

[sogood]

Anyone watching the highlights on SBS 2? Is the picture s***?

Yes, it's s*** and so was the weather.

[toolonglegs]

Richie...

“My director Kim Andersen has told me that if I just concentrate on the GC, then the white will take care of itself.”

[AUbicycles]

Love the GC reorganisation for yesterday.

Was does it mean for team Saxobank - is Richie Porte the number 1 man with all other team riders supporting him. I know it sounds like a silly question though the politics of racing are not obvious and it's only just over mid way in the Giro - a lot can still happen.

Go Richie!

[AUbicycles]

Fantastic how the Italian commentators flip out when an Italian rider wins.

[toolonglegs]

Especially when it is Mr Hair Gel himself .

[hannos]

Love the GC reorganisation for yesterday.

Was does it mean for team Saxobank - is Richie Porte the number 1 man with all other team riders supporting him. I know it sounds like a silly question though the politics of racing are not obvious and it's only just over mid way in the Giro - a lot can still happen.

Go Richie!

You would expect the Saxo riders would re-organise and support Ritchie while he has the jersey. If things change and he loses it then they'd likely then resume their regular organisation, assuming Ritchie isn't the best positioned rider.

[JV911]

Double Figures
May 18, 2010
We’re now deep into the Giro, Day 10 in fact, and the cracks are starting to show! Firstly, there was a horrific incident of five of the team’s staff getting on the wrong side of some VERY raw, yet delicious steak, which fortunately didn’t lead to a team-wide outbreak of GIT problems. Thank goodness for Universal Precautions!
Secondly (and as ever, less importantly) the riders are now in the hurt basket pretty much permanently. The racing to date has been through pretty horrific conditions, both weather-wise, and racecourse-wise. Yesterday was a particularly good example of both issues – the boys were riding through a rain squall of significant size, and then found themselves having to ride through standing water all the way up to their pedals. Some called a small river, although I would have called it a creek myself. The boys tend to exagerrate at times! Southern Italy: road drainage and planning are minor details.
We’ve been bopping away with some solid, although not brilliant results, but hopefully today will see a bunch sprint, and hopefully Tyler will be the man at the front of said sprint. True, a lot of “hopefullys” but not unreasonable ones!
The other key event of the race since the last message – Cadel Evans winning one of the most epic stages of Giro history with the coolest tactic of all: ride them all off your wheel! All of the boys crossed the line absolutely caked in mud (it was a race over clay roads for 17 of the final 20km), freezing cold, exhausted, and all saying they were happy they had finished it so they could say they were in the race THAT day. Pretty cool. Dave Millar dragged himself up to third overall on that day too.
We’ve got 16km to go today, so that’ll be all he wrote.
GO TY!

United Nations of Awesome
May 19, 2010
Boombah! Or, as we like to pretend that the Italians say, Opahhh!
So the last post I put through (earlier today) was 16km from the finish, and included a series of “hopefullys” all of which came to pass, meaning we won today! A great result for the team, and a super performance by the team.
We knew that the finish was a little tricky, so got as much info back to the big bosses on the road as we could, meaning that the boys could plan their attack well. With big drives from Aussie wunderkind, and loose cannon, Jack Bobridge for large parts of the early stage to help control the break, we then had Canadian hard man Svein Tuft not only assist Jack in controlling things, but also driving the race so hard that it was too fast for people to make decisive moves.
Then came the icing on the cake: Murilo Fischer, Brazil’s finest export since Giselle Bundchen, took the pace to the next level, so even indecisive moves became impossible, and gave our final three bullets a good platform to do their work. David Millar then drove the race for well over a kilometre at warp speed (that’s over 60kph without an engine, on the flat for those who don’t understand the technical parlance) through a couple of decidedly dicey chicanes and corners (kudos to the recon crew!) (Love a self-congratulatory back pat)
And then came the cherry on the icing on the cake! Julian Dean, cult hero for the third of the New Zealand population who live in the UK, who account for the mystery “other third” of the whole Kiwi population (there are equal numbers of New Zealanders in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs (particularly Bondi), Europe and New Zealand for those who don’t know) hit out for home up the hill, into the wind and around a tight corner. He was preparing things for our token bloodnut, the American sprinter and genuinely good bloke Tyler, but was doing such a good job that he left the whole field behind. With 200m to go, it looked like Jules was half a chance of pinching the win himself. Tyler certainly thought so, because he was looking around so much I had to treat his neck this evening for whiplash (not really). Eventually it became obvious that Jules wasn’t quite going to make the line without being caught, so Tyler powered ahead to take the win, with an Italian second, and Jules third.
So there you have it: an Aussie, a Canuck, a Brazilian, a Pom and a Kiwi all combined brilliantly so an American could beat an Italian! Complete gold.
The next stage is a ludicrous 270-odd kilometres, and is particularly lumpy. After the previous heroics, we’ll see what our boys can muster. Hopefully Irishman Dan Martin can get himself in a break and do some damage. We shall see.

[toolonglegs]

Still 25,000 meters of climbing left in this years Giro... .

[AUbicycles]

JV911, where is that from? Couldn't see the reference.