Pro-cycling thread

An Italian friend of mine used to bring back some grappa. Pretty good stuff!

@skinny
Gaviria is from a mountainous region of Colombia known as Oriente Aburra, its all at altitude, the climbing is horrendously steep from Medellin, and sketchy as fcuk. No doubt he'll be in the autobus this week. Cav went through similar in the TDF, yet still competed in Paris for sprint wins. Not sure if there are any penalties for arriving late for each mountain stage in the Giro. But I hope Gaviria will be there for the final stage.

Gaviria also made a great comment last year about wanting to be a regular at the spring classics, searching for his inner flem..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9EyryOMrHM

A bit of light rest-day reading:
@jim1985 and I have been doing short daily snippets of Giro history over on the Massif Central blog.. Enjoy.
https://themassifcentral.blog/2017/05/05/giro-100-tales-from-the-corsa-rosa/

Chilly old rest day in the Movistar camp; lots of long sleeve jerseys ;)

It's a Spanish thing. They always overdress when not racing.

Years ago I was at a training camp in Catalonia and we passed a local club out on their Sunday ride. We were all in short sleeves and shorts, they had full winter kit on.

But as a way of identifying doping then wearing long sleeves is 1000% reliable.

That's good to know, thanks.
And there are time limits based on a % of stage average speed. But if he's in groupetto he will be fine.

@andyp @dubtap
This is probably myth, in 2007 where we had our Fireflies rest day in La Grave, French alps we stayed in the hotel spa complex frequented by the US Postal / Discovery Team, signed photos everywhere and the odd bit of merchandise knocking about around reception and in the lounge. Interesting rumour that all of the bedrooms had large pictures above each bed, and that the picture hooks were convenient for holding blood bags while the riders rested. And that all the pictures were put back in haste whenever the UCI turned up..

I think Tao's uncle Michael Geoghegan told us this
/csb

Working from home today. Concentrate on work, or concentrate on the Giro?

crank through work until lunch, then coast along with giro on one screen and work on the other?

Only one answer unless you want to piss off to the 'work' thread.

Quintana has no choice but to show his hand today. But where and when?

Hope this is as good as it promises to be.

You've got until 2 pm before it gets interesting.

Whatever happens today, Movistar are going to ensure the race is as hard as possible as they need Dumoulin to crack before Sunday.

I don't think that's a myth, Al, I'm pretty sure Tyler Hamilton describes this in his book. It's worth a read, just to understand how sordid blood doping is.

Would love to see Quintana bridge across to the breakaway, in a Contador style attack.

With Amador at a good place on GC, they can really force Sunweb to have to work hard. That was a smart move by Movistar.

Amador's GC place is expendable, Sunweb know this.

A lot of teams still want a stage win too, so the likes of Orica, Bahrain-Merida, FDJ and Sky may be willing to cooperate.

That's a good point.

Lots of talk of Dumoulin being the 'new Indurain'. It'll be interesting to see if he's learnt one of Big Mig's greatest tactics; the gifting of wins to buy compliance.

I think he has the humility. We saw him hold up the peloton the other day when Quintana crashed. He seems like a good guy.

Not the healthiest comparison! Hoping Landa gets in the break. Quintana is going to have to put what, 5 minutes into Dumoulin over the next five days?

Nibali is playing down his ambitions which means he'll be trying to hurt Sunweb just as much as Movistar. I know he's got a better squad than previously but it's still no Creeping Death® so I'm still expecting Dumoulin to be totally isolated very early on in the mountains if the pace is as high as can be anticipated.

Dombrowski in the break.

I really think he deserves a win. I fear today will not be the day!

A shame, someone so highly touted, not achieved much, yet.

I already think work has won sadly.

Social media/bike forums blackout, and highlights at 8pm it is then :0( Plus I want to get out on the bike at lunch as well!

I know lots don't like him, but I'd really like Nibali to see put in a decent performance today; the descent to the finish must look appealing and could probably claw back the time he will undoubtedly lose to Quintana on the Umbrail Pass. Maybe even an Italian stage win?
#armchairDS

From an armchair DS on Twitter. Looks solid to me.

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