Giro D'Italia 2013

Betancourt gunning for 2nd again....

Betancur going for 2nd!!

ah, irony...

fucking well done.

betancourt valiantly scooping 1st runner up position and young rider jersey.

Jesus. Cycle up a fuck-off mountain in the snow and when you finally cross the line all you get is blasted with U2 for your troubles. Disappoint.

visconti did good. my legs even ached just watching that.

Riders coming up with no gloves or arm warmers, can't have been that bad. Lack of aggressionfrom Cadel and Uran, or maybe they just couldn't have attacked.

Out most of the day, had set Virgin box to record Giro, Virgin box failed- anyone know where I can view highlights/the race?

http://ilovecycling.net/

nibbles is very impressive - riding the race like a boss too

http://ilovecycling.net/

Cheers, it's not up there yet, but hopefully soon.

cyclingtorrents.nl (login / registration required), and the Pirate Bay usually have recorded streams.

I was very impressed with Evans today. He didn't seem to have any trouble with Nibali. Astana rode a surprisingly strong stage today which kind of tamed the final. E.g. Scarponi's usual half-hearted attack was easily neutralized.

Also great to see Visconti's brave riding paying dividends.

Visconti bought himself a place in the annals with that ride.
Love to see Cuddles do a TT like the one that won him the tour...

Always a rest day when my manager isnt in. Curses.

Riders coming up with no gloves or arm warmers, can't have been that bad. Lack of aggressionfrom Cadel and Uran, or maybe they just couldn't have attacked.

Can't have been that bad? You're joking right? Galibier summit is freezing in July when it's 40 degrees in the valley.

That climb is hell - 7k of endless ramp, followed by switchbacks, more ramp and more steep - 19k overall, or 20 if they had the top cleared. I'm not surprised riders were sans gloves by the end - doesn't mean it wasn't bad.

lots of armchair riders in this here thread (myself included) but loved yesterdays stage.
Thought Betancur could have taken the win, jumped off the front than seemed to run out of puff, played silly buggers with the small group that caught him before taking 2nd again. Was looking forward to the celebration. He's got a stage win in him, just not sure when.

Stage was wicked hard, and there's more of that to come, really hoping the weather doesn't fuck with the mountain stages to come...

Can't have been that bad? You're joking right? Galibier summit is freezing in July when it's 40 degrees in the valley.

That climb is hell - 7k of endless ramp, followed by switchbacks, more ramp and more steep - 19k overall, or 20 if they had the top cleared. I'm not surprised riders were sans gloves by the end - doesn't mean it wasn't bad.

But not bad enough for them to neutralise the stage, that's my point. And as you and I know you generate a lot of heat while climbing hard and there's no wind chill to cool.

I know the flipping climb is tough and cold, but again the conditions didn't warrant the go-slow at the start of the stage. It looked far worse the day before.

what the hell was that little snow-hamster they showed on eurosport with 15 to go??

it looked like a George Lucas invention.

It's a marmot - they're sort of a mascot for the Savioe region of France. I think they were endangered at some point, but not anymore.

^^^ the go slow was a dirty protest, no? Pretty much the whole Giro has been in shite conditions.

Not sure: I just turned on the telly yesterday and they were talking about the race being neutralised and I was like 'on the mother-flippin' Galibier? They having a laugh?' then everyone attacked and it was happy days again. It just seemed daft since the conditions apart from the final climb looked pretty idyllic. That was the context of my post saying it didn't look that bad.

I probably got the wrong end of the stick, usually do

I dunno - the break was on, but the peloton let them stay away and didn't look like they were bothered until the Telegraph really. I guess no-one was in the mood to attack.

To be honest, I'm finding it all a bit boring. I hope someone actually attacks Nibles.

Evans tried (I *think *it was an attack) late on a Galibier, but I think Nibali is too strong.