Giro d'Italia 2014

There is a nice account of a fan riding Stelvio this morning here:
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/page/latestnews?id=128623#.U4UcxpRdV7U

How many Brits have won stages in this year's Giro? How many have worn the Maglia RAussie?

There's only one Brit in the race. He may yet win a stage, he's come close already. And he took a dose of HTFU yesterday, coming in with Basso and Pellizotti.

is that the same moto guy as this one? then he's probably in for some trouble. at least that's what Lefevere's aiming for

Roche in the Irish Independent says they heard the race was neutralised so stopped at the top to put on some clothes. Some didn't. Said they figured they'd catch those who didn't easily since the race was neutralised.

I'm not sure I get this. Is he saying he thought they could take some time off the bike and no one else could continue to ride off ahead at a pace beyond that which they couldn't make up?

It's an unholy mess and, like all good Italian polemicas, everyone has an agenda. Roche rides for Tinkoff-Saxo, who were one of the losers yesterday as Majka lost time to Quintana, Rolland and, to a lesser extent, Hesjedal so he's going to say they thought the race was neutralised.

Quintana, on the other hand, gained the most from yesterday so he's being all innocent and saying he heard nothing about a neutralisation, was just following the wheels and just happened to find himself 2 mins ahead of the Maglia Rosa group at the foot of the descent. The stories from Rolland and Hesjedal are remarkably similar.

Uran is being quite level headed, saying he thought the race was neutralised but didn't stop, took the descent at a fairly quick pace and didn't realise Quintana was ahead until they got to the bottom and his DS told him. Meanwhile, his team principal, Patrick Leferve has threatened to get lawyered up and go to CAS to resolve this as it's unfair. (Leferve threatening to get the lawyers in is a cycling equivalent of Joe saying he's going down the Regent for a pint, i.e. a near daily occurrence).

The issue is that the organisers were less than clear in their communications to the teams and, more fundamentally, there is no accepted standard for neutralising a race so it was chaotic. In chaos, some gain and others lose.

http://inrng.com/2014/05/the-fog-of-war-stelvio-giro/

This is my reading (please correct if way off base): They (well, Uran) lost a minute on a descent because they got off their bikes expecting those who didn't stop to be slowed down by a neutralisation, thus expecting the neutralisation to affect those who road on, but not themselves. That didn't happen (and I'm not sure it's really in the spirit of a neutralisation to use them tactically like that? Plus, if they knew Quintana was ahead they were being a bit silly). Quintana then put another 3 minutes into them after the descent. Now they're pissed.

Sounds like Rolland (who I really hope can knock Evans off the podium - I like Evans but would like to see Rolland get there), Ryder, and Quintana were just smarter and better riders on the day?

I don't think they were smarter. It was a confusing situation and no-one quite knew what was going on, but it's clear that some riders were under the impression that the race had been neutralised, which means it'll be stopped, then re-started with the gaps as they were at the time of the stoppage. Which would've meant Cataldo would be clear on his own, then the rest of the maglia rosa group should have started together.

RCS are saying there was no neutralisation, but telling riders that there would be motorcycles with red flags which they shouldn't pass for safety reasons sure as hell sounds like a neutralisation to me. The official Giro twitter account released a tweet saying that the Stelvio descent was neutralised, later deleted, so clearly many in the organisation thought the race was neutralised.

It's that lack of what was meant that's causing the issue, not so much the actions of the riders.

Amusingly, Leferve has just called Unzue, Quintana's director at Movistar, a liar though.

None.

ftfy

But what confuses me is Roche explicitly saying they'd use the neutralisation to catch up to those on the descent. That sounds like a tactic that back fired. Neutralisation does not mean stop and have a cup of coffee (although they fucking deserved it). Any gaps formed while that was happening are legit.

Sounds like Rolland (who I really hope can knock Evans off the podium - I like Evans but would like to see Rolland get there),

Don't like Rolland since his Cortisol shenanigans. He can do one.

A proper neutralisation would stop the race, then transfer the riders to the restarting point, then restart the race, reference last year's Milan San-Remo as an example. So that is probably what Roche was expecting, either way, stopping to put on a jacket before a long descent in those conditions was sensible.

Ah. I read it as him expecting the motorcycle to slow down those ahead to a pace which would make them easy to catch up to.

The only thing I'm slightly annoyed about is that it probably put the kybosh on some slightly more attacking racing. Would have been nice to see Quintana have to attack the favourites.

That said - it was still pretty bloody entertaining.

Ben Swift finished 25th yesterday. Unbelievable effort to come in ahead of Samuel Sanchez and half of Movistar's climbers.

It's ok though it's not like Quintana is rubbing it in by putting on as much pink as possible or anything.

Umbrella girl to Quintana: "It looked better on Matthews."

The outcome of the team directors squabble stand up meeting this morning is a proposal that Quintana (plus presumably Rolland, Hesjedal et al) are docked 55 seconds, presumably for passing the motorbike with the red flag.

Team managers meeting to discuss the events on the Stelvio

edit oops should have refreshed.

You need to post a later picture when Oleg Tinkov turned up, in full kit wanker mode, and started shouting the odds.

A circus has lost its clowns

Well this all as clear as mud, or should that be the fog at the top of the Stelvio?

Should the Vuelta and Giro swap places?

Evans to be given the jersey, just because.

The outcome of the team directors squabble stand up meeting this morning is a proposal that Quintana (plus presumably Rolland, Hesjedal et al) are docked 55 seconds, presumably for passing the motorbike with the red flag.

Srsly? If so...wow that's lame.

You need to post a later picture when Oleg Tinkov turned up, in full kit wanker mode, and started shouting the odds.

Ha! Surreal. Links please if anyone finds any.

The outcome of the team directors squabble stand up meeting this morning is a proposal that Quintana (plus presumably Rolland, Hesjedal et al) are docked 55 seconds, presumably for passing the motorbike with the red flag.

Like you say: a proposal.

All the DSs need to listen to official channels only and carefully and quit bashing the race director.