Giro d'Italia 2014

Right old back and forth between Aru and Arredondo...

who promptly sprays champers all over the podium girl in celebration lol

Alonso was at the finish with a fist full of contracts.

^^ Deignan.

I meant in gc.

Ah. Rolland.

Right old back and forth between Aru and Arredondo...

Duarte and Arredondo. Aru was with the Quintanna group until late.

Bad luck, Evans. Where did Ryder roll in?

He was strong. I think he's 7th in GC now?

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Giro_d_Italia_2014_Stage_18_General_Classification

Click next to the yellow jersey icon (top left) for stage results.

Cheers!

I know it's been said by others already, but we're it not for that TTT crash...

Such exciting.

Deignan has been pretty impressive all in all. Always suspected he was finished when he dropped out of the big boys' league.

Is Pierre Rolland starting to grow up? Still wastes too much energy on silly attacks but suddenly climbing up the GC and being a bit more measured.

He's taken all the risks and 'wasted' as much energy as ever with his usual super aggressive racing (remember stage 8).

No single GC team has really dominated so it's been a good race for sneaky breakaways, mountain pirates, freelance chancers and Bardiani!

Poor cuddles.

Nail in the coffin. Shame.

^ this in spades. Cuddles is an excellent dude and it's sad to see him dropping away.

On the other hand Ryder hesjedal has taken up the mantle of gritting your teeth and turning yourself inside out. Great to watch.

Giro d'Italia 2014 - Stage 18 - Rifugio Panarotta - YouTube

There was a good 10 mins of battle on the front of the race prior to ^this with De Gendt being caught by Duarte, Arredondo and Pellizzotti and each and every one of them taking chunks out of each other.

Such racing!

Great account of Stage 16 from Nico

I think that puts it into perspective, not comfortable with what went on there at all.

the Giro this year and the Vuelta last year have been great sporting entertainment without some top names and full strength teams and i'll be honest no great anticipation from me for either event. this really is a fun sport to follow :)

The Tour route this year is so climb heavy that Quintana may never get such a good shot at victory. It's a shame that Movistar prefer to back Valverde, a man who has never really shone at the Tour, doped or not.
I still think that Valverde's basically a one-day rider who owes his wins in multi-day races to censored

censored

Ryan Giggs?

Shhhhhh ...

Unlike in a standard ITT, where by you have to remain a certain distance from the passing rider because of aerodynamic advantages, do the same rules apply for a mountain time-trial, despite there being little-to-no aero benefits, with the intention to hang on for pacing benefits?

Yeah you can't sit behind Evans, laughing. Unacceptable.

You have to ride off their line. Always.

There are always aero benefits.

^ this in spades. Cuddles is an excellent dude and it's sad to see him dropping away.

while I always enjoy cuddles' never say die attitude and gurn, he's never come across as an 'excellent guy'. Doesn't seem fun or particularly insightful about much, apart from being a bit bitter and chippy. Still, he's a pro cyclist and not my neighbour, so...
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Until Eurosport goes live

http://skysport.tv/update/snone.php