Pro-cycling thread

Loved the classic counter from Froome today. Then the complete lack of nous as he powered the two riders above him on GC to the line.

4% final km.

That's the point. He's doing 100w less than them, so he will haemorrhage time. Being 55k to 70kg.

Well done for Pozzo keeping up with Poels, Dumoulin and Froome, thought he’d be distanced by that group.

What should he have done after instead?

Great final! Still, tough days ahead for Tom.

The onus was on Dumoulin to take time. Invite him through, then chip him for a few seconds on the line?

Maybe Yates went too deep in the TT considering how hard (apparently) they went on what was supposed to be a "breakaway" day?

but with that logic shouldn't they be more tired out by the time they reached the final km anyway?

And Yates took a load of time on a lowish gradient finishing climb on stage 15. And Pozzovivo was fine today, despite the fact he weighs less than your average 10 year old.

Yates was either on a bad day, or his form is waning. We'll find out tomorrow.

The big one for me is when Yates couldn't follow Wellens, Teuns , Carapaz and the Izagirre brothers at this years Paris Nice, I'm not sure he's quite there yet to go the distance.

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This is interesting;

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Good call

French commentators now tipping Dumoulin based on today... i cannot convince myself Dumoulin will cope with Fenestre as well as even a shagged out Yates-the length and the average gradient as well as the unpaved bits are just sapping, I find it more plausible that Froom will go on a huge raid and be in pink

I was following live text. I expected Tom to be better today maybe not by quite so much hard for me to know Yates state but he only needs to track Tom now.

Yep all bookies have Dumoulin favourite now.

I'm going to wack a few quid on the Froome dog at 25s

3:20!? Brave! Where have you seen 25s??

I've still got hope in Pozzo

Was on a few of them on odds checker half hour ago bit think people have been lumping on as all down to 17s now

I just noticed this myself, still... Put Poels in the break and Froome could follow. Don't think he has been playing possum so much as riding himself into form late to try and preserve his peak for the TDF

It was guitar a steady gradient. Not a climbers climb so to speak.
Yates was also clearly tired. And lacking a lieutenant.

Mikel Conde made an interesting point, maybe nobody in the peloton believed Yates could be tired and possibly be beaten on a climb and thus did not bother to try and attack earlier;

“Hats off to @georgenbennett. It was his attack that disrupted FDJ's monotone pace and caused the following attacks amongst the GC favorites when they (too late) realized that Yates wasn't on his previous space-cowboy level. Next two days should be fun. #Giro101”

My current feeling is that any of the top 4 could win it. Gaps on GC could be significant tomorrow if the racing starts early, and there are enough riders who look to be in form that are motivated to attack.

Do you think MS just didn’t expect an attack or thoughy that if there was going to be one Yates would be able to follow it OK? He really could’ve done with Haig et al by his side. Hopefully they’ll be rested for tomorrow, I’m sure there will be some anxious pillow talk tonight. Going to be an interesting couple of stages to come. Rooting for Yates but fully expect some dystopic SkyWeb machinations to come in full force

Will Yates regret gifting Chavez that win? Could it be that close in the end?

I feel like the giro, until now, has been good, but not thrilling to watch. It just got really interesting