Pro-cycling thread

Exciting now, 9 seconds

I hoped MVDP was going to drag Girmay over but you can’t begrudge de Gendt a win.

I stuck a quid on him at 130/1 this morning, chuffed with that

Well played. Crazy odds for the best breakaway rider of the last decade.

TDG - proper racer.

Cav and three teammates 40 seconds behind the grupetto today. I reckon he might be flying home on Monday.

Why is this indication of abandoning? I would say (without further details) it looks more like prep for a big day tomorrow.

Why is this indication of abandoning?

not a lot of chances left for sprinting, morkov is gone and demare and ewan look stronger .. dunno

There's two, and possibly three, sprint stages next week. Cavendish has always been a sprinter who's speed declines slower than his rivals over the course of a three week race, so he won't quit unless he's sick, as his chances of winning more stages are good.

Tomorrow's stage has a really tough opening though, with three climbs in the opening forty kilometres, so making the time limit is going to be a stage long effort.

good training camp for the tour

If that was the case, they'd have sent Jakobsen to the Giro.

making the time limit

This is what I was getting at. He lost 35 mins on Etna. I know it’s all calculated but I think tomorrow will be raced absolutely eyeballs out.

I'm not convinced, it depends who wants to get in the break and how quickly it goes. A break would likely need at least 5 minutes on the peloton at the foot of the final climb and anyone who is a perceived GC threat won't get that much leeway. If the break goes quickly and consists of non-threatening GC riders then the peloton will ride tempo for most of the day.

I can't see the GC fight starting before the final climb, so it'll be a controlled stage rather than the eyeballs out free for all that we saw on Friday.

Specifically on Etna, Cavendish made the time cut with almost ten minutes to spare, so was completely in control of the situation.

Not for all, but I'd figure someone like mark would like the forced training from a race for a week or two, especially in Italy.

Shame if he doesn't go to the Tour.

That’d be totally doable, they make gum shields now that can record the force and number of impacts so a helmet easily could and maybe tell you when it needed replacing.
Measuring your g forces would be cool on descents too!

Poels dropped…

Cavendish is in the peloton with 65 kms to go, so unless he has a major collapse, he should make the time cut today.

Poor old Sivakov dropped all his gels at the beginning of the climb when he unzipped his skin suit and just did a “where’s my fucking phone?” search of his pockets

praying 4 ARE SIMON

Who’s going to win?

What did Sean have? He sounds in good spirits, like he has fairly stable blood sugar atm.

Glad to see Bardet at the pointy end again. Team change seems to have worked for him.

pozzovivo, nibali, valverde still there

Bala dropped

spoke too soon but at least not dropped before Yates 😂

I support Pope Landa but expect Billy to scurry off