Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2020 (Giro d'Italia)

[Grassmarket 4,030]

19 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Positive test (no, not COVID-19 test, the classic one) for Matteo Spreafico. It came from samples on 15 and 16 October, the day before the time trial where he and his teammate blatantly broke the rules in front of the cameras and nothing was done against it  

See, this bears out my theory that nowadays the majority of dopers in cycling are second-raters desperate to get a contract renewal. 

[heywoodu 16,004]

19 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

See, this bears out my theory that nowadays the majority of dopers in cycling are second-raters desperate to get a contract renewal. 

The majority or riders unprofessional enough to be caught doping, I'd say  

[Grassmarket 4,030]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

The majority or riders unprofessional enough to be caught doping, I'd say  

Well, we’re approaching the Mordor of conspiracy theories now.

[heywoodu 16,004]

1 minute ago, Grassmarket said:

Well, we’re approaching the Mordor of conspiracy theories now.

How so? I'd say it's a whole lot easier for big and relatively well-funded teams like INEOS or Jumbo or Movistar to have the scientific knowledge to stay right under the limits of what they could get caught with, unlike mini teams like Vini-Zabu who basically need to get all of their money from some random riders attacking during their free Giro d'Italia wild card rides (same for the French and Spanish mini teams in their respective GT's).

[Dragon 2,026]

1 hour ago, Grassmarket said:

Doubt it will be Kelderman: his team-mate Hindley looks the better bet just now.

Hindley would need to lead by 90 seconds by tomorrow night to hold off the other two in the time trial.

[heywoodu 16,004]

2 hours ago, Dragon said:

Hindley would need to lead by 90 seconds by tomorrow night to hold off the other two in the time trial.

Hindley lost only a bit more than a minute to Geoghegan Hart in the previous ITT though, and that one was double the length of Sunday's. I still think Kelderman is the favourite, mostly because tomorrow is not nearly as hard as it would have been without the changes and nothing compared to yesterday, and he's definitely the better time trial rider of the three. If he doesn't give up more than half a minute tomorrow, I think he'll take it.

 

If not, Geoghegan Hart is my favourite since he's a better ITT rider than Hindley (though not by that much), and Hindley doesn't look strong enough to really put some time into him tomorrow in the not all too hard climbs.

 

Then again, don't forget it wasn't Geoghegan Hart who broke Kelderman yesterday. It was an utterly alien Rohan Dennis, who went from being mediocre to leading them up the Stelvio faster than anyone ever before.

[Grassmarket 4,030]

Couple of bits of early news.  Arnaud Demare unbeatable as winner of the Ciclamino Jersey.  Ruben Guerreiro unbeatable as winner of the King of the Mountains Jersey, obviously terms & conditions apply.

 

At the moment trundling along on the flat, 101km to go, then three climbs of Sestriere to come.  Think each climb is a slightly different route.  Breakaway with 7 mins.

 

Hah, no snow on this side of the Alps.  Check your winter sports schedules & bets accordingly.

 

Just got the classic helicopter shot where the camera pans from riders spinning around on the flat to the absolute wall of rocks they’re approaching.  Just a few km till the climbing starts.

 

Astana - what’s left of them - now closing the gap & riding for Fuglsang.

[heywoodu 16,004]

Closing in on Sestriere, let's go.

[Grassmarket 4,030]

Peloton starting to break up now.

 

INEOS now on front driving with 66k to go.

[heywoodu 16,004]

60k to go, the deciding stage is about to start.