Men's Road Cycling UCI Giro d'Italia 2017

[Federer91 2,807]

Nibalis third week super-form is non-existent this year. He hasn't shown progress all Giro..

[heywoodu 15,172]

This is such an epic Giro 

[Gianlu33 4,600]

What final guys, WHAT FINAL!  

[Dunadan 1,103]

What a great show by Dumoulin and Sunweb ....he was left behind in the first descent by the peloton led by his own team and they had to stop and chase for 30 km...Dumoulin would have lost the Giro without the help they had from Orica and Trek.

[Federer91 2,807]

One solid attack would have made wonders for someone, but everyone seem so tired. It's amazing to see favourites like Quintana and Nibali not being able to distance second tier GC riders like Pozzovivo, Zakarin, Mollema, Yates. Tommy Gun looked spent at the finish, but they would need another minute+ on him tomorrow, and Nibali even more, before the TT. He just needs to hang-on. Nibali also will need to find some additional seconds on Quintana, because 40 wouldn't be enough even with Quintanas awful TT. 20-25 should be the range for him to get infront on sunday.

[heywoodu 15,172]

Oh and, again, what a Giro for Jan Hirt 

[heywoodu 15,172]

Personally I think there are 4 main candidates left for the win, possibly 6 if you count lesser candidates. I think their chances are somewhere like this:

 

1. Pinot - Good TT and he's definitely the best of the GC contenders on the climbs this week, problem is it wouldn't be the first time he actually choked

 

2. Dumoulin - Normally the best TT rider of the main candidates, although winning 2+ minutes again is highly unlikely. Problem is of course that there's 2 big climbs tomorrow, but on the bright side, today seems to have been more of a bad day than 'the start of a decline'.

 

3. Nibali - Seemed a bit stronger than Quintana on the climbs, but his time trials are often a bit....meh. 

 

4. Quintana - Did not seem convincing at all today on the uphills, if he was any good he would've attacked way earlier instead of nearly dropping out at some point. Not a fantastic time trial neither.

 

5 and 6. Zakarin and Pozzovivo, they're in seriously good shape on the climbs and who knows, on a very good day they might pull off an upset tomorrow. Especially Zakarin can have a quite decent TT on a good day.

[Federer91 2,807]

I continue to see people say that Pinot has a good TT and i continue to wonder why?  I haven't seen him do better than other favourites on any TT in a serious race and one that isn't a 10km prolouge. @heywoodu you can't seriously say that Pinot has a better TT than Nibali. Even if Nibali's so-so form i still expect him to beat Pinot in the TT.

[heywoodu 15,172]

11 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

I continue to see people say that Pinot has a good TT and i continue to wonder why?  I haven't seen him do better than other favourites on any TT in a serious race and one that isn't a 10km prolouge. @heywoodu you can't seriously say that Pinot has a better TT than Nibali. Even if Nibali's so-so form i still expect him to beat Pinot in the TT.

Well it's only last year when he beat Dumoulin in a TT  

 

I mostly expect Pinot to have a better TT than Nibali Sunday because Pinot seems to be in really good shape and Nibali does not, while on equal shape I'd say Nibali has a slightly better chance. Still, they're all not really close to Dumoulin normally, although it's of course hard to say how a TT after 3 weeks of racing will be. 

[heywoodu 15,172]