Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2021 (Giro d'Italia)

[heywoodu 16,004]

Ah, COVID-19 is apparently gone in this region of Italy, judging by the climbs filled with people waving their arms and flags in riders' faces. Good news!

[Grassmarket 4,030]

Standards of rain-jacket deployment in the peloton are continuing to regress. 
 

Looking like one of those neutralised mountain days so far. Break is going to provide the winner, peloton getting off their bikes to pick mushrooms.

[heywoodu 16,004]

Here we go with the sprint between four guys.

[heywoodu 16,004]

Wow, Brambilla isn't the sharpest knife in today's drawer  

[heywoodu 16,004]

Excellent win for Vendrame, beating Hamilton in the sprint. Brambilla not only had an incredible fail shortly before the finish in which he threw away the chance to win, while sprinting for third he also nearly shoved Bennett straight into the barriors. Must be frustrated at his own failure..

[heywoodu 16,004]

Totally missed the fact Gianni Moscon tried to follow Nibali in the final descent, but couldn't keep up and crashed, hehe. He did come back in the main group though, so the peloton is still stuck with him.

 

As for today....yeah, let's say it's a good thing it's a working day, because the entertainment isn't gonna come from the cycling

 

 

There is a small chance for some drama in the sprint preparation, but nothing as bad as a few stages ago where they went for a hugely difficult final kilometers after 150+ kilometers of basically falling asleep.

 

 

[Grassmarket 4,030]

Every bit as exciting as billed. Breakaway is in sight, peloton is formed up in serried ranks, historic monuments are getting lavish coverage. 28k to go.

 

Big news of the day so far: Riders are now allowed to throw their empty bidons to fans at the side of the road. Will revolutionise the sport.

[Grassmarket 4,030]

Two unusual things happened today

 

1.) Dead men rose from their graves & walked.

2.) Giacomo Nizzolo won a sprint in the Giro.

[heywoodu 16,004]

3 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

Every bit as exciting as billed. Breakaway is in sight, peloton is formed up in serried ranks, historic monuments are getting lavish coverage. 28k to go.

 

Big news of the day so far: Riders are now allowed to throw their empty bidons to fans at the side of the road. Will revolutionise the sport.

That is quite good news actually, it was absolute bullshit to have riders be DQ'ed (!) for throwing away a bottle. This doesn't save the sport or something, but DQ's for nonsense like that does slowly kill it.

[heywoodu 16,004]

Meanwhile, Dutch commentator summed it up nicely when I turned in: "For those of you just tuning in and having missed the first 180 kilometers....wait, I should say that differently, because you missed nothing." 

 

 

 

Yeah, boring as shit as I'm sure the organization expected, but at least the final kilometer was fun. Nice try by Affini and great to see Nizzolo finally take a win