heywoodu

That's just really not true (as far as you can call the Giro a classic anyway) Strength in the Grand Tours really varies from year to year, mostly between Giro and Vuelta.

Too bad, the first ever athlete with who I took a picture, I believe

Difference being that Evenepoel didn't A) ride around like an amateur - holding on to a car to even get up a hill in a pro race - for the first part of his pro career or B) wasn't a very promising ski jumper

I call every one of Froome's years lowpoints of cycling

Reminds me of Froome in 2013: won Oman, second in the Tirreno, won the Criterium International, won Romandie, won the Dauphiné and then went on to absolutely shatter everyone in the TDF (two years after his first magic Vuelta appearance at the end of yet another totally useless year)

The Giro has yet to start in terms of GC, so a few seconds in hand after one serious stage is in no way enough, at all Which doesn't change that in my opinion (and in that of pretty much most cycling fans) he was the big favourite and he still is. I don't think much has changed in that (at least for me) with that one stage, it has happened a gazillion times riders who looked steady lost a lot of time in the 3rd week (or the opposite). On Thursday and (especially) Sunday we'll get a better picture and then on 24 May we'll get going to the real stuff. There's some stuff in between not every rider is gonna like, but probably not enough to make some serious gaps.

Everyone, considering it's California? No Viviani, no Ewan, no Ackermann, no Gaviria, no Demare....makes life easier

Here we go.

Because one group is counted as one 'unit' across the finish line. If not, you'd get some seriously dangerous stuff every single time with every GC rider wanting to be all the way in the front, where there's already 30+ riders fighting for sprint positions, and several people wanting to be in the very same spot at the very same time is something physics solves with death and despair

Yeah that was a dumb move from Viviani

And Viviani wins, beating favourite Ackermann.

3k to go until the sprint

"Stunning final sprint" Lol One guy ten meters ahead of the rest (minus one ok contender) and his main challengers were either failing in the sprint or or had dropped off due to poor positioning, resulting in a bit of a boring sprint

Yet Saudi Arabia stands above it

It's Shotime

Not only for Asians In the Netherlands: Badminton = thing you play when on vacation and don't touch for the rest of the year

Won't help you much when 100+ riders are trying to force themselves through one curve in full sprint mode One can ride a bike better than anyone, if someone else makes a tiny mistake you're still fucked and in a finish like this that chance is significantly higher (especially with the expected wind) We'll see, I know I'm gonna try to be at home in time

Yay, once more they managed to find an utterly idiotic finish line for a sprint stage (follow the red line from bottom to top where the finish is) A long straight with a peloton in full pre-sprint force which then has to somehow find it's way through a tight and hard turn followed by another one....yeah, someone really wanted to see crashes and injuries.

heywoodu 1. Jos van Emden (35) - 35 2. Elia Viviani (2) - 37 3. Pascal Ackermann

It'd be so lame to decide that so short before the tournament.

Just finished watching everything and wow, this was an awesome day of relays The mixed 4x400m was boring, pretty much everything else was definitely not With Brazil's epic 4x100m win and the men's 4x400m as highlights in my opinion

Always sort of good when someone beats Ewan. Nothing against him personally, but I'd hate to see a ton of kids take his sprinting style as example, that's just so dangerous (for himself and others)...

My touristic favourite so far is easily those two towers in Bologna, I had never heard of them but for 900 year (!) old towers they look awesome

heywoodu1. Jos van Emden (35) - 35 2. Elia Viviani

Can't wait to see Noriaki Kasai in the Tour de France after the Beijing Olympics.