heywoodu

Lol. First of all, Konrad nearly won the stage. Second, as if that group would magically have gone 5 km/h faster with Konrad in it.

Pogacar and Roglic would like a word.

Viviani sprinting to a nice 34th place or something.

Ulissi it is, that was a fun sprint!

McNulty with a last minute attack or Ulissi with a sprint?

If they hold on a bit before signing someone new, maybe they can have Frank de Boer who was appointed coach of the Dutch team late September and is not exactly doing much good

Yet another full force showing of what on a Dutch forum is called the Patbonus, the apparent bonus every cyclist gets when moving to Pat Lefevre's team Quick-Step

That must have been one of the hardest 4th category climbs I've ever seen.

I truly wonder how they're planning to do this. - World Cups in Central Europe only are just not very realistic, even if most are there (and then we're not even talking about the IBU Cup and Junior Cup and their respective championships). - Cutting down the number of vehicles isn't gonna help a whole lot, since it's hard to cut it down with technicians needing their equipment and such. Although a tiny bit of help - not much - could come from putting a limit on the absolutely ridiculous amounts of skis and equipment the top teams have for every athlete. Athletes really don't need 30 pairs of skis per athlete per season, and that's not even considered a high amount at all among top teams. - Switching to laser rifles would just not at all be worth the marginal gains, although it could be worth it to pour some money into trying to develop a new kind of bullet - important to take the needed time with it though, the properties have to be exactly the same as the current bullets and rushing it is a bad, bad idea.

Stop telling me what to do, ghug.

Well shit, there goes his 13th place in the championship!

[hide] Week 2 - Stages 10-15 Stage Top 3 Riders Lanciano - Tortoreto Stage 10 October, 13th 1st: Michael Matthews 2nd: Giulio Ciccone 3rd: Ben Swift Simon Clarke Jai Hindley Michael Matthews Mikkel Honoré Enrico Battaglin Matteo Fabbro Fabio Felline Andrea Vendrame Diego Ulissi Joao Almeida Peter Sagan Porto Sant'Elpidio - Rimini Stage 11 October, 14th 1st: Arnaud Demare 2nd: Peter Sagan 3rd: Michael Matthews Michael Matthews Fernando Gaviria Alvaro Hodeg Arnaud Demare Ben Swift Davide Ballerini Davide Cimolai Andrea Vendrame Elia Viviani Peter Sagan Cesenatico - Cesenatico Stage 12 October, 15th 1st: Giovanni Visconti 2nd: Einer Rubio 3rd: Jhonatan Narvaez Lucas Hamilton Michael Matthews Ben O'Connor Thomas De Gendt Valerio Conti Giovanni Visconti Diego Ulissi Simon Pellaud Mark Padun Lawson Craddock Cervia - Monselice Stage 13 October, 16th 1st: Peter Sagan 2nd: Diego Ulissi 3rd: Ben Swift Michael Matthews Fernando Gaviria Sebastian Molano Mikkel Honoré Arnaud Demare Enrico Battaglin Gianluca Brambilla Fabio Felline Andrea Vendrame Diego Ulissi Peter Sagan Conegliano - Valdobbiadene Stage 14 October, 17th 1st: Filippo Ganna 2nd: Mikkel Bjerg 3rd: Chad Haga Rohan Dennis Victor Campenaerts Mikkel Bjerg Tony Martin Alex Dowsett Filippo Ganna Jos Van Emden Steven Kruijswijk Wilco Kelderman Joao Almeida Chad Haga Rivolto Air Base - Piancavallo Stage 15 October, 18th 1st: Wilco Kelderman 2nd: Jakob Fuglsang 3rd: Domenico Pozzovivo Patrick Konrad Harm Vanhoucke Jakob Fuglsang Giulio Ciccone Fausto Masnada Vincenzo Nibali Domenico Pozzovivo Steven Kruijswijk Wilco Kelderman Rafal Majka Joao Almeida Pello Bilbao [/hide]

Oh, sweet.

Here we go. Another day coming where the newspapers are full before the stage starts.

I had no idea he made one, but the one I've been updating is now complete with 35 songs and is linked in the OP.

Wow, that is some generalistic election ad that literally any candidate in history could use.

Too bad it ended this way, but Ecuador is on a roll.

I hope the thread of an early end remains, that's like a NASCAR race where rain can come any moment (leading to the race being stopped): a boatload of action because nobody can wait anymore.

One semi-dangerous downhill done and Zakarin is dropped a country mile behind.

I don't think the 26th should be a problem.

That would be very helpful indeed. I think I'll be able to give them a good listen later in the week mostly. I could now, but it's really a matter of 'moments' for me - right now I can, five minutes later maybe I'm very much not in the mood to pay attention, and so on.

Ah, paparazzi. The scum of the earth followed him. If he wasn't a cheating a-hole, one might feel sorry for him.

Bidard, Pellaud, Boaro, Padun, Benedetti, Rosskopf, Hansen, Clarke, Torres, Campenaerts, Narvaez, Richeze and Van Empel. Those are the names for today, for what it's worth. Hopefully we get some bigger names chasing them later on.

Apparently one team (not said which) asked the organizers to finish the Giro on Sunday, with a hilly stage, sprint stage, mountain stage and time trial to finish it off. They said no, for now, although I'm sure everyone is rather curious to see how the second rest day/mass testing day will go.

Yeah that last part is a bit unfortunate. It's no secret though, riders have mentioned exactly that (policemen, motorcyclists, even local guests in the same hotels and buffets). It's a shame there isn't much of a 'bubble' and if there is, organizers don't seem to care about keeping it. On the other side, I really don't understand teams using hotel food at all in these times. Most of them are fairly big professional teams, surely they can cook some pasta and stuff in their own trucks?