Giro d'Italia 2016 ***spoilers***

[Flying_Monkey]

Dumoulin, Roglic, Amador

Great performance by Roglic, who I had completely forgotten about, and Amador perhaps setting out his case to be Movistar's designated rider instead of Valverde... Cancellara clearly not entirely recovered.

 

[mjr]

Aren't time trials the racing equivalent of watching paint dry? I've put it on the radio and returned to my office. Seems like Dumoulin has won, taking pink. Excites the Dutch crowd, but yawn.

Interesting that they didn't seem to be using any Dutch cycle tracks, unlike the edition that started with a TTT on the cycle track near San Remo.

He might just suffer round in the hope of staying in the fight if at all possible, unless he's completely incapable.

Cancellara 8th place when he finished, 14seconds down over 10 minutes or so, so it seems so. Maybe hoping to keep up for the first week, then take pink in the second ITT.

 

[Hont]

Aren't time trials the racing equivalent of watching paint dry?

I'll take a TT over a flat, sprinters stage any day.

Plus this...

 

[mjr]

Good point @Hont: time trials near the end of races are more exciting than when they all start from zero like today, but I'd still take a good racing stage over a final ITT. I think even the flat sprinters stages are more fun to watch, guessing whether the sprint teams will reel the breakaway in, or whether they're letting EQS take the lead

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

A nice wee winning start to the Giro, take that Mr Ladbrokes and your crazy head-to-head bets!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

One key thing is how well Nibali did compared to other GC contenders. Here's my version of the top GC contenders only chart:

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:01:04
16 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:19
22 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:22
23 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:24
38 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:32
43 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:33
60 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:00:38
67 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:40
97 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:47

 

[smutchin]

Landa did well to only lose 40 seconds.

 

[400bhp]

Landa did well to only lose 40 seconds.

Apparently he thinks he did better than expected.

 

[400bhp]

One key thing is how well Nibali did compared to other GC contenders. Here's my version of the top GC contenders only chart:

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:01:04
16 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:19
22 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:22
23 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:24
38 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:32
43 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:33
60 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:00:38
67 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:40
97 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:47

Oi - Chaves. Only 30s down.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Oi - Chaves. Only 30s down.

Oh, sorry. Should have included him.

 

[rich p]

With 3 ITTs, I can't see Landa being able to take enough time to win this.

 

[Crackle]

With 3 ITTs, I can't see Landa being able to take enough time to win this.

One is a mtn TT, he might do better at that

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Having looked at the sprinters lead-out trains I am surprised that nobody (so far) has gone for Pelucchi in punditry; but I made my picks a couple of days ago and will stick by them. Might trouble Mr Ladbrokes tho...

I was impressed with Geniez's time yesterday, only 2 seconds behind Nibali.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Lotto-Jumbo going for a youthful line-up

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Leaving it a bit late, 200 metres from the finish of today's stage. Tweeted by Ned Boulting