Giro d'Italia 2026 spoilers

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15 secs

 

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The Narvaez factor

 

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UAE getting most of their riders into moves

 

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Must be nearly 30 riders up the road

 

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All coming back to gether

 

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Ciccone appears

 

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Tim.rexs seat post is a tower crane

 

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It's all the usual suspects

 

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[Ciccone does sprin for the points

 

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Jdn Christian has not got thr legs

 

[wakemalcolm]

Is someone going to take Harper out the back or is the break so doomed that it likely makes no difference?

 

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Stil is only a 30 sec gap

 

[Pross]

Wow, some real knickers in a twist posts here.
Firstly, there's not really anything to gain by having GC riders race crits with the sprinters, so neutralising the GC for the last lap doesn't negatively affect the race in any way. Secondly, it wasn't Jonas that decided anything, he was representing the peloton in general, and the team had talked to others - that's being in the leader's jersey for you, you get to be the union rep. Anders Lund Andresen said he thought the circuit was very sketchy and if the GC teams had been up there then there would definitely have been crashes. So the GC riders wanted to avoid it and the sprinters wanted them out of the way and a reasonable solution was found.

I can't comment on this stage as I didn't watch (it was always going to be a bit of a crock and my daughter's last IPL match was on at the same time). However, for me a stage is either safe for the race (i.e. a finish can accommodate the anticipated group size) or it isn't. Obviously weather can change things on the day but then it should apply to everyone or no-one. Having had to go through the risk assessment process to run a Regional A or B race over here, I'm amazed at some of the courses that get assessed as safe enough for nearly 200 riders to negotiate at full pace on the pro circuit. It's strange that some of they dodgy early stages in Bulgaria were OK but this one wasn't considering weather conditions in this instance were apparently favourable. We're starting to get too many of these partially neutralised stages, if we want to have stages only raced by certain parts of the peloton then just give the rest of the race day off but it feels a bit stupid to be in a stage race where some stages don't count.

I'm not sure it's the race leaders job to be the spokesman for the peloton though. I thought there were actual rider's reps in the peloton who were supposed to do that which is better all round as it takes away the risk of what we got here with the race leader being accused of trying to cancel things they don't like (which I doubt was the case).

 

[Shadow]

None of us really keeping an eye on Maglia Nera this edition it seems

Not quite right; I have been checking every few days but a while ago Frank VDB seemed to have a lock on it, with a 10 plus minute lead. Then a few stages ago he went on a tear and finished a few minutes ahead of last place. And has since steadily been chipping away until as at the last rest day he was only 1:14 down on Malucelli. And today he's in the break! I dont think he wants the Maglia Nera!

 

[mididoctors]

Here we go