Giro d’Covid (SPOILERS)

[BdaGhisallo]

Giro d'Chaos it's looking like.

More riders hitting the deck today including Tao Geoghegan Hart, and he ended up in an ambulance.

Ineos is now down to one option for the GC.

[Mike V]

Originally Posted by BdaGhisallo

Giro d'Chaos it's looking like.

More riders hitting the deck today including Tao Geoghegan Hart, and he ended up in an ambulance.

Ineos is now down to one option for the GC.

I don’t think it’s only the Giro. Every race seems to be chaos. Seems every race has either a team, media and race control have some sort of screw up.

[pasadena]

The Giro course was tailor made for Remco. That's why he came.
I read the Giro paid Quickstep €500,000 appearance fee and are pissed he dropped out.

Bummer we lost Teo today and four more Quickstep riders. That groupetto is going to be hurting on time cuts once it hits the big climbs.

It's going to be a sparse third week!

[Spdntrxi]

Primoz had a gash on his leg as well.. not a good Giro

[BdaGhisallo]

Originally Posted by Mike V

I don’t think it’s only the Giro. Every race seems to be chaos. Seems every race has either a team, media and race control have some sort of screw up.

You have to hand it to Geraint Thomas at this point. If any rider was going to have a shocker in the conditions the Giro has seen so far, Thomas was the undeniable betting favorite. But, kudos to the man, he's managed to keep it all together so far.

I hope I haven't jinxed him. Thomas has had so much bad luck in his career, and in the Giro specifically, that he deserves for Lady Luck to look favorably on him.

[lavi]

Originally Posted by BdaGhisallo

You have to hand it to Geraint Thomas at this point. If any rider was going to have a shocker in the conditions the Giro has seen so far, Thomas was the undeniable betting favorite. But, kudos to the man, he's managed to keep it all together so far.

I hope I haven't jinxed him. Thomas has had so much bad luck in his career, and in the Giro specifically, that he deserves for Lady Luck to look favorably on him.

It'd be great to see G bag this tour. Hopefully, he'll keep the bike off the deck.

[holliscx]

Originally Posted by lavi

It'd be great to see G bag this tour. Hopefully, he'll keep the bike off the deck.

I'll bet you a pair of 2009 Oakley Jawbones that Errant Thomas goes out in spectacular fashion before arriving to Rome.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by holliscx

I'll bet you a pair of 2009 Oakley Jawbones that Errant Thomas goes out in spectacular fashion before arriving to Rome.

I don't think that's quite fair to Mr. Thomas. He's been first, second, and third at the Tour de France, and won almost all the big one week stage races, all while spending some of his best years riding as a domestique. Yeah, he's had a few high profile crashes, but in 17 previous grand tour starts, he's only DNF'd 3 times (in contrast, Contador has 18 starts and 2 DNF, Froome had 17 starts and 3 DNF before his crash, Nibali had 27 starts with 3 DNF).

[m_sasso]

Tight finish today!

[flying]

These wet stages with so many crashes.
I thought disc brakes saved us all from that?

Ok kidding just kidding a bit

[Jaybee]

Thomas hasn't gained time in the mountains since what, 2018? He can hope to stay close enough to Roglic that he can eek out a second or two in a TT ( Roglic no slouch there either), but really the game is survival at this point. Who stays upright? Who doesn't get sick?

Side point for Cav fans - if he can't win this sprint, downhill run-in against a reduced field of B level guys, Mads inadvertently giving him a pretty perfect lead out- then he's not winning anything in the TDF.

[nooneline]

B-level guys like Mads Pedersen, Pascal Ackerman, and Jonathan Milan???

[Elefantino]

I really want to know what Milan's gearing is because he seems to have a MUCH higher cadence than any other sprinter. I mean a LOT higher.

[Jaybee]

Since you asked -

Here are the A-level guys that weren't participating today, for whatever reason:

Philipsen, Merlier, Jakobsen, Demare, Ewen(barely on this list still), Krooij, Groenewegen, Bennett, Kaden Groves (dropped earlier).

Mads is the only A-level sprinter in that list, and he went too early today, offering Cav that sweet sweet leadout, and honestly isn't really in the game on most flat field sprints. Mads might the best in the world at a sprint that has something interesting in it - a few hills to knock out the pure sprinters earlier in the parcours, or a slight uphill drag, or even an awkward corner that let's him open up at 200 instead of 150, but if it's an actual drag race between him an Phillipsen, I'm taking Jasper 9/10 times.

Milan is good. Maybe even the next big thing, but he doesn't have the (road) palmares to call him A-level yet. Are we sure he's better than Phil Bauhaus?

Today was Ackermann's first GT stage win since the 2019 Giro.

So back to my original point - today was pretty much on a platter for Cav after a really hard day. Slight downhill, nice leadout, most of the truly great guys not in play. I don't think that bodes well for a TDF where most of those names in the first list will be gunning for their own wins.

[jdp211]

Originally Posted by pasadena

The Giro course was tailor made for Remco. That's why he came.
I read the Giro paid Quickstep €500,000 appearance fee and are pissed he dropped out.

I think its unfair to characterize Remco's DNS as 'dropping out' (not sure if that wording is yours or elsewhere). He's following the protocols set in place by the UCI. Test positive for COVID, don't race.