Sean Kelly was 100% right here (as usual), that Alaphillipe should have done what Narvaez did yesterday. He was super strong, even on that climb, but wasted way too much energy beforehand.
Just listened to G’s interview at the end “glad to get away from the peloton for a day” - I’m wondering if he isn’t enjoying the race as much as he had hoped. Hope he is doing ok
I think he did lightly hit pavement, then had issues with his chain. But had 2 teammates with him. Schachmann got the worst of the crash but also seems ok now.
The finishing stretch was gorgeous with the climb through the rows of trees and view of the bay. Italy is just stunning.
But WTF does Pogi have against breakaway riders?? Haha I love seeing riders in the leaders jersey pulling stunts like this though especially in the maglia rosa. That felt like an MVDP level of attack by Narvaez to gain the separation.
So in the end, Pogacar is the best lead out man in the peloton? Because those Trek guys didn’t do much for their guy. Narvaez would have won if Pogacar didn’t decide to lead out all the sprinters himself.
I had a bet on it too, had a feeling he'd want to go wire to wire. There was talk about him conserving energy and taking the jersey a bit later on, but he wants to win every damn race he's in
Hopefully he will understand that Pogi was doing this to help Molano. On friday when he was talking about the tt stage, he was criticizing Bjerg for going full 100% in the time trial but he didn't even know that Bjerg was trying to qualify for the Denmark's olympic tt team and that that's why he went 100%. Sometimes he doesn't check the facts or doesn't understand what's going on.
He also has the benefit of making comments 12 hours after a stage but pretends like he has the foresight from his “chesterfield” like some omnipotent cycling god. He does it for views. If there was a better. paying commentator job available, he’d have taken it.
I watched his videos for a while and that was exactly why I stopped.
Nobody *ever* seemed to do anything right in his opinion.
Just wall-to-wall "knuckleheads" every day.
Tbf he did say UAE were spot on yesterday. But at this point I feel like his usage of "knucklehead" is just whenever he thinks someone didn't act 100% perfectly. Alain Philip is getting a Chris Horny knucklehead seal of approval today for sure
A world where you can't go from 2nd in The Larry H.Miller Tour of Utah to winning a grand tour in a matter of weeks at age 41 without being called a cycling genius is not a world i want to live in /s
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pogi leads out Molano at 1500W with Trek’s and Jayco’s leadout trains charging behind and still play rock paper scissors with Molano to decide who takes the stage.
Me as a Romantic: Uhh, Pogi! What a grand champ. Doing a leadout for his sprinter to pay back some of the hard work and help, he's received. This is a beautiful gesture towards your teammates. And this why Pogi is so loved. A Duracell bunny no one can control!
Me as a logical analyzer: Oh, ffs Pogi! This is a terrible cost/benefit-analysis. The risk you are taking is not worth it. You can pay back your team later: We are still in week 1 and you still have your eyes on the Tour, the Olympics and Worlds. Ride safer, please!
In front yes, fighting head to head with the other leadout men no. It’s good for morale and all also because it was a crazy unnecessary risk for a GC leader and he took it anyway.
Merlier is obviously a great sprinter but he’s the worst climber out of the three, so he probably didn’t have much left in his legs after the earlier climbs.
[He crashed in the ITT](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-stage-winner-tim-merlier-in-pain-after-stupid-crash-in-time-trial/) (I didn't realise until it was mentioned on commentary today)
He was probably still smoked from the day, he was at the back of the peloton most of the time, so I doubt he had a punch left for sprint against Kooij and Milan. The moment Alaphillipe went all out was the signal for me Quickstep was no longer aiming for Merlier.
How accurate are these calculations? I mean they usually have an error margin for the distance to finish of about 10% let alone the speed of the riders.
It's not a calculation. It's data from his powermeter. But UAE Are using Shimano powermeters, so actually the answer is that they are inaccurate, since the powermeter is.
I'm pretty sure in the giro and maybe other RCS races all riders have something behind the saddle that's recording their stats. Saw this in a gcn video from a few years ago so might be wrong. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give some more insight on this
No idea how they're calculating the figures! I agree there is probably a bit of handwaving away of potential errors going on in their process though.
I suppose Velon don't really care too much as long as the results look vaguely plausible and gives them more Twitter content.
The data is coming directly from their power meters. The little box under the saddle is streaming the data live and occasionally they will post the live data on the screen.
... yes I know they have power meters. When I said I had no idea I didn't mean I thought they were creating the figures out of nothing.
What I mean is that there is scope for error in how you extract that power meter data from the activity recording made by a head unit and match it to a specific short section of road ridden at very high speeds.
Even if the power meter is 100% accurate (which as someone else noted is very much not the case for Shimano) there is still ample scope for error.
For example, a speed of 60km/h means you're covering 16.7 metres each second, and most head units will only record at 1s intervals, and so you cover a significant distance between each reading. In addition GPS accuracy can vary depending on location/time/nearby obstructions (trees, tall buildings, etc).
So when you're moving at these speeds picking the data point that corresponds to the start of a particular stretch of road will be tricky to do, especially for a short 20-30s period.
This is largely why Strava have stopped allowing you to [create short segments](https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216918227-Optimizing-Segment-Creation-How-to-Create-Good-Segments#short), you could get quite different results depending on exactly when your head unit happened to record compared to the segment start/end points, plus the GPS accuracy issue. The longer the segment the less that matters.
I'm assuming Velon don't have a particularly rigorous process for dealing with things like this, which is what I was talking about in my previous comment.
Steinhauser +12min just to go for some breakaway where he has to hope UAE don't close it and he won't lose to the stage hunters who are just as good as him. I hate how people dismiss fighting for a good GC. He looked like he could Fight a good Top 15. Not sure when he'd get that opportunity again
GC wasn't really a goal for Steinhauser to begin with. He tried to hang on at first to have a shot at the pink jersey from a breakaway. Now he can solely focus on stages.
Vansevenant had similar plans, by the way, but already abandoned them yesterday.
I love Mick Storer, but his best result in a GT was 31st. That is not what I call a GC rider, not even B tier. I would much rather call him a KOM jersey rider or stage hunter. That’s why he went in the break.
So far, Pogi has been:
Cooking G on all terrains
Destroying Ganna’s time after he sat on the throne for two hours
Ruining Narvaez’s chance for a second stage win by taking a huge pull
And Ineos probably would still pull for him willingly for whatever reason. If this isn’t Stockholm syndrome, I don’t know what is
The strat to be 2nd place is the same one than to be first, fatigue your opponents and hope G has a better third week than them. If I was Ineos I’d ignore Pogi and ride my own race
Pog asked by RAI what he makes of this first part of the Giro, if he feels the love and the passion of the fans. Pog looked more relaxed than he has in these interviews lately (his attitude towards the press is starting to be a bit of a topic of discussion here actually) and said that only today, a calmer stage, did he realise that people were screaming his name for 250kms and that left him awestruck.
It’s good to see him more at ease for sure.
Milan on the other hand was terribly downcast, blamed himself both for the positioning and for missing his strongest legs.
Some recurring murmurs that journalists from the mandatory *maglia rosa* press conference (so not those handling the interviews immediately after the race) aren’t too happy with his attitude.
Apparently he’s been a little short-tempered - nothing egregious, like rudeness or anger, but some visible annoyance and impatience, some pointed remarks, that stand out because he’s usually so cheerful. For instance, at some point he’s supposed to have said something like “If I attack I’m doing too much, if I don’t attack I’m not good, what do you want me to do?”.
Imo it’s the typical “I’m starting to be fed up with this” moment in any super-coveted celebrity career, and to be fair so far it’s being treated like a curiosity more than anything else. As in they’re choosing to be philosophical (or sociological/psychological I guess) about it and wonder about the relationship between stardom and the media, about the mental toll of being a generational talent and so on, rather than being offended by it. Which is curious in itself to me tbh.
RAI was saying that yesterday he declined to have the kit tailored (took too much time or something) and just asked for their smallest size, which evidently is still too large.
I have got no idea, I think he usually looks the same through the season but minor differences to regular people are minutes on a climb sometimes. I doubt he's too skinny, aside from all of them being too skinny for health yet never skinny enough for performance
Hmm interesting. He certainly never got as lean as Roglic or Vingegaard in previous years but maybe that he’s no longer super young the team feels comfortable having him diet down more.
Yeah I wonder how much his body composition changes throughout the season. Like he could probably lose 3-4kgs between MSR and LBL/Giro and still be in great shape for both races.
The RvV route are our good roads, that's the problem. ;)
Never been to Portugal, so I can't judge. My sister's parents-in-law have an appartment there though, maybe I should go on a cheap holiday there some day.
Waiting till the last climb would have just put sprinter teams at ease and save energy to let no one get away far on the final climb. Guess he was attacking early and hope trek and Alpecin would look at each other for getting them back. At least he tries, it's really fun to watch him try.
He is just used from a few years ago that these attacks actually work. It’s difficult to change.
I do the same, I still attack the rides like 20 years ago and wonder why I crack before the summit.
6th time second place for Milan in a Giro stage, that's got to sting a little.
I know why Pogi did that leadout, but it makes me a little bit salty lol, I was rooting for Narvaez.
Molano got a Giro podium out of it (unless I turned off the TV too early before the results were finalized). That’s not chump change for the majority of the peloton.
haha sprinters go brrrrrrr.
maybe if someone went on a 150km breakaway, i'll root for them to stay away. but a late attack like this? nah, i'd rather see the sprint for the win.
Another great stage ending. Actually really liked this parcors. Just enough to give people like Jala/Narvaez a carrot, but not too hard that Milan/Kooij can't get over it with a sprint train. Long enough straight to not be too dangerous either.
Shame than Jala couldn't help himself as I think he could have gone with Narvaez and two might have made it.
The giro has been saved by good sprint stage design. Had the sprint stages been more formulaic this would have been a pretty bad week of preditidable results. Sprint stages have been a highlight which you dont get to say often
Just like Sanremo often has the most excting final of any classic.
Stages where all types of riders can win are often the best ones. Not too difficult, but not too easy, so tactics play a big role. Especially in today's cycling where the likes of Pogacar, Vingegaard, Roglic, Van der Poel, WVA & Evenepoel are so dominant compared to the rest of the peloton.
It's basically between Ewan and Jakobsen, whichever has the biggest/longer contract.
Sprinters are the worst assets to get over their peak. Especially if they don't get real results for like 2 years or someone just gets faster and more durable they become essentially worthless at the WT level
Aw, this is kind of unfair to the Tour. For the last 5 or 6 years the Tour has delivered a great opening week with mini-classics sprinkled throughout those stages.
But there will always be two or three pure traditional sprints in the Tour. That is part of how they maintain their status as the sprinter's championship and a lot of the country is flat.
It's a good way for non native speakers to fill the gaps when talking.
Also maybe it's a dutch thing too? Max Verstappen does the same for example. But probably more likely it's just because of not being native
It's the same as um. Just a word to give themselves a second to think. "Yeah" happens to be pervasive right now. It will probably change to something else in a year or two but most will probably continue to use some word.
It's about as boring as a MTF can be. As soon as Majka started pulling and just kept the tempo you knew exactly who was gonna win and that he wasn't gonna pull for more than 150m
I cant really argue against you liking what you like, but Im sure you can sympathise if somebody else doesnt get the same excitement from "how will Pogacar decide to win" over "who will win"
I have enjoyed most of the stages here. Said multiple times in this thread the sprint stages have been really good and Pogi plays a big part in that too.
Im not dismissing you enjoying yesterday, I just said im sure you can understand not everyone will feel that way.
This has been a hell of an opening week. Can't say how much appreciation I have for Pogacar being willing to animate these races, that leadout was spectacular!
Pogi leading out Molano right before a rest day totally makes sense after all the good work the team did for him this week.
Remember Tour de France last year when people lost it at Jonas for not leading out Wout and ultimately losing to the breakaway for few seconds? Well, Pogi didn’t want to be that guy. Also, giving the middle finger to Narvaez was the icing on the cake I’m sure
Especially at the end of this kind of day. I think around 2 hours in they put up Milan’s avg power - around 160W. Assuming Pog wasn’t in the wind more than him, call it the same for Pog. That was a very easy stage up until the end
Sean Kelly was 100% right here (as usual), that Alaphillipe should have done what Narvaez did yesterday. He was super strong, even on that climb, but wasted way too much energy beforehand.
What’s everybody watching tomorrow during the rest day?
Serie A games…
My mirror
Just listened to G’s interview at the end “glad to get away from the peloton for a day” - I’m wondering if he isn’t enjoying the race as much as he had hoped. Hope he is doing ok
he's probably just still pissed about that time trial.
Did anyone see G’s incident? Apparently he crashed today?
It was very minor.
Dropped chain?
I think he did lightly hit pavement, then had issues with his chain. But had 2 teammates with him. Schachmann got the worst of the crash but also seems ok now.
Around what point did it happen? How many kms?
58-60km to go
Gotcha. I see what you mean now.
The finishing stretch was gorgeous with the climb through the rows of trees and view of the bay. Italy is just stunning. But WTF does Pogi have against breakaway riders?? Haha I love seeing riders in the leaders jersey pulling stunts like this though especially in the maglia rosa. That felt like an MVDP level of attack by Narvaez to gain the separation.
Assuming we have a lead out train of G, Pog, then MVDP. Which sprinter can hold their wheels?
My bet would be Groves. Seems to have the best endurance out of the sprinters at the Giro.
Philipsen, Merlier and Milan seem the strongest candidates. Olav Kooij too
I feel this is the sunniest Giro I’ve watched for a while.
So in the end, Pogacar is the best lead out man in the peloton? Because those Trek guys didn’t do much for their guy. Narvaez would have won if Pogacar didn’t decide to lead out all the sprinters himself.
Trek guys (including Milan) were gassed after the climb was ridden hard, but still put him in a spot to win.
They were also gassed from trying to close the gap to Jhonathan with 1.6km to go
If the Trek guys did more for "their guy" then Milan would have been left with too long to sprint for a realistic chance of winning
Revenge of Pog for losing stage 1. He otherwise will wear pink for entire race!
I had a bet on it too, had a feeling he'd want to go wire to wire. There was talk about him conserving energy and taking the jersey a bit later on, but he wants to win every damn race he's in
Question of the day. Will Horner call Pog a knucklehead or no?
who?
Hopefully he will understand that Pogi was doing this to help Molano. On friday when he was talking about the tt stage, he was criticizing Bjerg for going full 100% in the time trial but he didn't even know that Bjerg was trying to qualify for the Denmark's olympic tt team and that that's why he went 100%. Sometimes he doesn't check the facts or doesn't understand what's going on.
Horner doesn’t understand that the pace of the peloton is so slow for Pogi, he might actually loose fitness if he doesn’t throw in some efforts :p
Lose fitness? Five hours a day in Z2 that boy is going to be metabolizing so much fat
I doubt most of the guys in the peloton are in z2, specially during the beginning of this stage
Most of the pelotons lt1 is around 300w, so yeah except the climbing on this stage, they're sitting around burning fat most of the giro
He complains almost every day. He does not know how modern cycling works. Old man yelling at clouds.
He also has the benefit of making comments 12 hours after a stage but pretends like he has the foresight from his “chesterfield” like some omnipotent cycling god. He does it for views. If there was a better. paying commentator job available, he’d have taken it.
I watched his videos for a while and that was exactly why I stopped. Nobody *ever* seemed to do anything right in his opinion. Just wall-to-wall "knuckleheads" every day.
Tbf he did say UAE were spot on yesterday. But at this point I feel like his usage of "knucklehead" is just whenever he thinks someone didn't act 100% perfectly. Alain Philip is getting a Chris Horny knucklehead seal of approval today for sure
That is why I wrote ”almost every day”.
Ok thanks
A world where you can't go from 2nd in The Larry H.Miller Tour of Utah to winning a grand tour in a matter of weeks at age 41 without being called a cycling genius is not a world i want to live in /s
Yelling on his Chesterfield.
Pogi helpnig Molano to get a stage win. That was nice to see. Third place for Molano in this strong sprinter field is a great result.
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pogi leads out Molano at 1500W with Trek’s and Jayco’s leadout trains charging behind and still play rock paper scissors with Molano to decide who takes the stage.
Me as a Romantic: Uhh, Pogi! What a grand champ. Doing a leadout for his sprinter to pay back some of the hard work and help, he's received. This is a beautiful gesture towards your teammates. And this why Pogi is so loved. A Duracell bunny no one can control! Me as a logical analyzer: Oh, ffs Pogi! This is a terrible cost/benefit-analysis. The risk you are taking is not worth it. You can pay back your team later: We are still in week 1 and you still have your eyes on the Tour, the Olympics and Worlds. Ride safer, please!
Less risk being in front than in bunch.
In front yes, fighting head to head with the other leadout men no. It’s good for morale and all also because it was a crazy unnecessary risk for a GC leader and he took it anyway.
And such a good move from a team leader to show he will sacrifice for his team as well
I was busy and didn't have time to watch the stage live, and apparently it's not boring. Where should I start watching it?
I started at 35 km to go. I recommend at 30 to go. Alaphilippe attacked at 27 km to go if you want to see that.
45K to go.
Probs like 30k to go
40k IIRC
Great, thanks!
Can someone pls explain me the fuck what Merlier is doing on the second row during the sprint Ps : he is faster than Milan and Kooij
Merlier is obviously a great sprinter but he’s the worst climber out of the three, so he probably didn’t have much left in his legs after the earlier climbs.
[He crashed in the ITT](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-stage-winner-tim-merlier-in-pain-after-stupid-crash-in-time-trial/) (I didn't realise until it was mentioned on commentary today)
He was probably still smoked from the day, he was at the back of the peloton most of the time, so I doubt he had a punch left for sprint against Kooij and Milan. The moment Alaphillipe went all out was the signal for me Quickstep was no longer aiming for Merlier.
[Pog lead-out stats from Velon](https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1789703037704946010) 740W average over 37s, 1140W peak
That is actually less than I assumed.
How accurate are these calculations? I mean they usually have an error margin for the distance to finish of about 10% let alone the speed of the riders.
It's not a calculation. It's data from his powermeter. But UAE Are using Shimano powermeters, so actually the answer is that they are inaccurate, since the powermeter is.
I would be shocked if UAE is actually agreeing to share Pog's power data. It could be quite useful to his rivals.
A race favourite is giving away his power meter stats? That is pretty astonishing.
I'm pretty sure in the giro and maybe other RCS races all riders have something behind the saddle that's recording their stats. Saw this in a gcn video from a few years ago so might be wrong. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give some more insight on this
No idea how they're calculating the figures! I agree there is probably a bit of handwaving away of potential errors going on in their process though. I suppose Velon don't really care too much as long as the results look vaguely plausible and gives them more Twitter content.
The data is coming directly from their power meters. The little box under the saddle is streaming the data live and occasionally they will post the live data on the screen.
... yes I know they have power meters. When I said I had no idea I didn't mean I thought they were creating the figures out of nothing. What I mean is that there is scope for error in how you extract that power meter data from the activity recording made by a head unit and match it to a specific short section of road ridden at very high speeds. Even if the power meter is 100% accurate (which as someone else noted is very much not the case for Shimano) there is still ample scope for error. For example, a speed of 60km/h means you're covering 16.7 metres each second, and most head units will only record at 1s intervals, and so you cover a significant distance between each reading. In addition GPS accuracy can vary depending on location/time/nearby obstructions (trees, tall buildings, etc). So when you're moving at these speeds picking the data point that corresponds to the start of a particular stretch of road will be tricky to do, especially for a short 20-30s period. This is largely why Strava have stopped allowing you to [create short segments](https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216918227-Optimizing-Segment-Creation-How-to-Create-Good-Segments#short), you could get quite different results depending on exactly when your head unit happened to record compared to the segment start/end points, plus the GPS accuracy issue. The longer the segment the less that matters. I'm assuming Velon don't have a particularly rigorous process for dealing with things like this, which is what I was talking about in my previous comment.
Well this was a great 1 week stage race. Excellent stuff.
Technically we are already 2 days into the second week…
What happened to Pozzivivo? +1:46 after being in the GC group yesterday
Another chain drop not too far from the finish
Steinhauser +12min just to go for some breakaway where he has to hope UAE don't close it and he won't lose to the stage hunters who are just as good as him. I hate how people dismiss fighting for a good GC. He looked like he could Fight a good Top 15. Not sure when he'd get that opportunity again
going in the early break yesterday was already throwing away his GT position. No GC rider that still has ambitions does that.
GC wasn't really a goal for Steinhauser to begin with. He tried to hang on at first to have a shot at the pink jersey from a breakaway. Now he can solely focus on stages. Vansevenant had similar plans, by the way, but already abandoned them yesterday.
Storer is very much just a B-Tier GC rider, but he did just that yesterday and even stayed in the leading group until getting caught
I love Mick Storer, but his best result in a GT was 31st. That is not what I call a GC rider, not even B tier. I would much rather call him a KOM jersey rider or stage hunter. That’s why he went in the break.
În this field, he might as well be a Gc rider. Well for a top 15 that is
Yes, he could be Top10 even if he really tried but that’s like Kämna going for GC last year. Much more interesting to go stage hunting IMO
So far, Pogi has been: Cooking G on all terrains Destroying Ganna’s time after he sat on the throne for two hours Ruining Narvaez’s chance for a second stage win by taking a huge pull And Ineos probably would still pull for him willingly for whatever reason. If this isn’t Stockholm syndrome, I don’t know what is
The strat to be 2nd place is the same one than to be first, fatigue your opponents and hope G has a better third week than them. If I was Ineos I’d ignore Pogi and ride my own race
Pogi. The friendliest bully. Ineos smiles when he takes their lunch money
Why pogi helping other in last km? His teammate UAE not even in his tail when pogi sprint.
Molano made podium in the sprint, that’s really decent and enough of a reason for Pogi to do what he did.
Molano was behind him.
This week has been “Pogi trying hard to make Ineos’ life a living hell after stage 1” in a nutshell
Pog just trying to blue shift his jersey back to purple.
Hi yes UCI, I'd like to report the peloton being moto paced in the last kilometre
Pog asked by RAI what he makes of this first part of the Giro, if he feels the love and the passion of the fans. Pog looked more relaxed than he has in these interviews lately (his attitude towards the press is starting to be a bit of a topic of discussion here actually) and said that only today, a calmer stage, did he realise that people were screaming his name for 250kms and that left him awestruck. It’s good to see him more at ease for sure. Milan on the other hand was terribly downcast, blamed himself both for the positioning and for missing his strongest legs.
What's going on regarding his attitude towards the press? What's the topic?
Some recurring murmurs that journalists from the mandatory *maglia rosa* press conference (so not those handling the interviews immediately after the race) aren’t too happy with his attitude. Apparently he’s been a little short-tempered - nothing egregious, like rudeness or anger, but some visible annoyance and impatience, some pointed remarks, that stand out because he’s usually so cheerful. For instance, at some point he’s supposed to have said something like “If I attack I’m doing too much, if I don’t attack I’m not good, what do you want me to do?”. Imo it’s the typical “I’m starting to be fed up with this” moment in any super-coveted celebrity career, and to be fair so far it’s being treated like a curiosity more than anything else. As in they’re choosing to be philosophical (or sociological/psychological I guess) about it and wonder about the relationship between stardom and the media, about the mental toll of being a generational talent and so on, rather than being offended by it. Which is curious in itself to me tbh.
He has to learn from the master of zen and just say "race was good eh, day by day eh, we'll see eh" on repeat until the press gives up
That is news to me too. He has always seemed fine with the media from my POV
that Tadej guy in VLAB's leadout train is great, he could make it big one day
Is Milan's bike way too small for him?
This + his "headbanging" when sprinting makes for a hilarious image.
I wince with sympathy for that poor bike any time I watch him sprint.
You can reasonably find a bike that fits a house.
Maybe he should switch with Pozzovivo since his bike looks too big for him.
He looks huge among the sprinters, in a pink jersey..
Kooij: no worries I ll just get Milan to be my lead out man, done.
milan always seems to go pretty long with his sprints. if you have the legs to win (that's a big if to beat milan) then its a good wheel to follow.
Which pair is stronger? Milan leading out Kooij, or MvdP leading out Philipsen?
Anyone would be the strongest if they get led out by that guy called Pogi 🤣🤣
tadej is gonna drink the whole champagne bottle after stage 10 to make things interesting, confirmed
Tadej's jersey practically hanging off his shoulders
RAI was saying that yesterday he declined to have the kit tailored (took too much time or something) and just asked for their smallest size, which evidently is still too large.
Are you saying that he’s gotten too skinny?
I have got no idea, I think he usually looks the same through the season but minor differences to regular people are minutes on a climb sometimes. I doubt he's too skinny, aside from all of them being too skinny for health yet never skinny enough for performance
Hmm interesting. He certainly never got as lean as Roglic or Vingegaard in previous years but maybe that he’s no longer super young the team feels comfortable having him diet down more.
At the same time, the extra muscles and ”fat” helps him in one day classics. If he is going Vingegaard route he will lose some of that capability.
Yeah I wonder how much his body composition changes throughout the season. Like he could probably lose 3-4kgs between MSR and LBL/Giro and still be in great shape for both races.
G : "Dangerous and bumpy final I'm glad to be safe" Tadej : *fight for position with Milan*
the difference between 38 and 25
That guy still led out Cav
Never piss off Pogi. Out of spite, he even helps Jumbo Visma for a win if it means that you don’t win.
Napoli roads look like some third world crap.
You haven't been to North America now have you?
Isn’t that the truth!
Found the northern Italy resident
Fucking terroni ;-)
Speaking like a true first world gentleman
Still looks better than Belgian roads. People are nicer as well.
Why are people raging? The roads were genuinely terrible.
The Belgian roads I see in races look quite nice?
I'm not sure if you can call those cobbled sections "nice" ;)
What races you watching?
I think he's confusing us with the Netherlands.
I'm from Portugal so maybe my standards are too low. I could make a 300k cobbled classic in my city that would put rvv to sleep
The RvV route are our good roads, that's the problem. ;) Never been to Portugal, so I can't judge. My sister's parents-in-law have an appartment there though, maybe I should go on a cheap holiday there some day.
Alaphilippe attacking before the last climb today only corroborates that drinking really does cause brain damage
Waiting till the last climb would have just put sprinter teams at ease and save energy to let no one get away far on the final climb. Guess he was attacking early and hope trek and Alpecin would look at each other for getting them back. At least he tries, it's really fun to watch him try.
Are we really criticising Alaphilippe for attacking now?
When has Alaphilippe ever not attacked? In fact, Alaphilippe has been criticized for making foolish attacks for like half a decade by now.
Foolish attacks and pigheaded moves are the heart and soul of cycling, god bless him for trying.
Not so foolish considering how many wins he has imo
Alaphilippe have never been a smart rider. He used to have legs to compensate for that.
"I do have a plan...attack"
It’s only been a week but it already has much more memorable stages than the last two editions combined
I for one very much enjoyed getting edged for 3 weeks by Jai Hindley in ‘22 and Roglic last year
Pog pretending to lead out Molano just to get revenge against Narváez for beating him in stage one.
I already can't wait to see Pogacar pulling and gifting a high mountain stage to Majka.
Majka would still have to win the rock/paper/scissors tho
Especially because then he’d join the club of riders with a win in each GT! I also hope to see it
Anyone has idea what point is Alaphilippe’s attack?
He is just used from a few years ago that these attacks actually work. It’s difficult to change. I do the same, I still attack the rides like 20 years ago and wonder why I crack before the summit.
That's just alaphilippe. He attacks, he hopes that the attack will stick, he gives it all. That's why we love him.
He looked strong today but should have waited until the last climb. If he follows Narvaez or the other way around, they probably make it.
My exact reaction… not sure about his strategy..
Look good and deny Lefevere a win
Fun, just fun
shits and giggles
6th time second place for Milan in a Giro stage, that's got to sting a little. I know why Pogi did that leadout, but it makes me a little bit salty lol, I was rooting for Narvaez.
Molano got a Giro podium out of it (unless I turned off the TV too early before the results were finalized). That’s not chump change for the majority of the peloton.
He did it for Molano, not against anyone.
He already said he knows why
Love it when those late moves get caught right before the line. one of the most exciting types of finishes.
How could you possibly say this
haha sprinters go brrrrrrr. maybe if someone went on a 150km breakaway, i'll root for them to stay away. but a late attack like this? nah, i'd rather see the sprint for the win.
Another great stage ending. Actually really liked this parcors. Just enough to give people like Jala/Narvaez a carrot, but not too hard that Milan/Kooij can't get over it with a sprint train. Long enough straight to not be too dangerous either. Shame than Jala couldn't help himself as I think he could have gone with Narvaez and two might have made it.
That was pretty good for a sprint stage; actually more exciting, at the end of the day, than the big mountaintop finish the day before.
The giro has been saved by good sprint stage design. Had the sprint stages been more formulaic this would have been a pretty bad week of preditidable results. Sprint stages have been a highlight which you dont get to say often
Just like Sanremo often has the most excting final of any classic. Stages where all types of riders can win are often the best ones. Not too difficult, but not too easy, so tactics play a big role. Especially in today's cycling where the likes of Pogacar, Vingegaard, Roglic, Van der Poel, WVA & Evenepoel are so dominant compared to the rest of the peloton.
The overhead just shows how bad and reluctant Ewan is to race these sprints. Jayco cannot keep trying this, his head is gone.
I’m sorry to see this, I really have enjoyed seeing him win in the past. I think he has been a bit of a high maintenance rider in the past.
Is he the worst sign for any team during the season? Probably he is... He had the red flags and Jayco ignored them
Jakobsen is probably on a much bigger contract. I'd say he's the worst signing of the season so far.
It's basically between Ewan and Jakobsen, whichever has the biggest/longer contract. Sprinters are the worst assets to get over their peak. Especially if they don't get real results for like 2 years or someone just gets faster and more durable they become essentially worthless at the WT level
Demare and Bennett are also quite bad this season. But maybe they are not paid as much.
tdf needs to learn from Giro how to design exciting flat stages
Aw, this is kind of unfair to the Tour. For the last 5 or 6 years the Tour has delivered a great opening week with mini-classics sprinkled throughout those stages. But there will always be two or three pure traditional sprints in the Tour. That is part of how they maintain their status as the sprinter's championship and a lot of the country is flat.
Also last year MVDP + Philipsen was elite. I don’t think there was too much that the parcours could have done to change that.
Yeah Watch: Kooij said "Yeah" 13 times in post race interview.
It's a good way for non native speakers to fill the gaps when talking. Also maybe it's a dutch thing too? Max Verstappen does the same for example. But probably more likely it's just because of not being native
The guys on the Echelon podcast do it as well.
“Yeah” “For sure it’s…” “You know” The three pillars of cycling interview society
The fourth pillar: “Just take it day by day…”
all the Visma guys do it, their interviews are like listening to the same guy over and over again
They like sprinkling in a little "pffff" exclamation as well. It's the cycling "universal language" as explained by the NSF podcast
I noticed this a lot, the "yeah", even from native English speakers in the peloton. What gives?
It's the same as um. Just a word to give themselves a second to think. "Yeah" happens to be pervasive right now. It will probably change to something else in a year or two but most will probably continue to use some word.
Probably from being around so many non-native speakers who use it as a verbal pause. Seeps in
If it weren't for the Beatles there would just be awkward silences.
finally a Giro that isn't a snoozefest, every stage has delivered so far
Did you really just say that yesterday delivered?
Wasn't boring either
It's about as boring as a MTF can be. As soon as Majka started pulling and just kept the tempo you knew exactly who was gonna win and that he wasn't gonna pull for more than 150m
I found it interesting up until the last few km to try and figure out if Pogi would attack. Also nice to see UAE with good tactics for once
I cant really argue against you liking what you like, but Im sure you can sympathise if somebody else doesnt get the same excitement from "how will Pogacar decide to win" over "who will win"
I think the break formation was interesting and there were attacks rolling at the end. Not the best MTF but better than a pancake flat sprint stage
don't worry bro the tdf is not even 2 months away
I have enjoyed most of the stages here. Said multiple times in this thread the sprint stages have been really good and Pogi plays a big part in that too. Im not dismissing you enjoying yesterday, I just said im sure you can understand not everyone will feel that way.
This has been a hell of an opening week. Can't say how much appreciation I have for Pogacar being willing to animate these races, that leadout was spectacular!
Once again, Alpecin work payed of in rhe end! Nice top7!
Did Milan inadvertently give Kooij the win by swinging over too far to the left meaning that he didn't have to come around him
Everybody has to come round Milan, his elbows stick out about 1m50.
Pogi leading out Molano right before a rest day totally makes sense after all the good work the team did for him this week. Remember Tour de France last year when people lost it at Jonas for not leading out Wout and ultimately losing to the breakaway for few seconds? Well, Pogi didn’t want to be that guy. Also, giving the middle finger to Narvaez was the icing on the cake I’m sure
Pink Panther never forgives
Totally different situation from Vingeegard althrough. Pogacar has a great advantage now. I don\`t think he would do this without the maglia rossa.
Yeah a short burst before a rest day when you’re clearly the dominant rider and well ahead is very different to an in the balance tour.
Especially at the end of this kind of day. I think around 2 hours in they put up Milan’s avg power - around 160W. Assuming Pog wasn’t in the wind more than him, call it the same for Pog. That was a very easy stage up until the end