Giro d'Italia / Tour de France

[Paddingtonwolf]

Always an early rest day if they start in Sardinia - takes ages to get the gear over to Sicily.

Which is odd, as they avoided a rest day in the tour getting over from Corsica a year or so back. Bloody Italian ferries...

 

[nimrod]

should be a good one today. in other news, froomey knocked off his bike by an "impatient driver"

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/861860980430696448

 

[machin05]

should be a good one today. in other news, froomey knocked off his bike by an "impatient driver"

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/861860980430696448

Yeah, I saw that earlier. Done some decent damage to the bike, which is/was worth about £9k apparently!

 

[Wombat del combate]

Probably just his day-to-day runabout.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Anyways - on to the Etna stage.

It is a tough looking finish, but they could have gone a bit higher - to Bar Etna (which looks passable comfortably enough) and made an absolute horror of a climb to sort the men from the boys.

 

[Wombat del combate]

It is only day four though. When's the double Stelvio?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Stage 16 on Tuesday 23 May. Don't just think of two Stelvios that day though - got to get the Mortirolo out of the way first. #bastardstagefromhell

 

[machin05]

Stage 16 on Tuesday 23 May. Don't just think of two Stelvios that day though - got to get the Mortirolo out of the way first. #bastardstagefromhell

My god, that looks horrendous:

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Stage 18 is an absolute beast too. Going to take the dog for a walk before they hit the slopes of Etna.

One of the things that never grows old on Eurosport is the incessant use of Peter Sagan as some form of super model candy to sell Bora cookers. Hmmmm - perhaps try someone who isn't pig ugly, just a thought... That and Alpecin jumping all over Castrol IP rights for GTX in their adverts.

 

[machin05]

Anyone know what device the pro-riders have hanging off the back of their saddles?

 

[Wombat del combate]

I think it's a GPS unit.

I quite enjoy the confused professional cyclists doing their sponsors' advertising commitments, especially the Alpecin ones.

Also, the reference to a climb as a "difficulty": I consider a difficulty to be when I'm out of puff and can't hold a decent average speed, not something of a gradient which would have required my mother or father to have had carnal relations with a mountain goat.

 

[Wombat del combate]

My god, that looks horrendous:

Strava for you:

Mortirolo

Stelvio

Umbrailpass

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Superb stage today. I THINK Geraint Thomas might be in the Maglia Rosa.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Bah - not quite, but into second.

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Good to see him sprinting for bonus seconds, I like the intent from Thomas who is a bit too defensive for me at times. Probably not a bad thing for him to miss out on the hassle of race leadership at this stage as well. The climbed looked horrible today, just straight roads, nothing to aim for, no hairpins etc. Great ride from the lad to win the stage.

 

[Wombat del combate]

So, the question I want answered is this: Given that ITV play SL2 On a Ragga Tip when Romain Bardet features/wins a stage, will they play 'Jungels is Massive' if Bob wins a stage at the Tour?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

This is a brilliant stage so far. Sky are playing a blinder with Landa on the way up the road and then Thomas can pick up the pieces too.

And then it is the Blockhaus tomorrow!

 

[Johnny75]

Cracking finish, that will have damaged some folk for tomorrow's beast of a stage. Hard to see who will be in the mix yet as nobody has shown their hand.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I really liked the parcours for that finish. Nasty little ramp.

Bring on the blockhaus...

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Yeah nice stage today. Interesting to see if the GC boys come out to play tomorrow or neutralise like on Etna. Can't really see past Quintana when it does kick off.