M-A Lopez also crashed in the recon.
First rider is away!
Haig crashed.
Monster effort from Dennis.
Leads by 33 seconds.
Haig 2.33 down
Dumoulin wins the prologue by two seconds from Dennis and Campanaert - Impressive ride by S.Yates to finish 7th and only 18 seconds down - Froome struggled losing 37, Pinot lost 31, Chaves 46, Aru 50, Pozzovivo 22 and Lopez 56 seconds.
And Magnus Cort wins the uphill finish in Stage 2 of Yorkshire from GVA and Prades - Think a priority for MS is to recruit a young rider who is fast in a finish - It’s a definite need.
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Go to Stanley Street Social for a fantastic interview with Jack haig.
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And Viviani beats Mareczko and S.Bennett in the first sprint stage of the Giro - Viviani was true to form, lost his sprint train, surfed wheels and came from a long way back - And Dennis takes three seconds in a bonus sprint on the road to grab the Pink Jersey.
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Viviani beats Modolo and S.Bennett in stage 3 of the Giro in a long and uneventful stage - Rest day then off to Sicily for stage 4 which features a 1km at 8.5% drag at the finish - S.Yates is well fancied for this stage, though i think Chaves can do well - Ullisi is the one if he’s in shape.
Yeh stage 4 looks like Ullisi special.
Actually Kreuziger do well - if he’s given license to do so.
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And Wellens wins the uphill sprint from Woods and Battaglin with S.Yates 4th - The first five took 4 seconds on the rest - Froome and Lopez losing 23 seconds and Dennis retaining the pink - MS did an excellent final lead out on the punchy climb - Haig drilled it from 1.3kms to go having Chaves on his wheel and the leading 4 got a gap in the final km - Woods and S.yates came out of the pack with 400m to go but just failed - Interesting that kreuziger 6th is staying up on GC for another option - My suspicion is MS may let have Kreuziger have a go up Mt Etna on stage 6 and hope to get a gap Good day for MS with three riders in the top 10 - Today’s finish is similar but appears a touch easier - It’s interesting that S.Bennett was in the group of four that got a gap in the last km - He must be a shout for today.
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One two for Mitchelton Scott! Chaves takes it from Yates. As well as the time bonuses they get 25 seconds on the other contenders.
Yates into the lead with Dennis losing over a minute.
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Somehow Chaves was allowed into the break - Dashed clear with 5kms to go, while S.Yates bided his time in the chasing peleton - S.Yates went with 1.2km to go on a flatter part of the climb and brought back Chaves’ 30 second lead in 600 metres - Awesome ride.
Vent - ■■■■■■ Giro is not on FTA 
Otherwise continue as you were.
So they’re working for Yates if he’s allowed to chase Chavez down, right?
Just keeping all options open I guess.
Would Yates have tried if the others followed?
It’s equal leaders with the road deciding - In one week road stages Chaves always defers to the Yates brothers - It’s all part of keeping harmony in the team and more importantly MS wants to retain the Yates brothers.
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And S.Bennett defeats Viviani and Modolo in stage 7 of the Giro - MS finish safely in the pack and retain pink - Caution for Yates and Chaves - They need to be patient when attacking in the mountain stages - It doesn’t matter if they lose pink in the ITT because they then have four tough stages to regain the jersey.
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The Zoncolan is before, and anything can happen there. Losing 10m is easy there.
Zoncolan has similar gradients to the Angliru, though it appears the Angliru does more damage.
MS team for the TOC - Ewan,Kluge, Mezgec, Hepburn, A.Yates, Bauer and Mezgec - Add Impey to this team and maybe take out Kluge for Howson and that’s your TDF team - Only issue is Howson is battling injury, so have no idea who will be mountain support, while Trentin probably won’t recover from injury - So Kluge may get a gig - A.Yates will be lonely, though my understanding is stages will take priority over GC.