BMC already have riders who can form Kav’s Sprint train.
Cavendish, Kittel and Ewan at Tour of Slovenia.
I am more convinced than ever MS need a second sprinter.
I’ve seen 2 sprints in TOC - in both Mitchelton lead out went to front / beside leaders but Ewan wasn’t on their tail and had gone chasing wheels elsewhere. I imagine that would get a bit frustrating for the members of his train.
First Sprint was disorded because Kluge got a mechanical with 10kms forcing the team to start from further back.
And the way Mezgec operates is to sit back a bit and then carefully lead Ewan to the front or close to with 400 or 500 metres to go. Mezgec is a gun lead out rider, especially in technical finales
And Froome rises from the dead to beat Yates and Pozzovivo on Zoncolan - Good ride by Dumoulin to limit damage - Yates leads Dumoulin by 84 seconds - Expect today to be a relaxed day but you never know in the Giro.
And Gaviria beats Walschied and Ewan is a photo finish of the last stage of TOC - Sprint train worked well for both Etix and MS - Reckon Ewan’s form has been rock solid in 2018 but he’s only won 2 races.
Chaves struggled again.
Tonights stage will be interesting. Those that went too deep last night will lose time tonight.
Think it will be a controlled stage but I question whether Froome can back it up - Interesting that in the finale,. Nieve lead Yates into the final descent into Zoncolan and then disappeared - Strange !
The saying is every cloud has a silver lining - It could be the unfortunate demise of Chaves may make it easier for MS to retain both Yates.
So Haig was the last rider with Yates, this is impressive right? Is he really their third best climber at the Giro behind Chavez?
Also how much time is Dumolin expected to make up on the TT?
Yeh Haig was the last man standing for Yates. He’s been really very good.
Neive is still coming back to form after injury, he’s looked better as the Giro as gone on.
Kruizeger has been useful, but not as much as the other two.
Still no word on what is Chaves issue.
I think you would expect Dumolin to make 1.30 - 2m on the ITT. But you never know, the leader’s jersey is worth some time in itself; I expect it to be very close after the ITT.
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Apparently MS saved their climbers because there is little help that can be provided on Zoncolan - Haig will be riding for GC next year and I predict he will end up better than Yates x 2 and Chaves.
And as I type this, Chaves is dropped with 35kms to go - Kreuziger is leading up the 2nd last climb with th break having 1m 44s - Looks like another doomed breakaway.
Some ride by Yates. Broke away from the other contenders with about 20kms to go just after Froome was dropped. Rode the last part solo to win by 41 seconds. Dumoulin dropped from the chasing group before coming back to the chasers in the last kilometre to end up 3rd to limit his losses. Now trails by over 2 mins. Froome ended up losing 1 and half mins.
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Yet again Haig set up S.Yates stage win - That acceleration at the bottom of the climb split the lead group down from 20 to 8 - Awesome riding.
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You have to love Dumoulin
On the rollers yesterday
“I don’t give a damn at this point. I’m totally ****ed now,” Dumoulin said as he soft-pedalled on the turbo trainer. "I had to dig so deep to stay with those five other riders after Yates’ attack, and in the end, it didn’t even matter because everybody there was just taking the pi ss. If I had immediately started riding by myself, I would have lost a lot less time on Yates. Because of them taking the pi ss I lost a lot more. Anyway, I did the best I could today. Yates was just way too strong.
“Pinot worked a little bit with me. Pozzovivo did some short pulls. But, ah, I can understand them, obviously. That’s cycling. That’s what makes the sport so beautiful. But I had to adjust my tactics. Which I did. I thought, if I just time trial, then I’ll be faster at the finish than if I stay here, fooling around with those other guys.”
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The chase group suffered from the South Americans in Lopez and Carapaz competing for the white jersey.
An alien performance so far from Yates. Though the climbing times are very good but hardly out of this world.
Reckon TD will be in the pink after the ITT.
The TT looks to be wet.
MS rides the Tour of the Fjoords which is a lead in for the first Hammer Series - Team is Meyer, Albasini, Power, Durbridge, Verona and Hamilton - This and then Tour De Suisse are important races for Albasini’s future going forward - He needs to show something to continue riding on in 2019.
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Wet makes it more tricky but the wind could be a key determinant.
Winds appear to be light.
Dennis wins the TT from the Panzerwagen, the Dumoulin.
Yates rode well, limiting the damage to 1.24, and leads Dumoulin by nearly a minute.
Froome did best of the other GC riders and is up to 5th, Dennis is 6th. All others did worse than Yates. Aru and two others from UAE got penalized for drafting!
Expect Yates will take on a much more defensive approach to the 3 alpine stages which start tomorrow.
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So … how well is too well for Yates?
Great effort by Dennis who rode a high quality ITT after battling with GC. Could be a breakthrough performance by Dennis.
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