The Giro 2020

Teams rosters have been announced and this is what my take is on them.

The first thing to remember being most of the 'star' GC riders rode in the TdF just gone and another chunk such as Froome who didn't will be riding in the Vuelta that overlaps this tears Giro due to the late start because of covid.

So there's bound to be riders making a name for themselves on this Tour who I've either not heard about before, or have been 'team' riders for others, who have been 'promoted' up due to all the Tours (and classics) coming all at once.

Ag2r - French team whose leader Bardet jumping ship at the end of the season.  They like all the French Teams put all their stars into the TdF and they got nothing much out of it.  Gallopin seems to be their leader and he's really a one day type of rider - think like the weekends World Championship course.  Can't see wins at the Giro for these boys but Bouchard won the king of the mountains at last years Vuelta so I guess that's what their prime target will be?

Astana - I see Lopez who just finished 6th in the TdF is riding but I imagine that will be as a domestique for Fuglsang who finished 5th or 6th in the World's yesterday.  Fuglsang is a bit like Riche Porte who has ridden for others mainly throughout his career and only late in the day become the star of the team.  He's now 36 but probably in the best form of his life.  One to watch definitely but I think there's probably three riders at the Giro better than him - but should make the top ten with Lopez helping him.

Bahrain - Landa is the leader of this team but he's just done the TdF.  I don't even know who their leader at the Giro will be as the squad is listed alphabetically (usually the leaders name is first and alphabetically thereafter) and I've never heard of Enrico Battaglin who is listed first.  Come to that the only name I have heard is Brit Scott Davies and he's just a youngster in usual cycling terms.  Can't really help on this one.

Bora - Turns out Sagan's been paid a lot of money to be here and has honoured his agreement which was made pre coronavirus.  Rafal Majka will be there GC rider, who is good but not in the top rank, even in this weaker field this year I would suggest.  Sagan will be the one that will no doubt find some way to entertain us.

CCC - I think this team is on its way to folding so don't expect any fireworks from it.  Zakarin I guess will be their GC but isn't anything special.

Cofidis - Italian Viviani who is a great sprinter but on a poor team did nothing at this years TdF.  Maybe he'll do something in front of his home crowd, he's certainly good enough to!

Quick Step - The team of Alaphilippe and Sam Bennett, neither who will be there.  They usually prefer one day racing and a geared up that way so I guess they will hunt stages.  They do however include a young Brit James Knox who finished 11th in last years Vuelta, so one to watch out for in the mountains.

EF Pro Cycling - Uran's team.  Non of the names jump out to me, Kangert's been around for a while but isn't that good.  Maybe they will give him a chance to ride for himself rather than others?  Again nobody who grabs my attention.

FDJ - French team going with their sprinter Demare to be their lead rider.  He can and does win sprints but isn't really in the elite group of sprinters that Viviani has been in at times.

Israel Start Up - The team that is awaiting Froome's arrival.  Brit and usually our national TT specialist is in the team, so maybe hopes for a stage win perhaps, but then again he's up against Thomas for those.  I think they will be happy with any scraps they can pick up.

Lotto Soudal - Sprinter Caleb Ewan's team who again won't be at the Giro.  The only name I really know from there team is iron-man Adam Hansen who rode a record 20 consecutive Grand Tours - takes some doing that!  Again apart from that I don't know much else to say.

Mitchelton Scott - Aussie team with possibly the favourite, Bury boy (and twin to Adam) Simon Yates, who won the Vuelta in 2018 and should have won the Giro that year too but cracked badly with just a couple of days to go and was one of many blasted into oblivion with Froome's 'miracle' stage.  Give it a lot of Billy Big Bollocks last year telling everybody he was going to win the Giro the following year but finished a long way behind Carapaz, Nibali and Roglic.  He's got serious talent though, so don't write him off.

Movistar - Spanish team so will be saving their big guns for the Vuelta. To be honest I don't think I've heard of any of their team so I don't think they are here with any big expectations on their shoulders.

NTT Pro - Louis Meintjes seems to be their leader and has had a couple of top tens in Tours before now but yet again another who doesn't dine with the top tier of GC riders.  I don't have anything more I can add.

Ineos/Sky - looks to me as they are going for this!  Thomas is the class of the field but does he still have the fire in his belly?  The team is packed with some seriously big engines in Rohan Dennis former two times world TT champion and Filippo Ganna, the current one.  Ben Swift, notionally the team sprinter along with Golas and Puccio will no doubt be putting in their fair shares in the engine room too.  Dunbar will be his wingman on the mountains and I guess Geoghegan Hart is probably there to help too, go for the bottles!

Jumbo Visma - Believe it or not until last year or so Kruijswijk was probably the starman on their team!  He was absolutely flying prior to this years TdF but had a crash and was ruled out of it where he would have been joint leader with both Roglic and Dumoulin!  If he's back to full health and Jumbo have strength in depth - I see their big engine Tony Martin has just ridden in the TdF - the they will be battling it out with Ineos - but I don't think they have.  Could well be a battle between Kruijswijk, Thomas and Yates for the Pink jersey though!

Sunweb - what a great TdF they had!  Matthews was the last rider to win Green at the TdF other than Sagan - and even then only did so after Sagan had been somewhat harshly perhaps thrown out of that years race.  Matthews is off to another team after this season and that was directly the reason why he wasn't selected for France.  I don't think he's anything special and will no doubt be in competition for the Giro's version of the Green Jersey but he won't be winning GC or anything like that.  There GC rider is Wilco Kelderman yet another good climber but not in the same league as K, T and Y who I mention above.

Trek - The great Vincenzo Nibali, a favourite rider of mine and a regular foe of Chris Froome.  Froome though bested him when it matted in France.  Nibali is Italian and at 35 years old probably in his last realistic chance of winning the Giro for the third time.  He's the fourth and last of the realistic winners of this years Giro but has he got the necessary support team behind him?

UAE - Pogacar's team.  Sprint super star Gaviria is probably the main man is this team but he's been off the boil for the last two seasons now.

Also, an no offence intended, Androni, Bardini and Vini Zabi are the three wildcard teams selected who are all I believe Italian and which I know nothing about or their riders.  I assume they will get into the breakaways to get their sponsors names on TV and anything more than that will be a bonus for them.

Who will win, I don't know!  Nibali is the class rider, wonderful to watch on descents and with a very clever brain at knowing what to do and when.  He's come up short though when faced with the Sky train with Froome to finish it off at the death.  Kruijswijk has been around a log time and should have won the Giro in 2016 but threw it all away with a crash on Stage 19 of the 2016 edition, where he broke a rib - video below.

Yates is talented, no doubt about that but either has a big head or blusters because he hasn't believed he could do it when it matters.

I'll go for Thomas if he's got his mojo back - he deserves another Tour as I don't see where is career is now heading at Sky?

Kruijswijk might well be the man for him to beat though for pink.

The weather at this time of the year in the Alps and Dolomities might well be the joker in the pack though!

let me get this correct...so they're all signing on right?

wanderlust wrote:let me get this correct...so they're all signing on right?

???

Signing on what?

Sluffy wrote:

wanderlust wrote:let me get this correct...so they're all signing on right?

???

Signing on what?

He means signing on at the Job Centre.

A giro is what you used to get when you signed on the dole.  (Job seekers)

karlypants wrote:He means signing on at the Job Centre.

BoltonTillIDie wrote:A giro is what you used to get when you signed on the dole.  (Job seekers)

Ah, so he's just acting like a petulant child then, I see.

Thank you both.

No they aren't signing on as unemployed but they are required to 'sign on' daily in person at the start of each stage.

It was a joke Sluffy, i thought of the old Giro for signing on the dole as well when i see the title, lighten up man 

Quick Nuts alert. Bob's out of bed again. I ambushed him near radiology, but he started talking about Dale Vince, and when I woke up he was gone.
I think he was heading down to Diagnostic Imaging, but as I speak he's unaccounted for. Do not approach.

boltonbonce wrote:Quick Nuts alert. Bob's out of bed again. I ambushed him near radiology, but he started talking about Dale Vince, and when I woke up he was gone.
I think he was heading down to Diagnostic Imaging, but as I speak he's unaccounted for. Do not approach.

Lets hope he gets lost and can't find his way back

Well I thought it was funny.
But on a serious note have they thought of getting Norman Tebbit to start the race?

This post is for Wessy really as he talented spotted Marc Hirshi at the TdF and the young lad has just won a big single day race called the Fleche Wallonne, in Belgium.

I'll try and set the scene, in traditional cycling on the continent the original power base used to be in the working class areas around Belgium and northern France in the same way as football really started out in the working class towns of Lancashire and the west midlands.

Single day races were what people watched and a schedule of these 'premier' one day races developed over the decades.

The are five 'classic races' known as the monuments but there also about a half dozen more or so which are held in high esteem including this one -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Fl%C3%A8che_Wallonne

The tradition of the race is to finish at the top of a very famous in the cycling world, steep hill called the Mur de Huy (Wall of Hoy).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mur_de_Huy

The race is usually held in Spring and is part of a trio of one day race events over a week in that region of Belgium that also includes the Amstel Gold Race and one of the monument races, Liege-Bastogne-Liege - but is raced now because of being rescheduled because of the virus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardennes_classics

Normally I wouldn't comment on the day races but do so today because Hirshi, who I knew nothing about until you brought him to my attention, won!

Here's a clip of the race, hope you enjoy it!



Results
Flèche Wallonne 2020: Herve to Mur de Huy (202km)
1. Marc Hirschi (Sui) Sunweb, in 4-49-17
2. Benoît Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
3. Michael Woods (Can) EF Pro Cycling
4. Warren Barguil (Fra) Arkéa-Samsic
5. Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation
6. Michał Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers
7. Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 5s
8. Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
9. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
10. Simon Geschke (Ger) CCC Team, at 10s

I enjoyed it. Great race.

The Giro d'Italia starts in Sicily on Saturday and takes in 21 stages across 3,497km (2,173 miles) before it concludes in Milan on Sunday 25 October.

With more than 40,000m of climbing and three individual time trials in the rearranged 103rd edition of the race, where will it be won and lost?

BBC Sport looks at which riders are likely to feature in the general classification shake-up and the stages that could define the battle for the maglia rosa.

Geraint Thomas: Well off the pace at the Criterium du Dauphine in August, Britain's Thomas appears hungry and motivated after being omitted from the Ineos Grenadiers team for the Tour de France.

Given Ineos' troubles at the Tour, the Giro represents an opportunity for both to prove a point. A second-place finish at Tirreno-Adriatico and fourth place in the time trial at the World Championships suggest 2018 Tour de France champion Thomas is riding back into form at the right time.

With his capacity to climb and three individual time trials working in his favour, the 34-year-old Welshman will arrive at the Grande Partenza as one of the big favourites.

Simon Yates: Yates will be hoping it is third time lucky at the Giro. The Mitchelton-Scott rider spectacularly cracked on the Colle delle Finestre when leading the race in 2018, to eventually finish 21st. He was eighth the following year.

However, he comes into this year's race having underlined his credentials as a potential winner, finishing third at the Tour de Pologne and winning Tirreno-Adriatico.

Victory in the 2018 Vuelta a Espana proved the Briton has the nous to win a three-week race but, with his time-trialling likely to be a weakness, he may need a solid lead heading into the final stage.

Steven Kruijswijk: Kruijswijk comes to the Giro after missing out on Jumbo-Visma's challenge to win the Tour with a shoulder injury.

Third in the 2019 Tour, the Dutch rider has unfinished business at the Giro, after a crash when leading the 2016 race destroyed his hopes of winning, while an illness 12 months later forced him to withdraw.

A consistent and durable rider, Kruijswijk will be counting on a hard final week in the mountains to crack his rivals.

Vincenzo Nibali: Nibali, arguably has the best pedigree of any rider at the race, having won all of cycling's Grand Tour's in a stellar career.

Now 35, the Italian will have the benefit of Giulio Ciccone supporting him on the Trek-Segafredo team and will hope to find his legs after subdued displays at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro dell'Appennino.

Second to Richard Carapaz in 2019, Nibali - nicknamed the Shark - knows how to win here better than most with seven stage successes and two overall race victories.

Jakob Fuglsang: Former mountain biker Fuglsang missed the Tour to concentrate on the Giro and finished a creditable fifth in the road race at the World Championships.

The Dane is likely to be buoyed by the support of Astana team-mates Oscar Rodriguez, Aleksandr Vlasov and Miguel Angel Lopez, who is fresh from a sixth-placed finish at the Tour - where he claimed a superb win on the Col de la Loze.

However, at 35, Fuglsang still has to prove he can compete at the sharp end of a Grand Tour, with only one top-10 finish in his career.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/54362396

Opening mini Time Trial today with Ganna again being exceptional and yet another changing of the old guard into the new.  The young lad who finished third Bjerg is expected to be the main rival to Ganna in TT's in the years to come and fifth place Tobias Foss is being bracketed already in the same class as Bernal and Podacar!  Shout out too for the lad who finished second Almeada who apparently can climb a bit too.

Fair to say I had never heard of any of these before apart from Ganna, and even then I only really knew of Ganna from track cycling (which he dominates in the individual pursuit).  

Thomas finished fourth and put time into all his GC rivals.

Very long way to go yet and pictures already appearing of snow on tops of mountains to climb on the Tour a week or two in the future yet!

So far so good.

A horrible crash for Lopez (finished 6th at TdF) has sent him to hospital, hopefully he will have a speedy recovery.

Brief highlights including crash below -



Results
Giro d’Italia 2020, stage one: Monreale to Palermo (15.1km ITT)
1. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers, in 15-24
2. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck – Quick-Step, at 22 seconds
3. Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates, at same time
4. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 23 seconds
5. Tobias Foss (Nor) Jumbo-Visma, at 31 seconds
6. Josef Černý (Cze) CCC Team, at 36 seconds
7. Matteo Sobrero (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling, at 40 seconds
8. Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Pro Cycling, at 41 seconds
9. Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ, at 42 seconds
10. Matthias Brändle (Aut) Israel Start-Up Nation, at same time

Hi Sluffy i was abit slow out of the blocks here , thanks for all the info above going to read through it to take it all in, With the first stage TT clashing with the Wanderers i only watched  it late last night, first thoughts was how surprised i was at the distance, mighty short in cycling terms? 

The winner certainly showed how it was done, another bad crash was it Lopez ? Guessing fourth is a good start for Thomas, hope to watch today's stage.

At the minute i can only watch it on Eurosport ? so can't folllow on my lap top if the wife wants to watch anything else. Will it be on channel 4 once the Tennis finishes.

wessy wrote:Hi Sluffy i was abit slow out of the blocks here , thanks for all the info above going to read through it to take it all in, With the first stage TT clashing with the Wanderers i only watched  it late last night, first thoughts was how surprised i was at the distance, mighty short in cycling terms? 

The winner certainly showed how it was done, another bad crash was it Lopez ? Guessing fourth is a good start for Thomas, hope to watch today's stage.

At the minute i can only watch it on Eurosport ? so can't folllow on my lap top if the wife wants to watch anything else. Will it be on channel 4 once the Tennis finishes.

It's not on ITV4 I don't think it is on channel 4 either - Eurosport I think is the only one you can view live on TV but there are highlights on Quest (the same place they have EFL highlights) for a hour starting 7-00pm.

If you miss it you can always catch up on Quest iplayer -

https://www.dplay.co.uk/

It used to be the norm to start Tours with a mini race - known as a 'prologue' to sort of get a lead in the that particular Tour, to have someone 'winning' yellow (or in this case 'pink') so their teams can defend it the following day as the tour starts 'properly'.

It's kind of fell out a favour in recent years but this mini TT was kind of like a throwback in a way.

Ganna's a beast on TT's and he's in Thomas team, so if there's any chasing down/trying to crack the peloton during the Giro for Ineos benefit he will be doing it along with another team mate Rohan Dennis who won the last two world TT championships but done much this season so far - maybe he'll peak later on in the race.

Thomas finishing fourth on the TT is neither here nor there, what matters is what time he wins/loses on his other GC rivals - and he beat them all, so they are going to have to catch him up timewise AND gain more on him because they know he will be beating them on the other two TT's one of which is on the last day like they did in the TdF.

So Thomas defends in the mountains and his rivals have to attack him - that's going to be the GC story of the tour.

Yes bad crash for Lopez - cycling certainly isn't a 'soft' sport like some.

Long way to go yet - hope you enjoy it as much as the TdF.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2020/10/04/giro-ditalia-2020-stage-two-liege-bastogne-liege-live-updates/

Leige Bastogne WOW What a finish that was and what a group to break away. 6 hours in the saddle a sprint finish, Hirsche loses the pedal or chain problem, Aliphillipe arms aloft to take the win, Roglic dips to take it on the line. Fabulous .

Fantastic finish today the way the pelaton kept cranking it up was awesome a good win for Ulissi  real surprised to hear Sagan was making his debut here. No damage done in the GC, bring it on tomorrow a bit of a climb to the finish.

Having to get used to a whole new set of names but it will come, weird just watched the Leige race and knew all the leaders, progress lol

The crash video the snow saved him from serious injury, and Hirsche winning puts him right up with the best so much more to come i would guess.

Yes Alaphilippe messed up big time on today's Liege - Bastogne - Liege (which is one of cycling's 5 'Monuments' - think like The Derby, Oakes, Guineas, etc are in horse racing).

As in turns out he wouldn't have won anyway as quite rightly he was judged to have taken Hirschi's line and forcing him to swerve and I think pull his foot out of the pedal (they are sort of clipped into them) so 'relegated' to the back of the group he finished in, meaning he was placed fifth.

Highlights clip here -



As for Sagan some riders in their prime will just target the TdF as their target and train just for that and as the Giro usually proceeds the TdF that's possibly why he's never got around to it before?

He did commit to the Giro for this year however, even before Covid, so would have rode it in May when it usually is and then gone on to the TdF.

He's been the best cyclist in the world (as opposed to GC cyclists like Froome for instance) but started to get overshadowed by Alaphilippe last year and new boys like Pogacar and Woet van Aret who started to make names for themselves last year and Hirschi this season.

Sagan's always been a crowd pleaser and a great bike handler and there's a few clips below of some of the things he's done - many of which being in actual races!

Quite a confident chap Mr Sagen lol great clips.

Well that blew the race apart a great break away by Caicedo did well to hold on for a great win.

Who ever plans the route must hate cyclists lol 100k + then finish with 19k climb up mount Etna lol

Thomas must have suffered today if he has broken anything its astonishing that he still finished.

Sluffy i get that Thomas was the main man so they send riders back to see if they can get him back to the peloton but once the team realised that it was not to be why did they sacrifice Ganna and the jersey?  Is it that he is not a GC contender?