Anyone else following this year's Giro? Finally a proper 'Classic' and such an inspired and heroic performance from Bury lad Simon Yates. I'm sort of lucky this year that Ramadan here coincides with the Giro, but not the World Cup unfortunately, so I'm home from the office 2pm to get the key parts of each day's stage Froome looks to be finished in GC Tours and I'm so hoping Yates is a 'clean' rider at last. I really want to see him ride into Rome in the Magila Rosa Would be keen to hear any other views on this
Let’s go for the cheese (as the actress said to the bishop). I’ll start with a blue-veined organzola. I’ve got a syndrome. Stroller said so.
I love the Grand Tours - it's the only reason for paying Eurosport some money. The cycling equivalent of test cricket. Both the Yates twins (Adam also rides for the same team and was competing at the Tour of California last week) have come on and are starting to fulfil their promise. Simon is doing a grand job - especially after pinning his rivals back on yesterdays time trial. I think Froome hurt himself in his day one crash far more than Sky let on - and that's affected his performance. He's not done yet as a GC winner (assuming he can successfully demonstrate that the salbutamol test is flawed and that you can get an inaccurate reading if severely dehydrated). But I don't understand why it's taking so long to resolve the case. Anyway, Simon Yates is a true British success story if he can complete the Giro successfully and become the first Brit to win it. Loving it...
I am gearing (pun intended) up for LTDF. Watch it every year and have been to see it live, although you wait for hours only to see them whizz past and it's over in about 20 secs. Yates has done really well. Watch out for Mark Cavendish this year who hopefully break Merckx’s Tour stage win record and become the greatest Tour rider. Go Cav!
Great to have another Brit in the frame and have been keeping up to date by reading the reports on BBC Sport, don't have time or inclination to pay Eurosport any money to watch. Good luck to Simon Yates though, after today, three tough stages, 56 secs could disappear very quickly (well in less than a minute!). Would love to see Cav break the stage wins record at TDF but the competition now too fierce, can't see him winning many/any more. Roll on 7 July!
Cav is still the fastest rider over a certain distance. Agree Sagan,Kittel,Greipel are all good but if Cav gets into space he should do okay. He only needs 4 wins to equal the record and 5 to be the greatest. Dimension Date is an okay team, not as good as when he was at HTC that had the team for sprint finishes, or Sky, however if he keeps himself free from crashes he may get 2-3 stage wins (even 2 would be good).
Yates should have enough in these key mountain stages to see off Tom Dumoulin, Yates is a decent climber
I think the three you mentioned Ellers will be too strong in the sprints for Cav, but, I'd be very happy to be wrong. It's all about the team and where they place him, he certainly knows what he's doing, has the experience but does he still have the raw power?
He's done a brilliant job so far and shown his climbing credentials in spectacular fashion with three stage wins, lets hope he can get one or two more.
In Wales atm the moment and set off on new bike. Hit a 16% hill and had to get off and walk most of it!! Huge respect to these fellas and good luck to Yates. Do enjoy watching but mainly highlights as not enough time to sit and watch real time.
Yeah agree the team is the important thing but I still think he will win a stage or two...Actually I haven't checked out all the stages yet so that may change.
So true. I was out walking in Gozo one summer and was forced to use a short 25% road for about 150m. I couldn't walk up it without zig-zagging to reduce the gradient. You've no idea how hard these roads are until you try. Re: Giro last night. Decent defensive performance by Yates. Poor Sam Bennett got himself boxed in for the sprint and could get out until it was too late. He looked devastated. Is there a chance that Froome will get himself into 3rd place by the time they're in Rome?
Bad day yesterday and Yates absolutely blown away today, what a ride by Froome to grab the Magila Rosa, still with a 'Brit'!!
I thought Froome might snatch overall 3rd place by Sunday. I didn't expect anything quite like this. Looking forward to seeing how he did it on the highlights, later.