Day 3 shows how much the wind can change the race.


Looked to be some awesome stage-recon work on the part of Quick-Step and then a strategic decesion to launch an almost whole team attack when they turned into the quartering head-wind at just the right moment. Blew the whole front of the race up.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Love the Giro - No "transition" stage(s) like they have at the Tour de France, they go from "sprinters stages", right to a full blown Mountain Goat stage!

Profile for tommorow's Mt Etna Stage - http://www.steephill.tv/...talia/profile-04.jpg

. . well they did give them a rest day! :)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

That move is just in the Quick-Step DNA. Crosswind? Drive it full gas to the gutter and blow shit up. And it's not like it was a secret. You could see teams trying to advance for miles before the turn. But a Classics team is going to win that positioning battle every time. Also in the sprint Gavaria's leadout man drove Nizzolo into a Nathan Haas, causing Nizzolo to have to scrub speed. Nasty, dirty racing by Quick Step. Love it.

Nasty, dirty racing by Quick Step. Love it.

Indeed, they played that one well! :)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

More great work today by Quick-Step - they are ruling the early days of the Giro!

The Etna stage which I could not watch live (just did a bit of a review) proved to be a bit anti-climatic - most of the CG contenders eye-balled one another when the crux part of the race happened mid-way up Etna. A few digs from Nibali. Zakarin gained a few bonus time seconds. They said that the Etna would be too early for someone to really go for it, and that proved to be the case.

If you are new to following Road Racing the best summary web site is http://www.steephill.tv/ - great aggregation of news and content.

Love guys like Jan Polanc - away in a break since 2km in, and somehow hangs in and on, all the way for the win!

Looks like back to more action for the sprinters tomorrow.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Jungels is interesting. Prominent in the Ardennes, crazy strong pounding it out on the flats and he's their GC guy. He was smart to help make the QS effort in the wind stick but he looked like Boonen doing it.
Would be cool, but I cannot see him sticking in the front group in the high mountains.

I was able to catch the last 10-15k at work and would argue that it was anything but anti-climatic...Sure, none of the big names did anything but it was excruciating watching to see if Polanc could hold them off! Another k and he would have been toast...it was a fantastic finish to watch.

Chapeau to Polanc, he was solo for a large part of the stage.
He also got lucky because Gaviria went way wide on a turn 18K from the finish, threw a spanner in the works of the peloton, after that none of the GC contenders wanted to seriously stick their necks out.
Still too early for Nibili or Quintana.
Too bad for Dennis, hurtin for certain from yesterdays crash, lots of people were expecting big things from this kid

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res, non verba

agreed on all counts. I couldn't watch yesterday's stage live either but I would have been surprised to see any GC guy make a move, with the possible exception of Nibali. and even for him it would have been a vanity project. its just too early to go so deep, only to be obliged to defend the jersery for another two weeks. no thanks. still a cool stage though. the break worked!!!!
and I too am loving the QS 'dominance'! LOL

also agree on the stages. we should have some old school travel-log racing for a couple of days with sprint finishes. and then a break gets away on either Friday or Saturday (you heard it here first). Sunday .... I don't know. could be fun, or it could be a replay of today.

HAHAHA! Another classic "wining the bell lap" episode!

you just knew it was going to happen. if one were to be cynical, then one would say that being on camera for doing silly stuff like that is better than being anonymous (the whole "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about" philosophy)

wow, QS is having a great year. another stage, another jersey. on top of Phil Gil's great start to the year.
not too shabby.

not too shabby.


In the past on these boards we have been very critical of QS - despite massive talent and horse-power, they would often botch up races that they should have won.

But yes, this year in all seems to be coming right for the new blue-train!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

QS looks like they may try and split this again. Wind is up.

Kind of a long boring stage until a wild finale with a crazy sprint at the end. Young Caleb Ewan wins his first ever Giro stage.

In review, they could not see the line until about 100M to go. I thought that Ewan had gone too early - he went around his last lead-out man, before he had pulled off. It was a long sprint, and he just won in a close photo finish at the line!

Tomorrow there is a bit of geography/topography that may play into the hands of a break-away that can stick! The GC favorites will be probably taking it easy, so it will be a good day for a break to get away and stay away. The massive mountain top finish at Blochaus comes up on Sunday could provide another shake-up in the GC!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Agreed, extremely boring stage.

bump.........

i follow Cannondale pretty closely and while we keep hearing about how they haven't won a GT stage in 2 years, it was Formolo who did that in this race and he's riding pretty well thus far.....Woods got a fourth yesterday and can do some work at the beginning of the climb today and Carthy and Dombrowski should be in the mix with Formolo..Joe D may or may not be up for it as he's been hurt, etc but i think he's been keeping his powder dry.... .Rolland made the break...almost there...little negotiations going on now..hope they let him on cuz i don't want Cdale to do any more work today until the climb........i'm thinking this is a Quintana day, hoping for Yates too and Formolo...

well, this sucks.....all the Cdale boys working on the front except Formolo so I guess he's the man today if they have one...Rolland is too dangerous overall, apparently....

We need a proper thread for today's stage:



Everything is totally tense in the lead up to the base of the Blockhaus climb. Movistar and Bahrain are drilling it at the front with 3K to go to the climb. It's the 50th anniversary of the first climb up

Oh Jeez, Sky carnage all over the road. Geraint doesn't look good.

Holy shit.....right before the climb, the peloton is going full throttle and a police moto stops at the edge of the road. Team Sky literally plows right in. Thomas and Landa down with 2 others. It looks like Movistar and Bahrain OK....I see Adam Yates at the back of the peloton on the base of the climb!

It looks like Thomas is pedaling but not injured....just gapped. Same with Adam Yates. The commentators are talking about this trend of motos messing up the racing (Ventoux last year)

Did I just see Thomas with a teammate pulling him?

That's Landa, the other Sky GC threat. Thomas is bleeding from a few places. Yates also off the back. No way they catch the GC gruppo with Movistar drilling it.

Did I see a 2:46 gap from Thomas to the front of the peloton?