I'll cast mine from here. You will need a tin foil hat to tune in.

56kph is absolutely insane. And he looked ready to go another lap.

Kuss could wind up being the Andy Schleck or Nairo of this generation. Incredible climber but not going to have much of a GC chance when ITTs are a major factor. Maybe he mailed it in today to stage hunt but still shipped 1:30 to Pogacar in just 13k.

Froome isn't looking so good either. Not having the legs for cross-wind racing yesterday is one thing but you think the totally measured demand of an ITT would have him show a little more.

He looks so smooth and powerful on the bike, you'd hardly know he was going that fast without the splits.

I hope Froome was just soft pedaling because he continues to look far from GC worthy.

:)

can you just hard wire the laptop to the tv with an hdmi cable?

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"one eye doubles my eyesight, so things don't look half bad" John Hiatt

Oh dang, I was going to reply it's only an app, but they actually do have a Web player as of August. Still beta, I'll try it tomorrow.

I guess I could. But you know, that would make all the bantering a bit difficult ;), as the laptop would need to be quite close to the 50" TV. First world problems, I know

Pogacar bosses the peloton today, huge effort from Yates. Good try by Kuss though that climb doesn’t look hard enough for him.

yah that was fun to watch; looking forward to Thursday though potential for crosswinds tomorrow

What I love about crosswind days at this race is the 100% chance DQS will shred the peloton yet few can do anything about it. It'll just be a matter of who gets caught out. On stage 1 Pog showed that he learned his lesson on that at TdF.

In other news, MvdP looks likely to race opening weekend.

Yeah, his team car had to be saying, you get gapped, no GC for you.

Powless has been riding hard and was active and animated on crosswinds day too. Higi had a nice ride today too.

Yates didn't miss by much at the end. Taddy Gotcha got a good gap but Yates closed it. Impressive, aggressive riding.

MvDP is my dark horse for Omloop.

He may be a dark horse for Liege or Lombardia, but certainly not Omloop (assuming he's healthy)

Just making sure you were paying attention. :)

My unofficial OHN picks, dark horse variety since MdVP and Alaphillipe are just so obvious.

Mads Pedersen, GvA, Lampaert
Soren K.A., Kristoff

You think Alaphilippe is 5 star? Can’t argue with any of the other picks.

Oh Jimmay, i see you and Bunk have been up to no good again :p

You know what merits a five-star rating? Wine from this estate.



You know why that's relevant? B/c these are the profile and route map of Stage 11 of this year's Giro. They are actually going by the gravel roads next to quite a few of the vineyards.





Castiglion del Bosco is on Sector 2 above; Ciacci Piccolomini is at the beginning of Sector 3. Normally, these sectors get skipped during Strade Bianchi, but they really should have them incorporated.

Though I've gifted people a few bottles of Ciacci Piccolomini Brunello di Montalcino, I have yet to open one for my own enjoyment. I think this might just my the time to do it, though sipping a heavy red in the morning seems just slightly wrong (in a way that an early-morning sipping of heavy Belgian brown ale isn't). Ciacci Piccolomini actually came out with a Giro special the last time the Giro finished in Montalcino (back in 2010 when Evans won). I really ought to source a few commemorative bottles for myself.

If memory serves, Cadel won on an epic, rainy stage. I spent a week in Montalcino a few years ago, about a kilometer from top of last climb that tops off a kilometer or two from town. Pedaled a lot of the gravel & white roads through the vineyards and area. It's spectacular.

Just below the climb, the author who wrote The Hills of Tuscany owns Mate winery, and lives across the groad from iconic winemaker Gaja. If you want a true 5 star, pick up one of those (but let it age 10+ years). Scramble some fatty sausage with your eggs and it'll pair nicely with Brunello.

Yes, Evans won a truly epic stage (one of the few occasions when "epic" isn't overused in cycling).

Thanks for the tip. I presume that's what you'll be having for breakfast on Stage 11 :)?

Sammy Ben was strong today, but David Dekker is the real star I think. He was boxed in without support and still ended up in second. He is phenomenal.

Yeah, that was an epic day! When was the last time a road WC got his white jersey so dirty? :)



Let's not mention who moved into the race lead that day ...

Sagan got close (incidentally, also on the Tuscany gravel), but he was wearing his team jacket for most of the race.

And a two for, too. Kwiatkowski is a WC wearing white on that day

one of my favorite tough guy stages. tired, wet, covered in mud ...... that was legend.

Haha this is fun. How about Hinault at PR in 1981? I don't know how he managed to stay so clean in that mud; must not be very good at following wheels. :-)
I hadn't realized that he won the sprint over De Vlaeminck and Moser - seven (!) PR wins between the two of them.

There's gotta be a few muddy editions of PR btwn then and the late naughts. Also, I think there was one year where Boonen had GI tract issues at Roubaix; wonder if that was in 2006 or another edition

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As for MvdP, no Omloop, but yes KBK. This should be really fun. Not a lot of wind on either day, but I think MvdP will stir shit up on Sunday.