Yeah, surprising to see both in the top 10, Yates actually faster than Tony Martin and Pozzovio tied with him. And with Froome losing lots of time things are shaping up for an interest race.

Tommy D comes thru like the champion that he is; Ro Dog just not quite fast enough.
Froombutol still feeling the effects of the crash yesterday
Simon Yates also had a fast ride, which is good cause he's on my fantasy team.
Still not impressed with EF Education\Drapac kit colours, gonna be hard to pick out the leader this year

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res, non verba

Looks like Froome's front wheel washed out while cornering over a manhole cover during while test riding the course. The combination of his injuries and possibly being gun shy during the technical corners of the course could have been the major factors in him losing 37 seconds rather than pure fitness leading into today. Still...that's a TON of time to try and make up on TD...considering there's another 35km TT and he looks on form.

Winning a GT take a some luck and Frome didn't have it today. Looking at the video of the crash he wasn't doing anything aggressive. Looks like his back wheel just hit a manhole cover at just the wrong angle. Took the balls out of him on a course that needed them.

On the other hand, almost every GT victory involves being tested with serious adversity multiple times, and handling it gracefully. (e.g. Froome himself running a bike uphill). I was a little surprised that he'd get snakebit by something that didn't look, on the surface, all that big of a deal. Buy, of course, often reality is bigger than surface perception. Good chance Froome will show up in a big way for the rest of the race. (even though as a card-carrying Froome-hater I hope he undergoes a complete meltdown).

Now that the Giro has officially started and see Tommy D win in fashion. I go back to last year and his fight to win, he was such a worthy winner last year. I can only hope we get a race like last year.

Enjoy the show everyone!

To be fair Froome has never really been great at short TT's, Martin also seems to struggle with short technical TT's......what is the deal with Martin he seems to have completely lost his ability to be a serious TT contender.

One potential issue is now Sunweb has a lot of responsibility early and i am sure Sky is perfectly happy to allow them to hold the pink jersey. If i was TD i would rather BMC have the jersey early and chill out for a week. Can sunweb protect TD for three weeks? TD cannot climb to the same level as an on form Froome, which begs the question is Froome on form or close to ideal form?

Who do you think is a serious contender outside of TD/Froome? Pinot, Yates, Woods, Bennett, Aru, do we know who Movistar is riding for?

Lopez?
Astana has the beef to protect him, maybe....he's a youngster, 24.
3rd GC in the Tour of Alps with a stage win.

Yeah, I don't get Martin. He seems adrift.

Another GC contender would be Chaves, but his TT wasn't encouraging.

Don't know what Movistar is doing. Maybe try to encourage Betancur to keep his shit together for 3 weeks straight, but good luck. I think they're grooming Carapaz as a potential long-term GC project, but probably way too soon to expect anything in the Giro. I expect they'll be mostly stage hunting.

It is a little funny that Movistar seems to effectively be sitting this one out... It's not like they don't have a few guys on their squad who could be legit contenders in this race. Will be interesting to how they ride as a team in the Tour... Valverde seems fine being a role player but I don't get the impression Quintana or Landa are willing to play second string.

early results were wind aided

He is not making the call. I'm predicting it here - win or lose, leading or trailing, Froome is disqualified during the Giro. Black eye for the UCI? Yes. BIGGER black eye for Team Sky? YES. I think that the UCI is pissed that they are stuck in the middle here - Froome can keep racing while waiting to clear his adverse finding. No one benefits if Froome does well/ wins the GdI and then gets sacked for last year's problems. This should have been resolved before the GTs and the fact that it is not - well, lots of folks are potentially swinging in the wind. UCI can't run the risk of a Froome victory in the GdI overturned. They will find a way to disqualify Froome if he survives he first 1/3-1/2 of the race.

I think you're way premature. Assuming the initial finding against Froome, he's almost guaranteed to appeal to CAS, which takes weeks-to-months.

Well Woods isn't going to be a true podium contender until Vaughters glues his ass to a TT saddle for a couple months. He got caught for a minute by Campaerts (sp).

I am sometimes amazed that Slipstream went from a team that has won ITT and TTT events to what they are today. Except for Phinney, everyone n the team is a pretty weak TT rider. Maybe Uran can put in an OK ride from time to time, but most of his TTs are stinkers these days

http://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/4701/going-for-20-adam-hansen-speaks-ahead-of-the-giro-ditalia

Froomes crash obviously cost him some time early but for us it makes for an interesting Giro. Froome needs to do something in the mountains and cannot just cover everyone else and rely on TTs. I see Dumoulin not yet in the Froome league in the mountains so the early gap is good for the race.

Doping case aside, if Froome is all in on the Giro-Tour Double then I asume he is not at his peak yet and will increase his fitness more and more the longer the Giro lasts. He did well on such an approach in last years Tour-Vuelta Episode. And I guess he values the Tour over the Giro so chances are even greater that he will be at his best in week 3.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

being on Cannondale bikes doesn't help :p. I think there was a former rider who trashed them for having unaero bikes (though this could just be publicity stunt for his new team)

Jest aside, wait and see. This Giro is quite hilly, who knows how it will shake out. That 2016 edition was quite something: Kruiswijk seemed to be in control, only to crash; then Chavez couldn't follow one Nibali acceleration (the only one he had trouble with), and his quest for the Maglia Rosa was over. Quite chaotic.

I used to never fully appreciate the chaos introduced by high mountains, but descending those things is no joke.

breezy in the desert this morning....maybe some echelon shenanigans?......it's usually QS who does this but no incentive today

Especially in the Giro....right now from what people are reporting those high mountains are covered with snow (ex Cervina)....2.5 weeks later allows for meltdown time, but the descents in the Giro high mountains can be the worst of all the Grand tours, because the riders can be going from bone dry to wet to dry to wet. That's different from a wet descent on the TdF or Vuelta on a rain day.

someone else on another board posted about something "interesting" extracurriculars. So interesting that the announcer lost his train of thought (his own words).

but man, those desserts...

What other cycling boards do you follow? I occasionally stop by weight weenies then remember very quickly why i left there years ago.

I am somewhat surprised that Sam Bennett was not penalized for his sharp move into the barriers today, if it was Sagan or Cav the keyboard warriors would be in full mobilization. This stage was a good teaching stage to watch how splits form in crosswinds and how to move into position. The last 5k was interesting from a technical standpoint.

paceline.net (formerly serotta forum). I used to hang out on the road racing subsection of bikeforums a lot, but the place got so snarky and inane over the years. I went from averaging a few posts/day to barely making a post every 6 months. Never spent much time on weight weenies. Particular reason you left?

As for Bennett, that was a bit ridiculous; more than 1 lane width of drifting. Perhaps him being non-Italian had something to do with actually being sanctioned, as usually such a move doesn't get penalized unless the person behind got impeded. In this case, Viviani still came around. Hopefully they'll be as strict on other stages.