Looks like they gave Ganna the same time as his bunch, which is nice. He was incredible coming over the top of the climb with the likes of Ayuso, Hindley, and Piddles. Though he’s certainly going to crack tomorrow.
I kinda love this new role for Campenaerts. He’s a ridiculously good domestique, and the kind of rider that could wind up taking home a classic when other teams make the mistake of letting him roll away up the road while they focus on WvA and Jorgenson.
I am a huge fan of Victor. Seems like a really chilled dude that just grinds it day in day out maximizing results with the skillset he has.
Tirreno’s final climb was exciting. Kudos to Ganna (another one of my favorites) for digging in deep for such a big guy against lightweight climbers and hold on to third.
Ganna is a more complete rider than a lot of people give him credit for - he can grind out long steady climbs really well for a dude that size and packs a real mean sprint too.
Too bad Gee wasn’t able to hold that gap to Curiosity (talk about good dudes vs bad dudes), he was right in touching distance of securing second place on the podium and now he’s just off it in fourth. Tight between 2-4 though… Wondering what the chances of crosswinds are tomorrow?
Yeah, was pulling for Gee. Also guts by Hindley to stay attached to Piddles, now only separated by three seconds. Would be fun if there are winds tomorrow.
I try to be open minded regarding Curiosity, but life experience tells me that sociopaths are just wired differently and never change. When you see the likes of Ayuso and Pidcock are clearly animal lovers, I suspect the majority of these guys are “good dudes”, it’s gotta suck for whoever ends up having to share a room with this dude. Or maybe Bahrain uses it to motivate their riders, the rider that underperforms the most…
I feel for the tifosi… Tiberi has a lot of talent and is as much a glimmer of hope that they have for a real grand tour contender. I feel like there could have been a way from him to emerge from that cat incident a little better than he did if he had just shown some sense of contrition but to my knowledge he never really did that.
Per usual, form is all over the place this time of year. Noticing the Grand Tour guys not really there yet. Mads on the other hand. Geez. He’s the bad weather boss.
Ganna is remarkable. Civilian big. Not just WT big and he still climbs so well.
Juan A has that el jeffe look to him.
Mads gets stronger the worse the weather is. That said, his climbing is bonkers right now. I’m hoping it isn’t at the expense of his sprint, but I think it is.
I think he adjusted his expectations. At this point in his career he needs to be looking at Monument wins, and the competition isn’t the pure sprinters (we’re going to pretend for the purposes of this conversation that Disaster doesn’t exist) but the guys like VdP, Pog, and Wout. Those guys have all beaten him in finales because he was too empty to really perform at crunch time. If he can get past that, he’s in with a shot. Michael Matthews, but better.
It’s worth the risk of losing some mid-tier races in the sprint to take a shot at adding a monument or two and becoming a legend.
Curiosity is growing on me. In interviews he gives candid answers, and recognizes his teammates. He’s a bit like early Cav in that he’s not interested in the canned responses, thin skinned, can be funny.
I’m guessing there will be a good Pidcock 2.0. These guys are all so flipping young.
Who is the number one interviewer guy? He asks some pointed questions but mostly the riders respond well and he seems to have real cred with them.
MvDP in the break. He wins The Drip award. The bike, rainbow bands on the cuffs of the sleeves, the greyish of the kit. It works.
