I hope Del Toro wins or no one from UAE wins. Calling them a team is quite a stretch. Absolutely embarrassing from that group of dudes in the same jersey.
I think thereās may be dysentery in the UAE ranks after today. Where were they?
Del Toro sitting up there in pink youād think he was a Visma rider. Precocious.
Always great to see EF get some and the Paz moves up too.
1 Like
EF:
Costa (the anchor) and (Kick) Asgreen win in VERY different ways. I bet Asgreen racks up the highest total kjs in the whole race for his grand tour wins (and his 2nd by a mm to Matej). Pretty easy to say - Deserved Victory!
UAE:
Hard to say what the tactics should be in the fog of the race, but Del Toro has been on the right side of 2 x about 1 minute gaps. He must have done some quick riding to close back up to the Lisas today (maybe Wout paid him back for stage 9 today while also helping Simon and Kooij).
I think team cohesion can be righted by some big rides by Adam Yates / McNutty / and Vine in the next few days. Prob shouldnāt jinx this, but Ayuso needs to get through this grand tour w/o any Covid probs. Has he finished a grand tour yet? Will Uae get 2 on the podium? I donāt think so and if Iām right will one sacrifice for the otherā¦
To be fair to Ayuso he finished the Vuelta in 4th place in 2023 and was on the podium in 3rd in 2022, both times winning youth classification, so he does have reasonable three-week street cred.
Having said that, after injuring his knee during a crash, he seems to be struggling. I just donāt see him bouncing back to take 2-3 minutes, but it will all depend on how well he recovers, whether he can stay out of trouble and whether his team will support him.
I want Del Toro to win, but his performance over three weeks fighting for the win is definitely an unknown (only a single Vuelta where he finished 36th), although that might be a completely different story in about a week.
1 Like
mea culpa for not digging into the results and giving Ayuso his due 3 week credit. Tomorrow could be interesting if any contenders sense Ayuso/UAE weakness. 220 ks with Grappa summit about 90ks from finish could also = conservative. Simon 2018 Giro redemption could/would also be a good story.
I think itās also really easy to forget just how young Ayuso is. It seems like heās been around forever, but heās only a year older than del Toro.
Cicconne has abandoned.
āI have no words,ā Ciccone said in the teamās announcement. āI tried to fight to finish the stage because I was hoping that the hospital checks would show that it was not so bad and I could recover and fight for a stage, but I understood straight away that it was something important because the pain was too much, and now we know why. It hurts to leave the Giro like this, especially with the climbs still to come and the great feeling in the team, as well as leaving the good position I had in the GC. Now I need time to recover and we will see for the rest of the season.ā
1 Like
2 stages to EF. Pretty good ROI.
Paz on the podium would be sweet.
.And The Bern too.
But UAE will likely regroup and start pummeling once again. Lil Treckies without Cicco? What to do?
KickAsgreen doing his thing. Chapeau.
Long way to go but Del Toro has been doing everything right.
Wow. 5 mins into the XC World Cup and MVDP has been on the deck twice! The second one was super hard too - I didnāt think he was going to continue. Heās had a bit of a love/hate with MTB over the years - I know the plan for this year was to win the XC world champs, but Iām not sure how many more XC races his team will let him ride!
1 Like
Heās just retired, 30 mins in. Am hoping heās not injured as he took a heavy fall. He did seem to be going okay after he got back up so hopefully all good.
Itād have been interesting to see vdP x Blevins.
lol what did I just witness? 93.2 kmās left in the race a spectator runs along the peloton with a stuffed fox and Derek Gee gave it a little rub.
1 Like
What stage next week does UAE flat out attack Del Toro?
It does kind of seem like Del Toroās been disowned by UAE, certainly the way the last few stages have gone.
Who thought coming in EF and Ineos would be the most fun! Paz looks sharp.
And Trek right back to salvage morale.
Primo is not having a good go of things lately. I did not see this coming.
Edit: Verona having his wife and kids there was awesome.
3 Likes
That was really sweet
1 Like
I love when a workhorse gets a W. Lidl Trek having an amazing Giro even with the loss of Ciccone.
My Verona. What a smooth smart attack. Workhorse gets the win. Lil Trek should spend the last week taking team hand ups from the grupetto.
UAE in my view shouldāve giving Del Toro the stage where the bull can rage. He looks like heās riding an e bike. I donāt get it. Kid has done everything right, positioning, following, in pink with a nice lead and they run him down.
Great team ride by Rocky Bilbao. Tibieri really dug deep to stay in it.
1 Like