Wondering the same thing about UAE, not sure what the heck is going on. When Ayuso had the mechanical going up the climb they all stayed at the front. So what’s the actual plan…Yates ? They would still need to drop the other Yates, but neither Yates nor Ayuso seem to have the legs. Only Majka and maybe McNulty seem really committed to help Del Toro.
Tuesday is the day. With a mountain top finish after 4,900 m of elevation gain Del Toro is going to say f-it and will counter after Carapaz or Bernal and for the win.
Happy to see Verona win the stage. One of the most hard working and committed domestiques of the peloton.
I think Gee knows when there is an opp for moving up the Good Dude Club leaderboard, you have to go all in. If he races in Maryland, I’ll do my part and find a taxidermied fox…Impressive.
It was the smart conservative move. He was isolated in that group, and bridging support up to him is probably a better bet than the high risk/high reward situation he was in.
I need to watch more XC WC. I saw someone mention it was on this weekend earlier in the thread. The men’s short track was fun, amazing recovery from Blevin to drop his chain in the last lap and still comeback and win. Then the XC race today was exciting. Only races I’ve watched before were the Olympics and they were also entertaining.
XC Mtb has been ridiculously good television for the last several years. Great racing format, almost universally excellent courses, and a really dialed presentation. Can’t recommend it highly enough.
I’m thinking woodchuck as addition. This is a science experiment that could take Gee’s palmares to the next level. Silly @marcag chasing aero gains when the mega karma is to be found in petting taxidermied foxes and perhaps members of the marmota genus.
Gee responded to the Bernal attack right after the fox encounter, moved up to 5th and looks like an ally to the Bernal/Carapaz aggression.
We had a silly middle school assembly where teachers karoake’d (is that a verb?) to songs for amusement. My song was what does the fox say. My karma has been mixed at best, but there was a kind of ‘what the…???’ air in the assembly. Parent conferences the next week were more interesting than usual.
There’s that, sure. I just like the idea of letting him fly. He or JuanA would both still have team massive support this week. And if his group didn’t stick it, no harm done.
Based on yesterday, yeah Paz, Gee and the Bern are all looking aggressive and ready to throw some punches in the last week. With Del Toro down for whatever, it’s a pretty sweet Team Americas crew there.
Re: MTB racing, they really do a great job with production, there are definitely some stars in there but there’s a lot of parity and you never really know who is going to deliver a big ride on any given day. And XCC racing is fantastic, a 20 minute race is a great little watch (particularly for kids).
Gutted - I hadn’t heard that. Not surprised in climbed off. He’s either been one or the other in XC hasn’t he! Either won the race, or crashed out with something broken.
I’d love to see it too, but if you’re the UAE team manager sending the kid up the road alone with two grand tour winners is a heck of a risk. Carapaz has already shown that with his current form he can create separation and go from distance, and Bernal seems to (finally!) be getting within the zip code of his pre-injury days.
…plus, I think they still have Ayuso down as the team leader. del Toro has total free reign, but the team is supporting Ayuso. No one has any idea what del Toro is going to look like in week three, but if he’s going to be good enough to win this thing, yesterday doesn’t move the dial. If he collapses, sticking that move means Ayuso now has to move past both Carapaz and Yates to win GC, with Bernal getting really close to being a GC factor, with a really solid team behind him.
Prior to the race, folks were saying that VdP wasn’t looking particularly comfortable on the technical parts of the course during previews. As great as he is he’s never been the Mtb driver that Pidcock is, and absent Pid’s singular ability to parachute in to a WC and still be one of the best drivers in the race, it seems likely that VdP will need to devote a fair bit of time to the discipline and level up his driving if he’s going to get those rainbow stripes he wants.
XC mtb hasn’t been standing still the last couple of seasons, and guys like Blevins have really pushed up the standard.
Which is pretty cool, I think.
Seems pretty clear Pidcock much prefers Mtb racing to everything else, but the siren song of the Euro compels. It will be interesting to see how he does the next time he parachutes in to the fat tire events; based on Worlds last year, things may have advanced enough that even he can’t quite pull it off anymore. He made the podium, but was never in contention for the win. The Worlds race always has an asterisk attached in an Olympic year, and it was very clear that a lot of the top riders came into the race well off the boil which may speak in Pidcocks favor, but time will tell. That course kinda’ had his name written all over it.
He is just riding this Giro in the least tactically astute way possible. Not strong enough to make the front GC group when things really get going, too pigheaded to just bite the bullet and ride the groupetto one day so he can recover enough to do something, and lose enough time that they’ll let him go in a break. And he’s almost two minutes down on Arensman. I don’t think Ineos is missing him very much.
