#giro17

Maglia Rosa, alone

Giro d'Italia St.8 : A crash inside the final km on the climb to Peschici dashed Valerio Conti's bid for the stage win and a pink jersey. See the big pics in today's race report @pezcyclingnews #giro17 #giroditalia #conticrash #peschici #valerioconti

via cyclingtips

LUKAS POESTLBERGER everyone

via cyclingtips

"By comparison, at the Tour de France, you always know where you have to be and where you have to go — the TDF organisation is slick, and that generally includes getting off mountains. At the Giro this year, after a TT stage, I found myself wondering if I’d ever get back to my team bus. [..] just to cement the fact that we aren’t living in luxury, there was even a hotel this year that had no hot water. Lovely. Just what you want after a 200km stage and a delayed bus trip. [..] This just reinforces how classy Tom is; holding on for the win even when he couldn’t hold on on stage 16. The way he handled this situation meant that a large percentage of the peloton wanted to see Dumoulin win over Vincenzo Nibali or Nairo Quintana. When you’re a nice guy with few enemies, it can come in handy.“

"no single rider dominated in the mountains — Nibali, Quintana, Dumoulin, Landa, Van Garderen, Rolland and Thibaut Pinot all took stage victories on those tough days. [..] In the past three editions of the Tour de France, the overall lead hasn’t changed from stage 10 onwards. In 2014 Nibali led for all but one day after stage 2, in 2015 Chris Froome lead from stage 7, and in 2016 Froome led from stage 8. The 2017 Giro d’Italia was far more exciting.“

"Dumoulin's strength thus far has been startling, prompting some to paint him as a latter-day Miguel Indurain, a seemingly perfect prototype with no obvious weaknesses. Or, as Il Corriere della Sera pointedly put it after Oropa, "A placid Frankenstein, too monstrous to be true." The newspaper claimed Dumoulin's power to weight ratio on Oropa to be a huge 6.5kg/W, though the calculation appears to have been based on a body mass of 68 to 69kg. In an interview on RAI television on Sunday, meanwhile, Dumoulin said his weight remained between 70 and 71kg. [..] The terrain in the third week rather harsher. For all that Dumoulin has reputedly focused on coping with the demands of a succession of long climbs in training, racing against one's shadow on Mount Teide is rather different to being attacked on all sides over the Stelvio or the Mortirolo, particularly when the fatigue accrued over the first two weeks is factored into the equation. A tired and ill Dumoulin's concession of the red jersey on the penultimate day of the 2015 Vuelta provides more than a glimmer of hope for Nibali, Quintana and company. [..] with another, 30-kilometre time trial to come on the final day in Milan, Dumoulin's rivals will likely need to put at least five or six minutes into him over the coming week to have any hope of denying him overall victory. [..] If Quintana, Nibali or Pinot are to win this Giro, they instead need to find a way to make Dumoulin crack completely on one stage."