2018 PRO thread

[Rondje]

It’s done for Yates. Too much energy in getting all those time bonuses. While Sky obviously peaked for the 3rd week.

[BdaGhisallo]

This is a quote from the article linked a couple posts above mine:

The already difficult final seven kilometers are smoother than normal, but that comes at the price of riding through wet dirt, which feels approximately like riding through peanut butter. The wet road has made an already difficult climb just that little bit worse.

I have done a little bit of amateur racing, and I can't imagine wanting to ride through peanut butter like conditions up a 10% climb. Then again as an amateur I wasn't paid to entertain people (or paid at all, actually). When the organizers decide these stages, they of course have no idea what the actual conditions will be like on the day of the race, and we have all seen how difficult it is for UCI to cancel a stage.

But to each their own of course.

anything that breaks up a routine is welcome IMHO, of course within reason.

The Giro organizers are quite adept at adapting to the weather conditions in the mountains. Stages have been outright canceled or have been re-routed around snowed in mountains on many occasions. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[kkibbler]

Holy sheet this Giro

[zirxo]

This is insane! That's some old school racing by Froome. Big kudos to him what ever happens.

[ave]

It's a PR move.
Or start of a new era.
Amazing either way!!

[mrlobber]

I expected many things today, but definitely not this kind of move

Yates at least has 3 stage wins, which for a non-sprinter in a single GT is remarkable anyway.

[jorryt]

Froome rides like he stole it!
Great racing damnit

[stevec1975]

Froome into Pink if he can hold it???

[maquisard]

Looks like one asthmatic doper will be passing the pink to another.

[BdaGhisallo]

Just looking back at some pics of yesterday's stage, I see the reason why Yates lost time. It was the first stage of the race where he wasn't wearing lace up shoes. He was sporting some Boa dialled Scott shoes. I expect we'll see him back in his lace-ups today and all will be well.

Ok, so it may have not been the shoes!

[smartyiak]

BONKER BALLS!!!!

[stevec1975]

Looks like one asthmatic doper will be passing the pink to another.

Just enjoy it for the spectacle that it is, I assume you think there are people in the top 10/20 that are actually clean?!

[wingguy]

Best Grand Tour stage since...?

Best Grand Tour since...!?

[jorryt]

damn it took him 3 weeks to find some legs but this is something else.
Dumoulin and Pinot have to go by them self and drop Reichenbach and those two wheelsuckers.
They havo to wait for Reichenbach and hope he is usefull in the valley again but it feels like he is much weaker and it gives Froome even more space.

[853guy]

Yeah, a strategic error on behalf of Mitchelton–Scott? Is Yates spent? Can Froome make it onto the podium? Do Sunweb and Bahrain-Merida have the depth to make Yates suffer?

Possibly. Yes. Yes. Possibly not, but Team Sky have made that irrelevant.

Here's Yates: "That’s ok. I didn’t have great legs. I gave it all I could and that’s it. I am still in front and so that’s all good."

Oh, how those words seem so very yesterday.

But is it? Dun-Dun-duuuuhhhhhn.

Just when it all seemed like a foregone conclusion, the plot gets thicker. Love it.

Again, props to Froome. He may be unlikeable for all sorts of potentially valid reasons - his ugly technique first among them - but, damn, props to him.

853guy

P.S. Just so it's clear, I feel really gutted for Yates. Poor guy.