Trial and Error: Giro d'Italia 2019

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Today's stage goes up the mountain pass used at the end of The Italian Job!

[Felicity, I guess so]

Finally caught up on quest highlights- now for a real test of who’s got the legs.
presume Yates will have to attack. Movistar can try and get their multiple cards to play tactic to work for a change. Roglic (autocorrected to “Togliatti” there!!) can sit and watch to some extent but he was alone quite early yesterday

[longeared]

Katusha-Alpecin manage their first World Tour win since March last year and then don't get any immediate publicity for it as Zakarin forgets to zip up his jersey for the finish.

Bad day for the British riders. Yates lost two minutes and that's pretty much any hope of the win gone now. Knox didn't start after several days suffering with injury and TGH crashed out. That's not great for his career prospects, he hasn't really shown anything that suggests he might be a future Grand Tour contender and he's unlikely to get any form of protected status in these races from INEOS for a while. Super domestique (Kwia / Poels) type role coming up I'd think.

[ursus arctos]

Hugh Carthy also lost more than five minutes, dropping from 10th to 16th in the GC.

Landa appears to have returned from the dead, but I still that Carapaz May be Movistar's best bet.

[Kevin S]

Quite happy with how my two 20p each way punts are looking at this point.

[delicatemoth]

I'm not sure why but I rather like Zakarin and was very pleased for him today. Mind you, I'd have been even more pleased for Nieve; a stage win would have been a great reward for leaving Sky.

What's the issue with time trials? They're riveting to watch; you can really focus on the individual riding styles and how a rider tries to scrape every last fraction of a second. I get that 'decisive stages' can be a bit anti-climactic if the best TT-er is already in the lead, but that could be said for any road stage 20 or 21 where there are already big time gaps. The only change I'd make would be to have everyone ride identical bikes, but I'd like to see that as a general rule anyway.

[delicatemoth]

Totally ferocious start here, it took a while for a break to get established.

[ursus arctos]

Has Kirby gone home?

Might there be a supreme being after all?

[delicatemoth]

Overindulged in the local vintage, perhaps?

[ursus arctos]

Jumbo are actively trying to give the Maglia Rosa to Carapaz

[Me Old Flower]

The Passo Gavia has been declared impassable for Tuesday.

[ursus arctos]

Seems like the right call

[URL]https://twitter.com/stephenfarrand/status/1132277060309852160?s=21[/URL]

They are expecting more snow and very worried about those "walls" not holding.

[Kevin S]

Amador - now well down on the GC and working for Carapaz and Landa - has gone up the road on today's Mortirolo stage.

[Kevin S]

Has Kirby gone home?

Might there be a supreme being after all?

And, er, afraid not. He's currently blabbering about horses.

[ursus arctos]

Yeah, that was one day of bliss

[Kevin S]

Attacco di Nibali!

Roglic in trouble!

[ursus arctos]

Oh man, it is pouring on the Montirolo.

Kirby continues to inspire homicidal fantasies, but Backstedt has improved and is no longer engaging in "banter"

[Kevin S]

Attacco di Lopez!

[Kevin S]

This wet descent is so, so dangerous.

[Kevin S]

Need more time checks on Roglic. Sounds like he's not too far behind the maglia rosa now.

[Kevin S]

1:10 back from the Carapaz-Landa-Nibali-Lopez group to the Roglic-Yates-Mollema group.

[Kevin S]

Gap widens again to 1:30.

[Kevin S]

Ciccone!

[Kevin S]

Lopez lost contact with the maglia rosa group so loses a little bit.

[Kevin S]

Mollema on the front of that other group looked to have pulled about another 10 seconds back - think they lost 1:20ish to Nibali and Carapaz. Nibbles therefore up to second.