Giro d'Italia

[cycleruk]

I've not been following their respective seasons but assuming he'll be riding the Tour de France, it will be interesting to see if Adam Yates has had/is undergoing the same training plan to prepare him for the tour, as Simon has had for the Giro.

Adam has just come 4th on GC after the final day of Tour of California.
I don't know what the Yates mother put in their Lancashire HotPot but I could do with some of that.

[Brucey]

the Giro is full of surprises, not least because it is early season and no-one really knows who (of the GC contenders especially) is on form and who is not. Add in the relative unknowns in the Italian teams that wouldn't get a ride in the TdF or the Vuelta, the least predictable weather in the grand tours, and you have a recipe for excitement.

In the light of events in recent years, anyone who wins anything will have intense scrutiny re any possible means of cheating; maybe that is how it has to be.

cheers

[Brucey]

BTW they say that Yates can't ride a TT but today's stage looked a lot like a TT in the last section. Yates was able to hold a nice aero position on a less steep climb whereas others were not, didn't organise a good chase and suffered accordingly.

Briefly they showed some real-time power output numbers and Yate's were not greater than the others, but he just rode more effectively with them.
(in the short time they showed live figures on Quest, Yates was 380 to 400 (mostly showing 400), DuMoulin was showing 390 to 430, and Froome was showing 380 to 470)

Du Moulin will want to put the hammer right down in the tuesday TT and Froome has something to prove too. With a few mountain stages left too, anything could yet happen.

cheers

[Cyril Haearn]

the Giro is full of surprises, not least because it is early season and no-one really knows who (of the GC contenders especially) is on form and who is not. Add in the relative unknowns in the Italian teams that wouldn't get a ride in the TdF or the Vuelta, the least predictable weather in the grand tours, and you have a recipe for excitement.

In the light of events in recent years, anyone who wins anything will have intense scrutiny re any possible means of cheating; maybe that is how it has to be.

cheers

There are lots of unknown unknowns as that smart politrickian said, Plus One
Yates does have an advantage cos he is light, that could be enough marginal gain
Except going down hill?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
I notice also that at one point Froomey was on 120 cadence up hill.
There must be a technical reason for this and his use of high cadence especially up hill.

Not much organisation between riders leading up to finish of race either.
TT will show what is really happening between the CG contenders and what on paper is normally expected.

[mjr]

Yates does have an advantage cos he is light, that could be enough marginal gain
Except going down hill?

There are lighter, though. Yates was pretty scary going downhill - maybe he gets away with braking less sharply downhill because he's 10kg lighter than either Froome or Dumoulin, at least officially, so has less momentum and can carry more speed out, which is probably determined more by aerodynamics than weight on the steep descents.

[reohn2]

Yates is phenomenal and his brother also,I've been watching their crazy antics and crashes for about three years and said then that if either do themselves no serious harm,the UK will have two more grand tour winners.
IMO they've both come of age.

Froome left everything on the Zoncolan,Doumolin is conserving energy but even he I think realise he'd conserved too much when Yates attacked yesterday on the penultimate climb and the others in his group would work either because they couldnt or wouldn't Pinot was shatteredat the finish and Potzzivivo like the other two didn't have the power.

Doumolin may take Pink tomorrow but I don't think he'll hold onto it.

[thirdcrank]

I thought it was unrealistic of Dumoulin to expect other riders to work with him. What was interesting was that when he had briefly gone out of the back of the chasing group they didn't make sure he couldn't get back on. One minute the commentators had written him off and there didn't seem to be any coverage of what he was doing, with the cameras on Yates and the two main chase groups with occasional shots of Aru. Dumoulin getting back on seemed to happen off-camera, perhaps in an ad break. (I only saw the highlights on Quest.)

[reohn2]

I thought it was unrealistic of Dumoulin to expect other riders to work with him. What was interesting was that when he had briefly gone out of the back of the chasing group they didn't make sure he couldn't get back on. One minute the commentators had written him off and there didn't seem to be any coverage of what he was doing, with the cameras on Yates and the two main chase groups with occasional shots of Aru. Dumoulin getting back on seemed to happen off-camera, perhaps in an ad break. (I only saw the highlights on Quest.)

You're right they didnt capitalise when he was distanced,IMO it was simply that they couldn't.Doumolin clawed his way back to the group but the 10secs bonus had gone to Yates and and Lopez took the six leaving Tom with only four.
Yates has consistently shown he's head and shoulders(sorry)above the other contenders.

[Cyril Haearn]

But can they sing? They must be the best things to come out of that bit of Lancashire since Lisa Stansfield and Mandy Jones

Are the twins almost identical in build and physique? Up the Clarion!

[pjclinch]

I thought it was unrealistic of Dumoulin to expect other riders to work with him. What was interesting was that when he had briefly gone out of the back of the chasing group they didn't make sure he couldn't get back on. One minute the commentators had written him off and there didn't seem to be any coverage of what he was doing, with the cameras on Yates and the two main chase groups with occasional shots of Aru. Dumoulin getting back on seemed to happen off-camera, perhaps in an ad break. (I only saw the highlights on Quest.)

He admitted it was entirely reasonable of them not to play ball with him, but it didn't hurt to try... My wife is a Cloggie and says his comments lose a lot of resigned humour in translation. He seems rather happier in Dutch on NOS than he does in English on Cycling News.

I was watching live on EuroSport and it looked to me like once they'd dropped him seemingly convincingly they then started fannying about looking at one another, so he just TT-d back on.

Yates was pretty scary going downhill

One of the Grand Tours a couple of years ago had a huge descent and a couple of the AG2R lads were being tracked (just!) as they screamed down it. It was real peek through the gaps between your fingers stuff, terrifying even on TV... there's no two ways about it, descent is a clear skill and some do it better than others, irrespective of weight. Emma Pooley weighs next to nothing but freely admitted she used to be a terrible descender before finding the right coach. 2 years back, Kruiswijk had it pretty much sealed until he crashed descending trying to stick to Nibali.

Pete.

[pjclinch]

Hi,
I notice also that at one point Froomey was on 120 cadence up hill.
There must be a technical reason for this and his use of high cadence especially up hill.

It works for him... I'm not sure if that rates as "technical", but it's a pretty good reason!

[Cyril Haearn]

Descending at 100 kmh seems far too dangerous, it needs a completely different skill set from cycling up hill, do they get coached in descending? Do they have to be a bit crazy? It is one thing to ride down a hill one knows but..

May one change bikes at the summit? It might be safer to go down on a FatBike

Maybe all the stages should finish at the tops of hills

[thirdcrank]

... He admitted it was entirely reasonable of them not to play ball with him, but it didn't hurt to try... My wife is a Cloggie and says his comments lose a lot of resigned humour in translation. He seems rather happier in Dutch on NOS than he does in English on Cycling News.

I was watching live on EuroSport and it looked to me like once they'd dropped him seemingly convincingly they then started fannying about looking at one another, so he just TT-d back on. ...

Once Dumoulin was dropped, I think they all had a common interest in distancing him by as big a margin as poss and reducing Yates' lead. As r2 said and I meant to imply, the fact that they didn't suggests that they - or the majority of them couldn't. That's supported by only one of the group managing to outsprint him after he'd towed them to the finish. He's a strong rider.

I was basing what I said mainly on what I saw of the racing. Most European riders seem to have admirable English and better than some native speakers, but there's only so many ways to praise team mates.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

Hi,
I notice also that at one point Froomey was on 120 cadence up hill.
There must be a technical reason for this and his use of high cadence especially up hill.

It works for him... I'm not sure if that rates as "technical", but it's a pretty good reason!

Ok so wrong word, physiological and or ergonomic.

I have noticed that when I am struggling on the turbo to maintain a particular pace / power output, If I drop my heels I can maintain that pace, but you have to resort back to normal after a while, then I swap between the two constantly every ten seconds or so.

But Froomey can manage that for long periods...........well he would do wouldn't he

I believe the tech technique effectively shortens your legs........................

Remember that Wiggo failed to match Martin and resorted to copying his cadence..............................to beat him......