Giro 2017 Afternoon (the only real Giro)

[Robyklebt]

Yes, we know about that. But I meant a real girlfriend. One that moves and talks and so on.

[Rasmussen]

Loser of the TT though probably Montgomery. Looked like he started way to fast, then slowed down, lost more than he should to Malori (won less than expected to Zipoli too). And still was very unfit the next day it seems. But ok, it's a few seconds that he lost in the TT, not minutes.

Yes. He lost more time on Malori and Brandao than I hoped but as I wasnt online during the Time Trial I just went 100%. Dont think it was slower than another tactic. MAybe these two had the better form on that day.

[Rasmussen]

Trofeo Fuga (after stage 14):

1. Michael Schär (Rasmussen) - 767 Kilometer
2. Nick Paris (Atletico Lula) - 633 Kilometer
3. Patrick Vetsch (Rasmussen) - 588 Kilometer
4. Edward Cochric (Atletico Lula) - 480 Kilometer
5. JonathanManu Bennett (Rockstar Inc) - 405 Kilometer
6. Jörg Strauss (Rasmussen) - 389 Kilometer
7. Dani Karanka (Atletico Lula) - 385 Kilometer
8. Simion Tazlauanu (Big Donkey) - 380 Kilometer
9. Cheb Khaled (Calimero) - 369 Kilometer
10. Attila Farkas (Big Donkey) - 353 Kilometer
11. Nuno Gomes (Hessen Cycling) - 330 Kilometer
12. Eric Portis (Calimero) 308 - Kilometer
13. Ali Boukamoun (Hessen Cycling) - 265 Kilometer
14. Rolf Jaermann (Rasmussen) - 237 Kilometer
15. Sergey Privalvov (Atletico Lula) - 233 Kilometer
16. Steve Grant (Rockstar Inc) - 229 Kilometer
17. Richard Ochoa (Rockstar Inc) - 225 Kilometer
18. Jerome Pave (johndeere) - 175 Kilometer
19. Jean Nuttli (Rasmussen) - 163 Kilometer
20. Naoki Kashiwabara (Big Donkey) - 155 Kilometer
21. Joaquin Sanchéz (Atletico Lula) 144 Kilometer
22. George Boyle (Calimero) - 133 Kilometer
23. Ronald Raldes (Hessen Cycling) - 130 Kilometer
24. Alvaro Tejera (Atletico Lula) - 130 Kilometer
25. Anton Shipulin (Hessen Cycling) - 102 Kilometer
26. Antoine Mertens (Hessen Cycling) - 89 Kilometer
27. Pavel Sitko (Team FL) - 79 Kilometer
28. Fridolin Tschugmell (Team FL) - 78 Kilometer
29. Johan Grimm (johndeere) - 63 Kilometer
30. Kike Rodruigez (johndeere) - 51 Kilometer
31. Alarico Karanka (Atletico Lula) - 50 Kilometer
32. Tony Woodcock (Team FL) - 47 Kilometer
33. Andrew Johnson (Calimero) - 41 Kilometer
34. Jamie Moreno (Hessen Cycling) - 41 Kilometer
35. Nodirkhan Kadyrkhanov (Team FL) - 36 Kilometer
36. Octavio Valdez (Rockstar Inc) - 28 Kilometer
37. Jerome Fothen (Atletico Lula) - 28 Kilometer
38. Omar Pene (Team FL) - 19 Kilometer
39. Guido Wirz (Rasmussen) - 16 Kilometer
40. Carlos Torres (Rockstar Inc) - 12 Kilometer
41. John Pack (johndeere) - 8 Kilometer
42. Martial Nganang (Big Donkey) - 10 Kilometer
43. Felice Puttini (Rasmussen) - 4 Kilometer
44. Gordon Kearney (Calimero) - 4 Kilometer
45. Adriano Malori (Mercatone Uno) - 4 Kilometer
46. Miguel Brandao (Hessen Cycling) - 4 Kilometer
47. Evaristo Zipoli (Big Donkey) - 3 Kilometer
48. Gordon Kearney (Calimero) - 3 Kilometer



Riders which do most kilometers in an escape group at the front of the race. (It only counts if the group has less then 11 riders and the group exists for at least 3 kilometers).

[team fl]

Third rest day already. Lazy riders today... Anyway, here the main classements and their standings before the last part:

General classement:

01. 00:00 Rolf Jaermann (Rasmussen)
02. 00:54 Adrian Malori (Mercatone-uno)
03. 01:38 Alarico Karanka (Atletico Lula)
04. 01:47 Sven Montgomery (Rasmussen)
05. 01:56 Miguel Brandao (Hessen Cycling)
06. 02:04 Corey Flynn (Calimero)
07. 02:21 Evaristo Zipoli (Big Donkey)
08. 02:30 Nodirkhan Kadyrkhanov (Team FL)
09. 02:41 Lucas Duliano (Atletico Lula)
10. 03:22 Gordon Kearny (Calimero)
11. 03:39 Carlos Torres (Rockstar Inc)
12. 03:52 Mikel Landa (Mercatone-uno)
13. 03:58 Luis Diaz (Rockstar Inc)
14. 04:15 Aasmund Uppdal (Big Donkey)

Jaermann will not defend his leader jersey until the end of the Giro most likely. The last week will tell who of the main favourites will take it from him and who will win it eventually. Malori is in the pole position for that. The question is, if Mercatone-uno will be online enough. Same Brandao, although he is already 1 min behind Malori. Corey Flynn is still in reach too and will gain some time in the final ITT, but the very hard stages might be too much against the better climbers. And Calimero is also often offline. This leaves Karanka and Montgomery in a good position. But they both lack either in mountain or TT skill. And then there is also Zipoli, waiting to attack in the mountains. Another rider that the mentioned would be a big surprise to win this Giro.

Points classement:

01. 245 Pavel Sitko (Team FL)
02. 159 Davide Appolonio (Mercatone-uno)
03. 139 Eitan Kaniuk (Big Donkey)

I guess this should be safe for Sitko. It also seems that he's the only one really going for the Ciclamino now that Vintenberg (johndeere/Lula cycling team) left the Giro.

Mountain classement:

01. 42 Carlos Torres (Rockstar Inc)
02. 41 Evaristo Zipoli (Big Donkey)
03. 30 Jörg Strauss (Rasmussen)

While Jörg Strauss is the classical escaper who will go for mountain Points on the way to the finish line, both Zipoli and Torres can win mountain stages. In the end, Torres might sacrifice a good GC Position for the mountain Jersey. But still, as Zipoli will be eager to win mountain stages, it will be a close thing. And who knows, maybe also Kearny with currently 26 Points wants to have a saying in this too.

Youth classement:

01. 03:52 Mikel Landa (Mercatone-uno)
02. 03:58 Luis Diaz (Rockstar Inc)
03. 05:41 Pascal Hungerbühler (Rasmussen)

While Landa and Hungerbühler have captains who are still in the GC fight, Diaz might be free to go for his own goals. Looking at the skills, he has to get a decent advantage over Landa in the final TT though. It all depends how Rockstar Inc will stretch between Torres' goals for blue and Diaz' goals for white. Hungerbühler is out of this fight most likely as he's too far back already.

Team classement:

01. 00:00 Rasmussen
02. 06:26 Calimero
03. 12:41 Atletico Lula

It's not a coincidence that the leading teams in the Trofea Fuga are also leading the team classement, taking the team with the most riders over 70 mountain, that is Calimero, in a sandwich. I guess it will be either Rasmussen, if there are enough escape possibilites during the last week, or Calimero, if there aren't and pure rider's strength come into Play.

[Rasmussen]

After a little trip to Stockholm to the Europa League final i'm finally back for the last three giro stages. Looks like the Donkey is back in the competition for rosa and Flynn us out of it. Not sure how it happened exactly and I dont understand the racelog from yesterday but it seems that they gave Donkey's classics a bit too much time so he could do his usual tactics and attacking with his climber. All very close now in the GC but with the time bonus and the steep climb to Piancavallo it looks not too bad for the Donkey. But i'm not too good in calculating for the time trial...maybe Montgomery can win 1 minute on Zipoli...maybe a bit more but in any way I cant lose too much time.

EDIT: After looking to the last kms of the morning giro I think it's an easy win for Zipoli as he will win more than 20 seconds and the time bonus on this steep climb.

Oh and I won another stage with Strass. Great stuff from my sitter.

[Robyklebt]

Giro over, Zipoli won...
Not a great Giro, not a great win either, thought it was a rather uninteresting, boring race.
Calimero, big favorite with Flynn, but the problems already started at the Etna stage. His sitter offline right after Zipoli siebed, people in his office, lost 2' that day and was already not that clear a favorite anymore, the 60 TT guys like Malori and also to a lesser degree Montgomery getting close. Nothing major happened from then on, Torres winning the mountain stages, early form, I had expected Kearney there, would have make sense to have him in top form early, to have him less strong to be more effective puller for Flynn later on. Malori with Mercatone, his old problem continues, he just relies on following, not covering or defending. And at this point he could hope to win it by riding defensively against Montgomery and Zipoli, while trying to get the necessary seconds he still needed against and get the necessary time against Flynn (somehow). Of course his team is not good for that either, but some more effective defensive riding certainly would have helped. Next in line Montgomery, who had the team, but not the spirit to attempt to dislodge the nominal favorites at that point.
Bormio stage: Donkey goes early, Malori follows, since that made was highly unpractical for Zipoli, he made tempo himself until Malori was siebed. Uppdal with 100 form managed to hang on, but barely. He should just have stayed in the peloton and ride with Landa. Since I was gone, Calimero then would have had reason to ride anyway, big danger for Calimero was always the Donkey sieb that dropped him, with that gone he wasn't going to lose much time to his opponents. Following Uppdal there made no sense for Malori, he did it anyway, and lost the Giro there, after being siebed by Zipoli he was then attacked and dropped at the top of Umbrail. Again, ride defensively and go in tempo there, even if dropped by sieb, due to the low energy, he wouldn't lose as much as he did. But no, no covering, attack, dropped and then tempo some time later..
So now it's Flynn vs Montgomery. And Calimero off again in the deciding moments, Donkey is let go with Sax and Garita, clear that he attacks. He does, nobody but FL follows Uppdal, Karanka tries Zipoli.. Nobody tries to keep Garita and Sax close, nobody follows them. Just pure riding to lose really. There were 2 teams with clear interest not to let Sax/Garita go, Calimero and Rasmussen. Calimero had to go off, 30 km +, well, unlucky yes, but at the same time you need to put in a guy to cover attacks in those cases. Rasmussen did some green tempo for a little while... Anyway, that was it, end of the day the GC favorite was Zipoli, shouldn't happen. Everybody just decided to lie down that stage, even Lula with Karanka (who otherwise DID try at least, sad to say Flynn did little to use his team, Malori and Montgomery never did anything at all (almost), seemed they wanted the win served like I got it served then )
Piancavallo, dead team, really wanted the stage but well, no chance really, team to dead from the day before. And since Asiago was going to be hard, couldn't kill the team completely. Still killed it more than I should. Asiago I really could have lost the Giro again, I was very open to attacks, FL did try a bit, but since I was going to cover him after it became clear that Rasmussen was banned, he didn't have a chance. Flynn and Karanka could have had theirs. But ok, GC placements still in play, so they fortunately all concentrated a bit on that too.

Not a great win as I said, got it offered for no reason on one stage when everybody decided winning the Giro wasn't their priority, but ok, a deserved win in the sense that I at least showed some passing interest in the GC. The attack that normally can't work in any group was there for the mountain jersey too. After the jersey chasing moron Torres wasn't on AGAIN that day, decided to now really try to go for that too. Otherwise he really could have had it, not much interest in that, especially since it's now blue and not green anymore. And red at RSF. But ok, off, then I go and get it, combine GC with mountain jersey, expecting the GC attempt to fail miserably, but getting the mountain instead.
Have to give props to Karanka though he did try, he would have deserved it. Not Flynn (being offline wasn't all there is to it, using offline settings is a possibility), not Malori (tempo to defend your chances is a tactic that kind of makes sense) not Montgomery (wait for others to collapse without even trying to get them to collapse). Kadyrkhanov who ended up second... for a long time he really wasn't in the GC at all, and there was an attempt on the last day, so ok, would have been a deserved win too.
2 stage wins, the Donkey clearly hoped for more. The 5 I was promised with Zipoli seemed a bit much anyway, somebody with early form was going to take many, as it happened, but hoped to get 2 with Zipoli, Piancavallo for sure, hopefully Ortisei. 1 Zipoli one Farkas, not enough really, but ok, got the Giro win instead, so I shouldn't be complaining. Still am complaining because in the end it wasn't an interesting Giro. The parcours clearly didn't help, Etna-Blockhaus-Oropa-Piancavallo, 4 times just a mountain at the end (yeah, stuff ahead sometimes, but most of the time not dangerous). Then the group small. Not much of interest going on most days. I'd rather have won the Fleche Wallonne than the Giro. But ok, since I only manage to win stuff when everybody conspires to ride as badly as they can, I get to win stuff like this, not when I need to do simple tasks like riding for Zipoli like in the Fleche...

Let's hope for a better Giro next time. But the Donkey is seriously thinking if maybe it's him... maybe it's time to stop with climbers and buy what I so far thought were uninteresting boring riders, some Hubers, some 80 climbers wih 75 TT, and see if it gets more interesting again then.

[team fl]

Can add much more to Mr. Klebt's analysis. Was a real surprise to me that Nodirkhan could end the Giro on the Podium in this Group. But hey, he'll take it. Anyway, let's see the final stats about this year's afternoon Giro:

General classement:

01. 00:00:00 Evaristo Zipoli (Big Donkey)
02. 00:00:53 Nodirkhan Kadyrkhanov (Team FL)
03. 00:00:54 Alarico Karanka (Atletico Lula)
04. 00:01:57 Adriano Malori (Mercatone-uno)
05. 00:02:10 Sven Montgomery (Rasmussen)
06. 00:03:32 Corey Flynn (Calimero)
07. 00:05:45 Aasmund Uppdal (Big Donkey)
08. 00:07:46 Gordon Kearney (Calimero)
09. 00:08:32 Luis Diaz (Rockstar Inc)
10. 00:09:13 Mikel Landa (Mercatone-uno)
11. 00:09:14 Carlos Torres (Rockstar Inc)
12. 00:11:34 Lucas Duliano (Atletico Lula)
13. 00:13:09 Pascal Hungerbühler (Rasmussen)
14. 00:13:13 Miguel Brandao (Hessen Cycling)
15. 00:23:22 Jacoby Brissett (Calimero)

Points classement: Pavel Sitko (Team FL)

Mountain classement: Evaristo Zipoli (Big Donkey)

Youth classement: Luis Diaz (Rockstar Inc)

Team classement: Calimero

Stage wins by teams:

5 - Team FL
4 - johndeere
4 - Rasmussen
3 - Rockstars Inc
2 - Atletico Lula
2 - Big Donkey
1 - Calimero
0 - Hessen Cycling

Stage wins by riders:

3 - Carlos Torres (Rockstars Inc)
2 - Nodirkhan Kadyrkhanov (Team FL)
2 - Alarico Karanka (Atletico Lula)
2 - Jean Nuttli (Rasmussen)
2 - Pavel Sitko (Team FL)
2 - Jesper Vintenberg (johndeere)
1 - George Boyle (Calimero)
1 - Attila Farkas (Big Donkey)
1 - Omar Pene (Team FL)
1 - Michal Rant (johndeere)
1 - Kike Rodruigez (johndeere)
1 - Jörg Strauss (Rasmussen)
1 - Patrick Vetsch (Rasmussen)
1 - Evaristo Zipoli (Big Donkey)