BigFatCoward Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Skip to page 19 for 2019 giro the first but generally the best grand tour is upon us. 2 clear favourites with a whole host of dark horses. Nibali and Landa are the standouts, nibs has been dogshit so far this year, landa started late but looked awesome at trentino, however the number of descent finishes favours nibs, as does the lack of proper mountain top finishes. of the rest, valverde continues to defy his age, uran has shown nothing for a couple of years, majka is a bit of an enigma, zakarin has looked good early season but has never shown any 3 week form. kruijswijk is my dark horse, he was great in the mountains last year, and can fly pretty low under the radar. lets have a nice civilised conversation before the glory hunters turn up in July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 After his ride last year im hoping landa gives nibali a real shake up in the mountains this year. Also kittel is an absolute beast in the sprints so far, hoping to see caleb ewan get a stage win at some stage for oge. Looks like being a solid 3 weeks of racing, usually my favourite gt of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted May 9, 2016 Share Posted May 9, 2016 I am definitely following this but I'm not sure on the assessment of Nibali and Landa as the two main guys. This is based on the fact that even until very recently, Nibali has been nowhere. I think Valverde, in his first and likely also last Giro, could be a very strong contender here. Majka as well. I am also looking at Chaves. Zakarin as you say has not uet shown he can do Grand Tours even though he is a talent. Uran I do not believe in. Kruijswijk is a possible top 5 finisher here, he is in fine shape as well and this Giro is his goal. Dark Horse and personal favorite is Dumoulin, just because I really want him to do well. He himself has said he is only in this for the TT he wants to win, and that he he has not trained at altitude and that he has no GC aspirations this Giro. I hope that will change during the course of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted May 11, 2016 Author Share Posted May 11, 2016 right, at last the boring shit is out of the way. tomorrow has a decent but not terribly difficult MTF, which means the big boys can come out to play. landa didn't look great yesterday, but didn't lose anything and he can start putting the pedals down. i guess he wants some time back before the TT. if Tom D puts in a proper performance he could have a 2 minute lead by the end of the weekend. my guess, landa trails nibs and valverde by about 60-90 seconds after the weekend, with dumoulin another minute ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 Expectations are high for Dumoulin but I do believe that he is not in this for the GC. That said if he can really blow everybody away in a TT ( even acknowledged TT riders like Nibali) he may at least try to hang on as much as he can. I'm curious as to the form of Landa. And Nibali as well. I would also like to see what Zakarin is capable of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted May 12, 2016 Author Share Posted May 12, 2016 well, it looks like Dumoulin is here to play. very surprising stage, landa, nibs and valverde all looked pretty poor, zakarin, dumoulin and majka all looked pretty good. i have no idea who wins this thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Chaves was pretty good in the final as well. I expect that nibali will come on in the 2nd and 3rd weeks. Zakarin looked good but i really like how dumoulin is going especially with the tt coming this weekend loved watching his crack at the vuelta last year. There is something great about watching a tt rider mix it up in gc against the 'pure' climbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Hmm and there was a lot of punch to his acceleration away from the group as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted May 14, 2016 Author Share Posted May 14, 2016 after today Dumoulin could have 2 mins advantage, which means the favourites will really need to attack over the last 10 days when the mountains arrive. good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 A lot happened in the last week but what an epic queen stage with chaves getting the stage win for green edge and valverde completely cracking. Kruijswijk into pink with a week to go and nibali not looking as invincible as when he has won previous grand tours really setting up for a great final week would love to see chaves pull more time out of the other two, still very unpredictable so some late nights ahead for me this week 130am here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Valverde's fluffed his chances after that stage but I think Nibali is still very much in the hunt. I reckon he's still a good chance to take it out. The thing he'll have over the other younger riders is the consistency - often the young riders blow a bit hot and cold from stage to stage. None of them have managed to hang onto the pink jersey for any decent length of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Tomorrow will be a big indicator for nibalis favouritism to me, if he comes out and takes a big chunk out of the other guys in the mountain tt then i can see him being the winner but i like the way chaves and especially kruijswijk are looking especially with the laters ability against the clock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Giro on in exam season... they really should reschedule it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted May 22, 2016 Author Share Posted May 22, 2016 On 06/05/2016 at 6:26 PM, BigFatCoward said: kruijswijk is my dark horse, he was great in the mountains last year, and can fly pretty low under the radar. fuck fuck, fuck. he was 80/1 the week before it started. i was too busy at work and never got around to lumping on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Its great he is finally really showing what he can do sure to be a good last week with nibali and valverde needing big chunks of time and chaves going almost as well as kruijswijk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 16 hours ago, BigFatCoward said: fuck fuck, fuck. he was 80/1 the week before it started. i was too busy at work and never got around to lumping on him. Same here. I had a feeling he would do well and didn't do anything with it, not even for a top 2 spot. Great to see a countryman do so well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Unlucky for kruijswijk today but really hope chaves can hold off these guys tomorrow but nibali looked so good on this stage. Chaves needs to have a day as good as the one he won the stage on a week ago to hold onto pink and win this thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted May 28, 2016 Author Share Posted May 28, 2016 poor bastard, great stage though. i hope chavez holds of nibali today, i just don't like him, and i can't put my finger on why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Very sad about Kruijswijk. He was so much better than everyone else. Dominates the Giro. And then falls. I hope he can save his 3rd place today so that he has something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 What a finish. Great Tour. GC changes hands multiple times in the last mountain stages. I always thought Nibali had a shot regardless of how much time he was back, but I didn't expect him to take on Chaves and win so comparatively easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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