2013 Giro d'Italia
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The_Brown_Hornet
John Eales (66)
Can't help but feel that getting this hard racing in now for Cadel won't be a bad thing for the TdF. He seems to be in better shape this year physically and not battling injury and illness.
Ash
Michael Lynagh (62)
The_Brown_Hornet yeah, it needs to be hard, but not too hard.
He hasn't ridden a lot in the last year, and most of it was when he was battling injury and illness, which means he will be lacking a lot of conditioning.
He hasn't ridden a lot in the last year, and most of it was when he was battling injury and illness, which means he will be lacking a lot of conditioning.
Ash
Michael Lynagh (62)
Profile for stage 20 replacement:
Here's the final climb:
Some nasty gradients, with the final 4km being very hard. Not the hardest mountain going around, but not a bad replacement.
Shame the last few stages were neutered, but in the end it might work out in Cadel's favour. Let's hope that he can hold onto second; Uran and Scarponi will be out to knock him off the podium.
Here's the final climb:
Some nasty gradients, with the final 4km being very hard. Not the hardest mountain going around, but not a bad replacement.
Shame the last few stages were neutered, but in the end it might work out in Cadel's favour. Let's hope that he can hold onto second; Uran and Scarponi will be out to knock him off the podium.
Ash
Michael Lynagh (62)
Yeah, credit to Nibali. He didn't need to, but he attacked and dominated the end of that stage. Nibali was the strongest rider in the race and deserved his victory.
Evans dropped off initially, then looked to have been very close to bridging to the Uran group, then fell off again. Fortunately it didn't cost him the podium, but it did cost him second place. Evans apparently had a mechanical issue and couldn't get to the lowest gear, so was stuck two gears higher than he should have been. Apparently he was mightily pissed at the finsh as he believed that it cost him second case. If that was the case, it was a great effort. Though, I'd say that if Evans had ridden a good MTT then he would've held onto second. That poor MTT cost him second place, he should have beaten Uran comfortable in it.
That being said, it was a good effort from Evans to get onto the podium as he was rather underdone.
Evans dropped off initially, then looked to have been very close to bridging to the Uran group, then fell off again. Fortunately it didn't cost him the podium, but it did cost him second place. Evans apparently had a mechanical issue and couldn't get to the lowest gear, so was stuck two gears higher than he should have been. Apparently he was mightily pissed at the finsh as he believed that it cost him second case. If that was the case, it was a great effort. Though, I'd say that if Evans had ridden a good MTT then he would've held onto second. That poor MTT cost him second place, he should have beaten Uran comfortable in it.
That being said, it was a good effort from Evans to get onto the podium as he was rather underdone.
Ash
Michael Lynagh (62)
On the doping side of things, two big positives so far: Di Luca and Santambrogio, both from Vini Fantini. Santambrogio was a bit suspicious - hilly punchy rider to mountain stage winner and possible GT contender at the age of 29. Both were positive to EPO.
There is one more big rumour about a possible positive: Nibali. If that's true, and that's a huge if, it would be a blow to cycling. Uran would take the victory, and Evans moves up to second (he would be cusring his horrible MTT and mechanical), and Scarponi into third.
There is one more big rumour about a possible positive: Nibali. If that's true, and that's a huge if, it would be a blow to cycling. Uran would take the victory, and Evans moves up to second (he would be cusring his horrible MTT and mechanical), and Scarponi into third.
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