The Pro Road Cycling Thread

It was interesting to hear that Sunweb riders went to the hotel by bus, a three hour journey, not leaving Sestriere area until an hour or two after the race as the Pink Jersey had press commitments. Ineos went by helicopter. TGH would have been tucked-up in bed before Hindley arrived at his hotel. Can only think that will be of benefit for TGH ahead of the ITT.

I would also think that Ineos will be fully prepped for tomorrow, having two TT specialists in the team. They will know every knook and cranny of the stage and what watts TGH will need to push out to beat Hindley. With it being a fairly straight, pan flat course with few turns, it will favour the more powerful rider, which is TGH. However, ITTs at the end of GTs can deliver some odd results. Regardless of the advantages, TGH will need to be stronger tomorrow. That's what really matters, as well as staying upright.
 
chesterbells said:
Can see what you are saying and respect that pov pal; certainly I think none of us would say these two are anywhere near the greatest riders in the world at the moment. However, statistically it is the greatest finale; not the greatest quality finale, but the greatest for spectacle - hard to argue with that imho. I am certain they will both be giving it full gas tomorrow (as they were today), and I honestly don’t know how to call it; I’ve heard some say TGH is a better TT rider, but who knows by the time you get to stage 21.
(And yep, 89 was incredible too ;-)
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As they say in the boxing vernacular, this really is a case of "pick 'em". TGH will have the full weight of the Ineos machine behind him but Hindley will be in pink, last off (didn't help Roglic at the tour mind) and is no TT slouch. Ganna to win the stage, TGH the Giro.
I get what you're saying about greatest finale, yep, in terms of closeness, this is hair's breadth stuff.
BTW, it's often forgotten that Fignon also lost the '84 Giro, going into the final stage, nearly 2 mins up on Moser. Last stage was a TT and Moser blitzed it to win the race by just over a minute. I remember Fignon claiming Moser was helped by the helicopter draught (and possibly other things!).
 
johnnytapia said:
As they say in the boxing vernacular, this really is a case of "pick 'em". TGH will have the full weight of the Ineos machine behind him but Hindley will be in pink, last off (didn't help Roglic at the tour mind) and is no TT slouch. Ganna to win the stage, TGH the Giro.
I get what you're saying about greatest finale, yep, in terms of closeness, this is hair's breadth stuff.
BTW, it's often forgotten that Fignon also lost the '84 Giro, going into the final stage, nearly 2 mins up on Moser. Last stage was a TT and Moser blitzed it to win the race by just over a minute. I remember Fignon claiming Moser was helped by the helicopter draught (and possibly other things!).
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Haha, hadnt heard that story.
 
chesterbells said:
Haha, hadnt heard that story.
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Yeah, it stopped Fignon doing the double. Moser led from stages 6 or 7 up to stage 19 then Fignon annihilated him in the mountains to go into pink but it was a long TT and Moser had full disc wheel (nobody else did) and romped to victory. There were also a couple of curtailed mountain stages that would have given Fignon more time but the organisers reckoned the snow was too dangerous etc.
There was also a Vuelta in late seventies / early eighties that was won by fewer than ten seconds. Up to the '89 Tour it was the closest Grand Tour victory. Think a French rider won it.
 
johnnytapia said:
Well, just Googled it and the '84 Vuelta was actually won by siz seconds so still holds the record for closest grand tour win. Maybe today will see that record tumble!
edition.cnn.com

La Vuelta: The closest ever finish in a cycling Grand Tour | CNN

Eric Caritoux remembers the 1984 La Vuelta, a race he won by just six seconds after 3,593 kilometers of racing.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
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Cheers for that, just had a quick read. Bittersweet reading that now, learning about the subsequent fate of the two protagonists.
 
Ganna is a machine, so it looks like seven stage wins, ineos have pretty much sewn up the team classification just the Pink jersey and the young rider to go at.
 
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