Curious to see how Sagan does. Seemed like he had lost the fire a bit at the Tour, but maybe he was just outgunned this time.
Thought Froome/Ineos mentioned he was shifting to the Vuelta after not going to the TdF, but maybe I’m remembering that wrong.
Thought Yates rode pretty well in the Pyrenees this year, interesting to see if he comes into good form for the Giro.[EDIT I was thinking of Adam, guessing you’re talking about Simon, oops]
He just finished a grueling Tour and is only going to the Giro for the appearance fee. I’m not expecting much from him. He’ll give a few stages a shot, but there are some fast pure sprinters there.
Yes, I heard the organizers really wanted to pin him down for an appearance. It is a big thing to have the highest paid cycler attend your event I guess!
I have a logistical question: I saw that they gonna hit the Alps toward the end of the giro, with some peaks almost at 3000 m. That would promise to be quite exciting usually, but it will be end of October then. Isn’t there already a crapload of snow around that time a year? Especially the 2000m+ mountains? If I remember correctly most pass roads are only officially open until October.
Yes, usually there is a lot of snow because they close the passes and let the snow accumulate. But of course this year they won’t let that happen and they will clear the roads as soon as possible after it snowed. The only issue is if there is a snowstorm the night before or the same day of the stage, they won’t be able to do much.
However the temperature won’t be pleasant at all. For example, on Sunday I did the “Campo Carlo Magno” climb, which is the first one they will do in stage 18, and even though it’s only 1700 meters high and it was a beautiful sunny day, it was around 15 degrees Celsius on top and there was a kind of strong and cold wind. I can’t imagine how cold it will be on the Stelvio in one month.
Sagan was looking like he was coming into his form more toward the end of the Tour. I think he is one of those cyclists that needs racing to get back to his level and without it this year, the training could only do so much in getting him there. Not expecting miracles from him at the Giro, but I think he’ll look better than he did in the Tour. Some of those early stage are lumpy enough for him to have a chance at a sprint or two.
Yeah, I should add that I haven’t really looked at the stage profiles so there may be a stage early on where he could get in the break and win a stage.
But no way he can ride the entire Giro the way we see him rid the Tour and when your only motivation to going to collect a check…
I actually hope he is right up there! I think Thomas is the one to watch for the overall win but I do hope that Yates brings an all out assault on the Maglia Rosa.
Uh yeah!
And if there was ever a year to let ALL the hit the fan, this would be it!
What epitomizes 2020 better than going downhill as fast as possible – especially in Italy!
Should probably make the jersey out of chainmail or similar. Just a thought.
hit the fan, this would be it!