I do think it’s a shame when winning takes priority over entertainment. That’s why we love Sagan, Allaphillipe, MvdP… pure showmen.
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same!!
Always love when teams or individuals just race and go against the pelotons “directions”.
This old school stuff is some reason I like Tadej so much as he is like the honey badger. Just doesn’t give a f and destroys team tactics even by himself.
I hate rest days.
Wait……
f#ck.
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Watching Kamna toy with Carapaz on 20 is a highlight I will remember for a long time. It was an amazing performance by Hindley, but watching Kamna go into red to create the separation and then dig in so he could sit on Carapaz’s wheel and ultimately pass him was special. Soul-crushing team tactics at their best.
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He attacked a lot more than once on 21 stages! He just couldn’t get away alone as the top riders were so closely matched. That’s why it was always just a group of three riders, with everyone else trailing behind. The other GC riders couldn’t live with the digs the top 3-4 we’re putting in.
I was rooting for either Landa or Hindley once Bardet went home, but to say Carapaz didn’t attack isn’t right.
If Carapaz didn’t have the legs on stage 20 then there wasn’t really any other tactical option for Ineos to take when racing up the Marmolada. He looked tired and pale before they even got to the start of the last climb
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He gave a few half-hearted attempts, but the only time he attacked like he meant it was on Stage 14….personally, I thought that was the race over at that point.
Was surprised when he faded / they clawed him back.
Blockhaus was a missed opportunity for him. He attacked there and was away with Bardet and Landa from memory. Hindley was distanced but it was early enough in the race that Landa, Bardet and Carapaz were focused on each other which let Hindley and Almeida pace themselves back on.
I hope that at some point we get a GT with an “easy” course. Get rid of numerous summit finishes and give us more mid mountain days or punchy circuits. Would love to see a GT that rewarded aggressive riding and opened up the cast of potential winners (maybe Guillaume Martin’s perfect race!)
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I’m from the US and had to look up what the slur even was because I read the article and still had no idea what the bad part was. So I can say that he probably didn’t know he was saying anything “wrong.” Chill out, watch the race and enjoy it. Not everything has to be offensive or a microaggression. Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean there’s an issue. Don’t try to read into things that aren’t there.
He would have known what the term meant, it was fairly common slang when I was growing up, certainly can’t see it being coincidence that he put those particular 2 words together. In less enlightened times when I was in my teens and 20s pretty much any occurrence of the word fudge would lead to somebody making a crude double entendre. Suspect he hung around in circles with a similarly bad and dated sense of humour to me and what he said just came out of his mouth without really thinking about it. Obviously shouldn’t have said it on air and was correct that he apologised, but in the grand scheme of things it seems a pretty minor mistake that I’m sure he will have learnt from, hopefully everybody forgets about it and moves on.
On the Giro itself, delighted to see Hindley win after coming so close in 2020. Shame the GC race couldn’t have been lit up with more attacks but I think the fact that it wasn’t shows just how close the lead guys were.
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Hi Fredal. I’m glad to hear that you hadn’t heard the slur before. I hope that you haven’t been exposed to much homophobia in your life in general. Unfortunately that’s not been the case for me or other people on this forum though.
Although you’ve suggested there wasn’t an issue you didn’t respond to the main issue I raised in my post. Where are the openly gay professional cyclists and other atheletes? Homophobia is clearly a big issue in sport and slurs are a part of that.
I’m not sure why you’re so convinced Robbie didn’t know the phrase. If I had used a phrase that I hadn’t realised had offensive connotations then you can be sure when I was apologising I’d have made it clear that I hadn’t known what it meant when I said it. It seems a pretty obvious thing to do. Indeed you and lots of others online have been quick to suggest Robbie might not have known the phrase. The fact he didn’t use this obvious line himself suggests to me that he was probably aware of it. I can see that he may not have meant to cause offence but he was right to apologise either way. Everyone makes mistakes, but if we don’t address these problems then gay people will continue to be excluded.
As it happens I had been feeling pretty chilled and had been enjoying the race thanks. I’d been hoping Hindley would do well and thought his attack was awesome. Simon Yates had looked in great shape too and I had high hopes for him before his injury. Robbie’s comment and the post I responded to were just one part of the Giro for me. I posted about it as I won’t stand for homophobia or other forms of discrimination. Will you?
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I’m pretty sure the majority of people in LGBQT community will disagree with this statement.
This.
Another great post, @thegingeravenger.
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Happy to see Hindley win, but kind of an average overall race. There were some good stages with MvdP and Grimay winning in some awesome finishes, but very little GC mountain battles until the last day. And sad to see all the injury/illness drop outs, but seems to be the norm.
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I agree that having more days setup where a team can execute a “raid” - medium mountains with the potential for crosswinds - would make a lot of stages more interesting. Plus get rid of high mountain days that end on a downhill. Either you are encouraging very dangerous riding - having to attack on a downhill - or the leaders don’t attack because riders will come back on the downhills, so the mountains get effectively neutralized.
The other “innovation” - mentioned on one of the podcasts I listen to, but I forget which one - would be to put the hardest mountain as the 2nd to last, to encourage people to attack there, and then be able to distance rivals instead of waiting to the last couple of kilometers on the final climb to attack.
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And a decent prologue, a 60k TTT and a 35-40k ITT. Spice it up with some tough summit finishes, some punchers finishes and then find out who the best rider is instead of these GT’s that are now catered to climbers that can’t do anything else except for climb well.
If someone’s 2 minutes behind after the TTT but there is a medium and then a high mountain stage in the days after where they can make up on the heavier time trialist, it might again encourage action instead of just having a group of 5 climbers look at each other all the way to the top of a climb.
You and I must like dramatically different racing. I don’t mind more TT miles than this Giro had, by any stretch, but a 60k TTT sounds awful - it would reward the higher salary teams so dramatically as to render large portions of the race irrelevant
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Agreed 100%…and I am a huge fan of TTT’s. But they can have WAY too much impact on the GC if they go that long. Honestly, had they had a TTT that long this year, Carapaz would have won easily and the race would have been over on day 2 or 3.
If you want exciting racing that is closer in time, the answer is shorter stages, not longer / ridiculously hard one.
I used to love the TTT stages. Some of the absolute favourite TdF stages. Armstrong or Cancellara ripping long turns and putting minutes into whole teams.
There was a solution where they gave the teams a time bonus for the placing as opposed to real time time loss. I guess there’s just not as much interest in TT racing for the general public though, and I understand why, they don’t make great entertaining viewing if you aren’t deeply into the details.
I’d like to see a TTT back in the Tour - just a 15-20km one or so. I’d also wager JV would be happier about it than UAE. I’d rather see that than one of the week 2 snooze fests that we inevitably see.
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Yup…that’s the ticket. Have the event but keep it short enough that time differences aren’t crushing.
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