The real shocker is that Sean Kelly called it.
A question for in between: Does anyone know if the leaders’ bikes are repainted or specially made for this purpose? A completely new bike seems a bit excessive to me, especially with the current shortage…
Gotta say that seeing GCN interview team directors while they’re in the car during the race is very cool. Need more of that as connection allows imo.
In this case it’s just a regular Canyon, but wrapped in pink. Not sure about the TT bike but that one was already with the team before the start of the Giro.
Yea gcn does a great job personally and well worth the sub.
A day late with today’s stage post….pan-flat sprinters’ delight.
Does MVP bother with the sprint since the Maglia Rosa is secure? Dunno. The other question will be how banged up Evan is from Stage 1. I would normally have picked him today, but with that crash, I’m leaning towards Cav. He has Morkov to launch him and there is no one better in the business.
Watching it right now and a chill ride so far. 111 km to go. One part they showed some regular people riding on a bike path next the pros and amateurs were all out while the pros looked like they were were barely pedaling. Lol
Here are the levels from least to most chill:
- Coffee ride
- Golf
- Whatever it is we’re watching right now
Piano… Piano…
Good finale though!
Nice finale today, but the stage wasn’t enough to keep me entertained on the trainer
Looking forward - assuming no injuries to anyone else on the team - how many stages does Cav have to win here to have a legitimate argument that he should go to the TdF?
Right? When Cav launched my first reaction was “nope…WAY too early”. 
No stage tomorrow…travel / transition day from Hungary to Sicily.
I hate all rest days, but especially early ones. Meh.
Since we have a rest day and it’s too early for a TdF thread of it’s own…
Really want to see Cavendish back at the TdF this year with a shot at the stage win #35
No doubt many pixels will be printed on this topic between now and then. Eurosport already has an article up.
Not many big name riders do the Giro & TDF same year, do they?
They were definitely going slow for them.
True it is not too common. But sometimes sprinters ride early stages then drop out when the hills start. That leaves plenty of time to recover and prep for July. If Cav has a shot at being named to the tour squad, he could bail after stage six or hang in for stages 11 and 13 using the bumpier stages in between for training or on the less hard days maybe he stays in for the finale.
As one example of a rider who hunted stages in multiple GTs per year during his prime consider Mario Cippolini. He started both the Giro and the TdF in same year 7 times. Of those 14 races, he only finished the Giro twice and the Tour never. But from 1995-1999 he won many stages in both GTs. One year he even tried for stage wins in all three GTs.
More importantly here is that Quick Step intends to take their #1, and very fast finisher, Fabio Jakobsen to the tour this year. That doesn’t leave a spot for Cav and leads to the fun speculation of what would it take to get Cav into the tour? Plans can change between now and then for a variety of reasons. For Jakobsen, he has certainly earned his role so no disrespect to the young man at all.
The first real fireworks of the Giro should happen tomorrow…a small jaunt up Mt. Etna in Sicily to finish things off. Can’t seem to get a clear answer on whether this is one of the harder routes up the climb or not…but it doesn’t look easy! You are basically heading up for the last 30+km.
The profile actually lends itself to a breakaway tomorrow, IMO…rolling, uncategorized hills to start things off, followed by a trek across the flats to the final climb. Teams may not want to spend a lot of energy this early in the race to keep a break under control, so a good sized group could make it stick…and plenty of riders have lost enough time to make it work. If I am Bike Exchange, I am letting a break go so some other team gets the jersey. Yates will have hopefully learned his lessons form 2018…
It would be an interesting change if at the end of each grand tour stage the riders that are beyond X% of time away from the GC leader get sent home.
A big one down
