I've mostly ignored Evenepoel in my fantasy ventures so I fully expect him to defy logic once again and win this whole thing.

I really hope he does well, it sucked to see such a young talent in so good form out for so long. I really doubt he can win it, no racing for 9 months, and it being his first GT, but you never know.

7th after no race in almost a year, gotta be happy with that

Yup can't be too unhappy with that result, although at his TT best he'd probably finish second. But I believe he's also lighter than he'd be at TT championships to climb better.

Remco hanging with Bernal & the bests on a mountain finish and 2nd overall

phenomenon

As much as I generally root for anyone other than INEOS, Bernal is incredibly likeable and it's good to see him back to his best because he is a phenomenal rider. And he's also a great champion and character, and the interview with him in tears saying that even one day in pink makes everything worth it shows how much it matters to him. Great stuff.

+1

Not sure grand tour stages should be finishing on dirt but it sure is entertaining

Yea I would not even walk my dog on that road

Remco looks completely finished.

Bernal is giving me Yates 2018 vibes he's moving a lot and spending a lot of energy for very few time gained. Yates and Vlasov did absolutely nothing and are around a minute behind him. I can definitely see him blowing up in 3rd week

A moment of respect for Derwipok fantasy team Soler, Landa, Sivakov, Champoussin

I hope you're right because it'd mean my prediction that he's going to win comfortably is wrong, and I'd prefer a close race.

I think he's raced intelligently. He's gained a sizeable lead already with his attacks, I don't think he's overextended himself, he's taken advantage of opponents having off days, and now he's enough ahead that he can defend the jersey conservatively and doesn't have to react every time another GC rider attacks. Other riders will be doing the work for him defending their placements while he doesn't have to react immediately unless Vlasov attacks. I think he's also maybe the best third week rider in the GC (caveat that the sample size is small), especially in 2k+ altitude.

Yeah I think you're wrong guivre but would love it if you're spot on

If he holds comfortably it could be a boring TdF this year for GC

Are you saying Bernal is going to be too strong for the others at the tour? I don't think the TdF can be boring if Bernal is even going there (don't remember it seeing confirmed anywhere) with pogacar/roglic

When's the last time somebody won both the giro and the tour, leave alone run over both

I'd guess he meant the Giro, as the Giro+Tour double is unbelievably difficult not to mention Bernal is almost certainly not going to be riding GC in the Tour unless something dramatic happens.

Pantani won both in '98. Indurain did it in both '92 and '93, during the years when he was virtually unstoppable - until he came up against this terrifying adversary, "The Eagle from Herning".

As ferocious as he was beautiful, Bjarne Riis, more EPO than man, destroyed everyone in the '96 Tour, including his teammate, eternal runner up Jan Ullrich.

Other than Pantani and Indurain, only Hinault, Merckx, Anquetil and Coppi have done it. So only a couple of the all time greats have managed to do it. In the modern days, I think it's pretty much impossible. You need to be both a generational talent and have mediocre opponents for it to be doable today. Froome and Contador, easily the two best GC riders of the past 15 years, have both attempted it. Both won the Giro, but failed to win the Tour. Froome finished 3rd, and Contador finished 5th (twice, but the '11 results were voided due to the doping case).
In fact, these two are the only two riders to have won two GTs in the same calendar year since Pantani, with Froome winning the Tour+Vuelta and Contador winning Giro+Vuelta. Froome won the Giro the following year (when he later finished 3rd in the Tour), so he was the reigning champion in all three GTs at the same time for a bit.
I'm kinda surprised nobody else has done the Giro+Vuelta, because it's not super uncommon for someone to target both the Giro and Vuelta GC. But it goes to show that winning these races requires isn't just something you can decide to do, even for the best guys. I also think the Giro and Vuelta have gotten more competitive the last few years, 10-20 years ago they were often won by riders who weren't really some of the best GC riders overall, while today it's often been targeted by some of the top GC guys.

Yeah I'm pretty sure Ledders meant the Giro and not the TdF

No I actually meant TdF, I'm just clueless. You have too much faith in me.

I simply remembered the relentlessly effective Sky trains of years past and nearly fell asleep typing at the thought of Ineos finding form again and controlling the race for a 3 week snoozefest.

Disclaimer that these things are always subject to change of course but Bernal isn't scheduled to ride the Tour and I doubt that will change. Ineos are already bringing 3 guys who can realistically target a podium in Thomas, Porte and Carapaz and also Hart who won the Giro last year but will almost certainly be relegated to domestique status for the Tour. Bernal is supposed to ride the Vuelta alongside Adam Yates and I guess whoever feels good enough after the Tour. It would be great though to see a fully fit Bernal battle it our with Pogacar and Roglic at the Tour, I'm hoping we get to see that next year.

As far as trains go I get where you're coming from but for one thing it's hardly exclusive to Ineos, US Postal have obviously employed it successfully in the Armstrong era and Jumbo have done it a bunch too lately and it only didn't work out at last year's Tour because nobody expected Pogacar to gain over a minute on Roglic in the final ITT. The other thing is that even if a fully fit Bernal were to go to the Tour Ineos would need to ride more offensive than just relying on their train up the mountains because Bernal would still only be 3rd favourite behind Pogacar and Roglic and forced to make up a lot of time in the mountains that he'd lose in the ITTs.

Giro (and vuelta) usually deliver but this looks like it's going to be one of the most boring edition I can remember

And as much as drastic weather conditions can help make a race exciting, this wasn't the case this year and the TV production has been pretty bad, I suppose as a result

Taking two major climbs out of today's stage is definitely a blow.

Almost glad that I haven't found a way to watch any of it since it's not on TV.

Almost.

Don't worry there wasn't even coverage for most of the day due to the weather.

more people call riis "mr 60" than anything, in reference to his ridiculous/dangerous hematocrit (apparently he had to wake up every 3 hours at night to raise his heart rate enough so he wouldnt stroke out lol)

anyways, i don't think he was indurians nemesis so much as indurian inexplicably fell off a cliff. he went from unstoppable to 11th in the tour to withdrawing the vuelta while getting cracked on a random, not mountainy, stage. then retiring.

the end of his career is kind of a mystery to me. did he not want to dope as much? weight issues? just didn't care anymore? he was only 32...

guys tours were kinda boring to me. only mountaintop win was in 90 (right before his run) when he dropped greg lemond who was doing all the work to try and win GC. he doesn't seem to say much these days. part his personality. part trying to avoid doping allegations

I'm just puzzled why there is zero coverage here of the entire Giro. We get the TdF and Vuelta, a seemingly random assortment of classics and various international competitions. No Giro.

The internet tells me I could stream it by subscribing to something called GCN+ for $9 a month. I think I'll just follow the results, the other grand tours will be here soon enough.

In Denmark Bjarne will always be "Ørnen fra Herning" first and foremost.

How I laid it out is not particularly accurate, but I'm biased and Riis is the GOAT (neck and neck with Rolf Sørensen).

Love to see Caruso win. Class rider but never won much himself. I remember a stage in the '19 Giro where he had a good chance of winning but had to drop back to help Nibali - and nothing proceeded to happen among the GC riders. I've wanted to see him win since then.