- We are now nine stages into the
100th edition of the Giro D'Italia.
On the second rest day, and already,
there's a multitude of talking points.
Been incredible!
- It has.
Now before we delve right into it,
if you haven't been keeping up to date
with the race just yet, then let's try to fill you in.
There has been one big GC battle so far,
and Nairo Quintana of Movistar has come out on top,
so he now leads the race.
He's wearing the pink jersey, and he has a gap
of 28 seconds over Thibaut Pinot of FDJ and ominously
over time trial star Tom Dumoulin of Sunweb.
- Mmm, and there've also been a couple of successful break.
Jan Polanc won his second Giro D'Italia stage.
Also Silvan Dillier of BMC was successful, and as well,
the sprinters have been really spreading their wings,
with André Greipel taking a stage,
and both Caleb Ewan and Fernando Gaviria
getting their Giro counts off.
But, what are the main five talking points?
There's plenty of them, isn't there?
But there's five.
- Yeah. - But they're main.
- Plenty of five. - Plenty of five.
Well, there's five main talking points.
We're going to touch on those now.
(jazzy music)
- Yesterday's stage that finished on
the tough climb of Blockhaus was notable for two things.
Firstly, the fantastic aggressive racing
that we were treated to, but then secondly,
yet another incident involving a race motorbike,
that is going to be affecting the outcome of the major race.
- Yeah, it was Sunweb's Wilco Kelderman
was the first rider to strike that
stationary motorbike, and Tom Dumoulin only just got
through, but Kelderman came down.
He's out of the race, he broke a finger.
But other riders, CG contenders, were taken out of the mix.
Mikel Landa, course, Geraint Thomas fell very, very heavily,
and also Adam Yates, so three main GC contenders
completely out of the mix.
Thankfully, they're still riding,
but really any real GC hopes now
are completely out the window.
- Yeah, that's right.
Now, taken in isolation, it does look like it was
just human error, you know, a momentary lapse
of judgement from the motorbike rider
that led him to park in a frankly stupid place.
Now, not in isolation, taking the wider context,
then as you said, it's yet another incident
that should not have happened.
Should be avoided.
But leaving aside the issue of motorbikes a minute,
it was actually the aftermath of the crash
that has caused the most debate.
Should Nairo Quintana's Movistar team have waited
for the other riders to pick themselves up
and chase back on, effectively letting
their GC rivals back into the race?
Now, cycling's unwritten rules have always said
that perhaps that is the case, but.
- I think that's the key word though.
Even cycling's nebulous unwritten rules say "perhaps,"
and that is where is this ridiculous ambiguity.
One of the thing we talked about before we recorded this
was, is there a real patron in the peloton anymore,
and I don't think there is because,
and I know Matt White is being quite vocal,
the directeur sportif of Orica, saying that
Nairo Quintana's team were unsportsmanlike,
they should have at least knocked the pace off
a little bit to allow an opportunity
for the riders to get back on.
I do see that point of view, but also the race was on.
There was only 15 kilometres to go, so I'm kind of struck.
I'm kind of, I can understand both sides
of the argument here, but as we talked about before,
there needs to be someone strong enough
within the bunch, or a directeur sportif,
to represent the riders, to make those calls.
Because otherwise, all we're gonna be doing
is looking back on it and looking at it in retrospect.
But it's basically a decision that needs to be made
on the ground and there's nobody there to make it.
- No, but then equally, that doesn't
answer the question, does it?
About whether it was right or not,
because saying that we just need a patron to make the call,
but what should the call be, because no one really knows.
Now, Team Sky were notable in that they did not say that
Movistar should have waited, so they're not complaining.
They think it was part of the race.
My own two penny-worth is, I just wonder whether or not
the slight lack of respect
perhaps for foreign rivals
might be a self-perpetuating cycle here,
because for every incident like this,
where riders are not waited for,
then that puts more pressure on teams to be
in the right place at the right team,
and there isn't enough space for everyone to be
at the front of the race, and therefore
you get more teams fighting, higher speeds,
and then you get more incidents
like this in the first place.
So it's like this snowball effect, so maybe
actually this is a wake up call and teams should
be a bit like, all right, maybe we knock it off.
- Yeah, so we need to go back to unwritten rules basically.
- Yeah, maybe we should just write the rules.
- Yeah, let's do that.
Sort this out once and for all.
- Or we just actually get a new patron.
We could do an audition for the patron of the peloton,
right here on GCN.
- I like that, yeah.
- Who's the patron?
- Qui est le patron?
(audience clapping)
- Hello and welcome to the first ever episode of GCN's
Peloton Patron. - Peloton Patron.
- The game show where you decide who
becomes the peloton's patron.
- For consideration of canditure of peloton patron,
how about Marcel Kittel?
Beautiful hair.
How about Tom Dumoulin, with that chiselled jaw?
And one of the most outspoken riders in the peloton
of the modern era, Mark Cavendish, would you reckon?
- That's right, ultimately you decide.
The vote is yours.
- Mmm, peloton patron.
(jazzy music)
So, who is looking good out of the GC contenders
after the big shakeup at Blockhaus?
Well obviously, Nairo Quintana, but let's put him to one
side, 'cause really he was expected to take the win there.
But I've been impressed no end by the composure shown by
Tom Dumoulin, the way he rode that climb,
clearly riding to power.
We know that's the way he rides.
Didn't panic, didn't jump around because of course
there was a lot of explosivity when Quintana attacked,
and even Nibali went, and also Thibaut Pinot.
But he rode his own race and ended up only 25 seconds
behind at the end, only narrowly being
beaten by those valuable time bonuses by Thibaut Pinot.
And interestingly, even the directeur sportif of
Nairo Quintana's team Movistar has said he expects
Dumoulin to be in pink after the first time trial.
So to me, Dumoulin has impressed
the most and looks to still have a lot to give.
- Yeah, don't brush Thibaut Pinot aside though,
because that was a really, really crackin' ride yesterday.
- Yeah it was.
- He seemed as excited as I was, in fact,
which is probably is not all that good
if you are trying to conserve your energies,
but nevertheless, you know,
exciting racing from Thibaut Pinot.
And don't write Vincenzo Nibali off either.
There is still a chance for him to take the Giro.
Don't forget last year, he looked like he was
well out of it going into that final week,
but then all of his other rivals faded
and Vincenzo carried on strong,
and lo and behold, he took the victory.
- Yeah, he's only a minute behind,
so let's not write him off just yet,
and generally speaking he does ride himself
into these grand tours, so still a danger I think.
- Yeah, I leaned a long time ago
never to write Vincenzo Nibali off.
- No, don't do that.
- Vincenzo Nibali is not going to make the podium.
(jazzy music)
We have had some fantastic sprint battles already
in this year's Giro D'Italia, on some very
technical finishes as well, haven't we?
Which is a point not lost on the peloton.
André Greipel continued his incredible run
of grand tour victories with another one here,
and indeed he took the pink jersey at the same time,
but it's the rise of the youngsters
that's been particularly exciting I think.
- It certainly has.
It's been, some of these sprints have been so exciting,
but Fernando Gaviria got his grand tour stage wins
off the mark, with two stage wins in fact.
He's looked very very good, delivered
perfectly to the line by his Quick-Step Floors team.
And also Caleb Ewan, he's taken his second grand tour stage,
after his win in the Volterra last year.
He's like extremely fast.
It's also worth mentioning Sam Bennett of Bora-Hansgrohe.
The sprinter took third twice, despite being ill.
And another rider that I'm gonna mention
that might be off quite a lot of
people's radar is Ryan Gibbons.
22 year old, riding for Dimension Data, from South Africa,
riding his first-ever grand tour
and he's finished in the top 10, or top eight in fact,
on four occasions in bunch sprints.
Definitely one to watch for the future.
- Right, write that name down.
Ryan Gibbons. - Ryan Gibbons.
(jazzy music)
Now although we expected the maglia rosa
to change hands at the top of the the
brutal Blockhaus climb, I don't think Bob Jungels
is sixth overall last year
and then won best young rider expects
to concede three and a half minutes.
- No.
- So he's gonna be a little be a disappointed,
although we still got a lot of racing to go.
Another rider who surprisingly lost
just under three minutes, 2:46 I think it was,
was Steven Kruijswijk, who was the pink jersey wearer
last year, and had it been for one crash,
may have even won the Giro last year,
so not a great start for him.
And also Tejay van Garderen lost nearly 3 and 3/4 minutes
after not riding the Tour de France
this year and focusing solely on the Giro.
Not the most auspicious start
for his GC hopes by Teejay, no.
- Now, the one thing that might go in those guys' favour
actually was the fact that yesterday was quiet.
It's not a unique stage necessarily,
but it's completely flat, wasn't it?
- Yeah.
- Until that final climb, and it followed,
and then were a completely flat stage,
and so often you do get some surprising results
on those days because some riders just can't
adjust from riding at 50k an hour all day, to then suddenly
putting out big power at really, really slow speeds.
And so, all is not lost for those guys.
- No, definitely not.
- But I'm also -
- It's just gonna make it hard,
'cause there's a lot of chasing to do, that's all.
- Well yeah, let's face it, losing 3 1/2 minutes to Quintana
is not good, but I'm also quite interested to know
what's gonna happen to Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas.
- Yeah.
- Because obviously then, I mean I think
they're four and a bit, some five minutes down,
but it's the Giro, you know?
All is not lost for those guys, either.
How are they gonna race it?
I really hope they're gonna stick with it
and go for GC as opposed to just sitting up
and then trying to go for stages, because you know,
podium's not out of reach.
- Definitely not, I mean, it's a topsy-turvy race.
The Giro in particular doesn't always run to type at all.
And as we saw yesterday in that catastrophic incident,
the GC can be turned on its head in an instant.
- It can.
- So, yeah.
(jazzy music)
- Well, we mentioned in the introduction
about the incredible ride of Jan Polanc.
And we feel we need to doff our imaginary cycling caps
to that man for what was a fantastic performance.
- It was, standout.
- He attacked and was in an early breakaway
on what was a pretty mountainous stage
in Sicily that finished on top of the fearsome Mt. Etna.
Now, if there was a script for stages like that,
then you would expect it to read as follows.
Breakaway goes early.
- Tick.
- Breakaway splits up because the day's so hard.
- Tick.
- Last man standing gets caught on the final climb,
and then trails in the wake of the GC battle.
- Generally, tick.
But it didn't happen that way.
- No.
- But we must remember, Jan Polanc has soloed
to victory in the Giro D'Italia before.
Very, very strong, underrated rider.
But what you have to look at is that brutal headwind
on Etna as well, and he still managed
to stay away from a quite a big group
of about 20 riders containing all of the GC guys.
But just take a look at these stats here.
This is Dario Cataldo from Astana's power stats,
and also Michael Woods of Canada.
358 watts for Woods, and three,
I think it's 368 for Cataldo.
- Well, that's 385.
- 385, sorry.
But what must Polanc have been putting out?
I'm mightily impressed, a really brave,
tenacious ride by him.
I was actually outside the Team Sky bus,
and I could hear some really
complimentary comments coming out.
I think it was Dave Brailsford saying
that is just a brave, brave ride from Polanc.
And he rode himself into the mountain jersey as well.
- Yeah, I was really surprised.
You know, 'cause I saw that big bunch finish,
and I was like, you know,
it was a head wind so it must have been
pretty cruisey in the group, and no one could attack.
And then you see those power numbers,
6 watts per kilo, to sit in a group, you know, those guys
were all working super hard on that climb, so yeah.
Fair play, Polanc. - I'm gonna doff my cap again.
- Got it. - Imaginary doff.
That's four doffs.
- Right then, we've got 12 stages to go, it feels like
the Giro is almost just getting going now, isn't it?
With the battling to come in the mountains.
Make sure you let us know what you think
in the conversation down below, particularly about
the whole "should you wait, shouldn't you" situation.
- I think that's gonna run a run,
it's definitely one worth talking about, isn't it?
And debating.
- Exactly, that's right.
And then, in the meantime, do make sure you subscribe to
GCN first so you don't miss any more of live Giro content.
We've got loads still to come.
And then, if you fancy some more,
click just down there and we've got
Matt showing you around the Bahrain-Merida team bus.
- We have, and also if you click just down here,
we've got Lasty looking at some of the top bits
of tech from this year's Giro D'Italia.
- Some good tech.
- There is some great tech.
Lot of pink stuff.