Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
Manuel Belletti (Ita) EOLO-Kometa
Davide Cimolai (Ita) Israel Start-Up Nation, all at same time
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GIRO D’ITALIA 2021 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE FIVE
Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) Israel Start-Up Nation, 17-57-45
Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix, at 42s
Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar, at 48s
Attila Valter (Hun) Groupama-FDJ, at 1-00
Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, at 1-15
Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana, at 1-24
Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 1-28
Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Education-Nippo, at 1-37
Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education-Nippo, at 1-38
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 1-39
Rest of the race favourites in the GC
14 Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange, at 1-49
16 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, at 1-56
19 Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 2-08
21 Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious, at 2-12
22 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, at 2-15
24. Jai Hindley (Aus) Team DSM, at 2-20
26. Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 2-29
30. George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 3-10
38. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 5-38
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GIRO D’ITALIA 2021 POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE FOUR
Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Team Qhubeka-Assos, 72 points
Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain Victorious
Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Ineos Grenadiers
Both race favourites. Landa looking especially good.
The last 5km today was crazily fast and very dangerous.
Caleb Ewan’s sprint was impressively fast and skilful and took nerves of steel and a complete disregard for personal well-being.
Mountain Classification leader and winner of Stage 4:Joe Dombrowski (USA) UAE Team Emirates currently being checked out in hospital to see if he can continue. Not a great 30th birthday present!
Stage 6 underway.
The weather is a bit wet and windy again today. Joe Dombrowski the Mountain Leader Classification leader did not start and so this jersey is up for grabs.
I post this just beyond the halfway point after the summit of the first big climb: so no great spoilers.
There is a breakaway with 5 minutes advantage, this is not enough to be confident it will stay away. The best rider in the breakaway is probably the Dutchman Bauke Mollema. One of the breakaway riders Geoffery Bouchard is now in the (virtual) lead of the Mountains Competition
The Maglia Rosa is likely to change hands too - perhaps to one of the race favourites.
However, the current holder Alessandro De Marchi is a decent climber and in form , so he might be able to defend it - however his (and his team’s) main job is to work for the chances of the ‘Israel Start-Up Nation’ Team Leader, the Irishman Dan Martin.
Plenty can happen on this stage.
Enjoy!!
Cheers
Dave
That collision between team car and bike was a real shocker - looked like two drivers jockeying along the road side by side, filling the road for what - just to hand over a rider’s jacket - with total disregard for the cyclist in front of them. Bizarre.
Absolutely. The second car was the race commissaires car , like you say passing over a jacket to the Team BikeExchange car - which was full of passengers.
The Race Commissaire was not entirely innocent in this.
A Directeur Sportif of Bike Exchange (Gene Bates) has been expelled from the race and Matt White - (who is really the main man) has been fined by…
…the Race Commissaires
Grand Tours are one big bizarre circus!
The poor rider, Pieter Serry, had to withdraw from a previous race this year when struck by a race motorbike.
Fortunately from the incident today he came away relatively unscathed but it could have been very bad.
Cheers
Dave
After the Stage 5 crash Mikel Landa was taken to Riccione Hospital, where he received treatment for a broken collarbone and multiple ribs on his left side. Landa spent the night in the hospital under observation and undergoing further investigation.
Some carnage! Lets hope not the same today.
The route for the last 2km today looks like it has been drawn by a spider again. However it is dry and doesn’t seem too bad up to the 3km to go.
Unfortunately the Overall GC guys are probably going to want to be near the front to avoid splits from all the tight bends on the finish town roads.
There is an argument to neutralise time gaps completely over the last 3km for stages with these super fast flat finishes. Or make them safer and don’t wind the race through the streets. Anyway if the break is caught it is likely to be fast and frantic again. Makes for tense and exciting viewing.
Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
Fernando Gaviria (Col) UAE Team Emirates
Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
Max Kanter (Ger) Team DSM
Filippo Fiorelli (Ita) Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè
Juan Sebastian Molano (Col) UAE Team Emirates, all at same time.
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GIRO D’ITALIA 2021 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE SEVEN
Attila Valter (Hun) Groupama-FDJ, in 26-59-18
Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 11 seconds
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 16s
Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana-Premier Tech, at 24s
Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix, at 25s
Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education-Nippo, at 38s
Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, at 39s
Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, at 41s
Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 47s
Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange, at 49s
Rest of the race favourites in the GC
11 Dani Martínez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 1-06
12 Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar Team, at 1-14
13 Romain Bardet (Fra) Team DSM, at same time
16 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, at 1-43
18. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious, at 2-01
23. Jai Hindley (Aus) Team DSM, at 3-29
26. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 4-49
31. George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 8-55
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Another fantastic stage win for ‘The Pocket Rocket’ Caleb Ewan who also becomes the sprint points leader and will be wearing the Maglia Ciclamino tomorrow
This is a hard course, but not as difficult as tomorrow’s Stage 9, so my guess is the GC guys will be marking each other intently at a controlled pace to save it for tomorrow. They will let a sizeable breakaway of non-threat GC riders go on ahead.
The question remains - who will win the stage?
Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) has abandoned the Giro d’Italia
The Australian, who won stages 5 and 7 during the opening week and was leading the points classification as a result has abandoned during stage 8 due to knee pain.
That’s a real shame - the power he was smashing through his pedals when he won the stage earlier this week was gob smacking - different level from the competition. Hopefully not a serious injury - the teams can be a bit cautious with the Giro which is a brutal Tour - particularly so tomorrow with a gravel paved mountain finish!
Superb 1st grand tour win of Victor Lafay, and France have a new cycling hero!
A slight change in the top ten GC, Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix drops 5 places to 10th so Carthy, Caruso, Ciccone, Martin, and Yates all move up one place respectively.
GIRO D’ITALIA 2021 STAGE EIGHT RESULTS
Victor Lafay (Fra) Cofidis, in 4-06-47
Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Eolo-Kometa, at 36 seconds
Nikia Arndt (Ger) Team DSM, at 37s
Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar, at 41s
Giovanni Carboni (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, at 44s
Kobe Goossens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at 58s
Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Qhubeka-Assos, at 1-00
Alexis Gougeard (Fra) Ag2r-Citroën, at 1-54
Fernando Gaviria (Col) UAE Team Emirates, at 3-04
João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quick-Step, at 4-48
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GIRO D’ITALIA 2021 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE EIGHT
Attila Valter (Hun) Groupama-FDJ, in 31-10-53
Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 11 seconds
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 16s
Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana-Premier Tech, at 24s
Groupama-FDJ [Race leader]
Team Qhubeka-Assos [Points]
Bahrain Victorious [Mountain]
Eolo-Kometa is one of them.
