Afternoon Giro - The one and only

[gaurain rx]

Considering Corona situation was surely similar in Italy as in Belgian, 9 Feiting Siebing already decided to ride the Giro starting on 9th May in Hungary (if they can cross the border, not sure Viktor allows anybody to do that without kneeling at his feet).

Anyway, 9 warriors, but 11 of my guys seems really decided to fight for a Giro spot. Here are the 5 locked (the word of the year) spots

1. Jeroen DeRoy : 22 years old, young sprinter (he's so known that I had to doublecheck his name). He will be our only leader in any case, the rider the team will be devoted to;
2. Maarten Vangramberen : 30 yo, 60-80+, Paris-Roubaix winner. He will mainly be there to help DeRoy to reach the finish line on p.1 but he might get his shot at the end of some hilly moutain stages. For the rest, all he'll have to do is to follow grupetto's tempo;
3. Jonathan Bouckhaert : 32 yo, another 60+-80+ but with less + after the 80. Excellent reg, the best in our team so he'll be the guy who'll ride a lot and who will be really often in early breakaways;
4. Achille Gourdin : 31 yo, 49-88 : His dowwhill will be a real asset to get sprints, also his flatskill his scary. He has a good reg so he will be able to ride lots of km in the crucial part of flatstage. In the other stages --> Grupetto (or Grupetti if there are more than one);
5. Gaston Lambot : 23 yo, 56-79 at the moment : He earned his place by training quite hard in April. Not the most talented guy, not a lot of reg but he can protect quite correctly a leader and his downhill his an asset.

4 spots left, and there begins the big fight :

1. Theophane Barreau : He sacrificied his own chances during TDF last year, I don't remember if he rode GIro 2019 (but I guess he did and that he played a key role during a Big Big DOnkey's attack (or was it during TDF)). Anyway, the guy will be 36 yo at the start of the Giro but he didn't downtrain yet in moutain and his flat and downhill skills are still quite ok. He told everybody in the team that he was confident that he can keep his shape till the Etna stage.. but is it enough to deserve a Giro spot? And by the way, the team is way too weak to provide him any help. So chances at the moment like 25%, maybe even less;
2. Georges Prieur : 35 yo at the start, 60-80 with good downhill and ok reg, normally he'll be in, like 80% sure;
3. Julien Liboton, 22 yo, 59-77 at the moment. Developping well, having such a rider is an asset in the team. The only problem is that I already have tons of 60-80 and that the guy has no downhill, neither reg; so 50% for him;
4. Lukas Jung : He's been leader and coleader in so many races that he would be odd not to bring him there... Only problem is that he'll turn 36 and that his shape is getting worse day after day. Actually, he could be a good leadeout for DeRoy and also be helpfull on flat section, but I'm not convinced he won't downtrain too much to be like a pain in the ass. Chances like 40%;
5. NoName 1 : New climber, future star of his generation with 73-54-79 and some reg 52. Actually, he has many qualities I'd like to bring in my team..; Usefull on flat stage with some slopes to pull DeRoy up and downhill (ok, Barreau can do that also, maybe even more efficiently) and he'll improve during the race... So, i'm really tempted: Chances : 70%
6. Noname 2 :

Out of contest :

Guillaume Prévois : Hard call for our star sprinter but DeRoy is gready and Blackmailed the boss to be certain to have no opponents amongst the team;

[Robyklebt]

2. Maarten Vangramberen : 30 yo, 60-80+, Paris-Roubaix winner. He will mainly be there to help DeRoy to reach the finish line on p.1 but he might get his shot at the end of some hilly moutain stages. For the rest, all he'll have to do is to follow grupetto's tempo;

Even without checking I know you got the wrong name

[Robyklebt]

Big Donkey here too.

With the same team as every year. His classic 2-2-2. 2 climbers, 2 classics, 2 60-80. And the rest filled with flat and a sprinter if it fits.

1 F. Antinori 88 climber, the leader
2 T. Armas 76-80, little downhill, 50 reg. The super classic.
3 H. Belhassen 71-80-72 the second classic
4 T. Bogarin: 61 mountain 76 sprint. Win a sprint the goal, for the rest placements ok. And help in mountains, hills.
5 A. Brotcorne 54-87, 37 reg. The flat rider to get early escapes we don't like.
6 F. Krankl 62-82-77, 51 reg. A classic Big Donkey 60-80
7 J. Larios: 87-52, 41 reg. The last helper for Antinori
8 A. Nägele: 63-82-77, 45 reg. Reg a bit low, for the rest nice.
9 O. Swift 50-83, 50 reg 24 next month, so still could improve a bit in flat.

So my usual team, happy and unhappy about this years version. Twice happy and unhappy.
Happy, 88 climber, 76-80 classic, 2 good 60-80.
Unhappy: I lack some reg for a 88 climber maybe. Swift 50 ok, Armas 50 is in the wrong place, the combination Krankl-Nägele lacks a few reg points. 37 Brotcorne 39 Bogarin, 41 Larios-Belhassen
Unhappy 2: I'm too good, too expensive. Money no problem, even if I earn 0 every day I should still have money left.... But the team in general is just a bit too good, again. Good teams make for bad races, more weaknesses in the different teams make for better, more interesting, exciting races. I had planned to start weaker this year, but well, somehow didn't think the plan through well enough, since the supporting cast seems similar to past years. But well, at least Larios clearly has weaknesses with his reg. So at least I'm going in the right direction.
Happy 2: I do have some weaknesses, reg mostly. No idea what the group will be like, but with 88 mountain I will start as one of the favorites or at minimum strong challengers anyway. In either case a team with at least some weakness is nicer for the race than something too strong.
Need to start planning how to weaken my team for next year now... .change the holy principle, 2-2-2??? 2-1-3?

[team fl]

Afternoon Giro without FL? No way! The team management will try everything to be as active as possible, although it will face some problems achieving this goal. Anyway, the following rides have been selected to represent the Liechtenstein cycling team at the most important GT of the year:

x1 Arthur Arpagaus
x2 Oystein Eikeland / or Sean Murphy
x3 Halvor Haugen
x4 Hieronymus Hilti
x5 Nicolas LeGoff
x6 Jose Lluis
x7 Lorenz Looser
x8 Nicola Nicoli
x9 Eduardo Spohr

Goals as usual: Win everyth... oh wait... a message is coming in.. ah... oh... ehm... okay... well... have fun look cool? ok. cool cool cool.... ufff...

[Pokemon Club]

Coronavirus push me to the afternoon for one time. No climbers I'll be here for sprint and mountain jersey.

x1 Mathieu Pincemail 70-78-77-73-63 62 reg. RVV winner, let's target some stage and GPM
x2 Iulian Cristea 61-85-72 64 sp 64 reg. Maybe one or 2 chance for him too
x3 Hadleigh Davies 66-87 81 paves. Let's hope he won't downtrain too much
x4 Darwin Machis 72-81 53 reg. Downtrain is coming too.
x5 Ricardo Milos 87 flat 46 reg. Good for tempo and for memes only.
x6 Nana Mizuki 87 flat. Good for tempo but less for memes.
x7 JeanPierre Polnareff 82 flat 53 reg. Less good for tempo.
x8 Sky Walker 87 flat 57 reg. Good for doing a lot of tempo
x9 Hannes Weber 50-63 89 sprint. The unknown sprinter, first time I see this guy on my team.

x10 Hironobu Kageyama 67-74-74-81-77. There is a doubt for him. Maybe, maybe he will take the place of Davies.

[Falkenbier]

Falkenbier will participate in the afternoon, once more! Again without a climber (maybe we should buy one for next year...). So the team will support Tuttobene for some sprints at his home race. Following riders are in the lineup:

x1 Giorgio Tuttobene - Il capitano!
x2 Gylfi Bjarnason - The Iceman!
x3 Shay Hourihane - The Irish boy!
x4 Bruce Manatawai - The Playboy!
x5 Jaden McKenzie - The Caribbean!
x6 Cyril Rümbeli - The Swiss Watch!
x7 Ladislav Tatar - The Blocker!
x8 Dmitry Volodko - The Champ!
x9 HyunMin Yoo - The Insane!


Little chance for Livio Caprez to take the place of Bjarnason (depends on the training results...)

[cataracs]

The American sponsor with the most valuable rider will be here to prepare for TDF, unless pokemons will pull Torres for the Rosa.
x1 Javier Torres
x2 Michael Adams
x3 James Ball
x4 Abdelaziz Bouteflika
x5 Miro Lenarcic
x6 Christopher Miller
x7 Michael Smith
x8 Robert Wilson
x9 Andrew Wilson

[Robyklebt]

2 hours to go, 15 teams. Good good, hope for 2+3 more. And no last minute cancellations (or last 2 hours cancellations)

[Gipfelstuermer]

Gip joins the party with an "oldie but goldie"-Team! 3 riders are even going to ride their second Giro d'Italia! Matti, JJ and Edvin with their second appearance in this beautiful race!

Finding the team for 2020 was not easy. Already early this year, we had to decide, if we go for GC or not. Buying a mountain rider in January would have been an option to ride for maglia bianca, but we did not have too much money and we found it not perfect to buy a GC rider in January, who reaches his best time in off-season... So we decided: no GC-rider.

Instead, we build a team around our superstar JJ, although his downtraining clearly weakened him and there are many - on paper - stronger hill sprinters out there right now. Building a team for JJ meant to sell his former Norwegian superstar helpers Sigurd SANDVIK and Ole OVERBY ahead of the Giro. As much as we liked these two riders, with 38 years of age, another Giro would have been too hard for them.

Downtraining also meant, that we had to be smart in anticipating JJ's future skills. Coming from 72 mountain, 83 sprint, you cannot know where you are at 36 years. Still 72-83? 72-75? 65-83? 65-72? Nobody has a crystal ball...Do you need strong classics, or do you need strong 60-80's? We were afraid that JJ cannot keep his 72 mountain. He is still at 71, but seeing classics at 75+ mountain, it was smarter to opt for 60-80's who can support JJ on slightly hilly stages, but admittedly not on very hilly stages. In addition, we hired Bastien BOULANGER to create a better train for JJ in flat stages. It's not really a train for winning a mass sprint, but maybe for some good placements for JJ in mass sprints, in order to increase his eternal points.

So the complete team looks like this:

x1 Theo THORNQUIST........... (28y) 74-80-68-48-64sp, 77pavè, 52reg
x2 Quirin QUATHAMMER........ (26y) 71-78-69-53-63sp, 77pavè, 39reg
x3 Jacob JEFFERSON............ (36y) 71-61-62-44-81sp, 56pavè, 45reg
x4 Bastien BOULANGER......... (24y) 62-66-71-51-75sp, 62pavè, 44reg
x5 Boas BERGSTEINSSON........ (30y) 60-86-67-50-55sp, 77pavè, 55reg
x6 Edvin EINARSSON............. (34y) 60-85-77-49-59sp, 82pavè, 61reg
x7 Adrian ARVIDSSON............ (29y) 59-87-60-50-59sp, 85pavè, 51reg
x8 Chris COOPER................. (27y) 58-87-66-46-44sp, 83pavè, 39reg
x9 Matti MYYRY................... (38y) 52-80-71-42-41sp, 69pavè, 57reg

Strengths:
- Experience! Average age is 30.2 and we have 3 riders riding their 4th GT! That should help versus all the youngstars from other teams!
- Nordic Quintet! Matti, Adrian, Boas, Edvin and Theo, all with nice attacker skills and 50+ reg! We expect them to create some action during the 3 weeks!
- Maglia ciclamino! JJ is still sleeping in the 2019 maglia ciclamino every night. Well, actually rotating between maglia ciclamino, maillot vert and maillot jaune (even though he was wearing maillot jaune only one day at Le Tour 2019). Hopefully that will bring him some luck!

Weaknesses:
- No Climber! Team Gip with no climber? Tough thing to start the race without a climber with so many climber stages and mountain finishes.
- Downtraining! To be expected for Matti, JJ and Edvin. It will make stage hunting more difficult.
- All the hill sprinters! Seeing JJ success, many teams tried to create hill sprinters to follow in his footsteps. Some hillsprinters exist with insane training but some got kicked out by their managers as they see how difficult racing is with such guys in the team! Imagine guys like Aebi, Rodrygo, Pichler and Vandierendonck just got kicked out of their teams! But some strong hill sprinters might make it into the Giro 2020! Kageyama? Bogarin? Who else? Could be very strong opponents. So let's see!

[gaurain rx]

So well, let's be faster than Fl' for once and publish the famous fav' check

General classement

***** Lutz Neumann (Team-Mojabahs)
****
*** Fabio Antinori (Big Donkey)
** Pascal Heuer (Team-Mojabahs), Javier Larios (Big Donkey)
* Sascha Agarok (Luques), Muchel Kafando (Sangiu ProTeam)

Even if this Giro is not that montainous imo, Climbers are clearly favorite ... Here is a field with really few climbers so it limit the numbers of contenders and maybe it will make move more difficults.

Lutz Neumann clearly the top favorite. Best climber, best TT amongst them, good reg and a quite consistent team with a lot of reg too. The Duo Antinori/Larios from Big Donkey looks like the biggest threat, with Antinori as leader cause of better skills (Mountain, reg). All in all, this looks like a 2 managers fight but maybe some outsiders (Agarok, Kafando, Barreau, Bernal) could take advantage of it but the teams of these different riders are way weaker when the road will rise up.

Points classement

*** Jacob Jefferson (Gipfelstuerner), Hironobu Kageyama (Pokemonogatari)
** Giorgio Tuttobene (Falkenbier), Aduardo Spohr (Team Fl), Hannes Weber (Pokemonogatari)
* Tyrone Marshall (Aixteam), Sergey Blud (Luques)

A tricky classification to predict here but I give a shot to Jacob and Hironobu. 6 sprinters between 89 and 92, so it's highly unlikely that the same sprinter will win every stage. Jacob will probably score good points on those stage and there are some middle moutain stages and flat stages who suits him and his team (tomorrow for example). He has also good helpers for the sprints. Hironobu will surely do the same (but maybe he'll be committed to pull Weber in the sprints) and he can also score point during the 3 time trials...

Behind those 2, Tuttobene, the best sprinter in this field and Italian rider, Spohr, with good support riders, and Weber, also with good train have there shot too if we get a maximum of flat sprints in this race.

Philipp Stoneman (Team Hainaut), even if he has a quite good leadout train, doesn't look strong enough to survive durng some crucial stages.

Mountain classement

*** A climber
** the one who wants it
* a suprise rider

Imo, a climber is favorite of this classification. As far as I remember, Big Donkey is "happy" if a climber wins a mountain jersey in a GT instead of a 60-70 mountain rider who attacks everyday... Which climber then, I have no clue

Youth classement

*** Marco Fumari (Sangju ProTeam)
** Djibril Sow (Hessen Cycling)
* Van Baas (PG Force)

Fumari should win this classication but that's not so clear as rock water... Sow with 10 more TT points, he is more likely to train moutain than Fumari and Fumari might be often an helper for Kafando on moutain stages. So, it doesn't look that straightforward.

Team classement

*** Team Majobahs, Big Donkey
**
* Anybody

The teams with 2 climbers probably favorites here.. also depends if we have a lot of early winning escapes with a big gap... But still, no other teams can compete with those when the pourcentage will increase.

[Robyklebt]

Donkey is developing plans to beat Neumann. So far he has come up with plan C. A&B still in works. 58 TT for Neumann makes this all rather complicated. 90 mountain doesn't help either, but 58 TT bothers me more.

Most difficult thing is the possible Neumann effect, not sure if it is because of him or just by chance, but having few other challengers allows Mojabahs to concentrate on the Donkeys, would have looked more open with more guys for TT. Ideally somebody with 85 mountain and 65 TT, something like that.

[Monaco92]

Ehi, Sangiu speaks here

How much Fumari probably will lose in the 33km TT ?

Obviously i'm here at 15 Giro for the Corona emergency... Anyway i'll play after dinner

[gaurain rx]

So, Stage 2 report... I skip stage 1, TT, a Falkenbier rider winning, nothing surprising considering the TT value gap between n°1 and n°2.

Early break with Sport and Xtc, chased by Aix and Sangiu... All those guys fighting for red, or at least the first 3 teams. Gobert from Aixteam winning the KOM with an impressive charge at km 18. Pokemon siebing on the last 7 ofthe first climb but everything cameback alltogether easilly, excepting Gobert hanging in front. Sangiu then attacked, followed by Feiting and then Big Donkey. It lead toa 7 riders breakaway well controlled by the Poke army during more than 100 kms... Gap was never over 2'30 but the leaders in front were still "fresh" at 50km from the finish. FL and Falkenbier joined in the back, the collaboration in the front group was fine. Surprisingly to me no big sieb on the last 7 at 26kms from the finish, only 2 sprinters were dropped. Falkenbier and FL riding well together then, and controlling easilly a late attack from Gipfelstuerner.

Fl with the only relevant train in the sprint, Falke quite far in the back of the line. Marshall from Aix looks like seezing the win by going at 150m but he surprisingly decided to slow down and get back in the wheel of Weber from Pokemon. SPohr from FL launched from the front at 100m... Weber tried a late jump at 50m but came a bit too short to overtake Spohr.

Fl and Falke with 1 win each... The usual canon fodder are taking over!

[team fl]

Thanks for the favourite check and stage 1 and 2 review. And I support this:

Fl and Falke with 1 win each... The usual canon fodder are taking over!

. Team FL is happy to have a stage win in the pocket. But of course, the more, the merrier!

[Gipfelstuermer]

Didn't have much time so far, maybe also a reason for the poor performance of the team, playing via app or puffin...

But wanted to make sure we have some nice statistics so starting:

Days in maglia rosa by riders:
3 - Cyril Rümbeli (Falkenbier)

Days in maglia rosa by teams:
3 - Falkenbier

Stage wins by riders:
1 - Cyril Rümbeli (Falkenbier)
1 - Eduardo Spohr (Team FL)
1 - Hannes Weber (Pokemonogatari)

Stage wins by teams:
1 - Falkenbier
1 - Team FL
1 - Pokemonogatari

Will write something about the stories behind it later... or maybe even about favo check... for now just making sure we have the stats. Feel free to add statistics or help counting.

[Robyklebt]

4 stages 4 different winners. Didn't expect Barreau on a 5 to get away really, but ok for me, would have been happy with the group going through too. Ok, in retrospect with another sprint.. who knows, but all ok. Except that now Larios who didn't have a helper for the second part of the stage and still ended up being the best Donkey demands the leadership.

[Monaco92]

I have a question for everyone of you (If you want to answer here or you can send me a private message)ù

How much time Fumari will lose in the 33km of TT and in 16km of TT?

There's 11 points of TT of difference... Thanks ^^

[Robyklebt]

Donkey-domination!

All riders with points. First team? Didn't check all... but let's assume I'm the first, had to wait for Antinori, lazy fucker.

Otherwise the expected Barreau win. For a second was salivating about a possible Larios win, don't use him to protect Antinori but try with him. Well, that dream was over a km later when Larios on a 3 followed a pointless attack...But oh well.. .so back to protecting Fabio, that didn't work too well either 7" lost. Should have attacked with them both after all, probably lose less time... Thought Larios keeps it closer, but forgot about the attacking power own attack loses less. But still 7" resp. 6" to Neumann is a bit worrying. But ok, it's seconds. 12" lost today, not tragic in the end.

[gaurain rx]

Stage 3

Totally flat, early attack with sport and Sangiu and some xc maybe, interested to get the GPM around km 70, some dropped after that. Then Krankl and Nägele from Big Donkey, there should have been some guy left in front, Falkenbier and FL easilly controlling in the peloton, then Van looy and Gourdin from FS attacked around 25 km from the finish followed by 1 Aix, Davies from pokemon and 1 Mosca (off).. So not the best partners to have collaboration. Gipfel and Team Hainaut joined the chase in the pelotonand caught that group like 10km from the finish. In the bunch sprint, nobody followed pokemons train and Hannes Weber from Pokemon won easilly. Jacob Jefferson took big points for Ciclamo,other sprinters finish quite far behind... The 3rd half timein the chat was a bit orageous.

Stage 4

Early breakaway with more than 10 riders which was not the likes of Armand Brotcorne from Big Donkey. The breakaway was caught and finally, 8 riders were able to get away with some Aix, Fl, Pokemon, Sangiu... In the back, FS controlled, joined after a while by Sport in a wild chased, Gipfel and Moja joining later. Breakaway was still 1'20 ahead at the foot of the last 4 km climb. Moja blocked every attack there with Pascal Heuer and then Lutz Neuman but Theophane Barreau from FS was able to achieve a decisive attack in the last km of the climb, winning 2 seconds ahead of the other cimbers and the strong classics. Hironobu Kageyama from pokemon took over the lead in the general classification.

Stage 5

Etna stage, first moutain finish of the Giro. After the sprint at km 14, an early breakaway of 9 riders went with nobody dangerous in the Gc. With a gap of 11', Moja and FS began to ride but after 10-20 kms or so Moja continued to chase alone. The guys in front fought hard, the tempo in the peloton was also fast and the breakaway arrived at the foot of the final climb with around 8' gap. The first kms of the climb were rode by the 2 Moja classics in the peloton. Then Marco Fumari from Sangiu took over. At km144, Fabio Antinori (Big Donkey) attacked followed by the gc Favorite Lutz Neumann (Moja) and Theophane Barreau (FS) but the 3 of them didn't cooperate and were caught by an elite group with the rest of the climbers. Nairo Bernal (Sport) tried his shot at km 147 followed by the rest of the climbers (Larios, Kufando, Heuer, Agarok).. they took a 4 seconds lead but Theophane Barreau did the job to catch them. On the last km, Barreau and Neumann attacked from the group and landed respectively 7 and 6 seconds of the other climbers. Sasha Agarok was again the strongest in the sprint of the climbers group for third place. Lutz Neumann takes the Rosa jersey as the final climb was too hard for Hironobu Kageyama.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Stage 6
First stage that Gip tried something with a sieb of the sprinters. Big Donkey helped in front for Bogarin, but with 2 teams vs. 4 teams chasing over 70km and starting with only 24'' it was just impossible. Poke (for Kageyama) and Feiting (for VanLooy) could have decided differently, but they preferred to go for their sprinters Weber and DeRoy. So sprinters came back easily. Then only Poke with a train but Tuttobene now too strong for everybody else. 92 sprint is a weapon vs. Weber and Spohr with 89 sprint now. It will be interesting to see how they continue as Poke and FL have the best sprint trains, but Falkenbier has the best sprinter. But tomorrow is not for sprinters, another day for climbers instead!

Statistics below:

Days in maglia rosa by riders:
3 - Cyril Rümbeli (Falkenbier)
2 - Lutz Neumann (Team-Mojabahs)
1 - Hironobu Kageyama (Pokemonogatari)

Days in maglia rosa by teams:
3 - Falkenbier
2 - Team-Mojabahs
1 - Pokemonogatari

Stage wins by riders:
2 - Theophane Barreau (Feiting Siebing)
1 - Cyril Rümbeli (Falkenbier)
1 - Eduardo Spohr (Team FL)
1 - Hannes Weber (Pokemonogatari)
1 - Giorgio Tuttobene (Falkenbier)

Stage wins by teams:
2 - Falkenbier
2 - Feiting Siebing
1 - Team FL
1 - Pokemonogatari

[Robyklebt]

First week over, as feared the Donkey winless. Even if actually had some chances for stages after all, just never worked. Hopefully second week better. But goal no 1 still the GC win of course. Plan C is under way, still working on A and B, so nothing changed.

Pincemail with 3'30" advantage, but will never be enough, he needs at least another escape. Even if he will win more time in the TTs. Antinori 34" behind Neumann is more or less where expected, lost less than predicted in the prologue, then far from perfect at the Etna. Big appointments next week of course first the TT then Piancavallo. Before that sprint on Wednesday and 3 middle mountain stages where of course everybody will have to pay attention to the GC too.

Sprints so far open, Spohr twice, Weber and Tuttobene once each. Today in a restricted sprint finally Jefferson, he took his second chance, good job. For ciclamino still doesn't look too easy, he loses quite a lot in the MS normally. Bogarin actually did well enough so far, 9th, 6th, 7th and 12th. Today not in the first group, but would have been difficult anyway, Nägele unfit and Krankl most likely not enough to come back. Yes, Prepelita with 62-84 did, but nobody had interest in not letting him back. If Bogarin is with him (possible, Bogarin Krankl chasing), neither Pokemon nor Gipfel have interest in letting Bogarin back... what for, another pretendent. Anyway, Ciclamino looks interesting so far, Weber+Spohr 148 points, Tuttobene 146, next Jefferson with 114. It's between these 4. Only 2 sprints left, 4 middle mountain stages, not sure on how many Jefferson can sprint for the win actually, we'll see. The intermediates, even if only 6 points might be important here between those 4.

Mountain jersey, Barreau has it, Gobert wants it. If Barreau decides to go for it, IMO he should get it without to many problems. Stage 17-18-20 he can collect lots of points. Give up GC, yeah, but nobody thinks he will be in the top 3 at the end anyway, why not control Gobert a bit, not let him go daily for the cat 2+3s, and then go for the kill on those 3 stages.

Youth, Bjarnason-Sow-Fumari. Normally will be pretty automatically Fumari. He'll lose time in the TT, but gain in the mountains.

Team classification: Finally a highlight for the Donkeys, number 1! Who cares...

GC, Still Neumann in control.
Barreau 5" back, but with age, little team support, little reg and probably other goals he will fall back.
Agarok 14" back, closer than expected really, good Giro so far. He has reg, but not the team, but still more dangerous than Barreau I think.
Bernal: 20" back, but only 84 mountain, he is not really a danger either, more in the podium fight, hoping to hang on.
Antinori 34" back as mentioned before, danger man number 1! In theory.. .will be closely watched by Neumann, but with 2 more mountain and 9 more TT he doesn't need to worry too much at this point. But the team is there for the Donkey, and he will try. Whenever he figures out plan A and B.
Kafando: 35" back, IMO the second danger man on paper, 57 TT, second climber with Fumari. Problem is little reg, 42 and Fumari for white.
Larios 59" back, no reg, nominally number 2 in the team, but still has to be observed, since he's part of the Donkey package.
Heuer 1' back. He's probably the Larios watcher. Similar rider, with 16 more reg. So can watch Larios closely, or can chase him if Larios ever tries something.

Pincemail, as I said, doubt the 3'30" he has on Neumann is enough. 49 km TT left, let's make it 50, 16 more TT, let's make it 15, that means he gains another roughly 3'45". With 7'15"... stages 15-18-20 normally are more than enough to win that back, if Moja goes for it (and exposes himself to Donkey attacks, plan C is good dammit). So expect Pincemail to try again at some point, thought Cesenatico looked predestined for that, but looking at it again.... Jefferson seems even more predestined to try there. Will see, pretty sure Pincemail will try again, he has to, if he wants plan C to work. Which he probably doesn't, he's more into his own plan I guess.

Anyway, Big Donkey still thinking and planning, first GC, next how to win a stage... from stage 19 on I will start riding for the team classification probably.

[gaurain rx]

FIrst of all, stage review

Stage 7

Gipfel going hard from start, Jefferson really hot for the intermediate sprint after 15-20 kms or so... Lots of riders in the back, Rousseau (Feiting) saving Linval (Aix) from droping out of the race... All riders get back in the main bunch but in the meantime a big group get away from the peloton with 4 Aix- Gobert, 4 Poke - Pincemail, some Feiting, Sangju, Falke, Sport, Hessen, Xc, Donkey ... Moja decided to allow the group 9-10' or so! There was a bit of trouble with grupetto forming at the back but everybody was quite nice I have to say. In front, Poke and Aix had a great collaboration, one going for Rosa, the other for moutain jersey. Moja continued the ride hard in the back but the gap wasn't going down easilly. At the foot of the last climb, it was clear that one guy of the group would go for the win. Pincemail attacked followed by Gobert and Belhassen (Big Donkey). Those 3 guys collaborated well during 20kms and increased their gap with the rest of the group even if Sangju, Falke, Feiting and Sport tried their best to comeback together. On the last km of the climb, Gobert tried his shot and oppened a small gap of 4 seconds. Pincemail rode hard in the downhill, Belhassen helped him on the last 2-3 kms but they were never able to catch Gobert back. In the main peloton, Moja controlled the climb even if Sangju tried an attack. Larios (Big Donkey) waited for his teammate Armas but that didn't look as a good choice as they lost 30" to the main group of 5 climbers. Pincemail took rosa with a 3' gap on Lutz Neumann, the Gc favorite.

Stage 8

Early escape of 4 guys (Xc, Donkey, Pg Force, Feiting) ... They got a 12' gap and then they were always under controll. Poke, Falke and Fl rode in the back mainly, Luques and Hainaut did a bit of work too. 13kms for the finish VanLooy and Gourdin followed by the maglia rosa, one Sport rider and one Mosca rider (which boters me a lot cause that guy will always slowdown my attacks). The F' crew reacted well and caught the group 3km before the finish line. The sprint was a bit chaotic. Weber going for the Gipfel train, Fl doing his own with Tuttobene in Spohr's wheel and Marshall in the wheel of Hainaut's train. XC went for a 2 guys train and Darragh, the home sprinter, almost created a huge surprise by going at 300m, he was only caught in the last 50m by Spohr of Team Fl

Stage 9

It took several kilometers for the early escape to manage to get away from the peloton controlled by GIpfel and Poke. 2 Falkenbier, 2 Aix, 2 Feiting and one XC. The collaboration was quite good in the group but Gipfel/Poke never allowed more than 5'30 to the group. Gipfel showed his strength in the cat 2 climb of the day reducing drastically the gap to 3'. Big Donkey joined him with his sprinter Bogarin. At 17kms from the finish VanLooy (again) and Bouckhaert tried their chances but only got a small gap of 10 seconds before the last hill.There, some climbers siebed and Tulio Armas landed 1 second ahead of Volodko (Falke) and Thornqvist (Gipfel)... But the front group got caugth by a strong effort of Davies (Poke) and Prepelita (Moja).. A sprint for classics with the GIpfel train showing his strength ... Poke tried a move at 300m from the finish, but Jacob Jefferson countered that one by going early (200m). Pincemail (poke) took the wheel but was never able to overtake Jacob.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Excellent summary by gaurain for stages 8 and 9. We are very pleased with JJ's stage win of course! It was a big challenge because Falkenbier and Feiting set some terrible attacks ahead of the rest day. Without good coop from poke and some help by GC favos, impossible to win here. But we got the deserved win. Giro stage win #3, Grand Tours stage win #9 and race win #55 for JJ!

Summary of Stage 7 still missing though. I could only follow by app so not in a position to write details but certainly a relevant stage for GC which deserves more story telling! Maybe somebody has time to write about it during the well deserved restday?

Another interesting story is the fight for maglia ciclamino. Spohr (148), Weber (148) and Tuttobene (146) with a tough fight. JJ with 116 points following but realistically tiny chances for him. 4 hilly stages (10, 12, 13, 16) and 2 flat stages (11,19) coming but not all the hilly stages naturally look like hill sprints... and one more down training coming for JJ.... mmmmh, tiny chances but at least he is still in the race for his 2nd ciclamino!

On the other stats, Neumann couldn't protect rosa for very long but of course he only needs to wear it in Milan. Good thing to have 6 of 16 teams successful as stage winners so far. Should keep everyone engaged and optimistic.

Days in maglia rosa by riders:
3 - Cyril Rümbeli (Falkenbier)
2 - Lutz Neumann (Team-Mojabahs)
2 - Mathieu Pincemail (Pokemonogatari)
1 - Hironobu Kageyama (Pokemonogatari)

Days in maglia rosa by teams:
3 - Falkenbier
3 - Pokemonogatari
2 - Team-Mojabahs

Stage wins by riders:
2 - Theophane Barreau (Feiting Siebing)
2 - Eduardo Spohr (Team FL)
1 - Cyril Rümbeli (Falkenbier)
1 - Hannes Weber (Pokemonogatari)
1 - Giorgio Tuttobene (Falkenbier)
1 - Rudy Gobert (Aixteam)
1 - Jacob Jefferson (Gipfelstuermer)

Stage wins by teams:
2 - Falkenbier
2 - Feiting Siebing
2 - Team FL
1 - Pokemonogatari
1 - Aixteam
1 - Gipfelstuermer

[team fl]

Very nice reviews and summaries. But way too little numbers and statistics .

So here the standings after week 1:

General classement:

01. 00:00 Mathieu Pincemail (Pokemonogatari)
02. 01:00 Rudy Gobert (Aixteam)
03. 01:08 Habib Belhassen (Big Donkey)
04. 01:27 Gylfi Bjarnason (Falkenbier)
05. 02:47 Ludo Dierckxsens (Sport)
06. 03:16 Jonathan Bouckhaert (Feiting Siebing)
07. 03:30 Lutz Neumann (Team-Mojabahs)
08. 03:35 Théophane Barreau (Feiting Siebing)
09. 03:44 Sasha Agarok (Luques)
10. 03:50 Nairo Bernal (Sport)
11. 04:04 Fabio Antinori (Big Donkey)
12. 04:05 Muchel Kaffando (Sangiu ProTeam)
13. 04:29 Javier Larios (Big Donkey)
14. 04:30 Pascal Heuer (Team-Mojabahs)
15. 05:00 Djibril Sow (Hessen Cycling)

Points classement:

148 Hannes Weber (Pokemonogatari)
148 Eduardo Spohr (Team FL)
146 Giorgio Tuttobene (Falkenbier)

Mountain classement:

030 Théophane Barreau (Feiting Siebing)
027 Rudy Gobert (Aixteam)
013 Nairo Bernal (Sport)

Youth classement:

01:27 Gylfi Bjarnason (Falkenbier)
04:53 Djibril Sow (Hessen Cycling)
05:00 Marco Fumari (Sangiu ProTeam)

Team classement:

01. 00:00 Big Donkey
02. 04:41 Sport
03. 05:38 Pokemonogatari

And a special classement, Offliner of the week: Mosca.

[gaurain rx]

Review of my own team :

Negative

DeRoy, really the guy sucked in every sprints so far. We had 4 sprints, he never got the wheel he wanted and never in contention to even get a potential top 3, a real flop so. There are 2-3 more possible sprints before the end of the Giro, I hope he'll do a bit better.

Positive

Barreau : 2 stagewins, excellent, he also was close to maglia rosa and could have get it if I rode better (and I would have defended it on stage 7 actually). Anyway, 2 stagewins is one more than what I expected. He also wears mountain Jersey. So, all in all, the Giro is already a huge success for him. Everything else which comes is a bonus.

VanLooy/Gourdin/Bouckhaert/Prieur/Lambot/Rousseau

All those guy tried something, they were not successfull but so far, they did what the had to, attacking (and riding on stage 4 for Barreau). The duo Gourdin/Barreau did nice moves on flat stages, not successfull yet but I think it can work. Bouckhaert and Prieur quite usefull in early escape and the best stages for them are coming, so, i'm really confident we'll get some success with them in the next stages.

Liboton, nothing to tell about him, he's there, he helps and with his reg, it's already a lot.

For the rest, not a lot to say... No big move happened yet, Etna was ridden quite conservative by every teams, but no stages were really made for those big moves. Moreover, Moja is controlling quite well when he needs to and in almost every stage, there was another manager interested to controll to get the stage. So, I fear next week will be the same and we'll have to wait the last 4-5 stages to see some gc actions.