🇸🇮 @rogla wins stage 2️⃣0️⃣of the Giro d’Italia!🥇 🇸🇮 @rogla vince la tappa 2️⃣0️⃣ del Giro d’Italia! 🥇 #Giro #GirodItalia @LeFrecce @JumboVismaRoad
Primoz Roglic survives late mechanical to win stage 20 and take the Maglia Rosa at the Giro d'Italia
CyclingSaturday, 27 May 2023 at 18:00
On a decisive day at the Giro d'Italia it was Primoz Roglic who took the stage win and moved into the Maglia Rosa despite a late mechanical on a thrilling stage.
Stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia will be the final day for the overall classification contenders. It is likely to be within the distance of 11 kilometres with a flat first half, and a brutal second half. In total, there are 18.6 kilometres, but don't be mistaken all riders will take it conservatively early on, and with a bike chance expected at the base of the final climb.
With space at the top of the mountain tight and riders only being allowed down in cable cars, the day's stage was split up into three different groups. From the first batch of riders it was Thibault Guernalec (Team Arkéa Samsic) who laid down a benchmark for the rest to follow with his time of 48:35 being 1:41 better than his nearest rival, Stephen Williams of Israel - Premier Tech.
When the second batch of riders made their time-trial efforts, numerous riders improved upon the time of Guernalec including some of the stars of the 2023 Giro d'Italia including Ben Healy, Michael Matthews and Thomas Champion.
21-year-old American rider, Matthew Riccitello however, absolutely ripped those times apart. Clocking a time of 46:19 he moved into the hotseat.
When the third batch of riders took to the course, the main GC riders and as such theoretically the best climbers, Jay Vine was the first rider to beat the time over Riccitello by just three seconds.
Vine's teammate Brandon McNulty then went even better. The American posting a brilliant time of 45:30.
Sepp Kuss ensured his fellow American couldn't get too comfortable in the hotseat though, with the Jumbo-Visma super-domestique edging quicker by just two seconds with his time of 45:28.
With each of Almeida, Roglic and Thomas safely through the bike change it was all up to this final, brutal ascent of the Monte Lussari.
At the first time check, Roglic was the quickest but Thomas, just two seconds slower was still in the best position overall.
Thibaut Pinot then went 6 seconds quicker than Kuss, in what must go down as one of the rides of his career which is set to come to an end at the conclusion of this season.
At the second intermediate check, Thomas's deficit had grown to 16 seconds.
Then nightmare struck for Roglic as he got had a mechanical at the worst possible time. Riding straight through a pothole the Slovenian saw his chain drop out.
Both Caruso and Almeida improved on Pinot's time before Roglic, mechanical and all moved into the lead of the stage by a massive 42 seconds.
Then the clock began to tick back to Geraint Thomas. At the last intermediate check, Thomas was 29 seconds down and the Giro was fading away from the Welshman.
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
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- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
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- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024