UKC

Starts this weekend, highlights are on Quest HD (channel 169 on my Virgin box)

S4C on iPlayer, I guess because Geraint Thomas is in it.

Presumably it'll be in Welsh if it's coming via S4C and I think I read it's the main race no highlights or anything, you'll need Eurosport for that. Happy to be corrected though. 

I wonder if I can point my phone at the TV for a live Google translate...

might be an english subtitles or english commentary option.

I hope so. I once had Danish Tour de France coverage. The most I understood was "Rasmussen Rasmussen Oy yoy yoy yoy" which was said a lot.

S4C are pretty good for cycling. Had the tour on too, even though Thomas wasn’t in it (although I expect that meant lower ratings)

Quest channel 12 on Freeview showing giro highlights Saturday evening.

Otherwise free 7 day Eurosport trial on Amazon prime then 7 quid for 1 month to get to end of Vuelta.

Just watched today on S4C.  Somewhat depressing viewing from a UK perspective. 

Does S4C have English commentary on live coverage?

The free trial of Eurosports in Prime is rubbish

I've wondered why riders are so casual discarding bottles when they often bounce back off the kerb or something and straight back into the group.

I don’t think they will be discarding them in the neutralised bit, more likely dropped or bounced out of a cage.

As said above, I guess it was dropped in this case, but yes, they often lob them against walls and things so they bounce back into the bunch which has always struck me as both stupid and incompetent. 

Is Thomas cursed in Italy?  2 attampts at the giro while in strong form, 2 crashes not of his making ruling him out... gutting.

Just Welsh, I'm afraid.

Eurosport player is £20-30 a year depending on offers at the time - well worth it if you watch all 3 grand tours.

As for Yates... it’s only 3 minutes, and the parcours is insane. All over for G though.

Looking at some footage on Twitter, there seemed to be _several_ bottles bouncing around the road at that point.

And the skiing!!! Oh my god, the biathlon! The cross country!!! The 4 hills!!!!! 

Soooo gooooood.

I also like those too, presuming you’re being facetious  

And the classics, Alaphillipe at LBL on Sunday was priceless.

That must have been the strongest LBL line up ever !  Think Alaphilipe might just have got a bit too cocky there, but got to love the guy.

Yates' capitulation there was a real surprise.  He looked empty.  Doesn't bode well  unless there is some short term problem we haven't heard about.

Of course, but it’s hard to watch them when they clash with the grand tours - the latter will always win out for me. Unless it rains in Roubaix of course...

Was very surprising. His team seemed eager to just put it down to a bad day rather than anything else. Will make the rest of the giro interesting for sure, as now G is effectively out Yates has some of the best form by quite a way (presuming he hasn’t gone pop already), and will be forced to attack loads ala 2018. It’s “only” 2.5 minutes between him and Nibali - could be set up for a fairytale. Or of course, nothing.

Have you noticed the highlights show is free to air on Quest?

insane, i call it just plain stupid, do they realise its october?! twice going above 2700m, in late october! there will be several feet of snow by that point! nobody is going to be able to race properly when they are just fighting to survive the elements. and whos clever idea was it to go south to north instead of north to south? makes sense in spring, not autumn! they already changed the grand depart after the reschedule, why not flip the whole course on its head? i know its tradition in grand tours to do all the big climbs in the last week, but how exciting would it have been to completely flip that round?!

Looks like Thomas is out with a hip fracture!

and catchup here: https://www.dplay.co.uk/show/giro-ditalia-highlights

Yes, I may give up on Eurosports on Prime Video. 

Anyone watching Quest highlights and thinking the commentary is terrible?

Yes, and yes. 'It's all happening!" Etc.  etc. etc.

You don't know you're born. I remember when TV cycling consisted on Dickie Davis giving a 3.5 minute round-up of the week's Tour happenings on ITV World of Sport.

Embarassingly terrible. Bring back Sherwen & Liggett. Looking at the size of Wiggo he wouldn't be out of place commenting on a rugby match.

Standard Eurosport, we've all been spoiled by having David Millar on ITV4 during the Tour.

Anyone watching the Quest highlights and thinking that the footage was recorded on secondhand VHS tapes?

Yes - that's another oddity. A further one is the very loud rotor noise in the footage taken from the helicopters. I mean - they just have to mute the microphone a bit to fix that.

I expected all of the technology used in these things to have been sorted out and standardized years ago - but apparently not.

Usually delivered exactly at the moment when it's clearly not all happening

Never mind commentating, he wouldn't look out of place in the match

looks like his asthma has cleared up i never understood why he entered the rowing scene as a heavyweight (>75kg) and doing the sprint (2000m) with his cycling hour record..

Dr Richard Freeman destroyed laptop, hearing told -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/54440592

I don't think his asthma is his biggest worry at the moment. 

That descent on wet twisty roads looked frightening! Glad nobody crashed.

Great finish, very impressive to approach the finish with nobody else visible in the distance.

.

Yeah I thought that too - and only later heard about the two riders taken out by a metal barrier 'blowing'(?) into the road just before the finish!

Ganna does look like the new Big Mig - at least for now. With more TT to come, could he be a good bet for the overall win?

Just watched Ganna's amazing performance. He has just served notice that he will be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. I must admit that before the World's I knew nothing of him, but his ride today will go down in the history books. Admittedly, the peloton won't underestimate him again as they did today. But there are two more tts to come in this race.

With the best will in the world, its hard to see a 82kg rider lasting this hilly parcours.  Great to see for now, though, and some crumb of comfort for Ineos.

Sagan not doing well

I expect that’s just a canned sound. I reckon most of the pictures you see have no sound recorded with them and the helicopter and crowd noise is for the most part added to give a bit of atmosphere.

Am I alone in not being able to distinguish between the maglia rosa and the maglia rosso?

No!

There isn't a Maglia Rosso? The leader of the points competition wears the Maglia Ciclamino, which confusingly is an almost identical shade to those worn by team Bardiani.

I must have been looking at an out of date page which mentioned rosso. The fact remains the colours are quite similar. It raises a question which has long had me wondering - why are teams allowed to wear kit in the TdF which is primarily yellow, or in the Giro which is primarily pink etc etc?

Strictly speaking, they aren't allowed to have team colours which can be confused for any of the jerseys including world champion's.  How JV got round that one at the TDF I've no idea. 

Gets right on my nerves that does.

E

Yep, it was a page from 2014. There must be so much dross that's never been wiped off the net.

Ha ha, And you say that on ukc!!! 😂 🤣 😂 

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/simon-yates-out-of-giro-ditalia-after-test...

Simon Yates out after positive Covid test

Oh dear! What's the chances of this race being completed?

On the other hand, it'll be obvious why he's been struggling.

Oh no!  Wonder if that explains him being a bit off form in the early stages.

Damn that's a shame but he's clearly been slightly off the pace. I guess it's down to Luke Rowe or Tao Geoghan Hart for an unlikely stage win, in terms of domestic interest. Anyone care to predict the overall winner?

It would be really impressive for Luke Rowe to win a stage as he’s not riding the Giro.

Interesting how he's the only one on the team to test positive.

Hopefully they isolate from each other within the team bubble or at least take precautions. Otherwise one infection of could spread and force the whole team out of the race.

Unrelated to the pedalling action, I notice that even Covid isn't enough to force the Giro to abandon Podium Lovelies

Alex Dowsett ! I honestly didn't think he had that in him.

Great win. I’m really pleased for him.

Why ? He’s a classy rider, multi national TT champ, previous hour record holder, he’s one guy you don’t want to let go off the front of a break within sight of the stage finish!

Whole Michelton Scott team, whole Jumbo Visma team and Matthews of Sunweb out of Giro due to Covid tests. 😕

Be an interesting study in outdoor sporting transmission now. 

Dutch rider blames UCI for allowing RCS to pack teams into Sicily hotels with the public

Unlike at the Tour de France where riders were sequestered away from the public and kept apart from race staff and other support crews, Van Emden said the Giro d'Italia's bubble was burst at the Grande Partenza in Sicily.

"It already went wrong in the first hotel we were in. We were there with four or maybe five teams - that's not a problem because ... they take care of the health of the team - but the police and the motos were there, the Shimano neutral service, and normal people were there all eating from the same buffet.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/van-emden-the-uci-should-get-the-bill-for-...

Hope we get to the end of the race safely. Quality day from Sagan.

Oops - slip of the mind there.... I meant Ben Swift

Great result for Tao today and only a few seconds off podium now.

Almeidia did well to hang on, it's very tight at the top.

Apparently some of the mountain stages may have to be shortened as they are expecting bad weather next week.

Vuelta coverage on ITV4 starting 7pm Tuesday.

Looking forward to cycling back on TV.  Sounds like Tour of Flanders would have been worth a watch today. 

It was brilliant. Alaphilippe, WVA & MVDP were clear. Alaphilippe crashed really badly into a motorbike and the other two stayed away and had a brutal sprint. No love lost between those two I don’t think. 

The three best classic riders of the time.  

Well the Vuelta kicked off with fireworks.

Very sad to see Froome struggling.

who said Ineos and GB were down and out this season! Tao right in contention at the sharp end!

Great stage. I’ve ridden the Stelvio and the Cancano. Breathtaking scenery. 

And Carthy now 5th on the Vuelta. 

Today's Giro stage was amazing and sets up the race beautifully for Saturdays revised stage. When was the last time the top 3 in a Grand Tour were split by 15 seconds going into the final weekend?

That was a quality mountain day!

Somebody needs to sort out those Sunweb jackets.

I know. They looked like a right faff to get on and Hindley nearly came a cropper at the top of the Stelvio. Chapeau to Rohan Dennis as well. What a shift he put in.

I was watching earlier and made it my post covid target to ride the Stelvio!!!

I did it from Bormio, then descended to turn right down the Umbrail into Switzerland, then looped round to Prato to do it from there (the more famous side) before descending back down to Bormio.  That descent was one of the best experiences of my life; almost surreal.  The whole area is stunning.  I did the Gavia, the Cancano and Bormio 2000 the same week.  I saw AVV twice when I did the Stelvio too and said hello.  

It was really good to watch and I had a bit of a moment watching some of the camera angles on the descent....I'm no climber though but if I was really focused for 6 months before it I reckon I'd be ok! If you fancy doing it again ill give you a shout!!

Not sure where the Vuelta thread is but a great result for Dan today....really was a deserved victory!

Fantastic stage. 

Snap! I had the same route planned in Strava for last June. I was glued to yesterday's stage.

My other big(ger) day was going to be Bormio - Mortirolo - Gavia. Perhaps in 2021 ...

Whe I was a student I did the Stelvio under somewhat difficult circumstances. We did some alpine passes on road bikes fitted with panniers, and to travel light we had sleeping bags and mats, but no tent, even though the nights in the Alps started to get frosty im mid September.

After coming into Vinschgau from the North via Timmesljoch we had a Pizza near Meran, and then contined on to the base of the Stilfserjoch, where we bivvied in the forest. Next morning, I decided to have another look at my Pizza, maybe I should not have picked Frutti di Mare...

When I was done vomiting I told my friends to cycle on, while I would go back to Meran and take the train back to Bavaria. They told me to at least try and make it to the next village, lying that it was only 3km (7km in reality). By that time I could at least keep some Pepsi down, so I continued on, feeling better with every km. Eventually my friends cycled ahead, as both were much lighter than me. After we had entered the actual pass it started snowing, and they closed the road for cars behind us. We cycled up the pass in absolute silence which was great, but by the time we went down the other side to Bormio there was solid snow cover on the road, maybe 10cm deep.

That night we actually staid in a hotel, and on the next day continued on over the Gavia (which back then still was part gravel road) in bright sunshine, eventually and accidentally ending up on a road that was closed for some amateur cycle race...

Wild times!

CB

That was a strange day (truncated by industrial action) but a great finish in the end.

I'd love too!

I didn't fancy the Mortirolo with a 36 x 28

(truncated by industrial action)

Was was the issue? I only caught the last part of the highlights (and it was a good finish - can't help but cheer lone riders on, even if I've never heard of them before)

Too long, cold and rainy. Anyone would think it was a grand tour...

Riders union reps had a vote on some app, where they decided 17/20 to shorten the stage, they all got to the start, then some senior riders decided they weren't doing it.  Three 7 hour days previous, another 7 hour day today in the rain, they decided was too much.  Absolute snowflakes, can you imagine having to work 7 hours a day, getting transported to your job, being put up in a hotel, not exactly hardship compared to what some folk go through.

UCI stipulate the maximum stage length as 240km for a Grand Tour, this was 258km, plus the neutral zone, so they did have some grounds for complaint, but that complaint should have been made 12 months ago.

What I don't understand is why the race director agreed to it - he was clearly furious and threatening to get the lawyers involved, he would have been quite within his rights to wave the flag with Inneos and Sunweb riding behind the car, everyone else sitting in the tent and declare every rider who didn't start as out of the race.  It would have made for an interesting last couple of days.

LoL. I know. I'm only on 36x29.

Plan B was Bormio - Gavia - Ponti de Legno return, which is still the thick end of 10k feet of ascent.

I had routes mapped for the Giau and Selle passes too. 

I'll happily accompany you and abr1966 if you venture out in 2021

I think adding an additional 5km due to bridge closure the day after the Queen stage and the day before a potentially decisive mountain stage probably just tipped the balance.

All set for an exciting last two days. Who's your money on? Can Tao do it?

That was exactly our reaction too.

Looks fantastic! Mountain stage today? Time trial tomorrow?

Anybody in the top 5 has a chance.

Maybe someone in the top 10 will go for a do or die attempt today. I guess at least 2 teams will be covering any attempt before the GC duel it out on the last climb.

Can anybody name the Sunweb team leader?

Yes he can!

Hindley looked better do I did not expect that. Tao was conserving his energy?

Let's hope nobody cracks mentally tomorrow.

GC on same time going into the last day! Never seen that before.

Will Jai have to ware a pink skin suit for the TT? Tao could have an advantage of wearing his own (better?) kit. 

Never expected this.  Previously only seen glimpses from Tao but never such a sustained performance.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow. 

Apparently Tao a minute faster in last timetrial they both did so he should be 30s faster in shorter 15km time trial on Sunday.

Tao will be wearing the white one, so advantage negated. 

This year the youths have really taken over.

Good point

It’s incredible isn’t it? Some amazing young riders. MVDP is my main man though. Kid’s like a Greek God! 

I think it’s set a dangerous precedent. It was probably a shit idea for a stage, but it had been in the road book when everyone signed up for it, the weather was hardly out of the ordinary and they could’ve just gone slower. There was a lot of riders congratulating themselves on uniting - I think the point of racing is exactly the opposite! 

I did the Gavia from Bormio but turned round and went back the same way. The descent through the trees is dicey, the road is terrible. Cracking climb though. It would be fab if we were able. 

Castelli make the giro kit however, so the same as the usual ineos kit.

You did ask the XXXL skin suit Jai

Any idea roughly what time they will be starting?

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-stage-20-start-times/

1609 and 1612 CET, which is 1509 and 1512 GMT for last two.

Fab, should make it back from the kids swim training just in time

Hats off to Rohan Dennis who has really put in a team shift to put Tao in with a shout.  I have to admit I wasn't sure of him as team signing for Ineos, but right now it looks like a great move.

Agreed, I always thought he was a time trial specialist but he has shown himself to be an all-rounder in this Giro. Also strange how little attention there has been for Geoghan-hart too. Fantastic achievement to almost come from nowhere to looking like taking his first grand tour. Almost seems like the media lost interest in the Giro after Thomas and Yates pulled out.

What an incredible Giro! TGH made it look easy in the end. What a future he has and what a team Ineos have put together. I would love to see Carapaz win the Vuelta. Next years TdF is going to be epic.

Did not expect Ineos to get a grand tour this year, an incredible team record.

Possibly worked to his advantage.  Expect the media to be frantically scouring Wikipedia right now

Not bad for a team when its possibly their number 6 GC rider winning a grand tour (Bernal, Thomas, Carapaz, Froome, Sivakov all ahead in the pecking order - or were)

Well that turned into a bit of a race. Throughly enjoyable final week.

White jersey needs to be for the over-30s now I reckon. 

I like that. Maybe white, but slightly retro and greying as if it has been through the wash a few too many times.

Yes!

Every day or almost every day the pink jersey was held by the white jersey leader?

Final youth classification
1. Tao Geoghegan-Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 85-40-21
2. Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb, at 39 seconds
3.  João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck – Quick-Step, at 2-57

And I thought Hirschi was the young Sunweb star, it's been a hell of a season for Sunweb.

Brilliant, and lovely to see Ineos able to ride with a bit more flair than the all powerful Skytrain, with a focus on stage wins ...and still bag the big one!

I think that Ineos, and any other team, would still love to be able to control races the way Sky did.  Difference now is that other teams have continued onto working as a focused team.

For all it was a great result, Tao's win was a result of a lot of things going his way plus Ineos, to their credit, did try to control the race in the later stages for him.

Grey Jersey for that competition surely?

Clearly it was Tao's race to lose on that last day but of course he still had to execute, both mentally and physically. Excellent performance by the young lad, and what a great race to watch with drama all the way. Now looking forward to the rest of the Vuelta with commentary that doesn't make me shout profanities at the TV...

I'm glad other people think this. I couldn't decide whether I was just unused to people who weren't Ned'n'Dave, or if they really were just plain awful

I hope you are not referring to the Great Carlton Kirby.