GIRO - Spoiler

the live internet giro coverage link's back: http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Giroditalia/2005/diretta/vDSL_giro05.wmx 😄

tcklyde said:

I was sorry to see that Steels DNF today. Anyone know what happened?

I think it was stomach problems.

who was Steels kidding when he said that in the final, him and Robbie were equals???

Nuts to that.

Okay, out on a limb: I'm guessing McEwen in a fast and dangerous sprint on stage 4. (And a hat tip to O'Grady to come in 2nd.)

Good luck riders!

keydates said:

Slightly off topic, but does anybody know of a website that has a good graph of the mountains climbed in the Grand Tours and their average/steepest gradients, height, etc.? I had a link a while ago, but now it's gone.

If you go to the main page of cyclingnews.com and click on the Giro stages
page, it gives an ordinance suvey map for the route of each stage and a graphic showing the altitude of each climb on each stage. (see stage-by-stage page)

OK, how about some opinions of those that are lucky enough to watch the televised coverage... what happened... was Bettini in the wrong, did he clearly do something dirty, or did it appear to be an accident?

wilmar13 said:

OK, how about some opinions of those that are lucky enough to watch the televised coverage... what happened... was Bettini in the wrong, did he clearly do something dirty, or did it appear to be an accident?

Yes. He changed his line in the closing meters as he sensed Cooke coming through against the fence, forcing Cooke to try and push him away. He failed, causing Cooke to crash.

Bettini blamed it on his chain jumping, causing him to move left. Judges didn't see it that way.

edit-not really dirty....Bettini's not like that. Just a racing incident.

ed073 said:

Yes. He changed his line in the closing meters as he sensed Cooke coming through against the fence, forcing Cooke to try and push him away. He failed, causing Cooke to crash.

Bettini blamed it on his chain jumping, causing him to move left. Judges didn't see it that way.

edit-not really dirty....Bettini's not like that. Just a racing incident.

So it was intentional (not the forced crash, but the block) in your opinion? Was it worth Bettini getting reprimanded?

wilmar13 said:

So it was intentional (not the forced crash, but the block) in your opinion? Was it worth Bettini getting reprimanded?

Yes....he cleary went left from the overhead shot. You cannot change you rline in the final metres. Being kicked of the race would be too harsh, but relegation to last in the group is OK, I reckon.

I watched it on ES and I thought Cooke's was at fault !

When I raced, it was taken that the way to sprint was to get closest to the
barrier.
As they came in to the finish, bettini in first place had the "right" to be closest
to the barrier thus forcing his pursuers to go wide to overtake him.
Cooke tried to overtake on the barrier side.
It didn't appear to me that Bettini hit him or forced him in to the barrier.
The fact is that Bettini would have been expecting Cooke to appear outside of him.

limerickman said:

I watched it on ES and I thought Cooke's was at fault !

When I raced, it was taken that the way to sprint was to get closest to the
barrier.
As they came in to the finish, bettini in first place had the "right" to be closest
to the barrier thus forcing his pursuers to go wide to overtake him.
Cooke tried to overtake on the barrier side.
It didn't appear to me that Bettini hit him or forced him in to the barrier.
The fact is that Bettini would have been expecting Cooke to appear outside of him.

Bettini changed his line. Didn't sprint straight and caused an accident.

Relegation.

ed073 said:

Bettini changed his line. Didn't sprint straight and caused an accident.

Relegation.

I didn't think he changed his line, I've got to say.
there was movement, I'll grant you but change his line in the sense of deliberately squeezing Cookie out ?
I don't think he did deliberately squeezed Cookie.

If you look at Cookie style of riding he's a risk taker.
I think he thought Bettini would make room for him.
Cookie has a history of getting in to tangles in sprints (not that it's a bad thing but it doesn't help his case, I think !).

I await the onslaught (LOL) !!

No way Bettini tried to cause a crash on purpose, but when he sensed a rider (the much faster Cooke) coming through on the inside, he clearly went that way to shut down the option.

If Cooke had eased off or hit the brakes and not fallen or protested, it would be situation normal. But Bettini's actions caused the crash and the commissaires deemed he had intentionally impeded another rider's run at the line.

The gap was there, Cooke went for it assumming Bettini would go straight at the finish in accordance with the rules, he didn't, Cooke hit the fence.

limerickman said:

If you go to the main page of cyclingnews.com and click on the Giro stages
page, it gives an ordinance suvey map for the route of each stage and a graphic showing the altitude of each climb on each stage. (see stage-by-stage page)

I've been there, and it's okay. While it is pretty easy to see the overall altitude gain and roughly how steep it can get, what I'd like to see is the individual mountains, or at least the famous ones of the race in a bit more detail, ie pointing out steep sections and noting the gradient. Something like what cyclingnews did with the Vuelta '04.

Anyway, it looks like Cooke was partly to blame for the crash, or at least according to Velonews.com:

Cooke saw what was happening and tried his best to avoid disaster, but the attempt may have harmed more than helped. Lifting his right hand from his bar, he tried to push Bettini out of the way. But with just one hand on his bars, Cooke then drifted a bit to the left and hit the barrier in spectacular fashion.

Looks like Cooke got a bit too desperate. Any rider in Bettini's position would've tried to close the gate. A sprinter of Cooke's calibre should have been able to take Bettini on the right. Maybe he wasn't feeling as good as he's claimed and was looking for the easier way home.

keydates said:

Slightly off topic, but does anybody know of a website that has a good graph of the mountains climbed in the Grand Tours and their average/steepest gradients, height, etc.? I had a link a while ago, but now it's gone.

www.elgiro.com

mocka58 said:

Looks like Cooke got a bit too desperate. Any rider in Bettini's position would've tried to close the gate. A sprinter of Cooke's calibre should have been able to take Bettini on the right. Maybe he wasn't feeling as good as he's claimed and was looking for the easier way home.

I am still waiting to see the footage so this is just from descriptions in various cycling related websites. It sounded like when Bettini first went that there was plenty of room on the left but that he progressively moved further left. The final 'shove' seemed to come from his chain slipping rather than anything intentional but still justifying relegation.

As someone else said, if the Italian commissaires in the Giro see fit to relegate an Italian in the pink jersey, he must have changed his line.

ed073 said:

Bettini changed his line. Didn't sprint straight and caused an accident.

Relegation.

I agree and I haven't even seen the video. I might be biased tho'

Hopefully this debate will go on and involve as many one sided posters and ridiculous arguments as the "did Jan wait for Lance" thread.
😉

mitosis said:

Hopefully this debate will go on and involve as many one sided posters and ridiculous arguments as the "did Jan wait for Lance" thread.
😉

We can only hope.

Time lost by both Savoldelli (& Danielson). Not great for Discovery Channel's desire to win the Giro.

The hills in stage 5 will be interesting to see how the early climbing legs are. Will Cunego go hard again for the win like Stage 3 when he's there fully supporting Simoni?