Stage 1: Seraing (Belgium) ITT

Bobby Julich could spring a suprise.

McGee or Rogers perhaps? Don't think it will be one of the main contenders such as Savoldelli.

alibat said:

McGee or Rogers perhaps? Don't think it will be one of the main contenders such as Savoldelli.

Would be nice to see McGee back in the running for a prologue win after having such a bad year last year. The course is way to short for a specialist like Rodger's to do well. Which is a pity as I would really like to see him do well, hopefully he will get a good GC result 😄

I will go with Savoldelli. I think he will want to put as much time into the climbers as possible in the time trials and that includes the prologue. He could probably take 20 seconds out of some of them, more out of Rujano so I think he will go for it.

totally respectable time by Jan. Wholly different from last week already... including a 10% climb. He looked good coming in. I think we will see something interesting on the long individual TT.

33'' secs slower than provisional leader Perez. Comme-ci, comme-ca...

nothing to cheer about

Julich what a lousy performance... :eek:

It's important that Chechu is #4 so far because the top cyclists on each team determine the TTT sequence. Julich has a disappointing time for him. So far, those two developments are a little nice surprise for DC, vis a vis CSC. CSC has a lot of good ITTists, though -- Voigt, etc.

wow, Julich's time was terrible. so much for that pick

Voigt only managed third at his spot... with Julich falling too... I wonder if my tap that they might not win the TTT is looking better already. Those are their best TTrs

Slow cadence Honchar is up to expectations. 1st pace provisional...

And do it like Voigt fot the CSC...

Schumacher new leader... No it's not Michael 😄

Holy Sh!t... Salvodelli Came To Play. He Beat The Field By 11 Seconds And Has Actual Time Over All Of His Rivals In This Short Course.

:eek: Woh!

Savoldelli on fire, awesome performance there. He has 26 seconds on Simoni, 18 on Di Luca, 23 on Basso, 25 on Cunego. Ain't seeing the times of Rujano so not sure about him. Probably about 40 seconds given how bad Rujano is at TTing.

Wow. Nothing short of an amazing ride by Savoldelli. Absolutely smoked it! Faster at every time check! Hrm. Maybe I should have kept him on my fantasy team...

Anyhow, great ride for Paolo. Game on, Giro 2006.

Paolo bravissimo!!!!

He annihilated everyone by simply doing what he knows best: descending like il Falco...

Good performances, by their standards, for Di Luca, Cunego and Simoni. They all came to play. Basso should have done better and he would but it was obvious that he was very afraid of the last left-hand corner. He surely lost more than 5'' there as he almost halted.

Bettini was the only one I noticed (during the short ES coverage) who hadn't aerobars or even a spinacci!!

Rebellin is in good place to take the stage to Namur and arrive in Italy dressed in pink!

Discovery no1 team. Danielson & McCartney also impressive.

PS Julich worse than Rujano. Whole 15''!!!!!!!

I think the surprise here is not that Savoldelli won, but he crushed the field. Basso's hopes of going into the mountains with a 5 minute lead over the other climbers with the TT efforts of his team and himself looks a little shaky today. CSC was supposed to be the strongest in the TT's...
The Giro is designed this year to allow the last week determine the winner. But Basso will have his work cut out for him if he cannot perform in the TT's.

Big Jan did not embarress himself today. Maybe the longer TT will give him a chance to test his year to date form.

And Danielson performed. Maybe a Danielson/Savoldelli isolating Basso in the mountains?

Brad McGee didn't look too flat to me. He was flying like his former self.

Dimos said:

Paolo bravissimo!!!!

He annihilated everyone by simply doing what he knows best: descending like il Falco...

Good performances, by their standards, for Di Luca, Cunego and Simoni. They all came to play. Basso should have done better and he would but it was obvious that he was very afraid of the last left-hand corner. He surely lost more than 5'' there as he almost halted.

Bettini was the only one I noticed (during the short ES coverage) who hadn't aerobars or even a spinacci!!

Rebellin is in good place to take the stage to Namur and arrive in Italy dressed in pink!

Discovery no1 team. Danielson & McCartney also impressive.

PS Julich worse than Rujano. Whole 15''!!!!!!!

descending wasn't why he won...he was up 10 seconds at the top of the climb. What was bettini doing with his bike...Does he not want to wear pink if he wins stage 3?