Giro Stage 15 preview: Froome back in the hunt.

Chris Froome reannounced himself with a dramatic win on the Zoncolan yesterday, he didnt close much time on the Maglia Rosa, but with a TT on the way his chances have improved markedly.

Don’t be fooled, Stage 15 is a tough day. The gaps may not be as big as they were on the Zoncolan, but it will be a day that the GC do battle. Three 2nd category climbs at the tail end of the race will shake up the peleton.

On paper it looks like another day that race leader, Simon Yates, could use his punchy climbing style to get clear of his rivals. But Pozzovivo, Dumoulin and to a lesser extent Pinot continue to impress.

The difficulty of the race leading into the final climb will probably mean a smaller group makes it to the foot of that final climb into Sappada, today could be a day where having strong teammates is critical.

There is a chance that a breakaway could be allowed enough of a lead to contest for the win, tired legs from the exertions of the previous day could mean that Mitchelton-Scott are willing to leave the race for a final push on the last climb rather than set a strong pace for the whole day.

You still feel that Yates has to take every opportunity he gets to take time on the uphill sections of the race, a draw with Dumoulin yesterday means he still needs to get more into the black before he loses the Maglia Rosa in the time-trial on Tuesday.

Chris Froome is still an outside winner, the final climb does not necessarily suit his attributes, but his form yesterday suggests he has found the legs that were missing in the first half of the race.

Today will be an interesting day. Watch out for team tactics, as some of the teams lower on GC may try to pull a rabbit from a hat.

Giro Stage 14 review: Froome bounces back.

Writing off a champion is always a risky business, and Froome made us all eat our words by winning from Simon Yates on the Zoncolan today.

Attacking with 4km he quickly distanced the Maglia Rosa group, and when the race leader launched his own attack 1km later he was unable to bridge the gap to the winner of the last two grand tours.

There was always a chance that Froome could steal the show and it was clear he was feeling better when Wout Poels was put on the front to set the tempo on the lower slopes.

As Poels set a grinding tempo big names were dropped out the back; Aru, Formolo, Meintjes, Dennis and others who arrived in Jerusalem with high hopes for top overall finish found themselves going backwards on the brutal percentages.

Dumoulin hung with the Maglia Rosa group until Froome launched his attack, the increase in tempo also did for Pinot who finished the stage with his hopes of winning a first grand tour hanging by a thread.

Yates crossed the line just 6 seconds down on Froome after a thrilling chase to the line through tunnels and around switch backs, but the race leader had to settle for a 6 second time bonus and then wait to count home his biggest rival.

Dumoulin arrived 31 seconds later, with the ashen face of a man who had left it all on the mountain to stay in contention. Yates was happy with the time he took and Dumoulin happy with the time he saved. A draw then?

Pinot and Pozzovivo remain just about in the hunt, but they need the stars to aline. While a resurgent display from Miguel Angel Lopez gave a bit of spice to the young rider competition.

We do it all again tomorrow, Stage 15 looks on paper like the sort of finish on which Adam Yates has been excelling, but there are unlikely to be any major time gaps for the GC contenders.

Whatever the outcome, we are set up for one hell of a final week.

Giro Stage 14 preview: It’s all on for the Zoncolan.

How perfectly is this Giro poised? We have a pure climber looking to crack the legs of the Time-Trial World Champion, on one of the toughest climbs in professional cycling, does it get any better than this?

Let’s talk about the climb itself. With sections of up to 22%, stretching over approximately 11km, the Zoncolan is an absolute brute and will have been ever-present in the mind of everyone in the race since the route was announced.

The main storyline is Dumoulin vs. the climbers who are around him in the GC shake-up, but throw in the great champion, Chris Froome, and the struggling home favourite in Fabio Aru and we have couple of intriguing subplots that could potentially tear up the race script.

Adam Yates, Thibaut Pinot and Domenico Pozzovivo all know that they need to take a big chunk of time out of the defending champion Dumoulin, who will put minutes into all of them over a 30+km TT, so the pressure is on to make every metre that goes up hill count.

Dumoulin for his part is a hard man to drop, showing  on the short punchy finish of Stage 11 that he could still limit his losses to the leader and take time on the other contenders. His ambition for Saturday will be to hang on in there and keep any losses to a minimum.

If Chavez has rediscovered his legs he could be vital support for Yates in the final stages, but the hectic nature of the race so far won’t have given him much chance to recover. Perversely, in Pinot and Pozzovivo he may find natural allies, as they all look to take serious time on Dumoulin.

Froome and Aru could be the dark horses for this stage, a few minutes back on GC and a race to rescue, they both need a strong showing to answer the doubters and keep themselves in the hunt for a decent GC finish. The question will be how closely marked they are if they get the chance to ride away from the current leaders. Both will need a serious upturn in form though.

With so much racing still to come in this Giro, we won’t find our winner on the Zoncalon tomorrow, but we will know plenty of names that won’t be winning it. What a final week this could be.

 

 

Is this the end of Chris Froome?

After Chris Froome lost more time on stage 11 of the Giro, leaving him over 3 minutes down on the GC, it raises an important (if premature) question. Is this the end of GC dominance for the 5 time grand tour winner?

Team Sky have played down the importance of his current condition, saying the target was always the crucial final week, and only time will tell on that. But as things stand it would take minor miracle for him to take back the time he needs on Dumoulin and Yates.

There can be no doubt that the ambition to win a first Giro was always secondary to winning a fifth Tour, and a crash in the recon for the opening prologue has hindered him, but as we get to the halfway stage of the race those excuses are starting to wear thin.

Nobody can argue that Froome doesn’t know how intense the racing in the Giro can be, he was disqualified in 2010 for holding onto a police motorcycle.

If the injuries picked up in the crash are so serious surely a withdrawal should be considered, what’s more the fall that caused the injuries was almost two weeks before he lost 40 seconds on a short punchy climb at the end of Stage 11.

The two men that Froome has to overhaul are Yates and Dumoulin, the former looking like a coiled spring at the bottom of every climb, and the latter biding his time to blow the race apart in the time-trial. It’s a tough ask.

This attempt at two grand tours looks like a zero sum game for Froome, not only has the mask of invincibility been taken away, but with a monumentally risky first week in the tour, he could easily find himself out of that race in the early stages as he was in 2014.

Contenders like Yates, Bardet, Pinot and especially Dumoulin are continuing to improve every year. Even the boffins at Team Sky cannot stop the slow decay of time, Chris Froome must know that he doesn’t have any wiggle room if he wants to add to his legacy.