UKH

6/5/23 to 28/5/23

"Unfortunately, unlike the Tour de France, ITV4 does not show the Giro d'Italia. So, if you are in the UK and wanting to watch riders battle it out for the pink jersey, you'll have to view on either GCN+, Discovery+ or the Eurosport Player."

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/how-to-watch-and-live-stre....

Is Discovery+ the same as Quest ?

It’s on S4C again this year. I enjoy the chance to brush up my Welsh!

Looks like it's not on Quest, but on the Dmax channel which is ch 39 on Freeview, or ch 171 on virgin .7 pm daily I think.

Yes, Ch 39 DMAX highlights on my Freeview box. Excellent!

Well, Remco looking rather imperious (as David Millar would say)  

Yes, Remco did have rather a good day.

Sprint stage on Sunday.

Well this could go three ways...

1. Everyone else just gives up and half-heartedly jostles for the minor placings, 

2a. GC contenders see there's nowt to lose by some wildly aggressive attacking,

2b. As above, but with a bit of 'private-cos-it's-not-quite-legal' ganging up on RE.

Place your bets...

Time for Cav to show us what he’s got…

Be interesting to see how Remco's team play this.  Traditionally Grand Tours wasn't their strength.  I'm sure the other teams will try to play on that and get him isolated as much as possible. 

Has anyone ever won stage 1 of the Giro and held it to the end? It’s not happened in the Tour since 1935, I can’t find any reference to it happening in the Giro but wouldn’t bet against it this year.

Important not to get carried away here, there's still a lot of racing to be done!

3. RE gets caught for doping and kicked out

4. RE blows up in week 3, like Simon Yates in 2018.

I would - based on the interviews yesterday it sounds a lot like QS want to ditch it at the first chance, which will be stage 4.

Merckx held the jersey throughout the race in 1973, first stage was a 2-up timetrial, which sounds fun.

I think I'd still prefer 2a or 2b.

Giani Bugno also did it more recently, in 1990.

I asked Bard. Spoiler alert! Turns out Remco is going to win this year. Also, UKC beats Bard - all the examples it gave are wrong.

” Yes, there have been a few occasions where a rider has won stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia and held the lead throughout the race. The most recent example is Remco Evenepoel in 2023. He won the opening time trial by a significant margin and then went on to win the overall race. Other examples include Francesco Moser in 1978, Giovanni Battaglin in 1981, and Franco Chioccioli in 1991. It is a very difficult feat to achieve, but it is not impossible.”

God AI is still quite shit isn’t it?

I can't see anything that happening, but a couple of off days are possible. On one hand he showed maturity limiting his losses to Roglic on a poor day in the Vuelta last year, on the other it would have been close if Roglic hadn't crashed.

Different riders but looking at the 2018 prologue, that was under 10k. Dumoulin won it Yates 20s, Froome 37s, Lopex 56s

Having said that Remco looks like a massive favourite, even if Roglic manages to get a lead before the final tt I can't see him sleeping well the night before. 

I'm hoping the mountain stages will be as advertised, and if not they have put some thought into bad weather alternatives. 

Thanks, I’ve set the series to record. I was ready to give up or hook a laptop up to the telly.

Excuse my ignorance, but does that mean on tandems?

No, two people from the same team setting off and finishing together. They will typically take turns in the front position and then rotate to draft.

Me too, I'm going to the St Bernard stage!

Ooft, riding in the bunch must be terrifying

😀 Shame! Bet Geoghan Hart wishes he’d been on the back of Geraint’s bike today.

That was a brutal day. Hopefully nobody badly hurt. 

Cav crossed the line on the ground!

Interesting to hear the pundits saying he kept his hands on his handle bars and not the ground, which probably saved a broken collar bone. Worth remembering?

Looking at the photo finish it also gained him a place or two in the finishing order as the bike was in front of him and if he'd let go it wouldn't have counted as finished until he'd also crossed the line.

My brother had a mountain biking cartoon book from the eighties that made this point - whenever I've pondered crashing when riding along I can't quite see how I wouldn't put a had out, but in the only actual (fairly slow) crashes I've actually had I did seem to manage to keep hands on the bars, though not through conscious effort, I don't think

Great stage today, can't believe they were caught. Peleton timing yet again.

So close....Eurosport commentators saying they started looking at eachother within the last kilometre....I didn't see them doing that on the highlights show but hard to tell ...good finish from Pederson though!

They were definitely looking back, and at each other, but they also looked understandably bushed for the last few kms. At the rate the bunch thundered up and past even if they'd kept their heads down it looked likely that they'd have been overtaken anyway

In stark contrast to today!

Interesting day today after the stalemate of yesterday! G, Tao and Roglic showing that they are actually better climbers than Remco - who will probably take a minute or two from them all tomorrow.

Great to see Ben Healy win too.

That was an impressive ride - looks like his efforts in the Classics paid off.

Great timetable, first 5 within 8 seconds of each other! 

And the old man G still in the running....

But Remco isn't any more

Yup, shame he’s out this way. I think he’d have been caught in the mountains, but I guess that’s now moot. Excited for an Ineos v Roglic slugfest mind.

Also - imagine wining a 35km TT in a GT whilst having corona. Jeez.

Yep, similar would Pog have won Liege? I don't know, but disappointed not to see them go head to head 

If G and TGH hadn't produced such good tt's I'd be really worried about how close they were sat to Ganna during yesterday's transfer. Strange to think than Jumbo might be viewing covid as a positive now  

I couldn't get out of bed for three days 

BLOODY HELL! That's a shocker.

Presumably that was why he only beat Geraint by a second.

A descent in the rain is stressful just to watch. Good to see the breakaway get the stage. 

Probably yes. He looked terrible at the end! Maybe why he dropped time on stage 8 as well.

Interesting day today, lots of DNS and some very challenging conditions that effectively killed off the bunch sprint. Only one man was ever winning from that break - nice to see another Danish stage winner (and hat trick completer!), the state of cycling here really is something at the moment.

we skied over the Grand st Bernard col on Monday.  Not surprising they cancelled that stage!

The head to head might happen in the tour now. I'm not convinced Evenepoel has the beans to challenge Pog in a three week tour but it would be interesting to see.

Ah it's only a small detour through the tunnel! Might make the last climb more competitive rather than attritional, and that's the bit I'm planning on heading to.

Nah, I don't think they'll send him to the tour. It's to soon, the course doesn't suit him, and he'll get flattened by Pog and Jonas (as will everyone else).

Dammit. Tao's out, crashing. Roglic and Thomas also involved.

Cav pipped at the line, good effort. Sounds like Tao could have broken/fractured leg or pelvis according the breakaway. 

Ineos with 4 or 5 in top 10 including 2 GC contenders promised all sorts of possibilities like forcing teams in GC 5-10 positions to chase down Ineos riders 3-5.

Tao - hope not as bad as it sounds.

Broken pelvis requiring surgery confirmed by Ineos

Sheee-it! That's got to sting a bit. Is that his year over?

The surgery bit probably means that will be it for his year, like G in 2020.

Unlike G in 2013ish who broke his pelvis on stage 1 of the tour but carried on. 3

The crash after the one with Tao where Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) grabbed the road sign to avoid hitting the house was pretty horrendous as well.

Seemed to be both amongst the breakaway, but a headwind combined with Roglic being happy for ineos to be in pink meant little GC action. 

Did they communicate the changes to spectators? 

Not on DMAX tonight "We apologise for the change in programme' WTF?

We found out in twitter - but went up the last climb anyway and timings were the same (fortunately), although we were expecting a little to get caught up in the peloton cycling along the valley 😂 

I think the highlights on dmax are garbage, we haven't missed much.

Roll on tdf, itv4 & Gary et al

The highlights on DMAX are at least free and available!

Spent the evening watching most of the live coverage. Great stage. Really enjoyed watching the developments.

Seriously GCN has full coverage you can watch back whenever, an excellent analysis show before and after, and extended highlights. No ads. It’s £6 a month. Infinitely better than ITV4 coverage IMO, and well worth what is actually very little money.

When GCN first launched the service with a discount offer, I tried subscribing a couple of times and got bounced both times.  After that I was very wary about the reliability of the set up.  I might have to try again next year for the classics.

That does depend, I would propose, on one's tolerance of Rob Hatch's (and, to a lesser extent, Sean Kelly's) commentary...

Thread drift - Cav to retire, 2023 to be his last season - fingers crossed for a Tour stage win.

They can both be annoying, but are far better than any other commentators I’ve come across in cycling (primarily Carlton Kirby…). But imo cycling coverage is the best it has ever been, you just have to pay a little for it. Compared to test cricket or football, the price is incredible.

I kind of hope it doesn't happen.  The number of TdF stage wins is a pretty arbitrary record and I can't stand the thought of it being elevated way beyond its significance.   For Mercx, stage wins were the by product of winning a record number of TdF s.  An even wider perspective puts both Cippolini and Mercx way ahead on overall Grand Tour stage wins.

Key to remember Merckx was caught doping what, three times?

The footage of Renshaw leading him out with the tracking motorbike camera alongside in 2009 TDF is one of the best bits of cycling sprinting footage of all time, his head is almost touching the front wheel, absolute monster power....the GOAT IMO

Yes, well...

IMO Mercx is always going to be the GOAT across multiple cycling disciplines.

That isn't to decry Cav's brilliant career as a pure sprinter - It's just that I'd hate for him to be remembered and hyped just for breaking a very arbitrary Mercx 'record' and not for his overall contribution to cycling, especially in Britain.  World and Olympic champion, entertainer, inspiration and SPOTY.

Anyway, back to the Giro .....

Kelly has improved over the last few years, but he's still a dire pundit bless him.

But he's Kelly. It is enough.

Well, yes...

Possibly just a consequence of only having access to ITV4 until a couple of years ago, but I much prefer Ned 'n' Dave. I do quite like the GCN bits when Robbie/Adam/Dan sit in, though. 

No-one summarises proceedings as well as Gary Imlach, mind.

And with this talk of Cav's retirement, I wonder if he'd be worthwhile as a pundit? He's had some good guest moments on past years' Tour commentary when he's been off with injury/illness, and he talks well and with insight when in the right mood.

Cavendish isn’t an Olympic champion. His Road Race World Championship win and his TdF stage wins, are what makes him stand out in the world of British cycling, which these days is awash with Olympic Champions and Grand Tour winners.

Work is the curse of the drinking (and cycling) classes. Today's stage (Tuesday) would have been a good one to watch live.

At the time he first won Olympic gold, there were precious few British riders in that club !

When do you think he won Olympic Gold?

He has never won Olympic gold. He won a silver in the Omnium in 2016. That is his only Olympic medal. 

Me bad.  For some reason I thought he'd got a gold in Omnium.

G defending 26s going in the final competitive day of the GC, a brutal looking ITT. What do people think ? Both world class time trialists, I’d probably give the Olympic TT champion the edge, except G beat him in the TT contested 10 stages ago.

In terms of predicting a winner tomorrow, the fact that I changed my mind during the last 100m of today's stage show how close it is. 

They seem pretty evenly matched, it really could go either way. Fingers crossed for G.

I have no idea!

Well, Roglic's son is the star.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooòoooooooòoooooooooooo...

Well that was quite something. Giro boring anyone?

I breathed a sigh of relief when Roglic’s chain fell off. I shoulda held that breath, as I was completely deflated at the end.

Yes so disappointing for G

With a little help from his friends (Thomas).

CAV!!!!!!!!!!!!

And an emphatic victory too!

Good win. Interesting switch from Milan’s wheel to Gaviria’s wheel on the run in.

I thought Milan gave up a little too easily, perhaps Vino had slipped a brown envelope under his hotel door last night… 

I went from thinking G was past his best to ‘yes he can do it’ this year. Only to be denied by a tiny margin, strongest guy won though. Cav is definitely past his best, and I said that last year, and the year before. Beautiful moment.

Cav does produce some fairy tale moments, and Thomas was part of it. 

Agree, he just needs one more win in the summer!

I don't agree.  Cav's career should be defined by much, much more than some incidental TdF stage win 'record' originally garnered as part of the winning the most overall TdF yellow jerseys (the real TdF 'record').  Not least of which is the inspiration he's been to a generation of British cyclists.