Giro Stage 19 ITT

Rolland looks to be struggling. Quintana smooth!

But his time won't be bad.

Rolland 2nd. Oops!

Quintana is going to win.

Uran is second. Thank God! Holds onto second overall.

Hesjedal or Rolland was the decision last night.

Then I thought of the KOM bike

So I picked Hesjedal.

Not so good. but I do have Henao and Cataldo

1,2,3,5,7,8,9 Glad I didn't bother taking Wellens out now.

Quintana
Aru
Uran
Pozzo
Rolland
Pellizotti
Majka
Henao
Cataldo
Wellens

Are the top 10

Hesjedal mechanical cost me a few points but should have gone Rolland.
Still 1 2 3 7 8 910

I think Rolland was 4th ahead of Pozzovivo in 5th. Anybody notice where Roger Wilko finished up?

As i make it Top 10 winners: ditkas and presenrumu08 with 1,2,3,4,5,8,10, Arredondo. Polishdave 1,2,3,4,5,7 Arredondo

1,2,3,4,5,7 + 5 points for Arredondo.

Jeffry Romero just missed out on LR afte De Haes's mechanical.

1,2,3,5,7,8,10 +Kelderman +Zoidl

That Rolland can't TT for toffee...

1 Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS COL MOV 1:05:37
2 Fabio ARU ITA AST +17
3 Rigoberto URAN URAN COL OPQ +1:26
4 Pierre ROLLAND FRA EUC +1:57
5 Domenico POZZOVIVO ITA ALM +2:24
6 Franco PELLIZOTTI ITA AND +3:22
7 Rafal MAJKA POL TCS +3:28
8 Sebastian HENAO GOMEZ COL SKY +3:48
9 Tim WELLENS BEL LTB +4:00
10 Dario CATALDO ITA SKY +4:10
11 Cadel EVANS AUS BMC +4:26
12 Stefano PIRAZZI ITA BAR +4:34
13 Riccardo ZOIDL AUT TFR +4:42
14 Edoardo ZARDINI ITA BAR +4:46
15 Francis MOUREY FRA FDJ +4:46
16 Wilco KELDERMAN NED BEL +4:52
17 Enrico BATTAGLIN ITA BAR +5:11
18 Alexandre GENIEZ FRA FDJ +5:11
19 Hubert DUPONT FRA ALM +5:20
20 Rodolfo Andres TORRES AGUDELO COL COL +5:22

GC
1 Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS Colombia MOV 79:03:45
2 Rigoberto URAN URAN Colombia OPQ +3:07
3 Fabio ARU Italy AST +3:48
4 Pierre ROLLAND France EUC +5:26
5 Domenico POZZOVIVO Italy ALM +6:16
6 Rafal MAJKA Poland TCS +6:59
7 Cadel EVANS Australia BMC +9:25
8 Wilco KELDERMAN Netherlands BEL +9:29
9 Ryder HESJEDAL Canada GRS +10:11
10 Robert KISERLOVSKI Croatia TFR +13:59

1,2,3,4,5,7,8
probably quite similar to most
plus Arrendondo And good old Barbin!

1,2,3,4,7,8,14 plus standings, in hindsight dropping Kelderman+Arredondo for Pozzovivo would have been a good idea.

I see my knack of picking the wrong person hasn't deserted me - choice of Kelderman, Rolland or Hesjedal, and I went for Kelderman. Knew I should have gone for Rolland . Still 1,2,3,5,7,8,10 & 16 gets the Podium badge I'm missing.

1,2,3,5,7,8,9 ,16 plus arredondo
Finally got my podium badge as well only 2 to get but can't see those coming

Full house witgh zoidl, enao and cataldo methinks. Kelderman might not score enuf for me though. But dropped pozzo a whiole back.

1 2 3 4 7 8 10 13 16

1,2,3,5,7,8,10,13,16. Full house!

I already have a full house, damn!

I make my score 220, doubt I'll even get into the top 50 with that but at least I got my 200 pts badge. Just LR, Bookends and the top line to get, not that I'll get any of those this race.

Another full house, should not have dropped Wellens and Arredondo for Hesjedal and Dupont. would have scored 19 with those 2, rather than the 4 I will have scored. Damn never mind, will probably cost me the 200 pointer and will drop places.

Ended up with 1,2,4,5,7,8,16,19 + Ryder. will not be a good score.

Think I will go safe tomorrow, Ryder and Wilco out for Uran and Arredondo me thinks, or could just leave it as Wilco and Ryder, decisions

And my 200 pt badge. I make it 227.

Shucks, if I hadn't thrown my toys out of the pram and put 6 sprinters in without looking at the stage a couple of days ago I would still have finished with a good placing. First GT, pretty happy though.

224 for me, podium and 200 badges 115th on stage
Chuffed with that

Can you believe this team?

Roll on the Dauphine!

Although I can't complain with my first stage win and leading the standings for a short period.

Curiously enough, I would've won the Bookends badge three times this Giro! Apparently poor old Kenny Dehaes didn't make the time cut (which seems a bit harsh to me) so Romero was 'officially' last man home.

Without wishing to be provocative, I do feel that these latter stages have suffered a little because of the jumbo budgets. There will be few active players who don't have four of the top five finishers today, and indeed the top five on GC. OK, everyone will have Quintana and Aru, but I've got Uran, Rolland, Majka and Pozzovivo in my team as well. A budget of 160 or even 170 would mean having to take tougher decisions and also greater variety in the teams.

I shouldn't really complain seeing as this has been my best grand tour performance by miles, but that's a small lesson to be taken into account for the Tour, perhaps - though on the other hand I imagine the rider values will be higher on average for the Tour; presumably Contador, Nibali and Froome will all be in the 30-40 range, making it a bit tougher even with a 180 budget.

I agree