Mountain TT Giro Tappa 18

Dropped Sammy yesterday NOOOOOOO

Majka is going very well ahead of Sammi.....

Sammi goes fastest

Damiano Caruso goes 15 secs better than Clement.

That didn't last long.

Stef Clement 5 seconds quickly.

well we have a new benchmark

Dario Cataldo 46:10 45 sec better than Capecchi.

Capecchi new leader but Cataldo 51 seconds better than him at the split.

come on Dario!

Vicenzo Nibali
Cadel Evans
Samuel Sanchez
Przemyslaw Niemiec
Mauro Santambrogio
Carlos Alberto Betancur
Rafal Majka
Tanel Kangert
Thomas Dekker

Dowsett had to change bikes because of a mechanical apparently and finished 2.48 behind Steve Cummings the current leader.

I think I may have made a mess of this.

Evans
Nibali
Cataldo
Tuft
Majka
Kangert
Mezgec
Niemiec
Sanchez

http://www.gazzetta.it/radiocorsa/giroditalia/2013/18/classifica_crono_p... - Crono 1.

http://www.gazzetta.it/radiocorsa/giroditalia/2013/18/classifica_crono_f... - Final Crono.

Blanco should go well in this....Gesink for me is just too inconsistent...Kelderman should be the safer option...Loads who can be thrown into the mix, but some will be under team orders to hold back to protect their GC men over the next couple of days...Sky and Astana have possible stage winners but will they opt to protect Uran and Nibs....Of course those two could also sneak this....Should be as entertaining as it is confusing...Roll on 1.30pm...

Dangermen include:

Kelderman,Danielson and Mourey.....plus Gesink could go really well.

Never underestimate Dario Cataldo. Italian TT Champion and showing some form again after illness. Kangert should do well. Blanco have 3 cards to play. Pity I'm at work this afternoon.

Cheers!
Thinking of bringing in
Cataldo
Kangert
Visconti

and keeping 2 transfers for 2moro.

The climb wasn't long and he lost 30/40 seconds to Kangert is just 8km (not all that was climbing either), shows he wont be near the sharp end

hmm, so some bad choices yesterday, hoping for a turn in fortune today.

Going fo rthe obvious, but what do people think about Dowsetts chances.
Obviously there was a bit of a climb on the last one, so not to averse to climbing, thoughts??

My team

Intxausti(to continue Movistar's good form)
Nibali
Uran
Kangert
Niemiec
Majka
Betancur
Pirazzi
Garzelli

Hoping that's pretty much my team until Brescia now.

This from INRNG.com

The Route: there’s not much to it. The start is novel with half a lap of the Velodrome in Mori before exiting into the town and starting the climb on the slopes of Monte Baldo in no time. The climb can be divided into three parts:

first, as far as the Brento, the road is wide and regular, constantly climbing at about 6% on a new surface
A short and gentle descent into Brento for the time check and then a false flat for about 3 km
The final 7 km of constant climbing at 7-8% all the way to the line

As you predicted Alan we have very similar teams, I went with Uran over Scarponi purely for one reason, I couldn't do a straight swap of Kangert for Santa or Pirazzi et al if I had gone Scarponi. I can't see the points scoring between the two being massive, as I think both will top 10, but neither in the top 3.

Finally scraped into the top 100 for the competition, and conscious that I don't want to lose ground.

Evans
Uran
Nibali
Kangert
Betancur
Mezgec
Santambrogio
Majka
Di Luca