If you like cycling, still recommend getting GCN. Features pretty much every race live, usually from the start (including cyclocross and other disciplines) and no ads. Plus highlights and also able to go back and watch the vods in full, also loads of other stuff including documentaries, weekly race shows etc. Commentary is also the same as eurosport, and only costs £40 for a year. I know its another app to pay for, but I don't have sky and haven't for years. Think I have GCN, F1TV (though can't use it now back in the UK ) netflix, disney and amazon and still works out cheaper than sky ever did. As for the Giro, didn't see yesterday but came down to the favourites of Van der Poel and Girmay, Carapaz also sneaked in the lead group on the sprint to take 4 seconds over the others. Today is ITT though so going to be some differences in times, especially with a 1km climb at the end!
I have a 4 inch phone , don't have WiFi at home so if off work can watch Eurosport but will watch highlights on Quest instead of using apps etc... & don't wish to pay out for anything else as I'm only working part time atm . My Sky with all sports channels & shiny new Q box is £10 month cheaper than last year's due to threatening to leave & haggling .
Good & unexpected win for Simon Yates in today's time trial & a good 5th place for another Brit Ben Tulett finishing 5th . Van Der Poel who everyone is raving about is leading overall but early days .
Long sprint win for Cav, proving he still has it with his 16th Giro stage win, thought he had gone far too early but he held on. Shame he is on the same team as Jakobson, he would have a very good chance of getting the tour stage win record if he was going.
Super Cav . Just watched the highlights whilst trying to avoid any apps etc... which could have let slip the result for most of the evening . So day off tomorrow & then racing in Italy .
Just finished my 68 minutes with Orla & Co with 48 minutes of racing & 20 minutes of yapping with Arnaud Demare winning his 2nd stage in what is a poor field for the Giro with a lot of top 10 GC riders including the Slovenian's not taking part & the sprints just seem to be between 3/4 riders but hey ho , highlights still a good watch .
There was a cracking crash with someone hurtling down a hillside . Fair play to the Aussie guy who was lost for words with the stage win . Been poor so far for a Grand Tour .
One for the weird and strange self inflicted injury records. Girmay abandons Giro after bizarre cork accident
Good unexpected stage today. Supposed to be a breakaway winning stage but Bora had other ideas and blew the race apart with 80k to go. Carapaz eventually went with 30k to go but was caught by three before the final climb and Yates took the win with an attack at the end that nobody chased as he was 20mins down.
Fair play to Yates winning his 6th Giro stage win today . Just watched 40 mins of the recorded 68 minutes of highlights & thought it was a bog standard stage lacking real incidents but nice seeing some ol' timers like Nibali riding well & what's not to like a UK rider bagging a stage win . I do enjoy my cycling but this year's Giro has been poor in my opinion , hope TDF & Vuelta are more of a spectacle .
Not sure how that was a routine stage, on paper it was made for a breakaway to go 10 mins up the road and win and GC contenders to coast in. Especially with mountain top finish today. Bora shook it up though and ripped the peloton apart with 80k to go. Big shake up in GC, less than 2 mins separated the top 10 at the start of the day, now it's 10 mins. Also due to how hard it was made by Bora and the heat there was a real danger 30+ riders (mostly sprinters) almost didn't make the time cut. If that wasn't an exciting stage I'm not sure what grand tours stages you have watched in the last few years that classify that as routine and boring
Friday's stage was a better watch imo with the 4 in the breakaway dithering 1100m from the end & then getting caught 600m from the finish poor tactics & yep this tour is shit compared to a lot of the others in recent years I've watched , maybe the highlights with 33% of the time spent chatting I find annoying or maybe for the Giro being 1 of the 3 Grand Tours is missing the PREMIER riders the likes of Pogacar , Roglic , Quintano , Bernal ( injured ) Sagan , Alaphilippe , Van Aert , Izagirre , Uran etc... enjoy , I'll leave this thread for you to comment on after all , it's all about opinions !
I don't think I said its been a great Giro, I said yesterdays stage was great, far from a bog standard stage, in fact it played out more like a one day race. Most of the premier riders target the tour, so Giro is never going to have them. Only reason Vuelta gets them is because they had a bad tour and so enter the Vuelta to salvage their season.
So day 1 of the Tour started today with a ITT. No real surprises in the GC shakeup, with Rod and Pog near the top, the Ineos team with three GC contenders around a further 10-15 seconds back of those two.
Looks like barring an accident Pogacar looks like he has the le Tour in the bag . Looks so strong whereas his are major rivals struggling except Vingegaard.
Wouldn't say they are struggling, just Pog is in a different league and only Roglic and maybe Vin have a slight chance against him but both had crashes the other day. Ineos will be interesting, by far the strongest line up in regards to GC but no individual to compete directly, they really need to try and start doing something different to attack pog and see how he copes because at the minute they are just following and settling for a podium.
What a great stage today was if you've not seen it yet, well worth a watch. One of the best stages this century probably.
Change in the yellow jersey after probably the biggest stage so far with 2 more large mountain stages to come . Pogacar cracked on the final climb allowing Vingegaard to take advantage. UAE are lacking riders too whereas their rivals seem unscathed so far.
