[Patrick B. Penguin]

Penguin also concedes the sprinting title to VdB for this Giro... Penguin's only hope of catching VdB now is if Penguin's remaining climber Gasparotto does some sort of suicide break in the next couple days.

Penguin will ride for NBOL for the rest of the Giro offering his services on the upcoming climbs for approximately 200m.

It will be interesting to see who walks away with the Maglia Rosso Prosciutto - two riders with 3 stages (PBP and NBOL) plus a handful with 2 wins.

[VdB]

Patrick B. Penguin, on 24 May 2012 - 07:32 PM, said:

Penguin also concedes the sprinting title to VdB for this Giro... Penguin's only hope of catching VdB now is if Penguin's remaining climber Gasparotto does some sort of suicide break in the next couple days.

VdB accepts the congratulations but does want to point out that finishing 100th instead of Penguin's 101th place doesn't mean much when Penguin is leading on points (3 stages). VdB cannot win another stage in this Giro (barring a miracle), so this has been a failure. He's happy that De Gendt's performances may keep him relatively high in the team overall at the end of the Giro though! Now if he could only gain a few more places in the GC...

[Patrick B. Penguin]

Penguin and NBOL are in great danger of losing the maglia rosso jersey to guidemd who collected her third win today. Penguin is a little divided as to where his loyalties should lie for tomorrow's stage - NBOL for his years of loyal service or guidemd because it's good for Penguin's health?

[The Rake]

Patrick B. Penguin, on 25 May 2012 - 09:40 PM, said:

Penguin and NBOL are in great danger of losing the maglia rosso jersey to guidemd who collected her third win today. Penguin is a little divided as to where his loyalties should lie for tomorrow's stage - NBOL for his years of loyal service or guidemd because it's good for Penguin's health?

Rake apologises to the Sprinters.Once again GuideMD beat him to the line by mere seconds...And GuideMD won the prologue so Rake thinks the Maglia Rosa is gone for another year

[N.B.O.L.]

Patrick B. Penguin, on 25 May 2012 - 09:40 PM, said:

Penguin and NBOL are in great danger of losing the maglia rosso jersey to guidemd who collected her third win today. Penguin is a little divided as to where his loyalties should lie for tomorrow's stage - NBOL for his years of loyal service or guidemd because it's good for Penguin's health?

If NBOL is going to lose the maglia rosso, losing it to someone who is in 6th place overall on WP will lessen the sting a little. NBOL is more worried about his brain/memory. NBOL swears he was in 5th place on the team in yesterdays standing. NBOL lost only 28 points to Rake today, but is now in 6th place 71 points behind Rake. There is a warp in the universe somewhere. (Most likely in NBOL's brain).

Having said all that a great big shout out to all the Canadians who rode well today, both in the race and on WP.

[N.B.O.L.]

José Rujano dropping out today did not help Toto with over half having him on their team.

Jokkee's team is doing best attrition wise having only lost 2 riders, with GuideMD & Jimmie right behind losing 3 riders each.

Penguin is suffer the worst with only 4 riders remaining. But when you are a sprinter in a mountainous Grand Tour, these things happen.

Happy to see that Penguin himself made the time cut today.

[Patrick B. Penguin]

Congratulations to NBOL who takes sole possession of the coveted Maglia Rosso Prosciutto with his 4th stage win. Penguin was happy NBOL decided to put winter rubber on the pedicab last night and did not get stuck in any snowbanks.

[N.B.O.L.]

While NBOL is quite pleased with his Toto stage placement today, it was only 286th overall, and the team plummeted to 31st place. NBOL was spoiled by the teams earlier success.

[VdB]

VdB was surprised to see that he was leaving Guidemd behind on the Stelvio, coming in just behind NBOL! Congrats to the latter to grab the points jersey after all his tireless work for Penguin, too! Guidemd may be creeping up to him again in the final TT though, with Hesjedal and Phinney on her team.

[Patrick B. Penguin]

It just became a lot more expensive for guidemd to include token Canadians on her future teams!!

[N.B.O.L.]

According to NBOL's calculations the winner for today's stage is one of the Crocketts, who both had Thomas. Rake will be in 3rd place having the 4th & 6th place riders, and NBOL will be in 4th place having 5th & 6th place. The final ranking points should be interesting, but NBOL has made no effort to figure them out. NBOL is pretty sure that GuideMD will hang on to team pink.

[N.B.O.L.]

N.B.O.L., on 27 May 2012 - 05:09 PM, said:

According to NBOL's calculations the winner for today's stage is one of the Crocketts, who both had Thomas. Rake will be in 3rd place having the 4th & 6th place riders, and NBOL will be in 4th place having 5th & 6th place. The final ranking points should be interesting, but NBOL has made no effort to figure them out. NBOL is pretty sure that GuideMD will hang on to team pink.

When NBOL did his calculations, he failed to include the jersey points for Hesjedal. Congratulations to Rake for his victory. NBOL apologizes to the Crocketts, if his preliminary calculations got their hopes up.

[N.B.O.L.]

And another congratulations for Rake taking the final ranking position as well, nosing out NBOL by 2 points.

GuideMD does take the overall, and had a very solid Giro for someone who claims to have put no thought into picking her team.

The team continued it's slide down the WP rankings finishing in 59th place.

[The Rake]

Rake is better than Humperdinck!

He has no idea what the final ranking thing means, but two stage wins and second overall if great (congrats to GuideMD for first overall). Rake has equalled the best ever GT position for a Brit - and on a day when watching a different sport his home country won, and better still, his home county became rugby county champions!

Thanks to NBOL for kind words - two points is too close. Should be shared

This post has been edited by The Rake: 27 May 2012 - 09:24 PM

[VdB]

VdB wonders if ITT should design a 'better than Humperdinck' shirt for The Rake. Every year during the Giro he will win the jersey if he outscores the UK's eurovision entry (so, basically, he may as well wear it from the start ).

Honor rolls for the Giro 2012:

Maglia Rosa: Guidemd!
Maglia Rossa: NBOL
Maglia Verde: Shared NBOL/Guidemd

Congrats to all! Clearly, this was a climber's Giro then. The two ITT members sharing the climber's jersey also sweeping the points and pink! VdB is not sure how he should rate NBOL's performance after years of loyal service to Penguin in the sprints, but confesses that he doesn't really mind that much as long as he (VdB) finishes well above PBP!

Up to the Tour then...where the sprinters usually have more of a say. VdB is starting work on his squad already.

[shag]

VdB, on 29 May 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

Honor rolls for the Giro 2012:

Maglia Rosa: Guidemd!
Maglia Rossa: NBOL
Maglia Verde: Shared NBOL/Guidemd

Hey, don't forget shag's decisive "win" for the lanterne rouge. Shag was disappointed that nobody really gave shag a serious run for his money ... a hard-fought victory is always sweeter than a walkover.

VdB ... anything we can do about having more feeds for the Tour? Shag was distracted by the paucity of feeds in this Giro ... seemed like shag was needlessly distracted by always counting down the kms to the next feed zone ... where's that feed zone ... where's that feed zone ... WHERE'S THE F'IN FEED ZONE??? How's a guy supposed to race when he's always hungry?

This post has been edited by shag: 29 May 2012 - 01:03 PM

[VdB]

shag, on 29 May 2012 - 01:02 PM, said:

Hey, don't forget shag's decisive "win" for the lanterne rouge. Shag was disappointed that nobody really gave shag a serious run for his money ... a hard-fought victory is always sweeter than a walkover.

VdB ... anything we can do about having more feeds for the Tour? Shag was distracted by the paucity of feeds in this Giro ... seemed like shag was needlessly distracted by always counting down the kms to the next feed zone ... where's that feed zone ... where's that feed zone ... WHERE'S THE F'IN FEED ZONE??? How's a guy supposed to race when he's always hungry?

VdB blames NBOl for this who, instead of doing his usual domestique work, was constantly riding in the vanguard of the peloton and trying to follow Guidemd.

[N.B.O.L.]

shag, on 29 May 2012 - 01:02 PM, said:

Hey, don't forget shag's decisive "win" for the lanterne rouge. Shag was disappointed that nobody really gave shag a serious run for his money ... a hard-fought victory is always sweeter than a walkover.

VdB ... anything we can do about having more feeds for the Tour? Shag was distracted by the paucity of feeds in this Giro ... seemed like shag was needlessly distracted by always counting down the kms to the next feed zone ... where's that feed zone ... where's that feed zone ... WHERE'S THE F'IN FEED ZONE??? How's a guy supposed to race when he's always hungry?

NBOL reminds shag that the feed zones are those areas where the guys are standing beside the road holding the little bags out. The big tents with all the picnic tables and the 4 course meals are the VIP areas, not the feed zones.

[shag]

N.B.O.L., on 29 May 2012 - 01:14 PM, said:

NBOL reminds shag that the feed zones are those areas where the guys are standing beside the road holding the little bags out. The big tents with all the picnic tables and the 4 course meals are the VIP areas, not the feed zones.

Huh? Shag asks NBOL to contact shag offline to explain this statement ... not making any sense ... can't fit a ham into one of those little bags, can you???

[N.B.O.L.]

Patrick B. Penguin, on 27 May 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

It just became a lot more expensive for guidemd to include token Canadians on her future teams!!

It looks like Hesjedal will ride the Tour this year as well. This should give guidemd (and NBOL) one more chance to take him cheap before next years prices go into effect.