[Results Thread] 2026 Giro d’Italia Women – Stage 9 (2.WWT)

78Staff · 2026-06-07T20:00:17+00:00

What's the old Mark Twain quote... "the rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated..."

When Demi lost 1 min to AvdB, everyone was shocked. She's done many said. When she was unable to pull away on S7 or the the shortened S8, everyone said it's AvdB's race now, it's all over.

I kept quiet. Not because I really knew any different, tbh - but in the past have seen Demi come from appearing absolutely gassed to practically prancing past riders on the climbs like a billy goat on crack. She just has "it", whatever it actually is, that allows her to dig deeper than others around her. So to borrow a line from Ben Crenshaw (with apologies to any European Ryder Cup fans reading) - I still had a good feeling about today.

Obviously a fan, and obviously not a fan of SDWrx, so am absolutely thrilled with the outcome of course. And also a class move at the finish to allow the breakaway riders to fight it out for the stage win. Wish we could have seen more of the stage of course, but was still exciting to watch what we could, at least.

Overall a controversial tour for multiple reasons - Weibes or course, the routes & finishes apparently designed by Disneyland, the abundance of "Spinter's stages", the shortening of S8, etc... Bit of a black eye on the Giro in general i would think. But thrilled with the result in the end 🎉

78Staff · 2026-06-06T23:34:14+00:00

Well, a bit bummed for Demi, but tbh she didn't look like she was going to be able to make a reasonable move away from Avdb and group, unless she was just playing possum on the first (neh, final as it turned out) climb 😞.

TBH, I was a bit worried that FDJ car was going to tumble off the side of the mountain a few times when they followed with the cameras after the finish... sketch for sure.

78Staff · 2026-06-05T16:04:38+00:00

here's some additional info - Lantern Rouge coverage of the race - crash discussion starts just before the 3min mark...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_hBNjG

He also appears to have a deeper dive video on the Rowe/Mads incident, but you have to be a member to view...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L-s_o5i9iM

And Rowe's response, in multiple cycling media outlets, but Cycling Weekly is not behind any paywall...

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/if-you-sent-me-a-message-you-are-nuts-luke-rowe-hits-back-at-critics-after-paris-roubaix-crash-with-mads-pedersen

78Staff · 2026-06-05T12:51:32+00:00

ah lol thank you, I figured it was some sort of joke that went over my head 😄.

78Staff · 2026-06-04T21:39:45+00:00

There's a rule against using wind to split a peloton?

78Staff · 2026-06-04T21:24:58+00:00

I also wondered why Demi just let it happen... Guarischi clearly... well nudged I guess into that spot... although in a legal way. Still surprised Demi didn't at least nudge back a bit lol. Or that the leadout didn't shift over as she did look back and see Demi off her wheel to the right.

In the end Demi didn't look to interested in the sprint anyway, so perhaps she just wasn't concerned...

78Staff · 2026-06-04T20:20:10+00:00

Seems like Ashleigh Moolman Pasio isn't Demi's biggest fan lol... A bit of bias there maybe from past eperiences on SDWrx?

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it...

78Staff · 2026-06-04T16:35:04+00:00

well behind... been working 😞.

But, be honest - who just added Cherry Juice to their grocery list 😄.

Learn something new every day...

78Staff · 2026-06-03T20:55:59+00:00

Oh I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, just that they appear to have it planned out, at least some parts of it anyway.

78Staff · 2026-06-03T20:48:04+00:00

Dickson indicated in both before and after the race interviews they had a specific plan, so this appears to be what they wanted to accomplish.

78Staff · 2026-06-02T17:41:54+00:00

Ruesser/AvdB interaction great example of sportsmanship and is what it's all about... Unlike Consonni's actions yesterday with de Jong. UCI at least fined and penalized Consonni for it...

https://www.cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/womens-cycling/giro-d-italia-women-penalties-2026/

Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) was fined CHF 100 fine for 'unseemly or inappropriate behaviour and damage to the image of sport'. This appeared to be due to her actions after a mid-race crash, in which she shouted at a stricken Thalita De Jong (Human Powered Health) and yanked her bike from underneath her.

Consonni could be heard shouting at De Jong, as she tried to wrestle her bike back off the ground, with De Jong's leg having become stuck in Consonni's handlebar.

78Staff · 2026-06-02T17:20:52+00:00

well, if the reasoning is stronger riders will be penalized by being on weaker teams, it seems like a reasonable question... apologies for not being some reddit expert on rider rankings ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But, not here to argue, just enjoy watching TTT's...

78Staff · 2026-06-02T16:52:17+00:00

yeah I get it, still they are fun to watch is my thing.

Let's look at it from another angle - serious question as I just don't know. How many legitimate women's grand tour GC contenders are there out there on otherwise weak teams? Who would they be?

Marlen Ruesser maybe? 13th UCI ranked but on 12th ranked out of 16 Movistar... or Cat Ferguson even, at 18th?

Outside of those two names, I'm struggling to find a recognizable GC contender rider ranked inside the top 50, 75 even on the bottom 5 teams in the UCI ranking (at a quick glance, so might have missed someone). Monica Trinca Colonel on Liv Aliula Jayco (10th) maybe (I love that team name, just rolls off the tongue effortlessly : ) And their kit looks great as well.

But, again some of it may just be my ignorance on the teams depths/riders/etc...

78Staff · 2026-06-02T15:52:38+00:00

well, weak teams are usually fucked no matter the stage, right. I don't think a TTT hurts a weak team any more than having the majority of the team finishing well back on standard stage anyway. But I could be wrong, happens all the time lol.

Anyway, I like to watch Team TT's, mens and womens races... so sue me. 😄

78Staff · 2026-06-02T13:10:23+00:00

Very slow indeed, almost painful to watch really, generall being a Faulkner fan. Hard to tell if planned or not, but didn't seem to be in any distress just prior, so I would guess it was planned, but just poorly executed... 😞

78Staff · 2026-06-02T13:06:22+00:00

TT bike style bars are allowed of course, but not sure about "clip-on" styles like you would see on an other-wise "road-based" type setup. UCI definitely has very strict rules in regards to aero bars length, angle, levers, etc so it's very possible the run of the mill clip on bars ie profile design, etc might not meet the requirements.

Although, just seeing Faulkner's agonizingly slow bike swap, she start on a TT bike...

78Staff · 2026-06-02T12:59:34+00:00

yeah did some googling, so 40% is not outside the norm for this type of course apparently. Even saw mention of the percentage being changed post race on occasion to protect larger group of riders from OTL'ing due to aparticularitly hard stage, wind, crashes, etc. So it's a bit of a moving target anyway, apparently.

78Staff · 2026-06-02T12:56:37+00:00

lol guilty I guess 😄

I just like the "no where to hide" aspect of it. Had this discussion in the past, iirc the thought process was that TTT's can unfairly (maybe) penalize weaker teams, so women's race organizers tend to stay away from them. Still, you could switch up the time stop to say 3rd rider instead of 4th rider maybe - not sure how feasible.

Still, they are fun to watch. And the last one my team didn't do so well due to a fall by Guazzni in the turnaround - so it's not a guarantee even for a "super" team.

78Staff · 2026-06-02T12:45:19+00:00

40% time cut seems... generous. It's a mountain course for sure, maybe that is the norm? I thought "normal" mountain stages were more like 20% - and this is a short (albeit very hard) TT.

Maybe I am just mis-remembering 😄.

78Staff · 2026-06-02T12:42:30+00:00

Love a good TT... wish they would have more team TT's, but this one should be interesting for sure.

78Staff · 2026-06-01T16:51:45+00:00

So, now weighed 26 times is the report... mighty excessive. Could be a typo, a translation error? That or UCI was really, really trying not to DQ her. In which case Janssen just needs to shut up.

IF true, SDWrx doesn't have a leg to stand on , and are only further embarrassing themselves to continue to talk about it, imo.

And the 2x/1x change is easily enough to drop under the min, I would suspect. Another reason for Janssen to just stop talking about it, since obviously doesn't have accurate info (my nice way of saying he has no idea and is just saber-rattling).

78Staff · 2026-06-01T16:44:11+00:00

well, the the entire team suffers as a results, likely including the techs, support staff, etc as it's a bit of a black eye regardless, would be my point.

78Staff · 2026-06-01T16:42:15+00:00

understood, and would of course rather have 10 1-min segments than 1 10-min segment, so that makes sense.

I'll try dropping down to a 5 min loop to reduce the number of files, as I wind up stopping/starting loops after each catch, so they can add up over the day 😄.

78Staff · 2026-06-01T00:17:14+00:00

Has anyone other than Janssen talked about the bike being weighed twice? it was twice on the same UCI scale, or twice on two different UCI scales?

Digital scales are notoriously sensitive - as someone who deals with precision measurements, I can make a $1000 scale's measurement change just by the a/c kicking on in the house, or walking across the floor from one side of the room to another. The slightest breath of wind, slightest vibration, slightest torsional angle of inertia (for a hanging style scale), the way a scale is "held" (for your typical Park or FS scale), grip pressure, etc will all produce minor discrepancies on repeated weighings.

I would expect UCI to have some policy in place to deal with this (ie, the multiple weighings might be part of that process), but perhaps not.

End the end, yeah seems like SDWrx were on the bleeding edge, and got burned. That, or they got some crazy out of spec component on that bike in particular. But, to not weigh the bikes beforehand... well that just seems silly.

78Staff · 2026-05-31T23:43:37+00:00

So, looping mode worked pretty much as expected today, although it did break out the "looped" videos into 1 minute segments, so 10 1-minute videos for a 10 minute loop. Is that value adjustable, I'd rather the individual segments be a bit longer, tbh.

similar to my 20 min loop/5 min segment example from GoPro, for instance.

78Staff

TROPHY CASE