By no later than 7am PST we should be gathered around live video feeds for the year's first monument. [RAI on at 6:50, Cycling.TV 6:30.] MSR may be hard to predict, but this much we know: nothing will be decided before the last half-hour or so. The upside of the long, slow run-in across the plains of Lombardia is the frenetic final hour along the Capes of the Italian Riviera. Great theater, great scenery, great startlist, and hopefully a great race.
A process note: we aim to start a new thread when the current one gets near 300 comments, after which it doesn't function too well. Be ready to switch over as we near these milestones. And so we needn't change threads in the heat of the action, be ready to switch over a tad early sometime close to the Cipressa, depending on where things stand.
Feel free to start early as live tickers get rolling. Enjoy!