We’re into day four of the Six Days of the Giro series, let’s talk trash.
Yes the Tour de France started a few years before the Giro and has always been credited as The Tour to win. You win the Giro, you are a stud. Win the Tour and you are a stud for life. Why is that? Is the Tour longer, tougher, more murderous, more beautiful? In the 2013 edition, the Tour is a mere 25 km longer. The number of stages are the same. The Tour has earned a prestige it will never willingly cede. The Tour is it. Teams send their best riders. No one uses the Tour to train since the world championships were moved to September.
Obviously the maglia rosa is better looking than the maillot jaune, no argument. There is no arguing about podium girls; let us never argue about podium girls. Unless they are dudes, like that overly-politically correct scene where guys were pushed onto the stage a few years back. Either go Chippendale dancers or nothing if you can’t handle beautiful women on the stage. The Giro trophy is much hipper than the Tour fruit bowl. Is a leader’s all pink bike nicer than an all yellow bike? If not tarted up too much a De Rosa pearlescent pink paint job is beautiful. The same can be said for a beautiful yellow frame, but when the hubs, spokes and everything else on it matches the paint, arguing which is nicer is a lost cause.
Is France a more beautiful country to race through? From the rider’s perspective, they might not opine. They are looking at the jersey 1.5 meters in front of them or the next hairpin corner coming up fast. Day to day they might not even know which country they are in. From the high definition helicopter shots it would be a hopeless argument: both countries are incredibly varied and beautiful, like the podium ladies. Pastries, France, café, Italy. Before the advent of traveling team chefs, riders were at the mercy of whichever overworked, disgruntled chef was employed by the hotel. The French are renown gastronomies and renown for the terrible pasta they would serve Tour racers. If one was always fueling up on pasta and rice, one was much happier in the Giro.
What the Tour defiantly has over the Giro is Paris. Yes it is a parade but what a parade route. Riding into Paris and doing laps on the Champs Élysée; that’s how you end a Grand Tour. The Giro doesn’t always end in Milan, like this year’s finish in Brescia. They know the ride around Milan is not something to always be repeating. The Italians are more inclined to send the Giro route over strade bianche, gravel and dirt passes and up viciously steep ski station goat paths. Sometimes they go too far but they deserve credit for their craziness. The Giro has unfortunately always been about long transfers. Couple that with Italian inefficiency and riders may often eat too late and sleep too little. The French can whisk teams around the country in hours on the TGV. The Tour routes are more conservative, hitting the familiar climbs, avoiding the active volcanos.
If the Tour is the big show it’s partially because more money flows there, in almost all directions. There is a long standing fight about how little of that money flows towards the riders. The Giro has started to improve the team’s TV revenue sharing. It’s a smart move, if it benefits the teams financially, they will want to always be invited, they will take it more seriously, the Giro will improve. This could eventually put both the Giro and the Vuelta on a level with the Tour. Then we would really have something to argue about.
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@LA Dave
Perfect! Very well said indeed!
@Buck Rogers
Think about all of that and we are the negative slide for it (you know those little square bits of film going chuck k chuck through the carousel on to your living room wall for those that remember).
My Tour of California stuff starts late and ends late and I have to make the call "Can I get up to go to work this morning"
But positive slide show or negative....its all still wheels sweat and V! (sweat being the key element by the look of yesterdays stage ToC)
Best of it is, Jensy is bunking with someone young enough to be his son!
Time bonuses! That is all for now.
Damn, Hampsten's sock/shoe combo was pretty impressive. I didn't even pick up on the titles on RAI being in English. Damn, I guess I've been watching the racers too closely. So...what exactly does "corredore" mean?
Also, the stage when Rabotini won after falling, maybe posted in the VSP thread. How incredible is it when the announcer goes bonkers when Rabo overtakes Rodriguez. He's screaming, not announcing, and I love it.
LA Dave - nice work. And you could even argue the Tour gets extra demerits because for 3 weeks people give a fuck about the sport you love. Interlopers. The rest of the time you're an outcast that they try to run off the road.
I thought I was the only one getting those Russian bride popups...glad I can explain that away to the VMH.
@frank Fuck yeah! Awesome love!
One thing is for certain, the Giro certainly makes the TDF more interesting. Especially this year with what looks like a resurgent Cadel and a Wiggins with what most certainly looks like something to prove.
Btw, a little off topic but Grimplette didn't look all bad yesterday in what was a brutally hot stage. Throw in Froome and Contador and we might have some drama.
The Giro, by a long way !
Looking from a far in my airconditioned office in Oz, the Giro has that air of mystery and legend. The Tifosi and the rampant nature of the racing appears much more adhoc than the Tour.
The Tour "feels" more contrived and controlled and "staged" for want of a better word.
Dont get me wrong, both are equally awesome and carry big bags of V.
If I had one shot at visiting a GT it would be the "Pink" variety.
@Deakus
It Does Not Have Merit! Lets see want to go for a bike ride? Spain? Italy? France? Er England, not so much....
seems like the big bucks for cycling is in the Gulf, Tour of Dubai anyone?
@piwakawaka
A Formula 1 or FIFA style globalization might be the danger here, yes. But let's face it,the idea will never come true anyway, 1. because none of the grand tour organizers will be in favour of it and 2. because the UCI has the same propensity to reforms as North Korea.
@piwakawaka
I grant you the sun is lovely....but I would suggest they are going to have to change some stuff if yesterdays Tour of California was anything to go by.
Meanwhile here in Ol Blighty it is another Rule #9 day again......