Velominati Super Prestige: Giro di Lombardia 2012
Il Grillo gives it some stick in 06. Photo: actionplus sports images[/caption]
Lombardia is a beautiful race. Taking in the majestic shoreline of Lake Como and climbing past the shrine to the Madonna del Ghisallo, its stunning Italian-ness bookends the Monuments along with Milan-San Remo which started them way back in March. And it’s a coming out party, a debutantes ball for the newly crowned World Champion.
Not since Paolo Bettini in 2006 has the rainbow jersey won here, but even if the bands don’t always take the win they are usually well represented at the business end of the race. Cuddles tried out his new found attacking style in 2009 by setting up Gilbert for the first of his two wins, and now the Belgian has the perfect opportunity to show off his new kit and add a third. The betting might not be on if Gilbert wins, but how, and whether he chooses to don black shorts or goes for the full Cipo-style whiteout. Let’s hope common sense and good taste prevail, especially after Cav did such a stellar job of Looking Fantastic over the last twelve months.
The VSP overall race is also at a critical point, and could be decided this weekend. San Tonio has a nice little 13 point buffer and probably only needs to pick up minimum points, while the chasing pack may need to think outside the square and hope a roughie can deliver a la Zaugg last year. You could throw a blanket over 2nd, 3rd and 4th, so close are they to each other, with Gianni not far back tasked with upholding the Keepers’ honor and hoping for a late surge into the top 5 or even the podium.
Check out the start list, take some chances or play it safe, keep an eye on the timer and get your picks in for a chance to wear the Lombardia badge for the next year. Good Luck!
Here’s PhilGil’s last win in 2010, in some nice Rule #9 conditions…
VSP PICKS:
1. Contador
2. Gilbert
3. Voeckler
4. Rodriguez
5. Nibali
@Dr C
Oofaffo?
No Valverde? Swapsies.
VSP PICKS:
1. gilbert
2. nibali
3. jrod
4. gerrans
5. contador
@Gianni
Bahp Bwah…
@mouse
A+1
I’m gunning for a small breakaway to get clear and stay away, with Gilbert leading home as best of the rest.
My picks didn’t post it seems, but did get mapped. Let’s try again.
All change with Valverde out…thought about bringing Hesjedal back in but I have a stirring in my water that says Lampre will try and save their season on home turf.
VSP PICKS:
1. Jrod
2. Bertie
3. Gilbert
4. Nibbles
5. Ulissi
Nibali, Uran, Albasini, De Gendt, gilbert in that order (in case there’s a problem later).
No Valverde? Mixing it up then….
VSP PICKS:
1. Contador
2. Gilbert
3. Nibbles
4. Uran
5. Martin
@Deakus
I agree on Lampre, I debated Ulissi or Cunego.
VSP PICKS:
1. Gilbert
2. Rodriguez
3. Nibali
4. Contador
5. Pinot
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibbles
2. Purito
3. Giblets
4. Canhego?
5. Uran
Being that Voeckler is not actually taking part, I grudgingly withdraw him for Cunego.
VSP PICKS:
1. Cunego
2. Quintana
3. Uran
4. Nibali
5. Tiralongo
VSP PICKS:
1. Gilbert
2. Nibali
3. Porte
4. Rodriguez
5. Cunego
VSP PICKS:
1. Fast Phil
2. Cuntador
3. Purito
4. Nibbles
5. R Uran
Really, Phil? The world champ jersey with red team shorts? I won’t even start on the helmet…Your palmares in the coming year had better do the jersey justice since your sartorial choices apparently will not.
P.S. The bike looks sweet though.
@VeloVita
It almost makes me think he should have gone with the white shorts.
It looks like they are standard BMC team shorts or maybe he is doing us all a favor by not wearing white shorts in the rain.
@San Tonio
My understanding is that the WC jersey has to be paired with either white or standard team shorts (perhaps I’m mistaken). If so, then in this case I’d prefer the white. Cavendish lucked out and looked the business with Sky’s black team shorts. Maybe BMC will change their kit for next season and adopt a primarily black bibshort – we can only hope.
Gilbert has crashed out….
@Deakus
dang, I knew he wasn’t in the lead chase group, hoping that he had just been dropped and would latch back on. Bummer!
@Buck Rogers A race motorbike has also crashed out on the descent. I am not watching it but getting live updates here if you are interested..http://live.cyclingnews.com/
@Deakus
Ha! That’s where I am following it as well!
@Deakus
Actually pretty crappy coverge if you ask me. As much as I am not a huge velonews.com fan, their tdf live ticker was really great. Wish that they were running coverage today.
@Buck Rogers Seems to be updating very rarely…I get the feeling Daniel Benson is spending more time watching it than letting us know what is going on!
Oh man, sooooooo hoping Di Luca doesn’t win it! Shades of Veino.
@Deakus
Exactly! Cannot wait until I have home computer access again. I have been running off limited 3G ipad access since the end of May. Soon, soon.
Damn! Looks like Nibbles might be left behind. Two of my five VSPers gone on crashes!
Sounds like they are all falling off on greasy roads…Nibbles fell so did Tiralong0, de Weert and Mollema
How awesome would it be to see Martin or Ryder take it? Don’t really see it happening with Cuntador, Slammy Sammy, J Rod, Uran and Nibbles still in there, but one can dream.
@Buck Rogers Don’t say that I dropped Ryder for Nibbles!
@Deakus
Ha! Sorry, hope I didn’t jinx you! At least Frank finally got his dream classics weather from the sounds of it.
Looking at live pics, it is chucking it down… weather is so bad the camera signals are cutting out.
Haven’t seen anything for a couple of minutes, other than shots of wet people huddling near the finish line.
Zaugg has bridged up. Purito has 7 seconds with 6k left.
@LA Dave Go JRod go!
Fuck, this is the first VSP race in recent past I’ve left Purito out of my top 5.
Chase includes Uran, Henao, Contador, Zaugg, Kessiakof, and a couple others. Purito still 7 secs up with 2.8 k to go.
Chase group is swelling… Nibbles has bridged to them.
less than 1k, Puritos going to take it…
J-Rod wins… we’ll have to wait for a description of how.
Purito wins! Sanchez in second, Uran third, a BMC rider fourth and looks like Henao in fifth…
1-Purito
2-Sam Sanchez
3-Uran
4-Santambrogio
5-Henao
What a great season by JRod. Wins at La Fleche Wallone and Giro di Lombardia in addition to his strong stage racing. Today has to go a long way in helping him forget about the disappointment of the Vuelta.
Time to go ride.
What suspenseful finish, with the TV pictures breaking up so badly. Man, I love this race – rain rain rain!
Septhanganal Tie with a whopping four points being the biggest score – and I’ve never entered some of the names in the VSP who scored in the top five, so I guess that shouldn’t surprise me.
[vsp_results id=”20527″]
[/vsp_results]
The overall is shaping up nicely as well:
[vsp_gc]
[/vsp_gc]
Props to Purito for overcoming the usual peninsular lack of Rule #9 compliance.
Whoops! I think it mapped the wrong J Rod for the winner. Scores will be higher, just not by too much for me.
@frank
Every dog has his day. Batchubas too.
Also: I distinctly remember Deakus picking J-Rod to win?
Ah man… soggy bagel.