Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia
In the 1990 Giro, a relatively unknown cyclist named Gianni Bugno lit the cycling world on fire by winning the first stage, thereby taking the Maglia Rossa. That wasn’t so surprising in itself; what was surprising was that the little bugger managed to hold the jersey all the way to Milan, a feat previously only accomplished by Binda and Merckx postwar, and prewar legend Costante Girardengo.
This all happened in the age before smartphones and social media; while these days a stealth strike on the World’s Most Wanted Dude gets live-tweeted, in 1990 it took until well after I knew Greg LeMond had won the Tour de France before I found out that Bugno had won the Giro. Reading about the feat in Winning magazine, Bugno instantly became one of my heros and went on to cast himself into a bronze statue of Rad by being one of the few riders able to challenge Indurain in the following years. (He also possessed the mental frailty that seems to be common among my favorite riders. There’s something Shakespearean about heros with flaws that I simply can’t resist.)
The Giro d’Italia is just prestigious enough to be the maker of champions. It’s isn’t made up of a downgraded field like the Vuelta, but it also ins’t as popular as the Tour where only the best riders on the best teams seem to stand a chance. Every Giro produces a revelation that goes onto great things; that’s one of the key reasons this is my favorite Grand Tour: the field is strong enough to have serious contenders, but weak enough to let an outsider play. It’s perfect.
Aside from a well-balanced field, the geography of Italy lends itself to a better three week race than do France or Spain. Many European companies are defined by natural borders such as mountains or water, which generally means the mountains and great bodies of water lie at the borders with plains in between. (Or, as is the case with the Netherlands, beneath.) Italy is unique in that it is narrow and has mountainous terrain in nearly every region. Whereas the first week(s) of the Tour and Vuelta feature mostly flat stages suited for the sprinters and little else, the Giro’s first week generally contains several mountaintop finishes. The difficulty of a typical Giro’s first week means that riders who ride strongly there typically fade towards the end, while riders who were weak on the first climbs may come on strong as the race closes down. The result is a tight race from start to finish with regular changes in leadership. Except in 1990. And whatever years those other three guys who did what Gianni did.
This year’s Giro will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy by making strong men cry. Forty major climbs, and 7 mountain top finishes, one of which involves climbing Mount Etna twice. (Welcome to Sicily, assholes. You get to ride up the most active volcano on Earth twice.) I have it on the excellent authority of a man down the pub that Contador is stocking up on extra drugs even as I write this in an attempt to quiet the rattle of his skinny little bones in his spanish boots.
With that we kick off the best Grand Tour of the year, and the first test of our Grand Tour VSP Software. The other VSP editions have been a piece of cake. Grand Tours include free “swapping of the picks” logic whenever a rider in a contestent’s pick list drops out. We have rest day swaps for 2 or 4 points each, depending on which rest day it is. Our system is supposed to handle all of this smoothly and seamlessly. We’ll see.
Read the scoring guidelines, work out your strategy, dope up on clairvoyance drugs (alcohol) and chuck your picks up. As usual, the winner of this VSP edition will earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker and all reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free personalized Velominati Shop Apron. If you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings in the designated area above the posts section, bearing in mind that entry/modification of picks closes at 5am Pacific time on the day of the race. You are eligible to swap picks at no penalty for your picked riders who drop out; rest day picks each come at a 2 point penalty for the first rest day, 4 points each for the second.
Good luck.
@benjamin
I don’t know. He pulled out some impressive results last year, when he had less than ideal support. And while Cav has always enjoyed a superior train, he’s also found ways to get himself to the front. It’ kind of hard to see how and where riders fade in the final stretch, since the cameras are always following the front of the race.
Re. Garmin-Cervélo: it’s important to keep in mind that they’re rolling out their GC B team at the Giro. Although, it sounds they might have a schizophrenic line up in July, too, chasing sprint finishes and hoping Hesjedal and VDV can compete for the GC. Like you, I’m holding them to an impossible standard, but this looks like a very special team on paper.
@Steampunk, @benjamin
Cav is one of the few guys who can win with or without support. Impressive. Too bad he’s a fucknugget.
I blame Garmin’s issues on Vaughters; he was great as the leader of an upstart team, but he’s struggling to find his stride as leader of one of the biggest teams in the sport. They need decisive plans, and they need to lead from the front. Vaughters should sit down and watch every video he can find of Merckx racing.
He’s already made a mistake for the Tour putting two guys on GC, one for stage wins, and one for sprints. That’s 4 riders with divergent goals.
The key to strategic success is the concentration of force and mass; and drive towards consistent, predictable performance.
@mcsqueak
Found a bug; turns out our friend is actually a Gray Order velominatus. There may have been some others as well with artificially reduced level badges, my apologies to each of you.
Go Cavendish I say, without just blatently trolling, he seems to be showing a few more signs of maturity (pulling his punches in the press conference while he was wearing the Maglia Rosa) and getting some game back. Actually I’m really just happy he stayed upright, on his bike, during a sprint. Baby steps.
@Ron
They ALL do. 1. It would be unprofessional not to scope out opposition and watch own team and 2. Invariably they love their sport.
Follow a few riders on twitter and see what they tweet after and during races.
@minion
Agreed, no troll there man. I’m certainly open to the idea that Cav is maturing and gaining class. I know he’s a Velominatus in the sense of studying the sport’s traditions, legends, and history. Please know that I hesitate to take this analogy too far but, Mohammad Ali had a big mouth and he’s one of the greatest athletes of all time. I like that guy. Besides, when it comes down to a sprint between Ale Jet and CavenmaybeIcanreflectandgrowdish, I’ll root for Cav every time.
What the fuck is up with Pettachi. Maybe we should start calling him “if six was nine”.
@tomb
What race finish were you watching? Ale-jet broke Rule #59 twice, both times causing the Douche to check his path and at least at the first instance, check his speed too.
Whether he should have jumped earlier is a moot point. If this was anywhere other than Italy (or if Petacchi had a surname like McEwen, Brown or Reckshaw), I believe Petacchi would would have been relegated.
@frank
Speaking as someone who carries both the joy and burden of an apostrophe in their last name, let me say that this site isn’t the first to lay down in submission against the strength of this punctuation mark. The amount of times I have had my name shoved elsewhere on lists, etc. because a computer thinks that little punctuation mark is some sort of 27th letter of the alphabet… At least Stuey has the same problem…
@Marcus
Pretty disappointing to see the race officials not take action. I warm to Ale-Jet more than I do to Cav. But I warm even more to sporting code enforcement which is, and is seen to be, impartial. I don;t think that’s what we got with Stage 2. Only question in my mind is whether Cav was actually impeded – though the fact that he swerved twice (in response to Ale-Jet’s swerves) rather suggests he was.
I just think Cav started his sprint a bit too late & got beaten.
I don’t think Ale-Jet did too much wrong. Cav needs to be more gracious when
he loses o/w he will lose many fans.
@frank
I really miss Matt White. He was no BS and the riders all really respected him. I don’t know what the riders think about JV. They need to start delivering if they want to be called one of the best teams in the world. That means they better start taking TTTs and get a freaking win at the TdF.
After rooting for Garmin for so long, their inability to deliver big wins is grating on my patience. However, I am a Sac Kings fan so I grew up a glutton for punishment and am experienced in the art of being disappointed in one’s home team. Last year at the end of the season I was so pissed at VDV’s attitude after he crashed out of the Tour and really lacked passion for the sport as he went to ride the Vuelta. I said I was done being a VDV/Garmin fan. But as Frank said, Cavendish is a fucknugget and I find myself still rooting for Garmin. VDV needs to take a lesson from his own name and start dishing out the V. Hopefully Garmin will get a new GC rider next season while developing Talansky who will win the TdF one day. Rambling finished.
@ramenvelo
Totally agree with you about Matt White. I think losing Matt White has shaken GarVelo much more than I expected. I think JV is way too stretched–leading the charge against the UCI, driving and directing from the team car, tweeting, writing public letters and journals, negotiating contracts for next year, negotiating sponsorship contracts, etc. He needs another full-time Matt White. Very soon.
@G’phant, @minion, @Marko
I love Petacchi and hate The ‘Douche (though if he becomes humble, I can easily turn around on him; he is fun to watch sprint, no question) but while I don’t think the Pteranodon was malicious, I can’t see why he wasn’t relegated. He plainly went from the center line to the barriers and back. Though I don’t see Cav have to check his speed, so in the end I don’t think it impacted the sprint so much. Cav was behind him both times Petacchi broke his line, and in the end he rode much farther than anyone else, with all that weaving being done!
I also don’t think it’s fair to pin it on Italy; they’ve relegated their own riders before, and they were the most proactive about fleshing out their Puerto riders than any other country, including the US.
“The key to strategic success is the concentration of force and mass; and drive towards consistent, predictable performance.”
Holy fuck, Frank!
I’m writing this down and putting it on the wall in front of my work desk. Those are words to live by!
Fucking awesomeness, as always, from the Founder.
Damn, must watched that Universal Sports vid. I’ve gotta say that those announcers would bug the hell out of me.
I watch it on Eurosport and like King Kelly and the lead dude, not sure of his name.
Those guys on Universal are a bit too excitable.
Cav was a bit too impulsive, Petacchi diverted a bit his line but imho he’s a fair rider.
Yay! I’ve been promoted! Thank you!
@Pedale.Forchetta
Congrats :-)
I got demoted from 3 back to 4 with my fake tan post… that’s funny.
Hey, you get the palmeres, you started it. I think. no, wait… no.. eh whatever. Well, I’m honored, and how lovely that you aren’t bothered by it… men in touch with their ying are HOT (you can ignore that). Bravissima for our team of two!
(seemed natural to carry on with it, because so far everyone here is refreshingly adult in the good ways, including the posession of enough intelligence to recognize humor in many guises; and to posess good humour, period… quite an amazing place, this, actually. I feel like one of the guys, which makes ya’ll my GF’s. In a manly way.)
@frank
Italians sure have relegated their own before. Took a pretty nasty fall and very blatant chopping that time, though.
@frank
Relatively benign bug in the big picture if that’s all it does (tho certainly could be a benign symptom of some horrific unclosed do-loop somewhere, eating away at the bloggy underpinnings – better you than me) not a roach infestation or anything… this place is a lot less glitchy than plenty of others. Keep up the absolutely awesome work. Please. And thank you!
Dammit I missed stage 2 all around due to mother’s day festivities (USA) and it sounds like a head banger, and it’s 5am, want to at least read a recap but already mucking about here (in a good way) too long, eventually gotta sleep sometime (running on 2 hrs in 24 as is) when to catch up how to catch up… there’s always tomorrow! Er, today!
Who you callin Dorothy, ‘punk?
@Karolinka
Nawww shucks. I always think of sites like this as a room full of people, and when you show up it takes a while to get the who’s who of the room – you don’t just turn up and kick the founder in the shins then spit in his drink for instance. Glad you feel like you fit in, it’s a good sign that something is going right.
@Ron
It’s basically just the Bush Doctrine restated more articulately than “shock and awe”. Roll with it.
Did you notice Cav’s gesticulations? Very Euro. Obviously he’s learned Italian communication.
Two years ago it would have been the two fingered salute.
Wreckshaw’s lead out was a bit casual. Cav won’t miss the jump tonight…
@Karolinka
Umm, Marko. Why?
Fedex on yesterday’s sprint.
@frank
It’s just that Raleigh had 1000 wins in 10 years, and HTC 350+ since 2008.
@harminator
Um. He is Euro.
@frank according to VSP scoring guidelines I thought had until the start of the first rest day to make my picks:
“Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings on General Classification of each Grand Tour by the time the race reaches the first rest day.”
Any chance you could let me get my picks in?!?
@needmoreV
The cut off was 5am Franks time. you can put in your picks on the 1st rest day with a points penalization.
I have no idea anymore how, why, or what any of this means. I think I’m the butt of it all though.
@RedRanger
Thanks for rubbing salt in my roadrash. Sincerely, Delgado.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
maybe it will work to your benefit.
All of my picks have “dispute” next to them.
@Ron
During yesterday’s Giro stage at least, George Hincapie was riding with a couple of thousand of us at GFNY. (6th block of photos).
This is as close as I got:
Looks like a bad bad crash for one of the Leopard guys. Looks really bad…
That Leopard Trek rider on the deck looked stunningly bad. Sending out good thoughts.
Fuck.
There’s a Leopard Trek rider crashed looking very bad.
I hope he does ok.
When Sean Kelly says, “Please, God” three times talking about Walter Weylandt’s crash, that’s really bad.
@frank
Could it be that JV is just sh1t as a DS (no idea about race tactics despite having been there and sat through thousands of team meetings)?
He is clearly a control freak though, same way Cotho is too…
Nice daily diary from Cam Meyer (with his own behind the scenes vids) over at Cyclingtipsblog if you don’t mind me saying.
My god, my heart just skipped a beat watching the medics responding to Weylandt and seeing him lying on the road. Godspeed.
Weylandt receiving 15 minutes cardiac massage, adrenaline injections. Still on the ground.
I’ve read a tweet saying he’s been intubated and transported – said he had a pulse.
Please let it be so. So shocking.
@harminator
Fingers crossed
Okay, the racing is over for the day and I need to go about other things…but I’m frozen here wondering about Weylandts. Fingers crossed.
(didn’t see and don’t want to see the crash footage; I’m shaken as it is)
awful, awful crash.
Aww man, that’s just miserable, hang in there dude.
I rode over the Bocco last year, it’s a super fast descent.
The Italian TV producer was good to turn off the camera feed from the crash. The race organizers cancelled the podium ceremony.