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.
Just saw twitter feed–RAI reports Weylandt has passed.
cyclingnews.com confirms Weylandt has died.
Shit. Horrible news.
I wonder if Weylandt’s death will prompt organizers to reroute some the more extreme mountain stages coming up?
@benjamin
I don’t think so. However, the organizers may neutralize some of the descents. I think the peloton may unofficially neutralize some of them as well.
Very bad news.
I can only imagine how terrible it was for any of his family & friends watching and then hearing the updates.
RIP, Walter.
Thats terrible, just saw the news, feel for his family and friends, bad day for the Giro.
Just got a minute to log on and check results and saw the news about Weylandt. Horrible day. Prayers for comfort to his family, friends and teammates.
Man, sad news. That’s certainly not what I was expecting to see when I got to work this morning and checked on the race news. I feel awful for his family and teammates.
Both the Leopard Trek and Wouter Weylandt websites are down.
Many of the riders are tweeting now. From what I saw, Cav was one of the first. IMHO, Cav is a good guy. His tweet seemed heartfelt and personal while many of the others looked like templates.
This fucking sucks. Sport isn’t supposed to be like this. Thoughts out to family and friends. To Velominati everywhere: think about Wouter on your next pedal turn. Be. Careful.
Got slammed at work and missed the stage. What a terrible, terrible day. Thoughts go out to family, friends and team mates of Wouter Weylandt.
If there’s one small consolation, it’s that he died doing what he loved. RIP.
Such tragic news about Weylandt. Though the peloton is sure to neutralize descents moving forward, I would be very surprised if tour officials don’t step in and reroute a few stages.
Terrible terrible terrible news… It’s way too easy to forget how dangerous our avocation is, and minimize the perils the pros face every day. Godspeed to Mssr. Weylandt, and condolences to his loved ones.
Wouter Weylandt, 26 years old.
I don’t even know what to say.
He would become father in September.
OMM, this is unbelievably bad news. Can someone verify and post further details?
i watched the stage live. while they didn’t show the crash happen, there were a few seconds of brutal imagery of Weylandt on the ground surrounded by medics. the scene wasn’t something i wanted to replay, out of fear for the worst. this is a terribly sad ending to a very beautiful day.
W Wouter Weylandt
(jeez, I got his name wrong before)
RIP, Wouter.
Today’s stage started with a moment of silence. I’ve also heard that Tyler Farrar will not start today.
I had a feeling the team might line up today. I wonder if they will exit the race tomorrow.
Alrighty. Back to racing. Dirt roads. Climbs. Epic shit today. Group of 60 riders forming. Tankink off the front. Nice.
Schleckanical for Tankink. That sucks.
I’ve gotta say, La Gazzetta has a pretty slick interface to their video feed.
another rider down. shit!
Kohler is putting in one hell of a good ride.
@RedRanger
That’s not a serious crash, from the looks of it. A bad cut or a broken bone, nothing out of the ordinary. That’s more what we’re accustomed to, and – not be callous – but it’s these types of crashes that get us so shocked when it’s more serious like with Wouter.
Crazy stage today, with a Dutchman hangin’ tough. What’s more is that today represents the first day of any contestant actually scoring a point, which is amazing in itself.
Today was our first day back racing, but I think it was an honorably tough ride.
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@frank
That is a really cool interface, and I like the peloton “spread” icons at the bottom. Is that a free feed or do you have to pay for it?
@frank
how did they score a point?
Rabobank clearly had a plan to put a guy out front today. Sucks for Tankink. And what’s with all the chain suck these days? I guess 39-53 plus new bottom bracket design = Schleckanical for every stage.
I like Millar these days. Heroic effort to get back on. No surprise that the last climb gutted him. He chased back on without any help. He led yesterday’s tribute to Weylandt with real grace. Chapeau for his two days in pink.
Also, chapeau to Le Mevel. He’s one of my favorites. Two top 5 finishes on some tough stages.
What’s with so many Aussies littering the bottom of the GC? Sacrificial lambs? Granted, many are GarVelos.
@mcsqueak
It’s free. I was taking that feed this afternoon too. Very nice. I have the cyclingnews ticker in another tab, too. They’ve done a redesign of their live text ticker, too. I like the new look and other additions.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Nice to be back to racing… loved the bits of strade bianche, and how they spread the race all over the road.
Great win for Weening, although there was too much looking around from the big boys and not enough Rule V for my taste… no way he stays away for the win without the horseplay.
BTW, that climb up to Orvieto is a freaking beast…
@RedRanger
Who aerolegs? Was wondering the same.
@sgt
I, too, love the strade bianche. It’s more civilized than the cobbles of Roubaix, but no less challenging. On Eurosport, Harmon and Kelly speculated about whether teams used specific tires, or if they rode with a normal setup. The guys with mountain bike and cyclocross backgrounds seemed to move to the front. There was just enough strade bianche to savage the peloton and not enough to warrant special equipment or ruin the chances of the usual GC contenders. Man, that was fun to watch.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Me too. I have no idea of the Giro’s history, really, so this’ll sound weird if there’s a long and proud one of such stages which, knowing cycling, there probably is. (and I just googled three spellings of strada bianca and there is, if you go back 50 years)
But.
Last year’s stage seven was just epic. It’s one of the stages that I will look back on in twenty-five, thirty years as a classic and bore my grandkids about. Or am I just loving that an Aussie won it? In either case, it seems to me that the inclusion of the strade bianche adds that unpredictable quality that makes cycling such a great sport.
And yeh, there’s not quite the danger of adding pave to the Tour, with the real danger of losing GC guys to injury and crashes. You may lose time on the white roads, but not your kneecaps.
Don’t get me wrong. No one was more excited about a cobbled stage in the Tour last year than I was. I happen to believe that GC contenders have to put up or shut up on every surface. GC riders are SO specialized. They have little talent on surfaces other than smooth roads that point upward. Grand tours should be grand. IMHO they should have a little bit of everything.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
+1, though this may not be the tour for non – climbers to shine, given the route.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
I was going to write this in the previous post, but I can remember Sastre with CSC complaining about the flat transfer stages in the tour cos his team had too much work to do to control the pace, when he was a contender. If your high profile athletes whinge about flat courses, or avoid the events altogether, like Qatar, it’s not surprising race organisers head to the mountains, and the riders have figured out ways to win is to win those stages. Saste did fall in my opinion, (like anyone cares) I wanted to grab his scrawny shoulders and yell at him, it’s a f’king race! Everyone rides the same route as you and you’re tucked up in the bunch at 3rd or 4th wheel, put a sock in it. Also fell out of fascination with Spanish riders around the same time.
@frank
So i get nothing for Serpa finishing third on the stage, points are done on GC position? Bugger, all that excitement wasted.
I’m almost loath to ask, but do I have to wait until the first rest day to insert a change for Feillu? And is there a penalty associated with that?
@Steampunk
Yes and Yes
@Steampunk
No, and no. DNFs for whatever reason are free, and you swap them the day-of (technically until 5am Pacific the next day) I should have posted them earlier but you will see in the next 10 minutes the option to revise your picks.
VSP PICKS:
1. Contador
2. Vinnie Nibbles
3. J-Rod
4. Tommy Löfkvist
5. Serpa
So what are you guys thinking about Le Mevel? GarVelo has had a pretty good race so far (save for the blown field sprint in stage two – which feels like ages ago) and Millar’s “Dave Matthews in Central Park Crash-into-me-crashing-into-you” festival, it’s been pretty good. And they rode well for LeMev today.
Is he for real?
OK, testing to see if I can swap out Farrar, as I think the poor guy dropped out of the race. Does that count as a DNF?
VSP PICKS:
1. Contador
2. Nibali
3. Scarponi
4. Jackson Rodriguez
5. Kreuziger
@benjamin
Too soon to tell about Le Mevel, but it should be fun to watch him develop over the next few weeks. That said, Millar gets major props today for grinta. Have really always liked him, but especially since his rehabilitation, just seems to race with his heart on his sleeve, and has elegantly slipped into a supporting role from having been essentially a rock star at Confidis.
Side note; the UCI adopting a “no needles” policy is interesting – Millar has been saying he adopted that rule for himself after his comeback, saying it’s much too slippery a slope once you start taking vitamin injections, and you never really know what you’re getting.
@frank
I think Millar’s prudence is wise. Is it coincidence that the UCI announced “no needles” as the federal case against Lance continues to ramp up?
@benjamin
Fixed your post.
@frank
Thanks, Frank.
Is there any chance there’ll be a Tour of CA VSP in the future?
Le Mevel is one of my favorites. He’s my dark horse for a top 5. Well, if I hadn’t Delgado’d, he’d be in my top 5. You’ll see my picks after the rest day. Merckx, that 10 point penalty is gonna hurt.
GarVelo is all about Le Mevel now that Farrar is gone and Millar is more than 2 minutes back. If ever there was a chance for him to shine, this race is the one. All of Garvelo’s B-team guns are here for his exclusive use. Plus, I do think he has the talent. He has at least the same talent as Christian Banged-and-Felled.
Then again, this Giro is all about climbing. I could be very wrong about Le Mevel come the third week.