Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2013, Stage 10

Altopiano del Montasio. Photo via Cycling Passion

Day 5 of the Six Days of the Giro continues with an impromptu VSP event.

Lets have a look at where we are in the 2013 Giro. Wiggins must have spent time training in Luxembourg because he’s been descending like a Schleck when things get dodgy before disappearing into the team van to have a cry about it. Hesjedal has put in some good moves and then proceeded to get creamed in the time trial before getting shelled on the last climb in yesterday’s stage. Evans seems to be riding like he did when he won the Tour though he’s sure to get sick before very much longer, as appears to be his usual approach to racing. Perhaps the biggest shock is that Gesink has managed to both stay in contention and on his bike. And Nibbles is killing it, proving once again that moving to a team with a long history of doping is usually all anyone needs to convert from contender to winner.

We’ve also had climbs, rain, rain, climbs, turns, descents, twists, rain, climbs, and more rain. The Giro is proving once again why it is the best Grand Tour of the year.

In honor of the first big climbing stage and with the time gaps already big enough to suggest some bigger, gutsier moves from some of those riders who have already lost time, this could be a zinger. Most likely some wild cards will escape and stay away, which makes naming your picks even harder than usual, but surely the favorites who are already behind will lay down massive helpings of the V to try to claw time back. The irony is not lost on me that the climb has the word piano in it, when you know the last thing that would ever happen is that they would ride up there at an easy tempo.

Get your picks in by the time the clock goes to zero. There isn’t much time, so get to it.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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Bianchi Denti says:

May 15 2013 at 1:29 pm

@piwakawaka

@Bianchi Denti

@frank

@Nate, @Bianchi Denti, @tessar

You guys are cute with those theories, but if I'm not mistaken, the Columbians certain have their fare share of doping positives.

There are a handful of riders who left the sport due to credible cases of not wanting to dope (Andy Hampsten, Edwig van Hooydonk, Graeme Obree) but I'd need more than a blog post (which I didn't read, to be fair) to be convinced of such things.

The fact is, so long as Sky races the way they do, and Astana, and Katusha, then I'm very skeptical that the sport is in fact cleaner at all, which nullifies all those arguments.

@JohnB

The fact is, we don't know and the racing is just as awesome if they're doping or not. I'd prefer them to be clean, but its not the reason I watch the racing and its not the reason I love the sport.

While I'm flattered that you think I'm cute, that's not the issue here (save it for KT 2014).

I agree that we don't and probably never will know for sure. But the Colombian ascendency has followed the bio passport implementation and a general reduction in climbing rates. So I'm still willing to believe that they are fast and clean.

Re: Sky, Katusha and Astana - there is a rumour this week that a "former GT winner" is about to be charged by the UCI for bio passport problems. These 3 teams all have at least one former GT winner riding for them.

If anyone is interested, http://www.cyclinginquisition.com focuses on Colombian pros past and present. They have an excellent photo article this week on the 91 Tour.

I'm more worried about the size of Evans jaw these days, who woulda thought it could get any bigger? Seems to be a performance correlation! What happened to the Canuck? Very disappointing.

Yes. BMC also has a former GT winner in their ranks. But it's all speculation and innuendo until we see a UCI press release.
Bianchi Denti says:

May 15 2013 at 1:39 pm

@Deakus

@Buck Rogers Sylvain Georges just tested positive at the Giro for Heptaminol....I am guessing he will go for a B sample but he is out for now, and I thought the French were generally better at this sort of stuff than the other sherbert sniffing countries....that was how I was explaining their shit performance in recent years anyway....

I say don't bother trying to figure out if they are clean or not. Just focus on rigourous testing and ban the fuck out of those that cheat...honestly the UCI seem to feel smug that they are now wanting to move to 4yr bans! In athletics it is lifetime! That is one hell of a deterrant....

In the meantime just enjoy the riding.

Agreed. A lifetime ban instead of a 2 year highly paid training break like Valverde, Basso, Pellizotti, di Luca, etc, have taken recently should be a deterrent. But that puts pressure on testing bodies to make sure their processes are water-tight, and the UCI would have to sharpen its act immensely regarding policy and procedure. For that latter reason alone, I doubt lifetime bans will ever be imposed.
Beers says:

May 18 2013 at 2:51 pm

Have the riders all been pashing each other or something, Twiggo, Hesjedal, even Wurf (excellent blog) been suffering from chest infections. Either that or they been sucking in each others snot rockets... yuk
G'rilla says:

May 18 2013 at 8:28 pm

Last 30 minutes of today's foggy stage:

http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-a0b1fd0c-2ad3-4611-a9c1-989fef3b5658-raisport.html#set=ContentSet-7bbd2092-5ccb-440f-a6a1-c8ab90a5c9ac&page=0
Bianchi Denti says:

May 20 2013 at 12:54 pm

@Bianchi Denti

@frank

@Nate, @Bianchi Denti, @tessar

You guys are cute with those theories, but if I'm not mistaken, the Columbians certain have their fare share of doping positives.

The fact is, so long as Sky races the way they do, and Astana, and Katusha, then I'm very skeptical that the sport is in fact cleaner at all, which nullifies all those arguments.

Re: Sky, Katusha and Astana - there is a rumour this week that a "former GT winner" is about to be charged by the UCI for bio passport problems. These 3 teams all have at least one former GT winner riding for them.

So, Menchov just retired...