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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tessar says:

May 14 2013 at 1:46 pm

@frank

@Buck Rogers

As I was mulling over the results of today's stage I started thinking that I really do not trust those Columbians as I bet they are doping like crazy down there in South America. I mean, the only guys that are likely doping more are the Spaniards where anything goes, unless you think about all the dirty Italians and the French with their history-they're also due for a return foray into the doping world but of course, that made me think about how the most likely organized doping program right now has to be British Sky so they are probably the worst but then again, where did they take their needle-tracked lead from, those cheating American Bastards US Postal and the COTHO which made me finally realize with great joy that I am not a doping racist as we all know that it started with the Dutch and who cares about them, right?

We didn't invent doping, we just systemized it, like we do with most things.

Very interesting point though, because I thought the same thing about the Columbians. I wonder if their status in the late eighties had to do with innovating EPO use? They can't stay on their bikes to save their life, either. It always seems to me there is a correlation between doping and poor bike handling skills.

There's a whole blog dedicated to Colombian cycling that wrote about the rise and fall of the Colombians in the late-'80s. It's the doping that made them disappear in the first place. Apparently many of them called it quits when sprinters started dropping them on the climbs.

These guys grow up and train at unbelievable altitudes, and apparently Colombian local racing is pretty competitive. That makes for natural climbing talent and high hematocrit.
Chris says:

May 14 2013 at 2:04 pm

@Buck Rogers

@frank

@ped

I promise that's not me.

Well, obviously it wasn't you b/c it was the bystander who crashed and not the pro cyclist.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

When I heard on twitter that someone had fallen off the edge of the mountain I'd assumed they meant Hesjedal rather than a spectator.

Turns out that it was rather worse for Ryder, he disappeared off the face of the planet.
frank says:

May 14 2013 at 2:19 pm

@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.
frank says:

May 14 2013 at 2:22 pm

@Chris How do you hear something on twitter? I'm only familiar with the version you read.
Chris says:

May 14 2013 at 2:25 pm

@frank

We didn't invent doping, we just systemized it, like we do with most things.

...It always seems to me there is a correlation between doping and poor bike handling skills.

The Dutch. Doping. Bike Handling Skills.
Chris says:

May 14 2013 at 2:31 pm

@frank That's a good point. Bit pedantic though. "I read on twitter that..." "I heard that..." or "It has been communicated to me in one way or another, the specific method of such communication being completely and utterly fucking irrelevant, that..." Take your pick.
Mikael Liddy says:

May 14 2013 at 2:42 pm

@Chris

@frank

We didn't invent doping, we just systemized it, like we do with most things.

...It always seems to me there is a correlation between doping and poor bike handling skills.

The Dutch. Doping. Bike Handling Skills.

Is it just me or does that guy bear a striking resemblance to JVS?
Mikael Liddy says:

May 14 2013 at 2:44 pm

@Chris

@frank That's a good point. Bit pedantic though. "I read on twitter that..." "I heard that..." or "It has been communicated to me in one way or another, the specific method of such communication being completely and utterly fucking irrelevant, that..." Take your pick.

My preferred term is 'according to the twitters', as it shows just the right amount of cynicism about the source of the material.
Buck Rogers says:

May 14 2013 at 2:54 pm

@Chris

@Buck Rogers

@frank

@ped

I promise that's not me.

Well, obviously it wasn't you b/c it was the bystander who crashed and not the pro cyclist.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

When I heard on twitter that someone had fallen off the edge of the mountain I'd assumed they meant Hesjedal rather than a spectator.

Turns out that it was rather worse for Ryder, he disappeared off the face of the planet.

Chapeau! Post of the day right there for me!
wiscot says:

May 14 2013 at 3:01 pm

@Buck Rogers

@Chris

@Buck Rogers

@frank

@ped

I promise that's not me.

Well, obviously it wasn't you b/c it was the bystander who crashed and not the pro cyclist.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

When I heard on twitter that someone had fallen off the edge of the mountain I'd assumed they meant Hesjedal rather than a spectator.

Turns out that it was rather worse for Ryder, he disappeared off the face of the planet.

Chapeau! Post of the day right there for me!

I think the spectator was called Joey. Is he alright?