Twiggo is dreaming of a Giro-Tour double. He has sent out mixed messages about his Tour ambitions. Will he use the Giro as the ultimate Tour preparation or will be burn all his matches in May and hope he can find another pack for July? He has abandoned his successful 2012 Tour run-up strategy of winning every stage race he entered the previous spring. Now it’s the seclusion of Mount Doom of Tenerife, his coach and his watt meter his only competition. Team Sky is supporting Wig with a very strong squad, including superman, Kanstantsin Siutsou and with Cav no longer a teammate, it’s all the knights of the round table for Sir Twig.
Will the curse of the god-awful Astana kit continue to haunt non-Kazahk riders? Can Vincenzo’s Italian mojo overpower its powerful pale blue and yellow aura? Roman Kreuziger was finally able to win a big race once he shed that kit and pulled on one of Bjarne’s Saxo jerseys. Maybe it was more Bjarne and less jersey that made the difference.
Ryder gets no respect as the defending champion. His little dance at the end of Liége-Bastogne-Liége showed he is fit and ready for a fight. He can time trial, he can climb. Personally I have to back the local boy. And I always hate the overpowered, overwhelming favorite (read Team Sky here) in any race, unless that racer is Fabian Cancellara. No one can say Fabs has won a race this year surrounded with a team as strong as Sky’s. The Shack is just the Shack or a shack. Once Cancellara leaves for the Swiss “I AM” team, it’s lights out in the shack. Frandy, don’t forget to turn out ’em out when you leave.
If Cavendish wins the first day’s sprinter’s stage he will be in pink. He may be out of it after stage two, a team time trial.
But this is the Giro: crazy, unexpected, beautiful things can happen. The spinning wheels of fortuna are less predictable in Italy as they are in France in July. The betting window is now open. The complete start list is not yet available, an incomplete one is here and shall be updated soon. So sleep on your picks, wait for all the teams to make it official, unless you want to go with the obvious all Sky podium. The race begins Saturday so don’t Delgado away a Grand Tour opportunity.
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So pleased that the counter-argument to DocBrian's observation about "the self-opinionated morons who run this site" has largely been based on the fact that we don't run the site.
I would hate to lose credit, wherever it comes from.
@frank
A chick once told me - 'Opinions are like orgasms...mine matters most & I really don't care if you have one.'
She is still single.
@strathlubnaig
Every single one of 'em who finished that tour, hard as FUCK, long, fast, steep, wet, cold, steep, freezing, fast, steep, snow, rain, hail, and they're racing each other, hard as FUCK. Great tour the strongest guy with undoubtably the strongest team, he still had two left 3km from the finale of stage 20, very well ridden by both, so if Nibali is not at TDF then who is Astana's GC guy?
Looking forward to seeing how guys who rode the Giro perform in France, Cavendish must be rubbing his hands with glee at his prospects, again great support from his team, another great aspect of this noble art is that it requires an entire team for one individual to win, and that's just the team on the road, the investment must be huge at this level, anyone know what kind of budgets they operate with?
@piwakawaka And Cav did it without electronic gears. He must be good operating at such a disadvantage.
@Daccordi Rider why gamble on new tech with a sure thing like Cav? looking forward to him Griepel, and Sagan going head to head at TDF, hopefully being a Badass all over Italy won't slow him down any, Griepel had a week in the rain in Belgium Sagan had a week of sun in the US wonder who had the best prep?
@RedRanger
This time of year light oil as recommended by the LBS - clean after every ride with White Lightning and then reapply. If I've had a soaking and can't clean That Fucking Bike due to family duties I spray GT 40 on the drive train to keep corrosion at bay until I can - I've seen rust develop during a coffee stop.
@frank
I've just assumed it's his digital version of a doctor's particular brand of illegible scrawl...
@the Engine
You might wanna try green oil super dry chain WAX , yeah, it's "dry", but given that we clean & lube more regularly than you're average punter it will do the job. It's great for avoiding that build up of shite
@ped
I thought the preferred weapon of choice was Dumonde Tech...?
@Deakus Have you managed to get that in the yUK?