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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@ped
I ordered it off ebay and it was shipped from the states...it was a little pricey but I figured if it works as well as stated it would be worth it. The N+1 has a brand new chain so I have been living with the factory wax but am about to do a strip down and re-lube so I will be cracking the seal on the Dumonde any day now...
Hope I'm not gonna get a DocB thrashing regarding this, from Velo-
The fastest bike lube isn't designed for your bike at
all. In every measure, the most efficient chain lubricant is simple paraffin wax, sold in solid blocks
at any hardware store. In the efficiency test it was
faster than the best bike lube by 0.24 watts and the
worst by 3.05 watts under ideal conditions. Following an hour covered in dirt, sand, and water, the
paraffin was nearly 6 watts faster than the worstperforming lube.
That's similar to changing from a low-quality
training tire to a super-thin race tire, or from a
cheap aero wheelset to the best available. Best of all,
paraffin wax costs less than $10 for a few blocks,
which will last months, if not years
More here - http://www.friction-facts.com/ which includes a home recipe for waxing your precious bits!
@ped
How do we know that you're not just a puppet of the paraffin wax cartels?
Its Fenwick Stealth Lube for me. Lovely stuff.
@motor city that just sounds the dog's 'nads. I am a marketer's dream, I'd buy it without your recommendation with a name like that...
@mouse BUSTED! Damn, where's my mood altering Yankee Candle, need to chill out now
@ped
In the interests of health and safety and not blowing up my house, I am not going to spend any time melting down parafin wax.....as they say....a fool and his house are soon parted!
@Deakus The fact that my first thought was, "Can it really be that dangerous?" possibly shows that I am not the right person to be doing this either
@the Engine I dont know what part of the world you are in but if things are very wet you may want to try Pedros Syn lube.
I use their Ice wax on both my road and mountain bikes, but it only rains here 2 weeks the entire year, and I have to contend with all the dust and sand that gets into everything.
@ped
Apparently it is not the wax catching fire that is a worry (although that can happen too) it is the fumes that are extremely flammable and explosive. You need some sort of low heat burner...i.e. a cadle or hex tab might do it. Do not try and light it up with a pinch of C4!