Velominati Super Prestige: Giro D’Italia 2013

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• @Chris

  Just having a look at Di Luca's wikipedia page when I realised that the long list wasn't his palmarès but his doping offences.

  And it already says "former Italian professional road racing cyclist"

• @seemunkee

  Looks like Da' Killer just commited suicide, eh?

• Who's up next?  Scarponi?

• @Mikael Liddy We have to put some faith in the testers and testing processes.  They are not fool-proof and in much the same way as computer virus developers are always a step ahead of the anti-virus companies, the dope developers will always be a step ahead of the anti-doping authorities.  You can't test for something until it exists.

  I'm a believer in people being given a second chance.  You screw up, you take your reprimand, you learn from it, you move on. If you're caught a second time though, it's hasta la vista.

• @Mikael Liddy For all the opprobrium that is rightly attached to Ferrari as an apparently unrepentant dope-master, he is/was also someone who seems to have brought a lot to training and preparation (not only 'preparation') well ahead of Sky and others.

  So I'm conflicted about people who have associations with him. I can understand how they might have worked at a non-doping level. I would love to read (or write) a biography.

• Vincenzo Vince!

• @unversio

  Still the coolest guy in the peleton, despite serving up shoes for dinner to his mate Ivan

• @Dr C

  @unversio

  Still the coolest guy in the peleton, despite serving up shoes for dinner to his mate Ivan

  Love this fistfight salute!

• @LA Dave

  Nibali's win in stage 18 is one which - based on his personal history - should rightfully be celebrated as a victory that cements his place in the top echelon of competitors in the peloton today. Should he maintain his current 4 plus minute lead all the way to Brescia he will sit squarely on the top shelf next to Froome, Contador, Wiggins, JRod, et al. as the creme de la creme of the current stage racing crop. Sadly though, in this day and age when you couple his dominating performance so far in this years Giro with his move to an Astana team still tainted by their dope filled recent past I simply cannot ward off the voices that well up in the back of my mind.

  As I watched this stage unfold I couldn't help but wish that he would not win it, that he would do enough to keep the maglia rosa, but to falter slightly and show that he was not that much stronger than the rest of the field, because we have more often then not seen what that means in modern road racing. It is a nagging feeling that gnaws at your perception of the beauty of this sport. That chips away at the veneer of passion and perfection that we who love cycling paint it with. I want so badly to believe that this peloton is clean, that these riders whom my son is learning to idolize as athletes have a conscience and a biological passport clean enough to warrant his adoration.

   

  I will grudgingly give Vincenzo the benefit of the doubt for now, but so long as he chooses to ride for teams and directors that refuse to acknowledge their connection to the stain that is doping I won't be able to go all in as a supporter. The sadness of suspicion is a true emotion understood by today's cycling fan, and we can only hope that those in position to affect change do everything they can to clean up what should be the most beautiful sport in the world.

  Victory never holds back -- and it never ceases.

• "It's true," Scinto said in a quiet, sad voice. "He's mad, he's a cretino, he needs treatment."

  A cretino indeed, FFS, he should not have been racing, that's for sure.