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.
[vsp_results id=”23343″/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@strathlubnaig
You, my friend are now leading the Giro VSP! Well done. Donnie Bugno would like to fight but you beat him to the punch. I don't see the standings changing too much tomorrow.
Betancur did me proud again today. Even as a devote follower of Rule V, i was happy to watch the suffering but given the chance would have feigned a life threatening saddle sore rather than take to the wheels. Well done strathlubnaig!
Evans cites problems with his gears for time loss. Shimano?
We seem to be seeing this more and more often. Race results being affected by failing tech.
@mouse
Bad Cadel
@mouse
This is always a tricky one. Is a mechanical an easy excuse, or is there a danger of rubbing a sponsor the wrong way? And to what extent do we blame "user error" over a mechanical failure?
@Gianni
Holy Mackinaw !!! Well if the Leafs cant win the Stanley Cup then this is the next best thing woop woop
@mouse
Would have to agree, we seem to be seeing more and more mechanical issues relating to driveline of late.
And I think most of the time it is Shimano but not 100% sure on that, it always gets glossed over on the telecast and teams no doubt would not want to bag out a sponsor. But as someone else posted, is it user error or equipment problem?
I've seen a lot of whining on other sites about the weather "ruining" the race. Are these people mad? The weather, apart from when it has caused a stage to be entirely canned, has made it epic. Anyone finishing- let alone doing well- is pretty damn hard. It would have been nice to have seen what Wiggins and Hesjedal could have done if they weren't ill- certainly, it would have made for more of a fight for GC- but thems the breaks. Nibali is a deserved winner- and sealed it in style in the snow.
Are we back to the days of writing cycling news articles in barely-disguised code... or is it my imagination ?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-guard-helps-nibali-to-giro-ditalia-victory
References to Vinokourov, Pantani and Martinelli followed by::
"Instead, it was the hitherto unheralded Tanel Kangert who stepped up to the plate with a surprisingly strong showing in defence of Nibali's maglia rosa during the second half of the race. The Estonian champion, who returned to the amateur ranks for a year in 2010 after failing to make an impact at Ag2r-La Mondiale, has been a man transformed since resurfacing at Astana, and has made very noticeable strides in 2013."
and
The most startling performance of all, however, came from Fabio Aru. Still only 22 years of age and in his first full season as a professional, the Sardinian helped to set the tempo for Nibali at the foot of the climb and then withstood the arctic conditions to take 5th place on the stage, just 21 seconds down... The youngster's performance is all the more noteworthy given that he was suffering from illness in the second week of the race, but displayed remarkable powers of recovery in the third.
The only one they haven't used is "extra-terreste".
@ChrisO Well, they stopped short of saying, I haven't seen anyone climb like that since Armstrong rode to Sestrieres