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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@DocBrian no knocks on electronic shifting - i just query your call that,
"Most assessments show that despite slightly greater weight, elect gears save significant amounts of time over even moderate distances because of their greater efficiency, mainly in their speed of gear change..."
Sounds like absolute bullshit to me.
@DocBrian
Instead of working through that point by point, I think the below image covers most of it. CRR is a function of materials rather than weight, (butyl has higher CRR than latex which has a higher CRR than silk - you won't see any continental competitions tires at the Olympics on track bikes, and the version the pros use is reported to have a latex inner rather than the Butyl inner tube that the consumer version has). A set of tubular 404s weigh 1350 grams which is considerably less than most durable 'standard' clinchers, so you get lower weight AND significant aero benefits. DI2 Ultegra (elect, by the way is a different word with a different meaning, which means it is't really a good substitute) is considerably heavier than DI2 Dura Ace and Mech dura ace, but adds around $1000 to the price of most bikes that it is fitted to. So you pay more to have a heavier bike that does the same thing as cables. I'm also skeptical about the claim that faster shifts result in quantifiable benefits. So, for me right now electronic shifting is
@DocBrian
Now look what you have done. You have caused Minion and I to agree on something. This has never happened before.
@DocBrian & HHH
I think it is fundamentally wrong to have electronic assistance for something that formerly had to be done mechanically. It's against the spirit of bike riding.
That's the clear difference with all the other innovations you cited. Lycra replacing wool, aero helmets, tri bars, carbon frames and shoes, integrated shifters, bike computers... none of them is providing a power source external to the rider.
If as you claim it really is more efficient then that efficiency has come from electricity.
Let's say someone developed a KERS type system for a bike, which stored excess power from descents in a hub-based auxiliary motor or a hub-braking system ? Maybe it would provide an extra 20-30 watts going back up a climb, maybe it would mean the rider didn't have to control his brakes so much. It was the rider's own power and gravity in the first place. How do you draw a line between that and DI2/EPS ? I certainly don't see a conceptual difference.
What if the stage to Tre Cime or this year's M-SR was won because one rider was able to shift gears by pressing a button, while another had fingers so cold he couldn't manage to shift. The advantage is electronic, not mechanical. I can only assume the UCI has allowed it under pressure from the manufacturers looking for something to sell as an upgrade.
Go ahead, use it and love it... but in my mind when I see a rider with electric shifting, I think Cheat.
@ChrisO good point. Will replace immediately.
@HeinrichHausslersHairstyle That's the spirit. You can probably sell it to a triathlete - they don't care.
I will never suggest to any living person that they sign into this bullshitnblog, run by self-opinionated morons who seem intent on rubbishing anything that could take them out if the dark ages. Fuck yourselves silly
@ Cold Cadel with frozen gears: I may be wrong but electronics and cold temperatures often don't mix. It did sound like a simple physical impairment though.
As a general observation: electric gruppo's seem very popular but plenty of people still win races on mechanical too. Juu nin to iro. (Japanese: each to their own)
@ Doc Brian; tell us what you really think. Or just have a beer and look at the sunset for a while.
@DocBrian
That raises an interesting question - would you suggest fucking ourselves with our own cocks or an electric vibrator ?
@DocBrian suit yourself champ. But all that has happened here is that you have made an outlandish statement that you have not been able to back up.
If only I could fuck myself silly- I would never stop.