Velominati Super Prestige: Giro D’Italia 2013
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″/]
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggins
2. Nibali
3. Hesjedal
4. Martin
5. Evans
Ahah! Ryder Hesjedal.
I have a sense of foreboding for Cuddles, with a repeat of last year’s Tour on the cards and him looking at the backside of the next generation. Might this year be Cadel’s finale? If only the evil twin had appeared a couple of years earlier.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibbles
2. Ryder
3. Twiggy
4. Phinney
5. Duran D’Uran
Come on Nibbles!!
Very tempted to put The Killer in 5th, just for the sake of posterity. I’m sure he’s been doing some secret training during his layoff. But no.
I’m also pretty sure that Cuddles won’t stake his claim as BMC top dog for Le Tour.
If Basso gets top 5, he is back on the juice.
VSP PICKS:
1. Sharky Nibbles
2. Sir Brad of Modtown
3. Hesjedal
4. Sammy Sanchez
5. Eros Capecchi
All,
Longtime lurker….breaking my cherry by posting in the Giro VSP. I figure Nibbles and Scarponi will pull an Italian Job on Wiggo.
Based in Houston these days….but Seattle-area born and bred (Edmonds) so enjoy reading Frank and other Seattle-ites discuss “local” stuff.
Greg
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibbles
2. Scarponi
3. Sir Wiggo
4. Oh Canada!
5. Slammin Sammy Sanchez
@Pedale.Forchetta
He was listening to this prior to slaying the ITT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSJoD3YQenE
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggo
2. Nibali
3. Hesjedal
4. Basso
5. Evans
Before this VSP opened I had my 5 picked, I’m not just following the crowd. The consensus here is clear – is there anyone out there who can upset the Sky machine? It seems unlikely and I have to support the Brit anyway. Vuelta in 2014 for the full set.
VSP PICKS:
1. Bradley Wiggins
2. Vincenzo Nibali
3. Ryder Hesjedal
4. Taylor Phinney
5. Robert Kiserlovski
cheering for ryder,but sky has to strong of team…
VSP PICKS:
1. wiggins
2. hesjedal
3. nibali
4. scarponi
5. phinney
Best get these picks straightened out before the Velomifoetus arrives…looks like I’ll be spending the next day or so in the hospital!
Switching the top two around just so we can keep the Moodfather angry for July & stoke the Sky flames, Cuddles & Basso were more a case of rounding out the initial top 5. Reckon Robert might be able to keep rubber side down to show what he can do in a GT.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibbles
2. Wiggo
3. Ryder
4. Dirty Sammy
5. Keep em Gesink
I don’t mind the AHHstaNA kit at all, at least you can pick it out. Trying to figure out Quick Step from Garmin from some others is a royal pain in the arse. Even two neon yellows (Cannondale; Farnese Vini) can be tough.
Ryder, Wiggins, Froome. None of them seem to arouse any real passion, not sure why. I’ll take Tommy V. all day over any of them. I’d love to see Nibali destroy Ryder and Wiggins.
That said, I still can’t wait for the Giro. I shall now commence rearranging my life & schedule so I can watch an hour or so every morning. I see this as being the last spring/summer I can watch the races live so I’m going to live it up and enjoy. The hassle of a 9-5 looms large.
Mikael – good luck! Another breeding and blimping Follower, eh? I’ll be looking at some of you for guidance in a few years I’ll bet.
@Mikael Liddy Good luck!
@Daccordi Rider
Last night we were having network troubles, hence the weird moderation issues. Your comments were getting forwarded to my email, which I looked at before I retired and your three emails about Beaker really made me laugh. Giggled myself to sleep on those three comments I did.
And I agree, I don’t know why Beaker copping a hiding seems proper but it does.
Unfortunately, I can’t leave pommy Wiggles out of the mix. Cadel should be right up there but his form won’t peak until the Tour De Froggies.. Maybe it’s Froome’s turn for Sky.
VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Basso
3. Cadel
4. Scarp one
5. Wiggins
@Joe
Now for something completely different…I believe I heard the Stones played at some small club in Echo Park recently. They needed to see if they could remember lyrics and chord changes before launching another mega-tour. I hope someone tipped you off about that. Reason enough for living there.
@DocBrian – Brasso and Cuddles?? it’ll be like 2010 all over again but on the Passo di Giau rather than the Zoncolan. That was a great Giro. Was it 2010? Or was that the one that Dirty Den fell off in the Maglia Rosa on the last TT to beat a doped Killer?
Anyway, great racing. Dai regazzi! I want to go home and eat some Spaghetti al Pomodoro. Damn the lack of normal basilico in this town.
I love the Giro.
Joe.
@Gianni – yeah that was at the Echoplex. Unfortunately as a result of an unbalanced training session on friday, I had a noisy little camp of piglets crapping all around my head in the morning. By the time my medicine of nurofen and baracoa tacos kicked in I was way too late to queue for tickets. I love the stones too. Never seen them live. And Mick Taylor played with them. Gah.
Being a dumb Aussie, I’m not fully cognizant of of the nicknames of the riders. Aussies never use nicknames but give all people of all nationalities respect by using their given monikers. (unless they are poms or sheep shaggers). I once knew a girl called cuddles who was a great rider, but she wasn’t a cycliste. Who the hell is CUDDLES? Is it Saint Cadel? Please,someone, illuminate me!
@Joe
Spaghetti al pomodoro? Must find a recipe and try it. I think Cadel is coming into form at the right time and the very long times trial suits him better than Wiggly.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Hesjedal
3. Gesink
4. Wiggins
5. Santambrogio
@DocBrian
LOLWUT, did you see Twiggly-Wiggly last year?
@DocBrian
Homework – click on the Lexicon at the top of the page, then under the opening paragraph click on Jump to Terms – Nicknames.
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggins
2. Nibali
3. Evans
4. Sanchez
5. Hesjedal
@sthilzy
Thank you for correcting and highlighting my dumbness in not thinking of doing that I now have my answer
VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Basso
3. Cadel
4. Scarp one
5. Wiggins
@Bianchi Denti
yeah, maybe Roman enjoyed some of Paul’s special spanish steak tartar or his famous epo muffins.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Wiggins
3. Hesjedal
4. Scarponi
5. Evans
This book does not appear in The Works, however it is a cracking read – well written and some of the stories are laugh out loud. Talk about machiavellian scheming and hard bastards…. Recommend it during the add breaks or whilst staying up waiting for the coverage to start from the other side of the world.
http://www.rouleur.cc/maglia-rosa
(Haven’t been having much luck with image/ embed thingy of late)
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggins
2. Nibali
3. Hesjedal
4. Evans
5. Gesink
VSP PICKS:
1. WIGGINS Sir Bradley
2. SCARPONI Michele
3. NIBALI Vincenzo
4. BASSO Ivan
5. DI LUCA Danilo
@Mikael Liddy
Yep, good luck…
wiggins will crash
VSP PICKS:
1. hesjedal
2. evans
3. nibali
4. bouhanni
5. uran
Stock at ;
http://www.bookdepository.com/Maglia-Rosa-Herbie-Sykes/9781408190012
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggins
2. Nibali
3. Hesjedal
4. Evans
5. Gesink
I’ve had a pretty easy time forgetting that Evans was still a cycle racer. When is the last time he’s ridden at the front of a race? (not a rhetorical question.)
@Gervais
It is foreseen that there is a crash waiting for you as well.
@Gianni
Glad to be of service. It just all seems to have gone to his head really and being an Aussie we love seeing Poms get some comeuppance!
@Ron 3rd in Tour of Oman (actually a better quality race and field than you might think) and 8th in Giro del Trentino.
Hardly a season to set the world on fire, but whatever that virus was, it seems to have knocked the stuffing out of him.
Am guessing he is going to the Giro to primarily train – will have a crack in a few stages, but wont have the condition to stay with the big boys at all times – which is what is needed from him to do well.
VSP PICKS:
1. Sir Wiggo
2. Nibbles
3. Hesjedal
4. Sammy Sanchez
5. Cadel
VSP PICKS:
1. Ryder
2. Nibali
3. Beaker
4. Gesink
5. Uran
VSP PICKS:
1. Mini-Phinney
2. The Shark
3. Ryder Rental Truck
4. Sancho
5. Bad Cuddles
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Wiggins
3. Hesjedal
4. Pozzato
5. Santambrogio
@Ron
Highest VO2 of any athlete ever tested. Cannot possibly write him off. I’ve met him, Ridden with him. Amazing attitude. Truly superb human apart from anything else.
Great piece by Robert Millar on Wiggo’s questionable timing for bringing up TdF leadership. Predicts the Italian press– which loves the polemica — will have a field day with this throughout the Giro.
@DocBrian
Such an Australian biased fanboy furphy that Evans has the highest VO2 max ever recorded. He may have had the highest ever recorded at the AIS at one time, but thats about it. I recall Evans measured about 85. Compare that to Indurain 88, LeMond (apparently 92.5!). I think there are a bucketload of massive nordic skiers that blow cyclist VO2 max scores out of the water.
And VO2 max isnt only half the story for a stage racer. Need to consider body weight. Hence watts per kg the real measure for riders…
And Cuddles carries a bit more weight than other GC guys – except for those listed above!
That said, Cuddles wont go quietly into the night!
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Hesjedal
3. Sanchez
4. Pozzato
5. Scarponi
Wiggans cause at this level its all about who wants it most. Giro is another “First” for him, then look for the double, Sky will shaft Froome, pesky little colonial that he is, they won’t have forgotten last years disobiedience and there is a whole lot more value in Sir Wiggans winning both, another “First”. Nibali, cause he looks great, Hesjedal cause they will throw everthing at the defence but “hey I already won it, what more do ya want?”, Uran cause he”s gonna drag Wiggans up the mountains and hopefully he’ll pull a “Froome” on him too and Evans cause I ride a BMC.
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggins
2. Nibali
3. Hesjedal
4. Uran
5. Evans
@DocBrian
Froome isn’t riding the giro so you may want to consider a different winner.
@Nate
I read that piece. Robert Millar is a great writer.
Those misguided souls who included Basso may wish to revise the picks, he is oot.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/basso-out-of-the-giro-ditalia
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggo
2. Nibali
3. Santambrogio
4. Kessiakoff
5. Scarponi
VSP PICKS:
1. Wiggo
2. Nibali
3. Santambrogio
4. Kessiakoff
5. Red rider