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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View Comments
@Dr C
Nibbles' improvement seems significant this year, the fact that it coincides with Astana's involvement seems uncomfortably convenient. I'm sure there are various new flavours of dope doing the rounds, I wouldn't be surprised if Astana had access to a few of them.
*Sigh* seems we have a long way to go yet...
More boring dopers caught doping. I'm going to cheer myself up with this great photo of the Galibier stage from the always rad manual for speed http://www.manualforspeed.com/
I can't quite see how anyone, including DS, team owners, sponsors or fans can be in the least surprised by the Di Luca news. A career's worth of previous offences. We all knew it would only be a matter of time.
What a stupid cunt
Better shot of Duarte's V-related expulsion.
In relation to yesterday I hope all we saw was the difference between the guy who prepped for this race as his season goal & the guys that weren't quite planning on being on peak form at the moment...I hope.
@Mikael Liddy
I think from now on, Duarte should be called Senor Creosote.
@Mike_P
Not so much surprise as just dejection. When you are hoping that things at least have gotten better, to have a big-name racer get nabbed in a GT is just an indication that some will never change.
@Ron
True, Ron. I've been hopeful that the days of riders raiding the pharmacy in desperation to retain their contract had gone and maybe they largely have. But Di Luca was a big name racer that everyone knew was a serial doper. This case strikes me as one of a complete idiot thinking he can somehow use one of the most detectable substances and get away with it. Like the adage says, if a rider put in an unbelievable performance, it probably is.
@Mike_P
so what say we of Visconti (banned for having worked with Ferrari) dropping the killer like a stone the other night?
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.