Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014
For the simple reason that the Cobbled and Ardennes Classics are behind us, I have not alternative but to get back on my soap box about the Giro being the best of the three Grand Tours. Well, usually, at least. Last year’s race sucked the big one (even if it was supremely Rule #9), but for the most part it is the race that is the most closely contested of the three. There are mountains everywhere Italy meaning there are less bunch sprints, the weather is completely unreliable, and the slightly lower calibre of rider seems hungrier. Or maybe the reduced pressure means riders aren’t quite as stressed out and are able to funnel that extra energy into the race.
My favorite Giro is a hard one to pick out, but its either the 1988 Giro when Andy Hampsten took the win after freezing himself stiff with Erik Breukink on the Gavia or when Pantani took his in 1998. I’ve been watching the ’98 Giro during my morning turbo sessions and Merckx-oh-me, that was an All-Drugs Olympics nail-biter. ’98 is also an interesting contrast to ’88; in just a decade, the technology had changed so much but more than that, the doping atmosphere in the sport transformed completely. From Hampsten’s Giro, EPO went from just being dabbled with on the fringes to being abused by leaders and domestiques alike by the time Pantani won. Hampsten wrote a nice piece about racing against dopers in Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race. He described the various side-effects that the popular drugs of his era had, such as bloating and a tendency to make the user over-estimate their abilities. Amphetamine made the riders do stupid things, cortisone made them retain water, and steroids made them heavy; a clean rider could use those factors to their advantage. A far cry from the rocket fuel that allowed humble domestiques to big ring up major alpine passes.
Why am I talking about drugs? There’s a race starting in a few days, people! This is our first Grand Tour, and the picks are worth more points, not to mention that strategy starts to play into things with the chance to swap your picks out on either of the rest days – at a certain point penalty. Remember that points are not accumulated; the standings on the last day of the race are what kinds, so keep the long game in mind.
Any points you win count towards the overall prizes plus the winner of this event also gets to post for the rest of the year in the pink jersey badge. So check the start list, review the VSP Grand Tour Scoring Guidelines and get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on Friday, May 9th. If you think we mapped one of your picks wrong, use the dispute system and we’ll review it. Also remember to be precise enough in your description so we know which rider you mean; in other words, if you enter “Martin”, we will use our discretion (read: wild guess) to decide if you mean Tony or Dan – and that choice will not be negotiable once the the countdown clock goes to zero. There has also been a recent scourge of people putting a rider in more than one place. Two words: Piti Principle, people! Don’t make me do a bunch of extra programming to keep you from being allowed to submit such an obviously unsportsmanlike set of picks. We will mercilessly clear out all your entries should we find you have attempted this.
Also don’t forget we’ve got three major prizes for the season-long VSP:
- First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
- Second place overall wins a set of hand built CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheelset in a custom Velominati paint scheme laced to orange Chris King hubs. (CR Wheelworks is Café Roubaix’s new wheel goods brand.)
- Third place overall wins a full Velominati V-Kit with accompanying custom orange Bont Vaypor+ road shoes.
Good luck, have fun with it, and don’t lose your Rule #43 spirit.
[vsp_results id=”29781″/]
Just re-watched the 2013 highlights on Eurosport. Stage 20, Nibali winning in the snow in the Maglia Rosa. What a ride.
At least I didn’t see any shorts or bibs in the list.
http://road.cc/content/feature/118264-go-pink-giro-d%E2%80%99italia-these-15-products
@DeKerr I’ll need to get that Pink fizik bar tape for a friend that has a white and pink Pinarello.
Garmin crashed in the TTT
Dan Martin caught in the crash — still down.
OH PISS
Martin down, not getting back on the bike it seems :(
Oh DAMN! 15 minutes in and one of my picks is already out…
Looks like Martin may have broken his collarbone. Likely done.
Fuck x 1,000,000. That truly, truly sucks, not so much for my non-existent VSP hopes, but for Dan Martin. After the LBL disaster, he was clearly on form and motivated. He has to be in tears on this. Did big Ryder go down too?
@wiscot
Looks like Ryder made it through.
From the replays, it looked like Martin clipped a manhole cover, going down and wiping out three of his team mates over the top of him. The guy needs to catch a break. Not break a collarbone :(
Umm, let me get this straight. Svein Tuft – it’s his birthday. Tonite – he can sleep in the Maglia Rosa after his bath and massage tonight.
That sounds like good Friday to me!
I hope has the time to capture this moment. What a great day in your life!
Looks like there
@Al__S
Looks like there was two covers a few meters apart first one rattled him and second put him down. !@#$%@!#$!!!!!!
@Ron
He deserves it, he puts in some huge time at the front of the peloton and is the big engine in the OGE time-trial train. Don’t think anyone will say he doesn’t deserve it
@GogglesPizano
Not me. Well deserved and a nice gesture by OGE. Purito’s got a bit to make up already. Rigoberto Union of the Snake-uran did fine.
There’ll be some swapping out of Dan Martin on Monday then, now who will fill that gap?
poor Dan
@GogglesPizano
Man, this is the guy that was the lantern rouge at last year’s Tour, now he gets to wear the Maglia Rosa.
AND he’s the guy that rode from BC to California to team camp, with all his stuff and his dog in tow.
If that’s not some V, I don’t know what is.
Congrats and Happy Birthday to Tuft!
A Canadian in Pink!
Umm, let me get this straight. Svein Tuft – it’s his birthday. Tonite – he can sleep in the Maglia Rosa after his bath and massage.
That sounds like a good Friday to me!
I hope he has the time to capture this moment. What a great day in your life!
@Duende
The press are making it out as a birthday gesture but I think he out and out earned it. The wattage he can produce and the hours in the wind he puts in are staggering. A true hardman. Note should perhaps read = ANOTHER Canadian in Pink!
Absolutely gutted for Dan, again. Hope he’s not too badly hurt.
Chapeau to Tuft – and happy birthday.
Evans and Uran Uran have some useful margins there.
You closed the VSP early!
@ralexmiller Nevermind i’m an idiot
An aptly named @Mr fabulous take the early lead in a crazy start to the Giro. Who ever heard of starting a Giro on a Friday anyway? And how unlucky is Irish Luck with Danny Boy going down within a bike’s-length of Liege and then crashing out of the Giro ten minutes in – ON HOME ROADS.
Cycling is weird.
We laugh. We cry.
It’s an individual sport. It’s a team sport.
A Canadian in pink ’cause he’s a good guy and it’s his birthday.
A local Irish boy and potential top-ten contender is out.
21.7 km down and 3,424.7 kms to go.
You gotta love this sport!!
Martin has some serious bike handling issues…
@brett
you could say that about many on that team
Svein Tuft!
Super proud Canadian here. Orica Green Edge is alright in my books – the man toils selflessly for the team and is the heart and soul of their TT results and they reward him with the Pink Jersey. For a guy that likely doesn’t have too many years left in the sport this will more than likely be his legacy.
Just awesome!
@kixsand Thanx for speaking up with positives on a truly disciplined effort.
@kixsand
@unversio
You’ guys are right. Tuft’s not in pink just ’cause he’s a good guy and it’s his birthday–he kick’s ass on the road for his team, day in day out!
@frank
Going to have to call you on this assertion. Dan grew up in Birmingham, in England, UK, and rides for Ireland. Today was in Belfast. Which is in Northern Ireland, UK*. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d never ridden in Belfast before this week.
*yes, whether Belfast is UK or Republic of Ireland is something that’s been very bloodily disputed.
Happy happy start.
@brett
I think you’re being a bit harsh on Dan M. At that speed, basically unsighted, to hit a slick-as-snot manhole cover, I don’t think he had much of a chance. Add into the mix that he’s on his aero bars too. His teammates behind were equally screwed.
Still, there’s no explanation for the last corner at L-B-L.
Yeah, that double manhole combo did in poor Danny boy. Lead grunt should be guiding them around that sort of hazard, but I suppose he’s also trying to keep them unguttered as well. Still, at those speeds, on wet roads, seems careless to me.
I’d feel really shitty about that, except Svein’s in pink tonight, so all is right with the world. WHAT. A. TEAM. Love OGE.
@Al__S
Uuuurrrggghh. As much as I could crow about Garmin not winning a race while they’re sponsored by POC, that’s a nasty, nasty crash.
Nothing much happening at the moment, other than normal weather.
@unversio
Classic response from his team mate Natah Haas
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4qojMcRNhJc
Really need to get this aero rain jackets thing sorted. All-black makes watching hard
The Four Days of Dunkirk stage was more interesting to watch today.
Damiano is watching Nairo. Rigoberto is watching Nairo and Damiano.
30. Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS, Movistar, at :03
31. Damiano CUNEGO, Lampre-Merida, at :03
33. Rigoberto URAN URAN, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at :03
@andrew
Yesterday too. Sylvain Chavanel has been riding like a man possessed.
@Mike_P
True, though yesterday they only had a TTT as competition, so it was pretty much a guaranteed walkover. Chava is a beast and turned himself inside out again.
Not having race radios again seems to make the racing more interesting, though this might be my confirmation bias at work.
Great story in the BBC …. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27333310
oh, and seems I cant log in to the V site via Firefox anymore, had to resort to explorer…
@strathlubnaig
Agree. While enjoying the Giro I came across this timely story too about how Gino Bartali, rival of Coppi and winner of 3 Giro’s and 2 TdF actually used his training rides to save Italian lives during WW2.
What an example of a cyclist and a human being.
Updated standings after Kittel’s MONSTER sprint. Holy bonkers, Batman. I love the quote, “It wasn’t really a sprint; it was more like an attack.”
Sprint stage. Kittel wins. Remind me again why I got up at 6:00am on a Sunday?
Rigoberto still closely watching Nairo.
35. Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS, Movistar, at :11
37. Rigoberto URAN URAN, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at :11
Results: 2014 Giro d’Italia, stage 1
9. Rigoberto URAN URAN, at :05
15. Cadel EVANS, at :07
56. Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS, at :55