The Prophet crushes fools on the way to the Tre Chime in the '68 Giro
This is the most exciting thing that’s happened in Cycling since April. Yes, that’s a full two weeks with nothing exciting happening and its been killing me. I know its been killing you, too.
I love the Giro, the master alchemist of bad weather and big mountains that keeps the racing exciting from the first day through the last. You can generally count on enough climbing in the first week to see the leadership bounce around like one of those singing ping pong balls on Sesame Street. The race has its fair share of provenance as well, with many a legendary battle fought between legendary riders.
This year’s race is also remarkable for the fact that a GC rider is not only racing both the Giro and the Tour, but for Contador’s publicly stated objective of doing the Giro-Tour double, a feat not matched since Pantani crushed it back in 1998. That is an awesome goal, I just wish it was a goal set forth by a rider I could get enthusiastic about. A quick scan of the start list has me wondering who is made of the same stuff Bertie, and I’m coming up short. Uran Uran and Pozzovivo are the standouts; and I have serious doubts about Porte being able to come up with the goods, not to mention my boy Ryder who, despite having actually won the Giro, does not inspire confidence in his ability to repeat the feat. It is looking like energy bars may be Contador’s biggest rival for the title, like in last year’s Tour.
Now that I’ve given you three paragraphs of useless drivel that you’ve probably already skipped over, I feel comfortable getting down to Road Tacks. This is the Giro, people, lots of points at stake. And those points are going towards amazing prizes including a Jaeger frame and a Café Roubaix wheelset. There is plenty of time for you to Delgado the thing, too, so my advice is that you avoid doing that. Give yourself enough time to enter your picks so if something has gone amuck, you have time to hit “reload” or come back V minutes later to try again before the event closes. Remember, your procrastination in this matter will not result in the only Keeper with database skills diving into the backend to enter your picks for you. (And if you do encounter a problem, please be so kind as to take a screenshot and upload it as the descriptor “it didn’t work” doesn’t help us debug the problem.)
The scoring for the Grand Tours is a tad more involved than the one-day races, so look them over before making your prognostications. (One of the best things about the VSP is that I usually get to use the word “prognostication”, an opportunity one should always relish.)
So get your picks in before the countdown clock goes to zero, hit the go button, and good luck.
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View Comments
@Ron
Yeah. You're right. Richie seems pretty philosophical about it too. I'll move on.
Unfortunately it overshadowed what was a great breakaway - all Italian - winning the day. Gatto had very bad luck, Malaguti the hometown boy, was inhaling wasps from 40k out and getting yelled at by Boem to take his pulls. Lotto had no help trying to bring them back - Hendo said it was the fastest last 50 he'd ridden for some time. Kudos to Boem - super strong.
The pace is on today kiddies. BMC want a bit of it. The break is strong and the chase has been strung out for the last 20. Siutsou just got shelled. Find a TV!
@ChrisO
Yes.
Did Aru defend himself or go straight for litigation? Shades of the master COTHO.
@Mikael Liddy
Not to mention Chris and whoeverthefuck this dude is.
No fan of Porte; that is total bullshit though. It was bad enough he lost the time in the first place, the penalty is just kicking the little fucker while he's down.
Score one for the tall blokes - how big is Zakarin? Looks at least 186cms.
Contador sent a little message there too.
@Nate
First rule of dementia club.... Don't talk about chess club
@frank
Not a fan either but what a bollocks decision that was. How can Froome take a 20 sec hit for a gel that saved him completely blowing up yet Porte takes 2 minutes having already lost 47 seconds. I fucking hate the inconsistency. I would have loved to know how the com's would have reacted if Porte was Italian
@dyalander
I'd totally agree with you on all of that apart from the Wiggo bit. Whilst he didn't actually stop and wait, he sat up, slowed down and ordered everyone else to do so as well. What he didn't do was turn it up to 500 watts and fuck off into the distance which would have equaled not waiting.
@dyalander
Just another busted cheat sigh...
@frank
Horner tweeted about that last night along the lines of "Good thing we didn't swap any bike parts here...."