Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2015

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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frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Geraint says:

May 31 2015 at 11:27 pm

@piwakawaka

Hmm I'm not so sure. Contador was similarly unbeatable in the 2011 Giro, but then didn't seem to have it when it mattered in the Tour - possibly due to crashes but I reckon he'd left a lot on the road in Italy.

As for Astana, yeah.

I'm looking forward to the Froome v Nibali battle we were sadly denied last year.
Mikael Liddy says:

May 31 2015 at 11:47 pm

@frank

@piwakawaka

Top race, top racers, Froome will be shitting himself, Contador can do it all on his own if need be, Aru had a frankly unbelievable team and could only manage a distant second, Nibili must be licking his lips at the chance to go on “training camp” with these guy’s before ripping shit up at the Tour, might make it worth watching after all…

This was a great Giro; Astana really are shockingly good – showing all the signs that we’ve historically known to be the signs of team-wide doping. That said, Aru’s attack on Hesjedal on Friday was probably the best moment of the race, in the big dog and just crushing it until one of them breaks.

Bertie is not as hateful as he used to be, and perhaps the best thing about him this year is that he rode in “almost” team-issue bibs.

As is pretty obvious based on my previous posts, Astana & they're supercharged racing just ruined it for me.

Interesting thing about Contador (& to a lesser extent Oleg), I wonder how much having a "greater evil" present in Astana led to people softening their view a little?
Fausto says:

Jun 1 2015 at 1:26 am

@Mikael Liddy

@frank

@piwakawaka

Top race, top racers, Froome will be shitting himself, Contador can do it all on his own if need be, Aru had a frankly unbelievable team and could only manage a distant second, Nibili must be licking his lips at the chance to go on “training camp” with these guy’s before ripping shit up at the Tour, might make it worth watching after all…

This was a great Giro; Astana really are shockingly good – showing all the signs that we’ve historically known to be the signs of team-wide doping. That said, Aru’s attack on Hesjedal on Friday was probably the best moment of the race, in the big dog and just crushing it until one of them breaks.

Bertie is not as hateful as he used to be, and perhaps the best thing about him this year is that he rode in “almost” team-issue bibs.

As is pretty obvious based on my previous posts, Astana & they’re supercharged racing just ruined it for me.

Interesting thing about Contador (& to a lesser extent Oleg), I wonder how much having a “greater evil” present in Astana led to people softening their view a little?

I think you've hit the nail on the head there @Mikael Liddy, even Dirty Bertie looks acceptable when the majority of Astana are climbing like Pantani weeks after scraping through keeping their licence. It was entertaining viewing, but in the same way that 90s racing was entertaining - it's impressive but you can't believe it's legit at the same time.
Teocalli says:

Jun 1 2015 at 1:30 am

@Fausto

@Mikael Liddy

@frank

@piwakawaka

Interesting thing about Contador (& to a lesser extent Oleg), I wonder how much having a “greater evil” present in Astana led to people softening their view a little?

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there @Mikael Liddy, even Dirty Bertie looks acceptable when the majority of Astana are climbing like Pantani weeks after scraping through keeping their licence. It was entertaining viewing, but in the same way that 90s racing was entertaining – it’s impressive but you can’t believe it’s legit at the same time.

It was interesting the day Bertie had his mechanical how many riders from other teams bust a gut to pace him back up.
piwakawaka says:

Jun 1 2015 at 1:41 am

@Geraint

he would be hard to bet against, he's the only guy to have won a GT since last years Tour, two in a row is impressive, three in a row and a Giro-Tour double? He's not lacking motivation. I think it's possible, but we all know how difficult it is.

@Mikael Liddy

Definitely softened my view of him, then a quick look at Wiki and the teams he has been on, even without his positive it sur 'aint pretty, so yeah, fuck fuckity fuck fucken' fuckers.

Love this bloody sport.
RobSandy says:

Jun 1 2015 at 1:51 am

@Fausto

@Mikael Liddy

@frank

@piwakawaka

Top race, top racers, Froome will be shitting himself, Contador can do it all on his own if need be, Aru had a frankly unbelievable team and could only manage a distant second, Nibili must be licking his lips at the chance to go on “training camp” with these guy’s before ripping shit up at the Tour, might make it worth watching after all…

This was a great Giro; Astana really are shockingly good – showing all the signs that we’ve historically known to be the signs of team-wide doping. That said, Aru’s attack on Hesjedal on Friday was probably the best moment of the race, in the big dog and just crushing it until one of them breaks.

Bertie is not as hateful as he used to be, and perhaps the best thing about him this year is that he rode in “almost” team-issue bibs.

As is pretty obvious based on my previous posts, Astana & they’re supercharged racing just ruined it for me.

Interesting thing about Contador (& to a lesser extent Oleg), I wonder how much having a “greater evil” present in Astana led to people softening their view a little?

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there @Mikael Liddy, even Dirty Bertie looks acceptable when the majority of Astana are climbing like Pantani weeks after scraping through keeping their licence. It was entertaining viewing, but in the same way that 90s racing was entertaining – it’s impressive but you can’t believe it’s legit at the same time.

Does it make Contador's victory more impressive since the guys he was racing are potentially loaded with go-juice, or does it make us suspect him more?
wiscot says:

Jun 1 2015 at 6:23 am

FWIW I thought it was a great race. The following comments are based on the (perhaps naive) belief that Astana were racing clean. Merckx know I hope so - Aru is a very exciting talent and I like the way he races.

Loved the inclusion off the unpaved Finistre climb. The Tour needs some of that. Plus a really long TT like 60-80kms long. Fuck the climbers, they have it in their favor too much..

Bertie showed what a mature champion he is - never panicked. We'll see how much the Giro has taken out of him come July.

Aru's two stage wins were awesome - in the Nibali mold. If Froome wants to win again at the Tour, he's going to have to race with his head and gut not looking at his friggin computer. The TT allocation at the Tour this year is pathetic so there's bugger all opportunity to really score/pull back time there.

JV will be crazy if he doesn't send Hesjedal to the Tour. The big man was loving his racing at the Giro and could have podiumed except for his bad first week. It was great to see the Italians give him a lot of love on Saturday - they know a great gutsy rider when they see one and he gave it a helluva go on Friday and Saturday. Given Dan Martin's tendency to fall off, I'd make DM and RH co-leaders. Let the race sort it out.

Porte will never win a grand tour.

Froome and Brailsford should be crapping themselves. If Astana take a fresh Nibali to the tour and an equally strong squad, throw in Bertie and big Ryder plus the Frenchies (Alaphillippe to podium?) and some others and it'll be a cracker.

Great to see Phil Gil get two stages. Another great racer who rode aggressively.

Will Froomie get Richie's mobile home for the Tour?

Bring on the Tour!
ped says:

Jun 1 2015 at 7:58 am

@wiscot

Damn straight!

And with Keisse's win on the final stage, someone finally appeared on the podium not wearing a fucking baseball hat!
wiscot says:

Jun 1 2015 at 8:44 am

@ped

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Etixx QS are without a doubt, the most natty team out there who always look awesome on the podium. Don't the other teams see how much better they look? You can get just as many sponsor logos on a real cap as you can a baseball bunnet.

I also forgot about wee Nairo Q. So long as the top dogs make it to the mountains, it's going to be a helluva race. My dream would be to see all the top boys mark each other to death and big Ryder winning the whole damn thing after a crazy-ass breakaway.
ped says:

Jun 1 2015 at 8:50 am

@wiscot

Week 1 is going to be a crash and split fest. Even if all the GC boys stay up, someone's team will be decimated