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
@Erik
I second that, shitty start to the work day here, but that little gem put a smile on the dial.
Where do the UCI stand on the assistance of seemingly most Spaniards in the peloton to assist each other. Rules are rules, but FFS, this ruling has hairs on it.
I saw a twitter feed calling for all riders to swap front wheels with the guy next to him at the start line = all riders get 2 minute penalty = race restored.
That would work
@dyalander
well it would be a pretty boring world if things were always black & white! My comment around the time limits was more that they tend to look the other way when enforcing the rule would run against the rules of common sense (e.g. when half the field misses the time cut cos the gruppetto got their sums wrong).
At Paris Roubaix this year they actually used the "spirit of the rule" excuse as one of their reasons not to exclude riders, because they'd been able to neutralise the race, thereby negating the advantage gained by the group that cut over the level crossing. Seeing as Porte still lost time as a result of the puncture, I'm sure they could argue that there wasn't a huge gain despite the rule breaking...
Secondly, "Go home UCI and Giro, you're drunk ! "
Just saw this, oops
@Barracuda
Looks like the other Sky guy did a U-i and arrived after the event. Would've loved to have listened in on the Sky radio.
@Mikael Liddy
I don't get why they enforce this which doesn't advantage Porte, simply reduces the disadvantage of an unlucky occurrence and yet when riders ignore a closed rail crossing they decide not to punish. Some really selective enforcement there...
@Phillip Mercer
I would assume that the justification is that there were too many riders involved to clearly ID them at the time, so they could only DQ after the race, when there would be arguments that having the riders complete the race impacted the result because people didn't know whether they were in or out. That, and the fact that the organisers had the front of the bunch allow the delayed riders to catch up meant the disadvantage was negated. With this, although the penalty was enacted after the stage finished, the race overall is still in progress.
Jonathan Vaughters tweets
" How do you say "bullshit" in Italian? "
my translation = " 2 minutes"
@Mikael Liddy
You make a fair point - they do use the spirit of the rule argument elsewhere.
In the end I think they're just sticklers at this year's Giro and part of the problem may well be that there's a mixed bag when it comes to judges. If they cross a train line in the giro these guys would dq them. I heard somewhere that the judges at this year's Giro are headed by the same guy responsible for eliminating Ted King at the Tour (I think it was 2013). Not sure if that's true or just a good one-liner, but it would make sense.
I've not needed to use this image previously, but I think it's a fair assessment of my feelings towards the race jury just at the moment.