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
@rockkk
How unfortunate.
@Mikael Liddy
Must be the "cholera"
Gerrans down again - that's not bad luck, the Assos ninja, scourge of the wheel sucker, is finally catching up with him.
@rockkk
let me count the ways...
1. He learned le metier under the tutelage of one of the best when it comes to preparing young riders
2. In choosing his professional team he chose the team run by (possibly) the most rampant & unrepentant cheat of the past 20 years
3. Said team has responded to their incomprehensible reprieve of keeping their racing licence by suddenly dominating the front of every race since like Gewiss incarnate. The same team that was barely seen prior to the licence hearings unless it was footage of their CG rider getting dropped by Andre Greipel up a 5% gradient.
4. Less than a month ago he was apparently so ill from intestinal problems he shed 5 kilos...yet he's shown amazing form over the first week of a GT (until yesterday)
5. When another rider (apparently) summed up the feelings of the rest of the peloton, he didn't bother responding to the claims, or perhaps offering up a denial, he just ran to his lawyer claiming he would sue for damage to the good image of he & his team (stop me if you've heard this before...)
There are 5 reasons that have absolutely no relation to his heritage, numbers 2 & 3 I'd happily direct towards Jakob Fuglsang as well, a man who shares the same country of birth that I do. Along with that I'd be asking how fucking stupid he would have to be to sign for that clusterfuck of a team AFTER the majority of the details of what they did last summer were revealed.
@The Grande Fondue
it's what happens when you dope the rest of your team so hard that there's none left for the team leader...
I don't think that Porte really has leadership at Sky. Viviani contested the sprint and took third. I don't think anyone would be sprinting when the GC leader was down if it were Froome. Disastro!
@Chris
I'll hit reply instead of quote because I really, really, REALLY didn't need to see that pic of Ed Milliband eating a bacon sandwich again! There's been some weird shit posted on here, but that ranks top 5. But then again, if one is self-proclaimed as a "jewish athiest" shouldn't one refrain from eating bacon in the first place?
Did I mention I predicted all the main contendors would crash out?
@Mikael Liddy
In regards to your number 5 it was not rest of the peloton tweeter but GH tweeter. He takes responsibility. That aside, GH is a professional athlete so even on tweeter he should behave in that manner, that was not the case. He is paid to do the talking with his legs, not with his mouth and on tweeter like a spoiled teenager with dumb hashtags.
Even if Aru tests positive tomorrow that was a dumb tweet. Why didn't he tweet about the UCI that allowed the licence, but picked on one rider? There are other teams linked to Ferrari but he didn't tweet about them, did he? Valverde always seems to be on form, spoiled couple of races in Belgium this year including LBL, didn't see any tweets about him? Are you suggesting that Aru should have also used the tweeter instead of asking his lawyer? Agree or disagree but that was just wrong and unprofessional.
@TommyTubolare
so... do we want riders to speak out or not? If it only results in being sued then no-one will ever talk and it's just same old, same old.