Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2017

Vincenzo Nibali won the Giro going downhill.

I spy with my little eye a certain Michele Scarponi, who sadly lost his life while out training near his home two weeks ago, in there amongst his teammates after his captain, Nibbles, won the race. I’m torn about a death like Michele’s – we subject ourselves to similar risks every time we climb aboard our bikes and we accept it as part and parcel of our craft. Yet, while every day members of our tribe lose their lives to their trade, it takes a high profile rider to remind us how real that risk is.

But onto lighter topics, Nibali won the Giro last year going downhill, and it happened on the one stage I managed to sleep through which is another way of saying I missed it. But I love waking up to a that WTF feeling only a reshuffled GS can give you.

The race starts Friday morning, which is sooner than I expected, so I’ll stop typing so you can start picking. Get them in by the time the clock goes to zero, and remember that our Grand Tour scoring rules are a little different than the smaller events. So jump on that start list and get prognosticating!

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

Teocalli says:

May 24 2017 at 1:28 am

@ChrisO

I’m not a fan of Quintana or Movistar but I think they (and Nibali) were between a rock and a hard place today.

I can understand the point of view that the bunch should have killed it quickly and let Dumoulin back but personally I think this one was just the other side of etiquette.

Had it been on the flat between the Stelvio and Umbrail then yes it would have been the correct thing to do.

But at the very foot of the final climb in the Queen stage of a Grand Tour… sorry, that’s just shit luck.

Kudos to him for toughing it out to hold on to pink – just a pity he couldn’t hold on to brown.

With hindsight given he appeared to have needed it for a while he should have gone earlier.
RobSandy says:

May 24 2017 at 2:14 am

@Teocalli

@ChrisO

I’m not a fan of Quintana or Movistar but I think they (and Nibali) were between a rock and a hard place today.

I can understand the point of view that the bunch should have killed it quickly and let Dumoulin back but personally I think this one was just the other side of etiquette.

Had it been on the flat between the Stelvio and Umbrail then yes it would have been the correct thing to do.

But at the very foot of the final climb in the Queen stage of a Grand Tour… sorry, that’s just shit luck.

Kudos to him for toughing it out to hold on to pink – just a pity he couldn’t hold on to brown.

With hindsight given he appeared to have needed it for a while he should have gone earlier.

I love you for that. Genius.
RobSandy says:

May 24 2017 at 2:15 am

Something else I'd like to discuss...

Nibali.

Descending.

Goodness me.
Teocalli says:

May 24 2017 at 2:24 am

@RobSandy

I love you for that. Genius.

Steady there, steady.......
Harminator says:

May 24 2017 at 2:39 am

Geez I hope TD can hang in there for the overall win. There's a story for the ages in this. Rides like a proper hardman, does his work without complaining, waits for rivals that can't ride good, even has time to take a shit during hostilities and still wins the maglia rosa. Legendary stuff.
Randy C says:

May 24 2017 at 4:21 am

@RobSandy

Something else I’d like to discuss…

Nibali.

Descending.

Goodness me.

I was thinking same thing. That was something else. To just simply ride away from Nairo like that… wow. And somewhere along the way down he reached in to his back jersey pocket for a snack? Bunny hopped the water in front of the turn? He looked like he was having fun is what it looked like. That was cool.
Cary says:

May 24 2017 at 10:16 am

is Nibali riding the Tour this year? it would be fun to see him go at it with Romain Bardet, who also descends "like an idiot", according to Sean Kelly.
wiscot says:

May 24 2017 at 12:46 pm

@Cary

is Nibali riding the Tour this year? it would be fun to see him go at it with Romain Bardet, who also descends “like an idiot”, according to Sean Kelly.

Would that be the same (sainted) Sean Kelly who once admitted, in a rather offhand manner, that the maximum speed he had descended at was 124 km/h? Takes one to know one I guess!
Cary says:

May 24 2017 at 1:53 pm

he said it last year, referencing Bardet's descent of thr Col d'Allos in the 2015 Criterium du Dauphine. it WAS pretty crazy. he left everyone, including Nibali, for dead.
wiscot says:

May 25 2017 at 7:35 am

@Cary

he said it last year, referencing Bardet’s descent of thr Col d’Allos in the 2015 Criterium du Dauphine. it WAS pretty crazy. he left everyone, including Nibali, for dead.

I've done just over 80kms/h and that was scary enough. But 124 km/h, that's 77mph. I don't drive my car that fast!