We’re into day four of the Six Days of the Giro series, let’s talk trash.
Yes the Tour de France started a few years before the Giro and has always been credited as The Tour to win. You win the Giro, you are a stud. Win the Tour and you are a stud for life. Why is that? Is the Tour longer, tougher, more murderous, more beautiful? In the 2013 edition, the Tour is a mere 25 km longer. The number of stages are the same. The Tour has earned a prestige it will never willingly cede. The Tour is it. Teams send their best riders. No one uses the Tour to train since the world championships were moved to September.
Obviously the maglia rosa is better looking than the maillot jaune, no argument. There is no arguing about podium girls; let us never argue about podium girls. Unless they are dudes, like that overly-politically correct scene where guys were pushed onto the stage a few years back. Either go Chippendale dancers or nothing if you can’t handle beautiful women on the stage. The Giro trophy is much hipper than the Tour fruit bowl. Is a leader’s all pink bike nicer than an all yellow bike? If not tarted up too much a De Rosa pearlescent pink paint job is beautiful. The same can be said for a beautiful yellow frame, but when the hubs, spokes and everything else on it matches the paint, arguing which is nicer is a lost cause.
Is France a more beautiful country to race through? From the rider’s perspective, they might not opine. They are looking at the jersey 1.5 meters in front of them or the next hairpin corner coming up fast. Day to day they might not even know which country they are in. From the high definition helicopter shots it would be a hopeless argument: both countries are incredibly varied and beautiful, like the podium ladies. Pastries, France, café, Italy. Before the advent of traveling team chefs, riders were at the mercy of whichever overworked, disgruntled chef was employed by the hotel. The French are renown gastronomies and renown for the terrible pasta they would serve Tour racers. If one was always fueling up on pasta and rice, one was much happier in the Giro.
What the Tour defiantly has over the Giro is Paris. Yes it is a parade but what a parade route. Riding into Paris and doing laps on the Champs Élysée; that’s how you end a Grand Tour. The Giro doesn’t always end in Milan, like this year’s finish in Brescia. They know the ride around Milan is not something to always be repeating. The Italians are more inclined to send the Giro route over strade bianche, gravel and dirt passes and up viciously steep ski station goat paths. Sometimes they go too far but they deserve credit for their craziness. The Giro has unfortunately always been about long transfers. Couple that with Italian inefficiency and riders may often eat too late and sleep too little. The French can whisk teams around the country in hours on the TGV. The Tour routes are more conservative, hitting the familiar climbs, avoiding the active volcanos.
If the Tour is the big show it’s partially because more money flows there, in almost all directions. There is a long standing fight about how little of that money flows towards the riders. The Giro has started to improve the team’s TV revenue sharing. It’s a smart move, if it benefits the teams financially, they will want to always be invited, they will take it more seriously, the Giro will improve. This could eventually put both the Giro and the Vuelta on a level with the Tour. Then we would really have something to argue about.
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@LA Dave "who's calendar is blocked out by some mysterious morning meeting"
So very true.earlier this year,my friend, who has a PA, was asked by her how his meeting with E3 Harelbeke had gone that morning?!
Speaking of the marketing of the Giro, have you noticed that RAI is using English titles such as 'Front of the race' instead of 'Testa della corsa' and 'standings' instead of 'classifica' etc. there's been a bit of grumbling online here. Obviously they're trying to appeal to the British and American audience but given that most cycling fans are europhiles they've probably gone a little too far there.
All very good reasons that make the Giro better than the tour - the race, the course, the fans, the cognoscenti.
The only thing it lacks is that the riders and major teams still treat it as second best.
What are Sky arguing about ? Leadership of the Tour not the Giro. And each year more of the big GC contenders will target the Tour rather than the Giro - to some extent I think they look at the Giro as a place where they can do better with less competition.
It's a great pity but I think that is why the Tour still rules as the supreme cycling event in the eyes of sponsors and the general public.
Personally I think it is the riding that makes greatness and as @king Clydesdale said last year the tdf was 3rd out of 3 and I think the trend will continue, the tour has become too safe with teams largely neutralising each other. It's like man utd vs Chelsea in football no-one makes a move in case it results in a mistake. That is why stage 17 of the vuelta last year for me was epic. It did not matter that it was in Spain...to see a gc contender go away from the getgo and stay away is something not seen for a while and something I cannot see happening at tdf, and we are all losers because of it.
this year I am glued to the giro and am looking forward to the vuelta more than the tour. At a point when british cycling is on a high....it just tells me excitement really sits north and south of Paris....this year at least!
@ped
EPIC.
All of the Grand Tours are interesting races to watch. US television really only pays attention to the TDF. Due to the lack of exposure here I know far less about either the Vuelta or the Giro, but it is apparent that both of these races have taken great steps forward in terms of providing a more competitive race. The last couple of TDFs have been sort of ho-hum. Last years Giro was nothing like that. The Vuelta (which seems like the red-headed stepchild of the Grand Tours) has also been more exciting to watch than the TDF. My biggest wish is that there was some way to watch the Giro on TV rather than relying on steraming video feeds. Oh well, perhaps someday if the Giro organizers play their cards right...
@LA Dave Yeah, that Russian bride thing is annoying...
@ped
+1!
Agreed that the racing is more exciting at the Giro, but unfortunately Le Tour said in a french accent is more sexy that Il Giro is in an italian accent
Perhaps this is an unimportant point
I do think the Giro still lacks the pomp and ceremony that the LoF gets, certainly in GBR, where we have analysis shows with Ned Boulding and co at Le Tour, and not that rather dullard Declan Quigley commentating, who just seems to talk for the sake of it, and who Old Seany Boy doesn't quite patronise as eloquently as he does Dave Harmon during the Big Lap
Fuck it, I love it all, and it makes me very cross that my son won't stop playing Forza 4 so I can watch the time trial
For what it is worth, Wiggo ain't going to win this, not due to lack of form, but because he hasn't got EBH, Porte, Rodgers, and Froome destroying everyone up the big lumps and leaving him to dot and line with the TTs