Twiggo is dreaming of a Giro-Tour double. He has sent out mixed messages about his Tour ambitions. Will he use the Giro as the ultimate Tour preparation or will be burn all his matches in May and hope he can find another pack for July? He has abandoned his successful 2012 Tour run-up strategy of winning every stage race he entered the previous spring. Now it’s the seclusion of Mount Doom of Tenerife, his coach and his watt meter his only competition. Team Sky is supporting Wig with a very strong squad, including superman, Kanstantsin Siutsou and with Cav no longer a teammate, it’s all the knights of the round table for Sir Twig.
Will the curse of the god-awful Astana kit continue to haunt non-Kazahk riders? Can Vincenzo’s Italian mojo overpower its powerful pale blue and yellow aura? Roman Kreuziger was finally able to win a big race once he shed that kit and pulled on one of Bjarne’s Saxo jerseys. Maybe it was more Bjarne and less jersey that made the difference.
Ryder gets no respect as the defending champion. His little dance at the end of Liége-Bastogne-Liége showed he is fit and ready for a fight. He can time trial, he can climb. Personally I have to back the local boy. And I always hate the overpowered, overwhelming favorite (read Team Sky here) in any race, unless that racer is Fabian Cancellara. No one can say Fabs has won a race this year surrounded with a team as strong as Sky’s. The Shack is just the Shack or a shack. Once Cancellara leaves for the Swiss “I AM” team, it’s lights out in the shack. Frandy, don’t forget to turn out ’em out when you leave.
If Cavendish wins the first day’s sprinter’s stage he will be in pink. He may be out of it after stage two, a team time trial.
But this is the Giro: crazy, unexpected, beautiful things can happen. The spinning wheels of fortuna are less predictable in Italy as they are in France in July. The betting window is now open. The complete start list is not yet available, an incomplete one is here and shall be updated soon. So sleep on your picks, wait for all the teams to make it official, unless you want to go with the obvious all Sky podium. The race begins Saturday so don’t Delgado away a Grand Tour opportunity.
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@motor city Thanks for that info.
@Steampunk
Just imagine the fun @frank could have had with this. Today's stage certainly would have panned out differently...
WooHoo. I'm the leader on the road!
@Chris
All I see is a suitcase and a sign that says bullocks.
@Chris
Oh oh oh! He's riding with his suitcase of courage.
@frank
One of these riders is wearing rainbow stripes.
@itburns
But Sky haven't had seven years of near-complete domination.
In fact they've had one good season on parcours which suited their metronomic style.
Other teams have started to find them out tactically and their modus operandi hasn't worked in challenging conditions and routes. Nor did it work in the classics.
When the conditions and the course were right the advantages of their training showed up and physically nobody could match them. But now other teams have begun to erode the advantage tactically, especially in challenging conditions and terrain or in races where the chief weapon is fear, and surprise...
And also, look at Nibali, and to some extent Rodriguez. In the past their teams would have just let them get on with TT training in their own way - now they have spent considerable time and effort in wind tunnels and with specialist trainers and analysts from F1 and MotoGP, and have seen enormous improvements as a result.
@ChrisO I was also thinking this was the case but din't have the knowledge to say it. Nibali's TTing has come leaps and bounds from last season. There's a video about it on CycligNews.com somewhere. If Wiggins wants to win the Giro he's gonna have to do something we haven't seen him do yet ATTACK! I'm sure we'd all like to see that whether we like him or not - it'll make great viewing!
I learnt not to swap last year (the cost is huge particularly on the second day) so I am going to break my own mantra....mainly because I forgot to swap out Basso at the start. Doh!
Unless Twiglet is playing a masterful game of bluff and is about to rip everyones legs off in the mountains, he looks out of sorts to me, I think that little fall might have whacked an elbow or something, he certainly looks less confident than I have seen him before, therefore my insertion is Cuddles who is really looking like a Good Cadel at the moment!
I have a feeling Ryder and Dirty Sanchez are going to cost me on this one, although Sammy did move up as a counter point to Ryder moving down yesterday, but Henao is still looking strong. Only concern is that Sky make Uran the point man if Twiggy folds, in which case Henao will be under team orders....
Have to say it is proving a stonking race!
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nibbles
2. Ryder
3. Dirty Sanchez
4. Cuddles
5. Henao
@G'rilla
One of these guys has guns. The other has won the Giro.