For the simple reason that the Cobbled and Ardennes Classics are behind us, I have not alternative but to get back on my soap box about the Giro being the best of the three Grand Tours. Well, usually, at least. Last year’s race sucked the big one (even if it was supremely Rule #9), but for the most part it is the race that is the most closely contested of the three. There are mountains everywhere Italy meaning there are less bunch sprints, the weather is completely unreliable, and the slightly lower calibre of rider seems hungrier. Or maybe the reduced pressure means riders aren’t quite as stressed out and are able to funnel that extra energy into the race.
My favorite Giro is a hard one to pick out, but its either the 1988 Giro when Andy Hampsten took the win after freezing himself stiff with Erik Breukink on the Gavia or when Pantani took his in 1998. I’ve been watching the ’98 Giro during my morning turbo sessions and Merckx-oh-me, that was an All-Drugs Olympics nail-biter. ’98 is also an interesting contrast to ’88; in just a decade, the technology had changed so much but more than that, the doping atmosphere in the sport transformed completely. From Hampsten’s Giro, EPO went from just being dabbled with on the fringes to being abused by leaders and domestiques alike by the time Pantani won. Hampsten wrote a nice piece about racing against dopers in Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race. He described the various side-effects that the popular drugs of his era had, such as bloating and a tendency to make the user over-estimate their abilities. Amphetamine made the riders do stupid things, cortisone made them retain water, and steroids made them heavy; a clean rider could use those factors to their advantage. A far cry from the rocket fuel that allowed humble domestiques to big ring up major alpine passes.
Why am I talking about drugs? There’s a race starting in a few days, people! This is our first Grand Tour, and the picks are worth more points, not to mention that strategy starts to play into things with the chance to swap your picks out on either of the rest days – at a certain point penalty. Remember that points are not accumulated; the standings on the last day of the race are what kinds, so keep the long game in mind.
Any points you win count towards the overall prizes plus the winner of this event also gets to post for the rest of the year in the pink jersey badge. So check the start list, review the VSP Grand Tour Scoring Guidelines and get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on Friday, May 9th. If you think we mapped one of your picks wrong, use the dispute system and we’ll review it. Also remember to be precise enough in your description so we know which rider you mean; in other words, if you enter “Martin”, we will use our discretion (read: wild guess) to decide if you mean Tony or Dan – and that choice will not be negotiable once the the countdown clock goes to zero. There has also been a recent scourge of people putting a rider in more than one place. Two words: Piti Principle, people! Don’t make me do a bunch of extra programming to keep you from being allowed to submit such an obviously unsportsmanlike set of picks. We will mercilessly clear out all your entries should we find you have attempted this.
Also don’t forget we’ve got three major prizes for the season-long VSP:
Good luck, have fun with it, and don’t lose your Rule #43 spirit.
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View Comments
I would not call foul on the lead group going for it. 1. The race was on...that means the race was on...you don't hold up for anything once the race is on. 2. It was not one crash, it was two or three. Race radio would have been completely bonkers and pretty much indecipherable, just look how long it took the ambulance to arrive to Carusso.
The other point is why is it all be levelled at Cuddles, Michael Mathews the race leader was in the same group, he obviously did not call time (nor should he have) so Cadel was obliged to race. It may be that this did not even cross his mind but to go eyeballs out to extend any time gaps was absolutely the right thing to do. Yes he was fortunate but everyone needs a bit of luck from time to time. That is part of Grand Tour Racing.
Fuck me! There goes J-Rod down the toilet. But awesome stage and I have no problems with the group continuing the fight until the end. That's why you position yourself near the front if you're in the GC fight.
A mechanic by a top contender is different than being back a bit in the peloton in a sketchy situation and then going down in a crash. Just like Real Estate, it is all about location, location, location.
@justinevan88
It's a race not an equal opportunities parade.
It's what makes winning a grand tour difficult, because every minute of every day you have to make sure you're not in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It does my head in when I have to do it for three or four days. The mental pressure for three weeks must be incredible.
There's only one rule, which is not to attack the leader's jersey when they have a mechanical. Everyone else is fair game.
Purito reportedly crossed the line 7:23 after Evans...
I feel sorry for the Katusha rider, Caruso. 5 minutes after posting about the riders not racing in the rain....crash.
But the crash occurred when they were 6 or 8 across the road (peloton going slow spread across the road always most dangerous).. It may actually have been safer if they were lined out 1 or 2 across and racing.
Also worth considering that Evans group at 5km to go had just over 30 seconds lead over a group of maybe 20 riders. By the end it was nearly 50.
Maybe Quintana and Uran think they can get that time back on the high mountains, but it was a pretty weak effort at limiting losses. They sat in and let others try to close the gap - not the way favourites at a grand tour should be acting. That was a time to take personal responsibility.
@Deakus
Agreed. Evans is a veteran pro and regular GT contender. He knew where to be, when, and why. BMC were probably massed at the front prior to the crash to drive the pace to the bottom of the climb to see if Evans could gain time today on the way up. That, and because they are a well drilled PRO team with a veteran leader who made sure they got their asses up there to keep him out of trouble. Job well done.
@ChrisO
Spot-FUCK'IN-on! When a leader, be a leader for fuck's sake. Nothing worse than supposedly being in charge and not leading.
Fuck, Rodriguez is OUT.
@Buck Rogers
Amen brothers. Cadel is a wise old pro. He knows the ropes and made sure he was in the right place at the right time. Sure, luck can often play a big part in things, but to a certain extent you can help make your own luck. Evans did what he needed to do as a professional bike rider who is paid to win big races like the Giro.
Unlucky rider? Hesjedal. Unlucky rider? Martin. Wrong place at wrong time.
If Quintana and Uran think they can pull it back in the mountains, good luck to them. Cadel's got about a minute on Uran and over a minute and a half on Quintana. This ain't Cadel's first rodeo.