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
@Deakus
My suspicion would be that not unlike the tour in 2011, Cadel will be happy to be near the top & taking time off his rivals without having the pressure of riding in pink. It means his guys can focus on protecting him when necessary & not having to drive the bunch to bring back the break each day.
@Deakus
Correct, bigger fish to fry later on !
@Mikael Liddy
Hmm, he's gonna have to watch he doesn't cook his legs with all the climbing to come. Seem to remember him holding Nibbles, then struggling in the last few days last year. Better limit his time on the front! Maybe the DS was in his ear about Uran and Quint being back in the bunch...
All Evans was thinking on the way up was,
"Fuck me, so this is what it's like to have teammates on a hill!"
He should get the lead on Saturday, and I imagine he will be very keen to offload it to someone in an unthreatening break on Tuesday.
@Marcus
Agree. Although - where was Smiling Sammy Sanchez? I'd love him to be in the mix but he's largely MIA so far. Saving his legs?
It would have done Cuddles no harm overall if he "allowed" Matthews to take the win. Orica likely don't have a genuine GC contender and as we all know, favors are granted an repaid in pro cycling. Maybe Cuddles was putting something in the bank for later on? Also, he knows he's not riding the Tour this year so he has no reason to hold an ounce of energy back. Let's face it, I'm sure Orica would prefer to see an Aussie win than a Columbian . . . .
@PT
He did an interview. It seems like he has spent almost as much time off the bike as on it!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/samuel-sanchez/im-amazed-i-didnt-break-anything
Stage 7 -- 5 men off the front with 1min 10sec at 10 k
Big sprint today -- gap is 20' at 5k
Nice.