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
Silence
Classy stage win from Mick Rogers - great to see him get his day in the sun after serving Clenbutador and others so well in recent years. Hard to believe that this is his first stage win in a Grand Tour!
@Rhodri
GIRO BIG START CARAVAN
Preceding each day's racing this advertising parade gives participating sponsors the opportunity for brand exposure and product sampling to hundreds of thousands of fans along the roadside.
During the three weeks of the Giro d'Italia over 12 million spectators will watch the race from the side of the road. Of these, studies have shown that half come first and foremost to see the Publicity Caravan.
Professional cycling has included branded publicity caravans in the race convoy since the 1930's. The parades have won over brands and the public becoming an essential part of the race experience.
The Caravan goes hand in hand with the race it precedes, with the multi-shaped and multi-coloured procession creating a wave of excitement in towns and villages along the race route. Young and old alike along the roadside marvel at the creativity of the branded cars and vans. The Official Caravan Stops attract considerable attention as promotional items are handed out at these pre- advertised locations.
Stage Start and Finish locations are also an important location for Caravan vehicles to distribute their promotional items.
Over the three days of racing in Northern Ireland and the republic, conservative estimates will put the spectator numbers at over 1 million roadside viewers. This is an incredible opportunity for your brand to interact with such a captive audience over three days.
@Daccordi Rider
Nipple lube. Tyler could fall off a fucking tricycle in a swimming pool, it looked to me straight away like he'd had his front wheel taken out which means he was overlapping wheels somewhere. I haven't checked if that was the case, but seeing the crash twice it seems pretty evident.
And Cuddles is slaying it. Be interesting to see what's gonna happen after the tt.
Robert Millar post on Evans:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert-millar/how-long-can-cadel-evanss-luck-last
Hope he's right and there'll be some good racing in the final week.
@Tom Mc
Ha! This post killed me. Not sure if you are being tongue in cheek or not, but either way, too funny! "Serving Clenbutador". You do realize the irony of that statement, right???
Sory, couldn't resist. Carry on, no doping references here. And for what it's worth, it was a great ride. Another question about yesterday was did Cuddles actually slow the field at the end to help his "Mate" win?
@Buck Rogers
Agreed. If you (well, not you personally, Buck) want to spout off all the old cliches/shit about doping, head on over to Cyclingnews. I like that we take a more discerning and intelligent attitude around here. It was a great, ballsy ride from Rogers. Did Cuddles help him? Hard to say, but again, Saxo have no GC contender and maybe Cuddles was putting some more credits in the bank.
@Rhodri All Millar says is word. My only thought (hope, because I've now got Cuddles in #1 after the rest day) is that this years mountain stages seem a little more mellow than in some recent years, 3 climbs not 5 for the hardest stage. That may mean that he can limit the damage from a bad day, a puncture, etc.
I think today will give a hint of if the mountains will make or break. If Cadel pulls out a big lead then it is sure that his form is top and given his experience he may (with luck) pull it off.
What ever happens the next 10 days is sure going to be entertaining!
@Rob
I think Sean "Fucking Mayhem" Kelly's commentaries are fantastic, but Miller would, I think, be equally good. He just has that "been there, done that" experience that cuts through the crap.
No. 1 and No. 2 on the course now