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.
[vsp_results id=”29781″/]
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(I cannot login, am I the only one?)
@Mikael Liddy
It starts in the middle of a sentence, but here we go: [Quintana and his group| are 2 min 2 sec behind the leader of the race. Uran and the others are 53 sec behind the. After another 14 km of descending to the end of the descend [of the Stelvio], the time gap of the Quintanta group is still the same [to the leaders]: 2'05''. But the the time gap between Uran and his rival is now 2 minutes. And what was the effect of the motorbike? It's a mystery. It is clear that in front the Quintana-Uran group, there was a motorbike with Marco Vela on it, who was a race commissaire. "I waved the red banner, the ex-pro from Brescia says, but Quintana beckoned me several times to accelerate, finally he rode past us disappeared."
@Mikael Liddy
Yep, he says that for safety reasons the race is neutralized for the descent, and that there will be a motorbike with a red banner that is not to be overtaken. He asks every rider to remain at his position for safety reasons, not to overtake anybody and stay behind the red banner.
@Mirko
I demand a full enquiry by Royal Commission.
Any time gained by Nairo on the descent should be deducted from his lead. Time gained on the ascent should stand, restoring the Maglia Rosa to Rigoberto and place Nairo in second as per my VSP.
Here'S a statement by race organizers RCS:
Whole descend or just the first hairpins, it should be clear to everybody you're not supposed to overtake a commissaire waving a red banner, no?
Posted by Tinkoff Saxo...........
Just as circumstantial evidence, during the Dubai Tour, which is run by RCS, some of the pro team guys were rolling their eyes and complaining about the lack of organisation, which seems to conform to southern European stereotypes, and of poor communication in general. I presume they are judging them by the standards of other race organisations.
I did tell them we regarded it as a miracle of efficiency compared to the local standards.
So I guess you can take that either way.
It suggests the organisers have form when it comes to mis-direction and general chaos in races... on the other hand, if that was already known then maybe teams should take anything they are told with a grain of salt until they are across the line.
@Harminator
Ah ha! So Harminator is just a cunning pseudonym for Patrick Lefevre and "Steampunk" is really Oleg Tinkoff. So now we know . . .
It might not be a Rule, but it sure is a rule: Time taken on the road is hard to talk away.
My prediction: on Stage 18, thursday, the peloton will ambush Movistar. Already no love lost between Omega Pharma and Movistar, now the other squadra have a bone to pick as well. They better rest up today.
Seems like there's a whole lot of bitching and moaning going on from some of the teams. Seems to me that regardless of what was or was not said over the radio, if you are Uran or Evans (or any of the others with any sort of GC hopes) and you see Quintana riding away from you on a mountain stage, you had better fucking go with him.
It's a race, not a damn picnic ride.
What would Merckx, or Hinault, or LeMan have done?