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
@KW
I completely agree, and if you read the quotes, Cuddles and Uran are actually not bitching. Cuddles says that he did not have the legs. He actualy never bitches about the possible neutralization or not. And Uran is the same, he says that he had no idea were Quintana was at the top of the pass but does not bitch about the riding that went on. It's the DS's that are bitching in the press. If you are in the top 5 of a GC, it BEHOVES one to know where the other four are at all times. And Jim Och crying foul is just too laughable. Dude has more doping skeletons in his closet than Armstrong's house keeper!!!
Fuckin Game on and enough of the neutralization shit.
Fuckin Game on and enough of the neutralization shit.
+1 but looks like we have to wait, today is an LSD rest and recovery day...
Yup KW and yup, Buck. No one wants to see racers get hurt. But, Quintana gained his time on that long haul at the end, not on the descent. Read the Cuddles article too, glad to see he just explained what happened and made ZERO excuses. Eisel did a lot of bitching, but said he wasn't complaining. Hmm.
Yes, the weather was crazy. But, you can't blame the time gaps on the yes/no neutralization. Chase down fucking Ryder, Pierre and Nairo if you want to limit time gaps.
Also, a lot of us have spent many winters riding road bikes in Rule #9, for fucking fun. I'll gladly swap my day job for a day of racing an 11-s electronic Bianchi in the Italian Alps in amazing hi-tech kit, with a team car, with a domestique getting me warm tea and riding tempo and finishing 40 minutes back. I'll take 5-6 hours of that over my day job any damn day. And, most of them are paid either really well or pretty darn well.
Plus, if they would just HardMan it up and say it was tough but fun...more and more non-cycling folks would say, "Holy fuck, what a cool sport with some seriously tough dudes." Not good PR to have so much finger point and complaining.
@Rob
But Thursday, Friday and Saturday looks AMAZING!!! Giro is the best GT, hands down!!! No way that the TdF can match this.
I'm really sad this has happened as it screws up what was an epic stage. The organizers are 100% to blame for their mealy-mouthed words and actions. I know you have to use several languages in the peloton and I'm sure most riders and DS have a working knowledge of a few, particularly key words and phrases. I'm sure "neutralized" whether in English, French, Italian or Spanish is readily understood by all. Apparently that word was never used yesterday. If it had been, then there would have been no misunderstanding.
Instead, here is a translation of what was said. Maybe something is lost in translation, but it's pretty damn convoluted and hard to follow, especially in a stressful situation like riding up a snowy mountain pass:
"Attention: A communication to directeur sportives. The management of the organisation have planned to put ahead of the head of the riders, depending on the situation, of course, after the top, to place in front of various groups an organisation moto with a red flag. All to avoid having attacks on the descent and after this to ensure that the riders remain in their positions and to prevent taking big risks and, for all, to remain in this position until the security agents lower the red flag."
Could this be any more ambiguous: planned to put ahead of the head of the riders, depending on the situation, of course, after the top, to place in front of various groups an organisation moto with a red flag.
"Depending upon the situation, of course" well, how about making a fucking call, eh? Neutralise or don't, make the call.
Or tell you what, let's make every tour a nice combo of individual time trials and a couple of crits held on nice flat courses in perfect weather. That should help ensure a nice race.
One more thing, is this stuff more prevalent now because of race radios? In the old days, the riders had to get on with it and make the call themselves. I agree with Buck, Uran should have stuck like glue to Quintana's wheel all day. You keep your rivals in sight!
@wiscot
"Attention: A communication to directeur sportives. The management of the organisation have planned to put ahead of the head of the riders, depending on the situation, of course, after the top, to place in front of various groups an organisation moto with a red flag. All to avoid having attacks on the descent and after this to ensure that the riders remain in their positions and to prevent taking big risks and, for all, to remain in this position until the security agents lower the red flag."
Could this be any more ambiguous: planned to put ahead of the head of the riders, depending on the situation, of course, after the top, to place in front of various groups an organisation moto with a red flag.
"Depending upon the situation, of course" well, how about making a fucking call, eh? Neutralise or don't, make the call.
Or tell you what, let's make every tour a nice combo of individual time trials and a couple of crits held on nice flat courses in perfect weather. That should help ensure a nice race."
Holy SHIT, that is awesome! I had not seen it but totally believe it. Crazy. I, also, wonder what would have happened without the race radios. I am not a believer in them but then again, I do not "believe" in electronic shifting, either!
@Buck Rogers
Absolutely. I didn't mean to imply that any of the riders were complaining. Evans and Rigo certainly did not. It's Lefevre, Ochowicz, and Tinkov that seem to be doing a lot of complaining.
And the simple fact is that Quintana just shelled everyone on the last climb. The gap to Uran was only about 1:40 at the bottom, but 4:00+ at the finish.
@KW
Tracking, Brother (Sister?). I realized that. I was just agreeing with you and adding my 3 cents (I always give just that little bit extra, you know.)
@Buck Rogers
It's all good. (I'm a brother, btw.)
Oh, and Tinkov said he could see Quintana attack from his vantage point on the top of the Stelvio. Wait, I thought the weather was so shit, nobody could see anything. Which is it Oleg?
Way to go Pirazzi! Took the chance today and it paid off. Nice to see a wee team like Bardiani win three stages. They put a lot of Pro Tour teams to shame . . .