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
well fuck, that leaves just 2 of my 5 picks in contention.
@Buck Rogers
Having the strength of character to be able to adjust your strategy as facts on the ground change is a sign of great maturity. Holding to your position regardless of changing circumstances is a sign of a constrained mind.
Take THAT!
@frank I take it you had both Martin & J-Rod then?
@frank
Huh??? Lost me there, Mate!
Oh, and by the way, chapeau to Matthews. Nice to see someone taking a (perhaps) once in a lifetime opportunity (pink jersey) and getting stuck in. No cruising around knowing that it's great to have and that he'll likely lose it, but taking a page out of the Tommy Voeckler playbook and saying to everyone else" You want it? Come and take it!" The man will ride himself into the ground to keep the pink.
@wiscot
Great quote from Cuddles teammate on cyclingnews site:
"We knew that it would be very dangerous, we knew that there was the roundabout coming up where a lot of riders would be braking and we were telling our riders every minute to stay in front and not to give up their positions," Piva said. "I'm sure the other teams were doing that too, but we just had that bit of luck. Joaquim Rodriguez didn't have it, Uran fell, a lot of leaders fell but that's the race. I can't say much more."
Ah when the rest of the internet is spitting feathers, knew I could read some comments on here that make more sense.
I'm led to believe that waiting for crashes and mechanicals was never a given years back? It's a nice and sporting thing to do in certain circumstances, but what if they eased up every time there was a crash in say, the classics? There'd be no point watching. Giro's already had one go-slow anyway.
The worst thing about it though is I don't have cuddles in my top 5.
Incidentally I went to watch La Vuelta a while back. That day Cuddles punctured. Valverde pushed on and put minutes into him. I think I was so annoyed just because it was Valverde. (a few years later he had a right hissy-fit when he crashed and teams didn't wait, calling it 'anti-sporting' - non sporting! Valverde! ha ha ha)
@Rhodri
Good point my man. That particular incident was Cuddles getting shafted by Valmerde and the race organizers. Kinda like Miller getting fucked in the 80s. In this day and age, not to have someone in your team do very detailed route reconnaisance is professional negligence. As a DS, it's your job to make sure your riders know any potential hazards are in the race and as a rider it's your job to take that knowledge and apply it. BMC did that better than anyone today.
Oh and by the way, watch the last kilo of today's stage. Cuddles on the front virtually the whole way. NEVER looked back, NEVER flicked an elbow. He just looked straight ahead and rode to gain time. Matthews wheel sucked, but hey, he likely knows he's not going to win this thing so what did he have to gain by taking a turn?. Cuddles knew what the score was and did the business.
@wiscot
For my own picks this sucks. For the sake of the race it still ducks for Rodriguez, but it's not so bad overall. In the relatively short amount of time I have followed the Pros, a very short time compared to many of you, I have been bothered by this idea of waiting for a rival to finish a wheel change our get back on after a crash. I think its nice, but when are races ever nice? There is only one winner.
2 EVANS CadelBMC Racing Team0:21
3 URAN RigobertoOmega Pharma - Quick-Step1:18