Cycling-Giro D'Italia 2013

[absolute bobbins]

The first and arguably best Grand Tour of the Cycling season is upon us with the 96th running of the Giro d'Italia getting rolling on Saturday.

The Brits are represented by one of the pre race favourites in Sky ProCycling's Bradley Wiggins but he'll be the likes hard by the 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans of BMC and Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel-Euskadi. The Italians are well represented with the two muppets in one of the worst adverts of all time, Ivan Basso and Vicenenzo Nibali of Cannondale and Astana respectively.
However, they will all be chasing Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin Sharp who is looking to grab hold of the Maglia Rosa early in the tour and not let go until the conclusion of the final stage on the 26th of May.

The first stage is one for the sprinters with a flat 130km jaunt around the beautiful Naples coastline with a finish that is as flat as very flat thing.

 

[nightgoat]

Of all the main contenders bar Wiggo, the only one that looks to be on any kind of decent form is Nibali. Hesjedal hasn't really done much, Evans still seems to go backwards whenever a race gets tough and Basso has been pretty poor. Astana have got a very strong looking team, although Wiggo's got some strong climbers alongside him with Uran, Henao and Siutsou. I'd consider someone like Betancur or Santambrogio to be a better outside bet than some of those being touted as contenders.

 

[carpediem991]

1. Nibali
2. Wiggins
3. Henao
4. Santambrogio
5. Evans
6. Scarponi
7. Niemiec
8. Betancur
9. Hesjedal
10. Pirazzi

Maybe sth like this at the end.

Gesink to fail another time

 

[nightgoat]

Basso's out with a cyst on his arse, apparently. Damiano Caruso replaces him.

 

[absolute bobbins]

Basso's out with a cyst on his arse, apparently. Damiano Caruso replaces him.

Why do I find that funny?

 

[nightgoat]

It's probably rather painful, but it is slightly amusing. I think the best remedy for that sort of injury is a medicine made from boiled cycling shoe.

First stage tomorrow is pretty much as flat as you like. Cav's going to be favourite for this one, although I don't think OPQS have really got their lead-out properly sorted yet. But Cav can still obliterate any other sprinter around, even if he's on his own, and without Sagan or Greipel he should be able to rack up a few stage wins. If Degenkolb is on similar form to last year's Vuelta then he or Viviani or Bouhanni will be his biggest threat. The most impressive looking rider in the sprints this season so far has been Meersman, but he's not riding either.

I was having a look at some of the odds earlier, you can get 15/8 on Cav getting three or more stage wins, which he's done on almost every Grand Tour he's ridden.

 

[Chris12345]

Shit, I assumed this was on ITV4 but it doesn't seem to be on the listings?! What's it on?!

 

[nightgoat]

Live on Eurosport, highlights later on Sky.

 

[nightgoat]

Great sprint from Cav! Viviani looked well pissed off.

 

[absolute bobbins]

I felt sorry for his Bars they took an absolute pounding

 

[nightgoat]

Great finish today. Tonnes of crashes, Scarponi made a bit of a bollocks of it at the end.

 

[nightgoat]

Great win for Dowsett today. Wiggo seems to have inherited some rather Spurs-esque luck this week. I reckon he lost at least 30 seconds from that puncture today. That and a TT course designed to minimise Nibali's losses and it's going to be hard for him to make up 1' 16". It was starting to look very gloomy by the time Intxausti finished, shame it couldn't have started belting it down about 20 minutes earlier.

Still, there's another two weeks to go.

 

[Chris12345]

Dowsett. Absolute beast. He's been threatening that for a while... IF Uran and Heneo are willing, Wiggins will beast it in the mountains... but Ryder and Nibali are looking a lot better than I thought they would... I fucking love cycling!

 

[nightgoat]

Nibali's been looking good all season. Every race I've seen Hesjedal in this season he's been unimpressive, and he pulled out of the Tour of Romandie, supposedly to concentrate on the Giro. He looked pretty awful today, to be fair. Evans has surprised me how good he's looked so far to be fair. Nibali's improved his TTing a hell of a lot since the Tour last season, and the two in this year's Giro are pretty much designed for him to minimalise losses to Wiggo, so it's no surprise to see him in the Maglia Rosa already.

I don't buy the Uran/Henao Colombian Sky conspiracy being pedaled in the press at all. Tim Kerrison already came out and said the reason they went hell for leather at the end of stage four rather than drop back to help Wiggo was to try and prevent their rivals from taking the time bonuses, which makes complete sense. He's got a strong climbing team around him with Uran, Henao and Siutsou, and his climbing has clearly improved based on his performances in the Giro del Trentino and Volta a Catalunya, but Nibali didn't really attack until the latter stages of the Tour last season but this race is already shaping up like there'll be attacks on every mid and mountain stage. It's already been way more interesting than the Tour last season.

 

[nightgoat]

First big mountain stage tomorrow.

Wiggo's going to need his team mates to set the type of blistering pace they often do and try and break down the peloton as much as possible. With Henao, Uran and Siutsou they probably have more capability to do so than any other team. Nibali will no doubt attack on the descent so if Sky can put him under pressure up the first of the climbs they can minimise any advantage he might take on the descent. Actually, the profile of the second half of this stage looks quite similar to the Port de Balès - Peyragudes stage in last year's tour which finally broke Nibali. It was also interesting to note that Wiggo was just about the only rider who took on the climb at the end of Saturday's TT in the saddle and yet he still had one of the strongest finishes and made up 49 seconds on Dowsett in the final 3 or 5km.

Also, importantly the weather forecast for that region of Italy tomorrow says clear skies, sunshine and a maximum temperature of 20°, perfect for Wiggo.

 

[nightgoat]

Wiggo's pulled out. Best thing to do as he's been ill. Shame for him, though. I wonder if that will have any knock-on effect when it comes to the Tour. Hesjedal's pulled out, too. Sky riding for Uran, hopefully we'll see some more attacks from him.