Cycling-Giro D'Italia 2014

[AussieSpurMan]

Hey fellow Cycling fans.
The first grand tour of the year is upon us and no thread so figured we needed one.
Should be a great contest this year. The course as usual looks brutal.
As an Aussie i'm hoping for Cadel to take this one as its very dear to his heart (Italian wife, lives there) but it really is there for the taking.
Who do we think will win?

 

[absolute bobbins]

It's Rigo Uran or Quintana for me, I think Cadel is starting to fade but it'll be interested to see what Sky get up to without a real GC contender

 

[nightgoat]

It's Quintana's to lose, pretty much. Rodriguez is probably his biggest rival contender. What with Nibali, Contador and Valverde focusing on coming second to Chris Froome in the Tour there aren't that many outstanding potential GC winners for the Giro.

Cadel's a funny one. He did great last year when he entered at the last minute with little preparation, then tanked at the Tour which was his main target. He'll probably be in contention for the first couple of weeks then tail off towards the end. Likewise, I'm not entirely convinced by Uran as a GC rider and his form has been patchy of late. He didn't look all that impressive in Romandie last week. I'd expect Scarponi and Pozzovivo to be up there, perhaps Roche or Majka, Rolland, Niemiec and Dan Martin as well.

Presumably Sky will just be going for stage wins with Swift and Boasson Hagen now that Pete Kennaugh's pulled out. It's a shame, he's fancied as a future GC contender so to have a grand tour as team leader at this stage of his career without much pressure to win and a pretty open field would have been a good test for him.

 

[carpediem991]

Prediction:

1. Quintana
2. Rodriguez
3. Pozzovivo
4. Evans
5. Aru
6. Niemiec
7. Uran
8. Majka
9. Pellizotti
10. Scarponi
11. Basso
12. Movistar helping hand
13. Duarte
14. Landa
15. Roche

Hesjedal DNF

 

[absolute bobbins]

Prediction:

1. Quintana
2. Rodriguez
3. Pozzovivo
4. Evans
5. Aru
6. Niemiec
7. Uran
8. Majka
9. Pellizotti
10. Scarponi
11. Basso
12. Movistar helping hand
13. Duarte
14. Landa
15. Roche

Hesjedal DNF

Does that sound like a fluffier to anyone else?

 

[AussieSpurMan]

Hope you guys find this interesting!

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentra...ive-greatest-climbs-of-the-2014-Giro-d'Italia

This one will be brutal.

 

[Donki]

Trials have just started going past my work, pretty kool to see. I should of started my thread in here instead of chat lol. Looks like they are going to have a good day for it.

 

[absolute bobbins]

Gutted for Dan Martin, I was hoping that spill wasn't too bad but he's been down for 10 minutes and they still haven't tried to even get him into the team car

 

[nightgoat]

Gutted for Dan Martin, I was hoping that spill wasn't too bad but he's been down for 10 minutes and they still haven't tried to even get him into the team car

Broken collarbone, that's his race over.

 

[PaddoSpurs]

This is a golden time for Australian cycling and Orica GreenEDGE.

So many positives signs:

o Australia has 13 riders (presumably a record) in the 2014 Giro and only Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Colombia have more riders. GB & USA only have 2 each. OGE has 6 Aussies but Aussies are also on 6 other teams.

o Apart from Italy there is apparently only 3 countries with daily live free-to-air broadcast TV coverage in the world – Belgium, Switzerland and Australia.

o The large number of stage wins and race wins for OGE, Orica-AIS woman’s team and Jayco-AIS junior academy team.

Is GreenEDGE the best sporting team in the world to work for? In their first 2 and a bit years of existence they have won stages in all 3 grand tours and 2 monuments. It seems the Australian culture and camaraderie brings out the best in riders from around the world. The hugely popular Backstage videos show these guys have fun and enjoy each other’s company. The team seems genuinely keen to share the rewards. Would the selfless acts happen in any other team - Simon Gerrans handing over his TDF yellow jersey to South Africa’s Dayrl Impey and last night OGE management nominating the potential maglia rosa to Canadian Svein Tuft on his birthday and for appreciation of his hard work.

No wonders overseas riders want to sign and stay with OGE:

o Michael Albasini chose to resign with OGE rather than join his dad who is a Director Sportif at IAM Cycling. He then goes on to win 3 stages at Tour de Romandie.

o The Yeates twins resist their home team SKY and sign with OGE. Why? Better opportunities? Would Simon have had the opportunity to win the Tour of Turkey with SKY? Or would they always just be domestiques to Froome and Wiggins?

Anyhow good luck to OGE who continue to make Australia proud and the sport better.

 

[AussieSpurMan]

Agree with plenty you have said Paddo, but, this is not a Tour i would expect OGE to dominate by any stretch. I hope Michael Matthews gets some decent lead outs and maybe takes a few stages. I would also expect them to win the TTT. But lets face it, at this stage there is no real bona fide GC rider in the squad. Im sure thats next on the list!

 

[PaddoSpurs]

Agree with plenty you have said Paddo, but, this is not a Tour i would expect OGE to dominate by any stretch. I hope Michael Matthews gets some decent lead outs and maybe takes a few stages. I would also expect them to win the TTT. But lets face it, at this stage there is no real bona fide GC rider in the squad. Im sure thats next on the list!

I agree OGE have no GC ambitions – they will just hunt stage wins. But I suspect they have a top 10 ambition for Ivan Santaromita (especially when they shielded him in the TTT) and top 20 for Cam Meyer.

Go Bling tonight – he will look good in pink.

 

[nightgoat]

This is a golden time for Australian cycling and Orica GreenEDGE.

So many positives signs:

o Australia has 13 riders (presumably a record) in the 2014 Giro and only Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Colombia have more riders. GB & USA only have 2 each. OGE has 6 Aussies but Aussies are also on 6 other teams.

o Apart from Italy there is apparently only 3 countries with daily live free-to-air broadcast TV coverage in the world – Belgium, Switzerland and Australia.

o The large number of stage wins and race wins for OGE, Orica-AIS woman’s team and Jayco-AIS junior academy team.

Is GreenEDGE the best sporting team in the world to work for? In their first 2 and a bit years of existence they have won stages in all 3 grand tours and 2 monuments. It seems the Australian culture and camaraderie brings out the best in riders from around the world. The hugely popular Backstage videos show these guys have fun and enjoy each other’s company. The team seems genuinely keen to share the rewards. Would the selfless acts happen in any other team - Simon Gerrans handing over his TDF yellow jersey to South Africa’s Dayrl Impey and last night OGE management nominating the potential maglia rosa to Canadian Svein Tuft on his birthday and for appreciation of his hard work.

No wonders overseas riders want to sign and stay with OGE:

o Michael Albasini chose to resign with OGE rather than join his dad who is a Director Sportif at IAM Cycling. He then goes on to win 3 stages at Tour de Romandie.

o The Yeates twins resist their home team SKY and sign with OGE. Why? Better opportunities? Would Simon have had the opportunity to win the Tour of Turkey with SKY? Or would they always just be domestiques to Froome and Wiggins?

Anyhow good luck to OGE who continue to make Australia proud and the sport better.

There's only one Brit, actually. Peter Kennaugh withdrew due to illness a few days before the race started leaving Ben Swift as the only remaining Brit. Whilst it would be nice to have more British riders in the Giro I don't see it as such a big problem. Last year Cav won the points jersey, and we had Wiggo, Alex Dowestt, David Millar, Steve Cummings and Adam Blythe. Six stages were won by British riders (seven if you count the TTT won by a British team) - only Italians won as many. This year the bulk of the British riders are either focusing on other things (such as a third successive Tour) or injured/ill.

Things like that happen fairly often. Overall cycling is a very selfless sport, the riders realise the efforts their teammates put in for them. Last year Sky let Salvatore Puccio cross the line first in the TTT to take the Maglia Rosa. The other week Andre Greipel was riding as a leadout for his team in the Tour of Turkey.

I suspect Albasini chose OGE over IAM as IAM are only a Pro-Continental team rather than a World Tour team (although they've got wild cards into the Tour and the Vuelta.) Apparently Sky only offered Simon Yates a contract and not Adam Yates and they wanted to go to the same team. I think FDJ were supposed to have offered them both a deal. But it's not as if young British riders aren't getting opportunities at Sky. Peter Kennaugh was going to be their team leader this Giro as he's been earmarked as a potential future Grand Tour winner. Unfortunately he had to pull out because of illness. Thomas has been their main rider in the Classics, Stannard would undoubtedly have had more chances to win races had he not been injured during Gent-Wevelgem. I think with Sky despite their reputation as being a soulless numbers machine, if you're good enough you'll get opportunities.

It'll be interesting to see if and when OGE make the jump to having a GC contender rather than just stage winners how they make that transition. It's been rumoured for a while that they'd like to sign Richie Porte from Sky. But they're definitely doing well at the moment, and they keep improving year after year. Just hope they've got a new bus driver.

 

[AussieSpurMan]

I think Kittel is the best out and out sprinter in the world at the moment! Another easy win for him. Be interesting to see if he goes all the way in the Giro or pulls out to prepare for the Tour.
Great to see young Michael Matthews take the pink! You could see how much it meant to him on the podium!

 

[nightgoat]

I think Kittel is the best out and out sprinter in the world at the moment! Another easy win for him. Be interesting to see if he goes all the way in the Giro or pulls out to prepare for the Tour.
Great to see young Michael Matthews take the pink! You could see how much it meant to him on the podium!

I wouldn't have thought he'd pull out. He's the favourite to win the points jersey so he'd have to finish the race for that. I think Kittel benefits from having the best organised sprint train around as Giant have only really focused on stage wins. It'll be interesting to see them up against OPQS with Petacchi and Renshaw now.

 

[AussieSpurMan]

I wouldn't have thought he'd pull out. He's the favourite to win the points jersey so he'd have to finish the race for that. I think Kittel benefits from having the best organised sprint train around as Giant have only really focused on stage wins. It'll be interesting to see them up against OPQS with Petacchi and Renshaw now.

Really looking forward to the Tour for the Cav/Kittel battle. Especially with Renshaw back guiding Cav!

 

[nightgoat]

Good second for Swift today. He perhaps could have held on for the win had he not had to ride back on after a bike change with 20k to go.

 

[nightgoat]

Kittel DNS today. Points competition is going to be wide open now.

 

[nightgoat]

Massive crash today has torn the GC to shreds, Evans being the only contender to not lose time. I'm sure BMC will claim they didn't know about it. Uran, Quintana, Pozzovivo and Niemiec's losses aren't too bad, but Rodriguez (7:43), Majka and Roche (both 15:08) are all out of it now.

 

[absolute bobbins]

Massive crash today has torn the GC to shreds, Evans being the only contender to not lose time. I'm sure BMC will claim they didn't know about it. Uran, Quintana, Pozzovivo and Niemiec's losses aren't too bad, but Rodriguez (7:43), Majka and Roche (both 15:08) are all out of it now.

How far out was it?