Corsa Rosa 2013 - The Giro Thread

Giro starts tomorrow, we've haven't had an ILE giro thread for a while but the people seem to like it for the Tour.

First order of Business: Pink Jeans

http://25.media.tumblr.com/8153fd3d3509057a075d680e7b511ec4/tumblr_mm76hhAsgI1rqrqs1o1_1280.jpg

This thread's going well so far. Good win for Cavendish today.

So far, so good for Wiggins.

ha the times i've been around him, his legs look so short in street clothes, esp with him being so tall.

xpost re: pink jeans

the turnups seem to be devised to disguise the fact his legs are too long.

SO far the only sky fuckup has been to get the wrong italian in Pink.

the weather looks amazing over there

good racing. commentary is being hard on hejedal for spending early, too early, but i sorta think he needs to do it. do everything he can to be level or better with wiggins going to the third week. seems like he'll obv get crushed in tt, so he needs to chip away, even before he's behind.

Wiggins did not look at all comfortable on the final climb today, cold and miserable at best. Nibali, on the other hand, seemed to be loving it.

Degenkolb growing a deliciously nasty stache there

Because of work not been able to see a lot of this yet, but already this Giro is more exciting that last years TdF

Ha! Just seen there was basically a river flowing down over the finishing line today (before they got there)

I saw that! Crazy scenes

Big crash, loads of riders held up behind it, only 31km to go so some big names might be losing time here...

Nup, looks like they're going to wait for them

well that was exciting. evans: ex pro mtn biker. hejedal: ex pro mtn biker. wiggins: ex pro track racer.

Sure, but Hansen: ex-triathlete which completely nullifies your theory.

"Affectionately known as "Croc man" due to his success in Australia's Crocodile Trophy MTB race, Adam is quiet and intelligent but underneath his calm disposition is one hard man who never complains of discomfort."

I... did not know that. Fair play Hunt3r.

On the other hand though: Hansen has passed 30, and this is his first major win? I admire it, but wouldn't say his sporting background made a huge difference for him to win today? I mean, loads of cyclists about with loads of different backgrounds.

the biggest dif is that he descended a shitshow solo, and that is a really huge thing if you're actually racing imo.

those guys are all badasses tho, and barring a bernie kohl fall-off-your-bike-three-times-in-a-tt style thing, they are all very dece bike handlers. some are GREAT bike handlers though.

Hansen was descending slowly, wasn't he? He just had a big enough lead and decided it was better to stay upright at the end when everyone else was sliding off.

does adam hansen's history as an ex-weight weenies poster factor in here anywhere

lol the earlier finishers are riding reverse down the finish climb? that seems sorta janky for a gt tt.

seeing that beautiful italian countryside in full leaf makes me envious. the trees here are still bare after a haaaaard spring.

Wiggins only 7th at the intermediate check with all the big names to come through after him. Scarponi has just been through faster than Wiggins (for provisional third).

Wiggins much stronger in the second half (and he had a bike change in the first half) - finishes 10 seconds down on Dowsett in provisional second place. Henao only slightly slower.

Not 'slightly', actually, about 40-50 seconds I think, but still pretty impressive.

Nibali and Evans very fast through the intermediate check

Evans finishes in 6th, looks like Dowsett is going to hang on for the win (assuming Nibali loses ground on the flatter section)

Hejsedal (sp?) suffering

Hesjedal loses about a minute. Nibali finishes 4th, losing just 11 seconds to Wiggins, terrific performance. Alex Dowsett (who I was racing against this time last year - kind of: your daily bicycle log) gets the stage.

#Giro, Stage 8 (ITT). Last 3.3 km. Evans 6:55, Wiggins 7:00, Gesink 7:02, Nibali 7:03, Scarponi 7:14, Hesjedal 7:22, ... Dowsett 7:49.

Pretty interesting. Dowsett really set off in a fury. Evans, Wiggins and Gesink being 50 secs faster in the last 3.3.km wasn't enough to catch up with him.

I certainly don't want to come off as Dr. Obvious/Debby Downer here, but being nearly one hour down on GC one week into a 3-week grand tour like Dowsett was affords one the opportunity to conserve and stage hunt.

Evans, Wiggins and Gesink have been busting their ass every day of the past week so their reserves may not be as deep.

As admirable as winning a TT stage in a grand tour is, Dowsett barely edged a sub-par Wiggins who probably would have beat him if he hadn't rear-flatted.

^^ uh yes, this

Nibali is ~looking good~ but he's gonna have to carry that pink jersey over a lot of mountains now. I guess Wiggins can come back but 'Sir' is hardly one to attack in the high country. And can Chuckles last another two weeks? And does he want to last another two weeks?

gesink is a massive dark horse imo

if he doesn't fall off

And does he want to last another two weeks?

I'd guess so - he's got to have a better chance of winning the Giro than the Tour.

I guess Wiggins can come back but 'Sir' is hardly one to attack in the high country.

It's difficult to imagine him trying to attack and ride solo to the finish. That's not to say he couldn't drop Evans/Nibali/Hesjedal (he's done it before), but it's much more likely to be by slowly riding them off his wheel and to do that he'd want a train setting a high pace all the way up the final climb - I'm not convinced Uran & Henao want to sacrifice their own chances by forming that train and blowing up with 2 or 3km still to go. It might be better for Sky to send one of them up the road early on and force the others to chase.

Wiggins behind again, he's got the fear in his body going downhill

Betancurt thinking he won it = awesome <3

Hesjedal dropped from the top ten, 11th now.

poor ryder. hunger flat?

Not sure, it was out of character. But you could defo tell a lot of riders look forward to their day off tomorrow.

The way Wiggins is descending is almost embarrassing to watch btw. This guy's been on a bicycle all his life!

I honor of the rain in the giro, I fell off my bike today and gave myself a sprained wrist and killer road rash.

Rai is putting up all its coverage online

http://rai.it/dl/raisport/direttaGiro2013.html

recorded stages and pre and post stage shows live. Favourite moment so far has been Nibali's appearance on Processo alla Tappa (the post stage show) with his parents. Mama naturally produced a paper bag full of little Vincenzo's favourite foods and the world was treated to a look at that could only say, "Mama, you're embarassing me in front of everyone".

Wiggins did well to get back today but this is reminding me of the Tour in 2011 when he was never in the right place and ended up with a broken collarboine, but worse. Nibali can and will stick it to everyone on every descent.

Listening to Evans interviews in Italian is pretty fun, his Italian is very good but he makes zero attempt at doing an accent so it is all delivered in his inimitable high pitched strine.

sorry to hear that ed, gws.

Yeah that sucks Ed. A gif here that will hopefully make you feel a bit better:

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/769703558.gif

Pantano's smile is priceless

Wiggo bringing the lols

"Let's be honest," he added, "I descended like bit of a girl really after the crash... Not to disrespect girls, I have one at home."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tG3pr_O342k

i can't believe how bored uran looked for the first 3.5 km of his big attack. he pulled out 40 secs while basically yawning. tbf, the astana pulling the chase took swigs of his bottle a couple of times, so nobody was freaking out, but still.

oh shit, this is SICK! carnage.

Yet more filthy weather. Wiggins out of it now.

Wiggins and Hesjedal exit.

Will be interesting to see what happens with Wiggins now. My guess is, even though they said Froome would be Sky's man in the TdF, Wiggins will demand that role now. Froome will be super pissed off (not to mention his wife..)

Also, how lasting will this fear of descending in the rain prove to be? If he does not dare to do that any more, that's pretty much it for winning a Giro/TdF/Vuelta isn't it?

Coverage of today's stage consisted of fixed cameras from the finish waiting for riders to arrive. Very much like going to watch a race in person.

Galibier and Mont Cenis are closed for tomorrow an Processo alla Tappa sent a car up the Telegraphe to film the snow. Apparently the race will start but no one is entirely sure where it will go.

Bit of a nightmarish anti-climax this race what with the weather

ok, i had already been laughing at di luca during the race by joking "remember when di luca doped hard enough to WIN this shit?!" but now he's upped the ante by getting caught again. what an amazing tool.

Apparently the team didn't want him and the boss of Vini Fantini insisted they take him on. Lots of handwringing and sucking of teeth on Processo Alla Tappa today.

That Lance Armstrong actually made me laugh, wasn't expecting that

?

Er, missing word there. That should have said "That Lance Armstrong tweet".

has been shit show but this

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/769703558.gif

will bring me joy for a long time. every ilx argument needs to end with that gif.

anyone paying attention this year?

Yes, nice to see Kittel back to his best, Greipel and Viviani can't get near him.
Interested to see how Dumoulin goes in the coming weeks, he says he's not a GC contender but I wonder if he's sandbagging a bit.

seems to be coming to the boil nicely, even with dumoulin and landa abandoning. looking forward to that big stage on saturday over the pordoi and the giau!

yeah this has been fun to follow!

jesus what a stage

yep was crazy and sets things up beautifully for tomorrow
got heavy WW flashbacks with that Zakarin crash tho, glad he's OK

OK compared to what could have been obv

niiiiiiiibs

This was a great Giro. Would love to see more 120-140 km mountain stages, they were spectacular.

p sure (hoping) this summer's giro is gonna be frikkin nuts

final stage is a TT!

love it when they end with a TT, was hilarious a few years ago when Menchov was narrowly in the lead and fell off in the rain with 1km to go, just hung on iirc