10. That was easily the most entertaining Grand Tour since the 2003 Tour de France.
There were maybe two stages that went according to plan. The rest was basically mayhem. The insanity of the Netherlands, the Roubaix style mayhem of the stage into Montalcino, the head scratching madness of the day into l’Aquila, and finally a week of drama in the high mountains all combined to create a memorable three week bike race.
It was really phenomenal. For every major story, there were five smaller stories to fill out the days. From the major storylines like Basso’s rebirth and the emergence of Richie Porte to the smaller intraday stuff, like the mad descending of Arroyo or the day to day jersey calculations early on in the race, it was wall-to-wall excitement.
More like this please.
9. Sastre should have cleaned up on this course, but didn’t/
I really feel like he dropped the ball in his preparation for this race- I picked him to win after all 🙂 The route was made for him. It should have been:
- ride smart
- stay out of trouble
- pick a couple of big mountain stages to use to destroy the competition
- profit
Instead we got a puzzling lack of form from the Spanish climber. Maybe he didn’t have enough race miles in his legs or he was more beat up from the first week than he let on? Whatever the reason Sastre clearly missed a golden opportunity in this race. I hope he’s ready for the Tour.
8. The stage into Montalcino was the best “spring classic” of the year.
A muddy, nasty battle for the ages. It didn’t turn out to mean all that much in the grand scheme of things, but it didn’t feel that way at the time. The chase from the Liquigas riders behind and the relentless work at the front by the likes of Vino and World Champion Cadel Evans made for heart-pounding stage.
I like the new Cadel Evans.
7. It’s NEEbali, not Ni-BALL-i
He’s talented, he rode for Ivan when it counted, he descends like Il Falco II* and he’s Sicilian. All the more reason to wear my Liquigas kit with pride over the next couple of years.
Ivan has proven he’s the man for the present, but Vincenzo Nibali is going to win the Giro one day. Guaranteed.
I’ll be cheering him on when he does.
*Paolo Savoldelli was on the Rai wrap-up show. They asked all the commentators to pick their favorite moment from the race. Guess what Salvodelli chose?
6. I can’t help it. I love watching Alexandre Vinokourov race his bicycle.
Yes, his suspension pissed me off and, no, I don’t actually root for him anymore, but he’s still the most aggressive rider in the peloton.
He’s the straw that stirs the drink.
Contador is impetuous. I can’t imagine Vino is going to help keep him under wraps at the Tour. Astana should still win the race, because Condator is the best stage racer on the planet, but I’m expecting some reckless/fun attacks from the pair. Drama!
5. While it was a great course overall, the final week was perfect.
It set the stage for a “proper” grand tour finish. While I’ve got nothing against a good old Time Trial, for my money a grand tour should be won in the mountains. The procession of mountains int he final week of the Giro was perfectly paced to create the final separation. Starting with the Zoncolan through the massive day over the Mortirolo where Basso took la maglia rosa, it was basically a case study on how to back-load big mountains in a grand tour- a series of famous peaks, packed with tifosi setting the stage for riders settling the Giro on the road.
4. New Cadel meet Old Cadel.
As I mentioned, I like the “new” Cadel Evans- the attacking World Champion. We saw him in full force at this race- attacking throughout and winning the hyper competitive race into Montalcino.
But…
Was this a bit of the old Cadel shining through?
I’m just sayin’
3. The stage into l’Aquila was… crazy (in an entirely unexpected way)
What a bizarre turn of events. At that point I thought the race was Basso’s (he was in the top five with time on all his real rivals) and that people like Carlos Sastre were long-gone from contention.
It turned out that both of those assumptions were true, it just didn’t look like that at the end of the day when all of the major contenders lost over twelve minutes to a large group (including Sastre, Brad Wiggins and the eventual second place rider David Arroyo.) The weakness of Astana and BMC and some questionable decision-making by the Liquigas squad made for a remarkable result and definitely made the following days even more interesting.
2. Zoncolan
Everything about the stage was EPIC. When we look back on 2010, this is going to be the grand tour stage of the year. It had everything I look for in a mountain stage- dueling champions, beautiful scenery, batshit insane crowds and carnage.
1. Ivan Basso
I was celebrating along with all of Italy on Sunday.
Winning the way he did made it even more special. Crushing the competition on the Zoncolan and then riding a tactically perfect final week to whittle away at Arroyo’s lead- that’s the way to win a Grand Tour.
Now we just need to see what he does in the Tour 🙂 If Alberto can talk about the Giro/Tour double, why not Ivan? Other than the fact he’d have to beat Contador to do it, of course…
RSS - Posts