Category: Giro d’Italia
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Get used to Marcel Kittel finishing first in this year’s Giro
I get the impression this is going to be the norm on the flat stages. In winning stage two, Marcel Kittel looked a notch above t’others. Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni was second and that might also become a regular thing. Will Kittel take the red jersey? That’s the Giro’s equivalent of the Tour’s green jersey and…
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Weird old Svein Tuft takes the lead after a surprisingly eventful team time trial
Team time trials aren’t usually too thrilling, but stage one of the Giro saw Dan Martin crash out, Ryder Hesjedal lose three minutes and Joaquim Rodriguez lose a minute. Of the other main contenders, Rigoberto Uran and Cadel Evans are already well placed, while Nairo Quintana’s getting on for a minute back. The race leader…
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The second-best 2014 Giro d’Italia preview on this website
This article was originally entitled ‘the best Giro d’Italia preview on this website’ but then I thought: No, I probably did an okay preview last year, so that’s not accurate. So I changed it to ‘the best 2014 Giro d’Italia preview on this website’ but then realised that I’d already highlighted some of the main…
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The cast of the 2014 Giro d’Italia
This is a personal selection of riders to keep an eye on during this year’s Giro and therefore represents the probable cast of this website over the next few weeks. There are quite a few names, so let’s keep this as short as possible. The favourites Nairo Quintana Second in the Tour last year and…
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Grand Tour contenders – who’s racing what in 2014
It’s a common misconception among casual followers of cycling that all the best riders compete in the Tour de France. This is, patently, bollocks. If the route doesn’t suit them, many riders will instead centre their efforts on the Giro or the Vuelta – often both (albeit with greater emphasis on the Italian race, which…
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Some sort of review of the 2013 Giro d’Italia
Let’s quickly take stock of the 2013 Giro before moving onto the Tour de France build-up. This year’s Giro was mostly a cold, brutal race – frequently wet or snowy – but we learnt a lot. Grand Tour contenders Vincenzo Nibali established himself as one of the favourites for any Grand Tour he enters from…
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The best of Mark Cavendish
Mark Cavendish won his fifth stage at this year’s Giro yesterday and so took the maglia rossio passione (great name). He has now won the points classification in all three Grand Tours and it has been far from easy. Many feel that Cav is at his best in a sprint finish, but that doesn’t actually…
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Vincenzo Nibali’s happiness (and the varied feelings of others)
It would be wrong to say that Vincenzo Nibali would have been happy at the bottom of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo climb at the end of stage 20. He was about to face 20km of increasingly difficult uphill cycling and the weather near the top was about as pleasant as an old man’s scrotum.…
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Danilo Di Luca – unfit for employment
When it comes to riders who have been caught doping, there are those from a previous generation where such things were considered the norm; there are those who made a mistake and learnt from it; and then there are repeat offenders who simply don’t seem to give a toss. We could perhaps label that last…
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Vincenzo Nibali positively monsters the cronoscalata
There’s a headline you wouldn’t get on most websites. If you want a clear picture, get yourself a cronoscalata. What did today’s cronoscalata reveal? It revealed Vincenzo Nibali, then a big gap and then everyone else. On a normal stage, two riders can finish simultaneously but in radically different states. One can be cycling within…