Friday, April 26, 2024

Tag: Giro d'Italia

Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stage 3: Sorrento – Marina di Ascea, 222km.

I was the one who said that the Giro d’Italia doesn’t have a great field – but the fact is, ‘so what?’ It’s only stage three but already the ‘Bigs’ are at it, knocking lumps out of each other. I was thinking of an ABC of ‘key words’ for each of today’s protagonists – for big Ryder Hesjedal it was ‘aggressive’ but maybe it should be ‘anxious?’

Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stage 2: Ischia – Forio (TTT), 17.4km. Sky Win.

Sky’s Salvatore Pucccio pulled on the pink jersey at the end of the second stage TTT as specialists Garmin never got to grips with the tricky parcours and Sir Brad got his Giro campaign off to a great start. Pucci is 23 and doesn’t have much of a pro palmares – but he’s a worker for Sky, not a winner.

Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stage 1: Naples, 130km. No Caveats, Cav’s the best.

Goss had a perfect lead out on Stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia; Viviani can beat his ‘bars all he wants - but Cav is King. The QuickStep boys did their job early but it all went mass critical on that last lap. Steegmans was with Cavendish coming into the final, then seemed to have a mechanical - it was all down to Mark.

“The Cycling Professor” by Marco Pinotti

Italian professional Marco Pinotti's new book, "The Cycling Professor" isn't so much a classic biography as a collection of anecdotes and experiences.

Ryder Hesjedal – On his Tour crash, the Olympics, the Worlds, and Beijing

Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal came out of the Giro in shape of his life, with his morale sky high after his historic win. He rested well after Italy, resumed training and was in great shape for the Tour de France. He rode strongly in the prologue and managed to keep out of trouble – until stage six.

Thomas De Gendt – Grateful to Mother Nature

Who were the men of the Giro? There was Ryder, certainly – and Rodriguez; but there was also Guardini’s confirmation; Ferrari’s transformation from from villain to hero; Cav and Taylor Phinney’s displays of grinta; Marco Pinotti’s class in winning the last time trial and Basso’s heroic but ultimately doomed bid for the podium. But perhaps the man of the race was Belgium’s Thomas De Gendt, who threatened to turn the Hesjedal/Rodriguez battle into a sideshow...

Marco Pinotti – Giro Time Trial Winner

It was way back in 1999 when Marco Pinotti signed his first pro contract, with Lampre Daikin. The Italian team is still with us – and so is the time trial specialist from Bergamo.

Jack Bauer – He’s Why We Love This Sport!

It was a Saturday night in the summer of 2009 and I was driving ‘up the Town’ to the movies. I pulled the car over, answered the mobile and had my first chat with the man. VeloVeritas's pundit in residence Viktor had spotted this New Zealand laddie who was burning up the Flanders kermis scene in the colours of Anglo/Belgian team, Kingsnorth Wheelers – Jack Bauer.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 21: Milan (ITT) 31.5km. Ryder takes it, JRod impresses.

Giro d’Italia 2012. It’s over, a great race from start to finish. Even the ‘flat boring sprinter stages’ all had terrific finales – and the time trial was a cracker.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 20: De Gendt on the Passo dello Stelvio

"What’s he playing at, riding like that in the valley? He’ll get eaten up on the climb" as the winner De Gendt on the Passo dello Stelvio climbs... so said our friend Vik. Even Sean Kelly didn’t think it was a good idea. Dave and I weren’t so sure – De Gendt is a hardy pup.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 19: Treviso – Alpe di Pampeago 197km

Joaquin Rodriguez sums it all up, neatly. It was an epic stage to Alpe di Pampeago... A courageous but ultimately doomed breakaway (just don’t tell Vik I said that, Sandy Casar is number three on his hate list behind Moncoutie and Dumoulin).

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 18: San Vito di Cadore – Vedelago 139km

‘Sprinter stage’ - sometimes Vik’s assessments can be correct – ‘watching paint dry,’ let’s hope not. But you can’t have a stage like yesterday then expect fireworks the next day. Sky dug deep after leaving San Vito di Cadore to negate the early breakaway artists and Cav duly grabbed max points at the intermediated sprint to open the gap a little on Rodriguez; who had closed down to within one point of the Manxman with his win at Cortina d’Ampezzo, yesterday.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 17: Falzes/Pfalzen – Cortina d’Ampezzo 187km. Sylwester Szmyd interview

I wish I could get tomorrow’s Gazzetta, tomorrow – but it’ll be Saturday, at best. It was the first major shoot out, today, to Cortina d'Ampezzo. It’s over for Kreuziger and difficult for Tiralongo – a bad day for Astana. Uran continues to impress – perhaps he’ll get let off ‘train’ duties for Cav, tomorrow?

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Second Rest Day, Time for Interviews

'Mission accomplished' with Ryder: Dave rattled us through dire weather up to the Garmin Hotel, just over 100 miles away. The Liquigas guys were on their turbos when we arrived - lean, cut looking men. Before the start, I wasn't sure Basso could win, but his policy of loss limiting has taken him to third on GC @ 1:22 on Rodriguez and 52 seconds behind Hesjedal.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 15: Busto Arsizio – Lecco/Pian dei Resinelli 172km. ‘Plane Crash’

It's the Scottish Road Championships today - damn this Giro and it's climbs around Busto Arsizio in beautiful Lombardy! But Martin was telling me that the sun was out in Balfron and the jackets were off, so Scotland certainly had the last laugh - the weather here in Italy was grim.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 14: Cherasco – Cervinia 205km. Ryder Back in Pink

Today we're in Cervinia, looking back at yesterday's stage... we thought it was the end for Cav. The gruppetto was way down on the first of the two big climbs of the day - but Cav was even further back.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 13: Savona – Cervere 121km. Cav, What a Sprinter!

Cav, like him or loathe him, what a sprinter. His train is by no means HTC - the GreenEdge boys were much better organised, yesterday - but all that does is to underline his quality. Today, in the stage from Savona to Cervere, he was isolated and boxed - he was free-wheeling at one stage - the gap opened and he was through it in a blink.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 12: Seravezza – Sestri Levante 157km. Back in the Front Seat

We're in Seravezza. 'Sad news, Donna Summer has passed away' said the text from Martyn Frank. That news cast a shadow over a day of bright sunshine and hills. The start was down on the coast - it's not quite beach season, so it's not heaving yet.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 11: Assisi – Montecatini Terme 243km. Alex Rasmussen’s View

A man who's been working hard in defence of Garmin's pink jerseys - first on the shoulders of Lithuanian Ramunas Navardauskas and then Canada's Ryder Hesjedal - is Danish fast man, Alex Rasmussen. Alex took time to chat to his six day runner before the roll out at Assisi on Wednesday en route Montecatini Terme.

Giro d’Italia 2012 – Stage 10: Civitavecchia – Assisi 187km. Impressive Rodriguez

Giorgio Moroder's 'The Chase' from Midnight Express pumps out across the Civitavecchia sea front. A huge fibre glass sculpture of a nurse succumbing to the charms of a sailor - 'Unconditional Surrender' it's titled - towers over us. The whole scene is surreal, topped off by Pippo ambling past in shorts and T-shirt. He broke his hand yesterday and is out - but he still looks cool.

At Random

Paris – Roubaix 2007 – Day 2, Course Recce

Friday's gig was to do a course recce for Paris - Roubaix 2007. There are 28 sectors and you can't skek them all, so we decided to do the track at Roubaix, the final four sectors, a new sector which has just been added and the two legendary sectors - Carrefour de L'Arbre & Arenberg.

James McCallum – A Professional Approach

The 2006 season was a great one for James McCallum; it's not every year you win a Commonwealth Games medal. It seemed like it would take a lot to top 2006; how does the 2007 British Criterium Championships and the most glamorous crit in Britain sound?

La Vuelta a España 2012 – Stage 1: Pamplona – Pamplona, 16.5km TTT

The Rabobank boys sat on their "hotseats' in Pamplona for over 30 minutes, as team after team came close to their time of 19 minutes and 1 second for the opening stage of the 2012 Vuelta, but failed to surpass it.

Trinidad & Tobago – Day Three, Queens Park Circuit Race

The trouble with getting up before 06:00 and not getting to bed 'til 01:45 is that by the time the next day - that's today, comes around, it seems like last year. And today is the circuit race at Queens Park.

Harrison Wood – Taking the ‘Old Way’ to Cofidis

For 2023 Harrison Wood, the 22 years-old from Devon will be part of the much improved Cofidis équipe. We find out more about how he secured his contract.

Shane Perkins – “Rio is the long-term goal”

‘Perkins’ is a famous name in Australian cycling; back when I was a boy, Daryl Perkins was a top performer on the tracks, winning medals at national and Commonwealth level. He passed those good genes down to son Shane, who recently took individual sprint bronze in London behind Messrs. Kenny and Bauge. Perkins has been a major force on the world track sprint, team sprint and keirin scene for a number of years, despite the fact that he’s still only 25 years-old.