Thanks! Let's kick off the new week with part one of the preview!
The 2012 edition of the Giro d'Italia will be the 95th one in the history of the race. After the start back in 1909, the race began to establish itself as one of the major events on the yearly cycling calendar. Nowadays it's the second biggest one, after the Tour de France, and is also one of three Grand Tours, together with the mentioned Tour, and the Vuelta a España.
Throughout the history of the race, we've experienced a number of dramatic, exciting editions on the roads of Italy. Most successful ever in terms of overall victories are three riders. Alfredo Binda in the 1920's and 30's, Fausto Coppi in the 40's and 50's and last but not least, Eddy Merckx in the 60's and 70's. All three of them with three overall victories in their palmares, something no one in recent time has come even close to.
This year, the Giro is more popular than ever, with a number of top names showing up. Also the route is one of the more interesting ones in a few years. Highlights include a start in Sicily, a visit to the French Alps and a hard looking final day, where, unlike usually on the final day, the overall might be changed.
After two weeks with a Liquigas double atop the overall classification's sheet, Damiano Cunego managed to defeat both Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso in the last week's mountains, sailing up into pole position, a place he never left after hitting it. The strongest and most consistent rider won, there's no doubt about it.
The route:
Spoiler
After the grand start in Palermo with a team time trial, we begin an unusually hard first week. Stage three and four certainly looks like a place where gaps might well appear, especially on the hard uphill finish to Grassano.
Another interesting stage, possibly the most interesting one in the whole Giro, is the last one in this first week, the 192 kilometer flat ride from Gaeta to Roma, where we'll be hitting lots of paved sections in the second half of the day.
It's not impossible that it turns out to be a stage as exciting as the infamous gravel road stage to Montalcino two years ago.
Spoiler
After the relatively hard first week, it doesn't get any easier to say the least. First we've got a very hard mountain top finish atop the massive Blockhaus, in the Maielletta mountain range. That will be the first real test for the GC contenders.
The day after that, we'll be in Chieti for the first individual time trial in the race. It's not a that hard one however, as the first part of it is downhill from the hilltop city. On the way down to the sea, and the finish in Pescara, strong winds might appear, making the challenge even harder for the riders. I think it'll be an interesting day.
After the TT, we're back on the harder terrain. Two uphill finishes in a row on day ten and eleven will really hurt the riders. Especially the latter of those, finishing atop the mountainous climb to Monte Serra. GC battle there for sure.
And since that apparently isn't enough for the race organizers, also stage 12 and 13 are mountainous ones. First there's a very hard day finishing in Fanano, at the bottom of a long descent. Three big climbs precede this downhill, making it another hard day.
Just wait, there's more. The penultimate day of week two provides a brutal mountain time trial with a finish atop the mighty Monte Cimone, after 18 legsapping kilometres of ascending. Big gaps might well appear here.
And to round week two off, there's finally another flat stage. Not saying it's an easy one however, since it's more of a mini version of Milano-Sanremo, featuring Le Manie, the Cipressa and lastly, the Poggio di San Remo. A break might be more likely than a mass sprint after a long, windy day.
Spoiler
With such brutal second week, you almost start thinking that the third one migh be easier. Luckily for us, unluckily for the riders, it's not. First off is stage 15's double header, taking a short visit to France over Col d'Agnel, to finish on Col d'Izoard. Altitude-wise one of the harder stages overall.
Then there's two, in this Giro unusual, stages without any climbing at all. The first one is the last individual time trial, a 50 kilometer track from Pavia to Milano. From Milano we then head with the second easier day to Verona, where we should see a mass sprint, unless of course, the famous Torricelle climb proves harder than it looks.
After that day, there's not much reason for the sprinters to continue. From stage stage 18 through 20, the race overall will be decided. First off is Passo Giau, which we reach after climbing three other long, steep climbs. Not the hardest finale though, so we might see a bigger group arriving together up there.
Same goes for the day after that. Sure, Passo dello Stelvio, Passo del Foscagno and Passo di Eira are all on the route, but the short downhill to Livigno and the finish might bundle up the favourites again. On the other hand, we know how hard the Stelvio is, so if the pace goes up early, who knows how hard this day will be.
And obviously, the previous stages aren't enough. Just when you think it can't possibly get any harder comes the hardest stage in the whole race, and also one of the hardest in the history of the Giro. Passo di Gavia, Monte Padrio, Passo del Mortirolo and finally, Monte Colmo. We're surely set for an epic finish!
Project squad:
Van den Broeck will, as you know and understand, be the absolute leader for us. This is his biggest goal this season, and we hope for a Top 5 overall and possibly also a stage win from the Belgian climber.
His two main helpers will be Lagutin and Geniez, both also very good climbers. We're also planning on sending them into a breakaway or two, to give them a chance to battle for a stage win while here.
Lastly, for the very few sprints, there's Bozic and Kluge. Seeing how few flat stages there are, our expectations aren't big. They most likely wont even finish this race, as that would be a waste of race days.
I think it's fair to say you're far too good for this game
Good luck for the Giro, that will be some intense 21 stages, and I can't wait to see Van den Broeck up with the best!
The absolute top favourite for the title this year is for sure Igor Anton. He's the best climber in the world at the moment, so he should be thriving in this ridiculously mountainous Giro. Another thing that speaks in his favour is his few race days so far, which should mean that he's fresher than ever at the start.
Second biggest favourite is defending champion and double winner, Damiano Cunego. He stunned everyone last year by returning to his old form, something we hadn't seen since back in '04. The Italian is obviously keen to show that it wasn't a lucky shot last year, and will do everything he can to repeat the victory. A good podium bet, but he'll need luck to repeat last year's top result.
After an amazing development during last season, Fredrik Kessiakoff has turned into one of the strongest stage racers in the peloton. Just outside the Top 10 in 12th last year, before winning a Pyrenean mountain stage in the Tour, where he also finished in the Top 10 overall, showing his capacity. Could, if the form is there, go all the way this year. Flagging for him already now.
Another one who went through an incredible development during the '11 season is Marco Marzano. As seen in Romandie a week ago, the Italian is now one of the best climbers in his country, and therefore also one of the biggest favourites to win his home GT. Just like many others, he'll enjoy the many mountains, where he'll be trying to make up for his losses in the time trials.
Third out of the Italians is Vincenzo Nibali, riding for the newly formed UniCredit team. His team is also his biggest strength. With backup from the likes of Pozzovivo, Pirazzi and Agnoli, the Sicilian will have possibly the strongest helpers of all the favourites. His allround capacity, and strength in the time trials will give him an edge over many of his rivals, who will lose time there.
Next up is the solution to Liquigas' pre-season problem with missing a leader, Michele Scarponi. After showing up here without form, he went to the Tour. He could never really challenge there either however, turning his whole season into a big fail. He's now back for revenge, backed up by two top class climbers in the shapes of Betancur and Basso. They might destroy everyone in the mountains.
Levi Leipheimer began last year's season with big expectations. After winning the ToC, he planned on hitting the podium in the Tour. Unluckily for him, a crash forced him out before even starting it. After that, he didn't have the motivation to try the Vuelta instead, ending his season in disappointment. This year, the Giro is his first big goal, and he's here looking for revenge, just like Scarponi.
Then we've got our own Jurgen Van den Broeck. We've of course got big expectations, but with this many top class climbers in the race, we're starting to doubt that our Top 5 goal will be achievable. Either way, we're going to do our best, and then it'll work or bust. Come on now, bring Belgium a GT victory!
Another one I'm warning for in this race is Kanstantsin Sivtsov. He's seen as an outsider in most people's eyes, but with the improvements he has done ahead of this season, I believe he'll be one to watch. A good season behind him as well, with among other results, a 6th place overall in Romandie last week. Seems like there's nothing wrong with his form at least.
Lastly, another outsider, who I reckon is also a bit underrated. After spending years as a key mountain domestique for the likes of the Schleck brothers and Contador, Chris Anker Sörensen will, for the first time in his life, lead a team in a Grand Tour. By now, more or less everyone are familiar with his climbing capacity, but it'll be extremely interesting to see how he does over three weeks.
That's the end of the preview! Racing starts tomorrow!
A team time trial kicks off the action here in the most southern parts of Italy. The twenty kilometer course starting and finishing in Palermo doesn't provide much difficulty in terms of climbing, but will instead shake things up with possible crosswinds from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Expect bigger gaps today.
First squad off the ramp today was Vodafone. The Dutch-British team hasn't sent any of their top stage racers here, and will instead look for stage wins. They've certainly got the material for it, in the shape of an old friend, Marcel Kittel. Main focus on the sprints for them at this Giro.
After Vodafone we had GC top favourite Igor Anton and his Euskaltel team. Unfortunately for us, their clever tactics during transfer season strengthened the part they've always been weak in, the time trials. Today, they clocked a top time thanks to mainly Spanish champ Ruben Plaza and Gustavo C. Veloso.
First team to knock down Euskaltel from the hot seat was the turquoise Astana squad. They did have to fight hard to beat the Spaniards though, even with the likes of Janez Brajkovic and Mikhail Ignatiev in their lineup. Still, a good start for JB, who apparently aims for a GC result in this race.
Then defending champion Damiano Cunego and his pink-blue armada. As usual, they lacked the TT power today, which gave Cunego a worse start than he'd hoped for. Oh well, I guess he expects to gain this back in the mountains later in the race.
Some time, and some mediocre times later, Team Sky blew away the opposition, completely destroying Astana's time by half a minute. Of course this was no surprise seeing the strength of their squad. A great start for GC leader Kanstantsin Sivtsov for sure.
When not even the strong Radioshack team came close to Sky's time, you started to realize how good it actually was. At least a provisional second place for the Bruyneel boys and their controversial leader Franco Pellizotti. He'll no doubt be satisfied with this start, seeing that he gained time on most of his biggest GC rivals.
The opposite can be said about Michele Scarponi's, Carlos Alberto Betancur's and Ivan Basso's Liquigas. Their complete mountain focus certainly didn't play in their favour today, but I reckon they could very well be gaining back a minute on Sky in just one of the mountain stages.
Something in the middle for Levi Leipheimer and OPQS. While I did expect them to ride well today, they haven't sent their full strength TT team. Therefore a middle result was more or less what should be expected today.
Sky's time then started to look unbeatable as also the very, very strong UniCredit team had to concede half a minute's loss today. Nothing to worry about for Vincenzo Nibali and Domenico Pozzovivo however, as they'll be one of the strongest teams when we reach harder terrain.
Just two teams left then, with the first of those being the last ones with an actual chance of challenging Sky's by the looks of it, own dimension time. But also Fredrik Kessiakoff and BOSE failed, big time. A whole minute slower than the Britons, a bit too much than they'd expected I'd say.
Last team out today was one I think you should know by now. Unfortunately, our lack of top level timetriallists really costed us places. Van den Broeck almost dropped everyone else in the finale, leading us over the line in 19th, a disappointment. I just hate TTT's.
So, to sum up. Sivtsov grabs the leader's jersey after Sky's total domination today. Not even the bonus seconds tomorrow's stage winner will get will be enough to overtake the lead, unless he's a Sky rider, or he's from a breakaway, holding on to their advantage. Sky will prevent that for sure though.
And I agree with alexanderlens, the Vuelta - no, the Giro - will be great!
