Giro d'Italia 2013, 4th-26th May - [Spoilers]

[smutchin]

Sky´s team is uncompromisingly a team of powerful climbers. No sprinter, in fact no real specialists of any other type. And Henao and Uran, and possibly Siutsou could be team leaders in any other setup. I´d be surprised if Nibali will get anything like as good support as this.

Nice bit of psychology to announce the team so early too - let it really get under the skin of their rivals.

Do we have any idea who Nibali will be taking with him? I'm guessing Tiralongo, Fuglsang, Kessiakoff and Agnoli will be his main mountain lieutenants. Maybe Seeldraeyers too? What about Brajkovic? Or is he being saved for the TdF? But even without Brajkovic, that's a pretty capable climbing team he's got there. Astana clearly don't have the strength in depth that Sky have though.

Edit: Aru did well at Trentino. Maybe they'll give him a run out too. Could be interesting - seems quite a prospect.

 

[Radchenister]

IMO - like any job, just a few good men can get it done well; send a committee or embark on a training exercise and you're wasting time and energy.

 

[lukesdad]

I'm guessing Evans will ride himself into the ground at the Giro and quote tiredness as a graceful way of becoming Teejay's wing man in the TdF

I think we'll see Evans on the podium come July.

 

[lukesdad]

If the betting is anything to go by a pretty poor turnout as well.

 

[raindog]

Seeing that team line-up made me realise that it was in the end quite a smart piece of business getting rid of Cav.......

I thought Cav got rid of them

 

[Hont]

I think we'll see Evans on the podium come July.

Is he doing the Tour of Austria then?

 

[The Couch]

... 28/1 seems remarkably ungenerous odds for Basso. And only 33/1 for Pellizotti? Bizarre. Do they know something I don't?

Maybe a bit stingy on Basso, although having seen him last year (having the best team, but never really showed himself as any threat to the rest), I would also "persuade" people to take a gamble on an aging Basso rather than a young rider.
If I am not mistaken, Pellizotti hasn't really showed much (in multi-day events) in the past year and a half (because of well-known reasons), so I wouldn't put much faith either in his aging bones.

 

[rich p]

I read that there are time bonuses (bonifications - Sean Kelly!) available this year even in the mountain top finishes - of which there are five, I think.
20secs, 12, and 8. If Nibali can use his power on the steep finishes, compared to Wiggins steadier style, he could go some way to nullifying Brad's TT advantage.
It's probably why Wiggins has been reportedly training hard at altitude to increase his explosivity on the hills. Either that or send Henao up ahead to try to mop up some of the points.
Certainly whetting the appetite.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Agreed. Except for the "no real specialists" bit. For me, Wiggins is a time trial demon (who can also climb a bit).

Yeah, I was taking Wiggins as a given - just talking about his support team.

 

[smutchin]

Wiggins is a proper all-rounder. To say he "can climb a bit" is doing him an injustice. He may not be able to attack explosively on a climb like Froome or Contador etc but there's more than one way to skin a hors-cat.

 

[rich p]

Wiggins is a proper all-rounder. To say he "can climb a bit" is doing him an injustice. He may not be able to attack explosively on a climb like Froome or Contador etc but there's more than one way to skin a hors-cat.

Very good!

 

[Crackle]

I read that there are time bonuses (bonifications - Sean Kelly!) available this year even in the mountain top finishes - of which there are five, I think.
20secs, 12, and 8. If Nibali can use his power on the steep finishes, compared to Wiggins steadier style, he could go some way to nullifying Brad's TT advantage.
It's probably why Wiggins has been reportedly training hard at altitude to increase his explosivity on the hills. Either that or send Henao up ahead to try to mop up some of the points.
Certainly whetting the appetite.

Wasn't there last year? I don't think it was as much as 20secs and I don't think it was all finishes or maybe I'm thinking of the Vuelta.

 

[rich p]

Wasn't there last year? I don't think it was as much as 20secs and I don't think it was all finishes or maybe I'm thinking of the Vuelta.

You may well be right but 20 seconds seems a lot.

 

[Radchenister]

The lie of the land - I've added some big red numbers to the map to make it easier to work out which stage is which, this map can then be more easily read in conjunction with elevation chart below it (made from 3 images off the official Giro site):

 

[Radchenister]

Edit: labelling now corrected.