Sunday, May 27, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/27/2012

Oh Canada! With Ryder Hesjedal beating Joaquim Rodriguez by 47 seconds on today's final stage time trial, Ryder became the first Canadian to win the Giro d'Italia by 16 seconds, indeed the first Canadian to win any Grand Tour overall. Lots of little jots to address on this last stage as well. This is the first podium since 1995 where no Italians placed in the top 3 (an Italian placed 4th then, as did Michele Scarponi this year). Ryder taking the pink jersey on the last stage is only the second time in Giro history the maglia rosa changed hands on the final day, the last time in 1984.

And finally, only because I've been sitting on this picture of a Movistar rider trying to refill his bidon on a training ride, and just never had a good reason to post it, here's the new sports drink for the Moooovistar team for 2012:


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/26/2012

How disappointed must Mark Cavendish be after losing to Andrea Guardini on Stage 18? Well, not just losing the stage, which is bad enough, but also losing 5 extra points in the points classification. Why is that a big deal? Because, unlike the Tour de France, points available for placings at the end of a stage are the same no matter what kind of stage it is deemed to be by the terrain. This is just one of the reasons sprinters don't care for finishing the Giro. For the mountain climbers, they can easily win the red jersey by consistently finishing in the top ten.

For Joaquim Rodriguez, because of his stage wins and high placings in the mountain stages, he was second on points before the start of today's final climbing stage. Purito needed to finish 5th or lower for Cavendish to keep the red jersey, since neither Rodriguez nor Cavendish would contend for the points awarded to the top 15 in tomorrow's time trial. If Purito finished 4th, he would beat the Manx Missile by one point. Guess what happened in the finale. Yup. Rodriguez, though he may lose the maglia rosa to Ryder Hesjedal, and may even fall off the podium, he can at least find consolation in the maglia rossa.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/25/2012

The organizers of the Giro have talked about the globalization of their sport, which is why they have recently been having starts in other countries besides Italy, including the Netherlands and Denmark. They have already tried to have a start in Washington D.C., which fell through, and talks continue for a German grand depart. But will we see a stage 1 in a galaxy far, far away? Chewbacca keeps lobbying.

Private Company Now Handles Space Cargo

Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st:
Although cargo hauls have become routine, Friday's linkup was significant in that an individual company pulled it off. That chore was previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies.
No need for huge government expenditures on glorified space buses.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/24/2012

Even though the teams in a Grand Tour seem to be in their own little world for three weeks, the rest of the world does keep spinning. Also, time doesn't stop for the riders, as they celebrate birthdays with the team as opposed to friends and family. Christian Vande Velde celebrated his 36th birthday a couple of days ago, and of course there was birthday cake. Appropriately themed, I might add:


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/23/2012

The feed zones in a stage race are fraught with peril as almost 200 hundred guys on bikes slow down just enough to grab a bag with strappy handles from a team staff member on the side of the road. However, one thing you won't see is a small breakaway slowing down to grab their musette bags, usually just pedalling on through as if the escapers don't even see their soigneurs. The main reason is because each of the riders in the break will also have a team car following them, so they can just get their food and drink from the car instead of risking a crash and losing all hope of a stage win.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/22/2012

The finishing town of today's stage is Falzes in Italian, but for 97 percent of the residents, it's Pfalzen. The vast majority of this town near the Austrian border speak German, as the border line seems to have moved back and forth between Italy and the southern Germanic region over the past few centuries.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - Rest Day

After 12 days of racing, the Giro finally gets it 2nd rest day, and really the first rest day for many of the riders, since the first one was a transfer day from Denmark to Italy. As I thought might happen, some breakaways escaped in the middle and hard mountain stages, although only one of them was a real escape, gaining a little under 4 minutes on the peloton. The other two breakaways on mountaintop finishes barely survived the catch of the overall contenders, besting an attacking Ryder Hesjedal on one, and retaking the stage on a sprint finish from Joaquim Rodriguez. The organizers took a little pity on the riders as well, offering a flat Stage 13 to the sprinters at only 120 kms, when most stages are about 160 kms. I expect a very reduced field tomorrow as most of the fast men say goodbye before the real mountains hit, but we'll see if Mark Cavendish can make those time cuts as he tries to wear the red sprinters' jersey all the way to Milan.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/20/2012

Every year, it seems, the organizers of a Grand Tour try to change things up to alter the tactics and strategy the teams make on certain stages. Sometimes it doesn't work out so well, like the year the Tour de France tried to have two stages without race radio, and the teams rebelled, threatening to embarrass the neutral start by sitting on their bikes for an hour. One thing Grand Tours like to mess with is bonus time at intermediate sprints and stage finishes, by eliminating them altogether, or having them only at the finish line. The Giro this year is no different, trying something to make the GC boys attack on climbs much further out from the line: all the mountaintop finishes have no bonus time. This rule might cause some of the breakaways to escape, but if the overall contenders want to make time on their rivals in the mountains, they have to pedal away from them and make it stick.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/19/2012

As I predicted last week, another breakaway succeeded, this time on an uphill finish, with Ryder Hesjedal animating a 4th place finish into the pink jersey. What is interesting about the stage winner, Andrey Amador of Movistar, besides being the first Costa Rican to ever win a Grand Tour stage, is that by pure grace, he is still alive after being mugged during a training ride two years ago:
He was mugged while training and believed that the offenders were only interested in stealing his bike, so he tried to run away from them. But they stabbed him till he became unconscious and he was left for dead for six hours next to a river. He still had his phone in his pocket when he regained consciousness and called his family to get a ride back home. A kidney was paralyzed and his lungs were affected and it took him several months to recover. [emph. added]
From "left for dead" to Giro stage winner is a pretty good story for Amador.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/17/2012

Nice sunglasses there, Purito!


He should also be happy for keeping the pink jersey after letting a breakaway get almost 4 minutes on the peloton when two guys in it were just that much time behind him in the overall.

Those sunglasses seem to be a thing, since he wore different colored ones when he pulled the pink jersey on for the first time on stage 10.


Decaf Doesn't Matter

Just drink coffee: Coffee buzz: Study finds java drinkers live longer:
Even in the new study, it first seemed that coffee drinkers were more likely to die at any given time. But they also tended to smoke, drink more alcohol, eat more red meat and exercise less than non-coffee-drinkers. Once researchers took those things into account, a clear pattern emerged: Each cup of coffee per day nudged up the chances of living longer.
 So, don't listen to those busybodies telling you that coffee is bad for you. Enjoy your fresh brew!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/16/2012

There was a bit of redemption for the villain of last week, Roberto Ferrari of the Androni Giocattoli team, who was relegated, fined, and penalized on points and time for causing a crash in the final 150 meters of a field sprint. He won today's stage at Montecatini Terme, finishing ahead of Mark Cavendish, who came in 4th. There was a hard right turn at about 350 meters to go, and either Cavendish's leadout man Geraint Thomas took the wrong line or was going too fast into it, because the world champion had to brake very hard and took precious seconds getting back up to speed. Small consolation for him, he took the red sprinter's jersey from Matt Goss, who did not factor at all in the finale.

SchmoBike 25,000!

Sometime this morning, my bike odometer hit 25,000 miles. Back in 2008, after owning the bike for 4 years, I hit 10,000 miles. Four years later, I've put on another 15,000 miles. Not bad. The only parts on the bike that are original are 1) the frame, 2) the wheel set, 3) the handlebars, 4) the seat post, and 5) the brake set. That's also not so bad, since the frame and wheels are most of the cost of a brand new bike.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/15/2012

Arnaud Demare, the 20 year old riding for FDJ-Big Mat, remarked on his experiences so far in his first grand tour:
"My biggest fear is not to be in good spirits on the bike. But I also know that these are inevitable moments on a Grand Tour, the choke points. I learn simply to hurt."

Monday, May 14, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/14/2012

It is generally recognized among the professional peleton that the man to beat in the sprint is current world champion Mark Cavendish. In this year's Giro, there have been 4 designated sprinters' stages, and Cavendish has won two of them. He didn't get a chance to win the other two because he crashed out of contention during the run-in to the line. The first was at Horsens, where Roberto Ferrari washed out Cavendish's front wheel. The second crash was at today's stage 9 finale at Frosinone in a hard left turn, where he got caught in the domino action when Filippo Pozzato took down Matt Goss from behind. It seems like the only way to beat Mark Cavendish in a straight up sprint is when he's sitting on the ground off his bike.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/13/2012

Ryder Hesjedal had to fight hard on the steepest parts of the final climb in today's stage to retain the pink jersey, which he did, even though Purito Rodriguez ate into his lead by snagging the 8 second time bonus for finishing third. Hesjedal is the first Canadian to wear the maglia rosa, garnering intense scrutiny and interest from sports fans in his home country. Commentator Steve Schlanger remarked that Ryder has Canadians' full attention because there are no Canadian teams left in the NHL playoffs. A very rare occurrence, indeed.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/12/2012

It's Joaquim "Purito" Rodriguez's birthday today, turning 33 years old. Now, where does that "Purito" nickname come from? According to Carlton Kirby, commentator on Universal Sports, a purito is a type of small cigar popular in Spain, and when Rodriguez first turned pro with the Once team back in 2001, at their first training camp, he passed his teammates on a small climb, gesturing that he was smoking a cigar. His teammates didn't really like that, so they made him smoke a real cigar later that night.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/11/2012

Another day, another holder of the pink jersey:

They can't take it away unless they catch me!

No, actually it's Lampre rider Adriano Malori, who finished second on the stage, but ahead of the rest on overall time.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/10/2012

If you ever look at official notices for the stage in a Grand Tour, you will see, along with the medical reports, abandons, and non-starts, the list of infractions assigned to the riders and team staffers, plus the monetary amounts. The fines are always assessed in swiss francs, not euros, and before the creation of the European Union, not in the currency of the race's host country. The reason: the UCI, professional cycling's governing body, has its headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland. Switzerland is not part of the EU, so it still maintains its own currency.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/9/2012

In honor of today's team time trial, we have a couple of relevant Italian phrases.

cambi corti e regolari (KAHM bee KOR tee eh reg oh LAHR ee) - "Changes short and regular." This describes riders taking turns with short and regular pulls.

perdere le ruote (PEAR dehr ay lay ROW tay) - "Lose the wheel" means getting dropped.
Via Pez Cycling

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

I Guess That Wasn't Fair Trade

FT Alphaville » The 6am Cut London: Robert Stiller has been stripped of his chairmanship of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters after a margin call — triggered by a very steep fall in the company’s share price — forced the sale of 5m of his shares in the company in violation of internal trading policies, says the FT. Stiller remains on the board.

Giro Jot del Giorno - Rest Day

After 3 furious days of racing, we need more racing, right? Not this year. The teams needed an extra day because of the long transfer from Denmark to Italy, which will make the next rest day, 12 stages from now, seem like an eternity. Usually, a Grand Tour is like 3 regular Tours strung together, with a rest day occurring after about a week of racing. But coming up, the riders will have almost two weeks of racing before a break. This will be interesting to see how the teams deal with fatigue and injury. I predict more breakaways succeeding as the GC teams refuse to help the sprinter teams bring the escapers back.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/7/2012

There was a bit of confusion in the crash-marred finale of today's stage, as the maglia rosa holder crossed the finish line in the back of an ambulance, but still came out for the podium presentation. According to the 3 km rule governing crashes in a flat stage, those caught up in a crash or behind it, are awarded the same time as the eventual winner. The general rule for any stage racer is that the athlete must cross the finish line under his own power, otherwise the athlete is deemed to have abandoned the stage. But under the 3 km rule, those caught in the crash, because they are automatically awarded a finishing time, do not have to physically cross the finish line. Here's official word from Team BMC and Taylor Phinney:
Podium Appearance Important 
After remaining on the ground for several minutes, Phinney was helped into a rescue squad and his right ankle bandaged. Though he was not required by race rules to physically cross the finish line (since the mishap occurred in the final three kilometers), Phinney said he was feeling better and wanted to make an appearance on the podium. "I wanted to show the fans and the public and my family watching at home that I was OK," he said. "I felt like it was important to do that, to come back." BMC Racing Team Assistant Director Fabio Baldato said Phinney will join the rest of the team on a charter flight Monday night from Denmark to Italy. "Team President Jim Ochowicz and our race doctor, Dario Spinelli, will go with Taylor to a hospital in Verona tonight and we'll have an update afterwards," Baldato said.
However, those merely caught behind the crash, and uninjured, must still cross the finish line to establish a placing for the race record.

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/6/2012

Even though the race is called the Giro d'Italia, the first 3 stages of this year's Tour of Italy is in Denmark. Denmark is not known for being very hilly, so it is not surprising that the first King of the Mountain points was awarded on a 4th category climb. The highest point in Denmark is only 173 meters, but today's "climb" at Osterbjerg was at an airy 47 meters. The third stage features the toughest climb during the Danish stages: climbing to 159 meters.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/5/2012

This blog has a regular feature during the summer called Tour Tidbit du Jour, which is about finding one interesting thing (at least to me) per day at the Tour de France. Only in the last couple of years has there been regular live (or semi-live) coverage in the USA of the Giro d'Italia. During those last few years, I have been watching the Giro, but without the quality of the live coverage at le Tour, I never felt I could find something to say every day.

That changed during the last year, as there is now a licensed live broadcast of the Italian feed in America. Universal Sports, during its cable broadcast, only shows the last two hours of the RAI broadcast, so there really isn't much analysis for a two hour show, or a multiple hour glut of feet turning over a pedal television shots. So, meh.

This year, after switching from DirecTV to AT&T U-verse, Universal Sports channel was a casualty of the change-over. Before, I could even take the digital broadcast over the air and plug it into my receiver box, but AT&T doesn't play nice with that, and with the huge broadband pipe I have, why pay for an additional standalone DVR? Nowadays, I have to pay a la carte for my Universal Sports coverage, and that suits me just fine.

Let's see how the Giro Jot goes then. I have to tell you, it took forever to come up with that phrase, since I couldn't  think of an alliterative equivalent to Tidbit. I needed that "juh" sound to match Giro and Giorno. Well, I got so hung up on latin and italian, that some other word for atom, component, or little bit never struck me until I thought of the greek iota, and the english bastardization of jot followed.

So, with only the third American to wear the maglia rosa with Taylor Phinney, the others being Andy Hampsten (the only American winner of the Giro) and Christian Vande Velde, we have your Giro Jot del Giorno for Stage 1.