The Giro d’Italia in an alternative universe. This week’s Giro d’Italia has plenty in store. Today’s rest day sees riders travel from Cagliari down to Palermo. You could be forgiven for thinking there was no need for a full day’s rest but the two Island capitals are further apart than you’d think. Flying seems the
Author: MikeFranchetti
The 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia starts this Friday. There’s not much more I can say that I haven’t said multiple times before; it’s an excellent race, it’s my favourite race, and it absolutely monopolizes three weeks of the year.
This piece was originally written for and published on Cycling Torque. Visit http://www.cyclingtorque.com to read my full post. I doubt that many of the Yorkshire folk who pitched up at road side would know that mountains classification winner Pieter Weening took a fantastic Tour de France stage win in 2005 millimetres ahead of Andres Kloden –
Why do I still love the Ardennes? I know Paris-Roubaix is the best classic, I know Flanders is the second best and I’m quickly beginning to think Strade Bianche is the third. Nevertheless, I always look forward to the Ardennes week. Perhaps it’s due to the Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday structure we’ve seen organisers adopt in recent years.
It the end it wasn’t to be for Tom Boonen. The stars aligned a week before for Philip Gilbert but Roubaix posed too many obstacles for Quick-Step to mastermind his perfect finale. It would be Greg Van Avermaet who finished the two velodrome laps first, returning from an early deficit to drag a small group
One of my recent Twitter polls asked if we preferred a brilliant edition of Paris-Roubaix or a Tour de France decider on Ventoux/Alpe d’Huez/The Tourmalet. With 57% of the vote Paris-Roubaix was the winner and it’s considered by many to be the best racing of the season. I’ll always have love for the Grand Tours
…which leads me to today’s daily prediction: Philippe Gilbert will not win the 2017 Tour of Flanders. — Just Pro Cycling (@justprocycling) January 12, 2017 Well, I got it wrong. There was nothing in Philippe Gilbert’s post-2015 BMC form to suggest he would take to any race – regardless of the surface beneath his wheels
It was all relatively calm… and then Peter Sagan went ballistic. If the Slovakian’s attack on the Poggio was eyebrow-raising then Michal Kwiatkowski’s stealthy, slipstreamed sprint on the Via Roma was jaw-dropping.
Just Pro Cycling 