; Paco watch, part 1 Francisco Mancebo (5 Hour Energy) showed right from the first stage int he Tour of California that he has come to play. The Spaniard with the dark Operacion Puerto past is officially — according the the team website — shooting for a top ten but in reality he is going [...]
We were supposed to see Bradley Wiggins in pink today after he dominated the 55k time trial. He’d make up for his bad luck in the first week by scorching his rivals on the road to Saltara. This was his discipline, he’s the Olympic Time Trial champion and the fastest knight on two wheels. [...]
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and defending Giro champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) are thrilled by the miserable rain and slick roads and general chaos. They’re getting the exact conditions they require to beat Bradley Wiggins to the stop step of the podium. Stage six from San Salvo to Pescara featured crappy weather and that has proven a [...]
Elia Viviani is trying to scare Mark Cavendish but it’s not working. The Italian sprinter for Cannondale banged his bars when he came second to Cavendish in Naples on stage one. Frustrated at just missing a career boosting win and the maglia rosa, he said “I just hope at least that I gave him [...]
“It was a great job from my team. We had the confidence and we took the responsibility.” That was John Degenkolb talking about his free-gift win in stage 5 of the Giro d”italia. The German sprinter is absolutely correct as far as responsibility because it was his lead-out man Luca Mezgec who crashed, taking down several [...]
The final kilometers of Stage 4 in the Giro d’Italia presented several thrilling attempts at victory and a dramatic contrast in two riders. That would be Italian Danilo de Luca (Vini Fantini) and Frenchman Sylvain Georges (AG2R) A former Giro winner and convicted doper, the 37 year old Di Luca made his bid for glory [...]
Luca Paolini of Katusha won the day and defending champion Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Sharp revealed his strategy. The Canadian won last tear’s Giro with a perfectly calibrated and well executed plan for the entire race. He played a dark-horse game that won all the poker chips in Milan, However this time around, Hesjedal is no [...]
; Lost on the island of Ischia: Vincenzo Nibali, 14 seconds, Ryder Hesjedal, 25 seconds and Cadel Evans, 37 seconds and a significant amount of hope. That’s what happens when Sir Bradley Wiggins and his Sky mates scorch the technical 17.4k team time trial from Ischia to Forio in 22:05. Wiggins’ Italian teammate Salvatore Puccio [...]
It ain’t easy turning lime green into pink. Some inherent chromatic difficulties. Elia Viviani (Cannondale) thought he had the first maglia rosa of the 2013 Giro d’Italia in his grasp. He’d done everything perfectly, floating in the slipstream of the Orica-GreenEdge train. When their sprinter Matthew Goss went up the left side, Viviani took the [...]
