With Nairo Quintana out of the picture the 2015 Giro d’Italia is likely to feature Fabio Aru and Rigoberto Urán again but they’ll have to confront Alberto Contador and Richie Porte too. Four riders in search of a podium? It could be a Pirandello play but it’s the 2015 Giro d’italia.
The UCI have published the Licence Commission’s reasoned decision to let the Astana team ride on. It confirms last week’s speculation that whatever trouble the team was in was related to softer, cultural issues rather than anything dramatic.
News that the athlete bio-passport isn’t foolproof has been doing the rounds after France Télévision’s Stade 2 show took some athletes, “microdosed” them with EPO and their values didn’t ring alarm bells on the AMPU bio passport system.
News? Actually no it’s been set out in academia since 2011 and in the same year Italian pro Leonardo Bertagnolli was telling the police just the same. Still since the report has got some traction so here’s a quick look at the issues.
Ilnur Zakarin won the Tour de Romandie, climbing faster than Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana on the mountain stage and were it not for a mechanical mishap he’d have out-ridden Tony Martin in a technical time trial too. The Russian was the surprise package of the race while the pre-Tour clash of Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali never came alive.
With the Giro coming up in a week’s time who is the in-form Italian of the moment? Davide Rebellin is an obvious pick following his summit finish win in the Tour of Turkey earlier this week. His CCC-Sprandi team are riding the Giro and the Italian would make an obvious pick given his nationality, form, experience and is a match for the opening week’s hilly finishes. Only he’s not going and the rumour is he’s been blocked by Giro organisers RCS.
Here’s a list of all the Giro stages with their profiles and a summary preview. You’ll find the same and more on the dedicated Giro page at inrng.com/giro for the whole month.
Astana kept their World Tour licence after the UCI’s Licence Commission gave them the green light to ride on. The who, what and why remain a mystery for now as we wait the promised publication of the reasoned decision.
Before that happens there are wider issues of communication and perception. Few understand how a team gets a World Tour Licence, the ISSUL audit seems to have been misunderstood by many and it created a scenario where the vacuum of knowledge was filled by speculation and innuendo.
10 days to go. Just as there’s a season-long calendar of all the major men’s and women’s races to download, here’s the stage by stage Giro ical for your phone or electronic diary ahead of this Saturday’s grande partenza in Sanremo.
The calendar file has proved surprisingly popular for each grand tour. It lists each stage along with the distance and a stellar rating. The Giro awards stars to each stage to indicate the difficulty or importance, from one to five stars for the biggest days.
With the spring classics done it’s time for the stage races. There’s no immediate switch from embrocation to sun screen as this year’s Tour de Romandie offers familiar conditions with rain and cold forecast.
There’s a rare pre-Tour clash between Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali but with wider interest as it’s a Giro tune up for some and a test for others.
Gent-Wevelgem was the stand-out race of the 2015 spring classics campaign and a shoe-in for the highlights of 2015 after the storm made a race that was gripping for hours. Yes it was dangerous but hopefully most enjoyed watching for the long range action where for the tactical scenarios kept changing for over two hours rather than the crashes.
Other races provided plenty of action too and right from the start with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and along the way there have been revelations, confirmations and a fair-share of post-race polemics.