It should be the best job in the world to ride the top races and get paid for it. Some of the best bikes in the world are washed and prepped for you, roads get closed for you like a visiting head of state and thousands of fans wait by the road for hours to cheer.
Only too often many teams and riders show the pressure with stern faces and serious press releases. It’s exhausting but still, it’s all meant to be fun right?
Without wanting to revisit the Giro’s Stelvio scandal again the stage and ensuing debate was still instructive as a means to explore race safety, especially the rules for racing in cold weather.
After discovering the UCI rulebook has little to say on descending a snowy mountain pass many have called for new rules to regulate racing in poor weather. It sounds sensible given the dangers and regular visits to the high mountains. But the more you look at it the harder it is to define a sensible rule.
Shadows on the Road by Michael Barry
Timing. Had this come out years ago it could have had the sensational impact of Tyler Hamilton’s Secret Race given it details doping on the US Postal team. But coming out in 2014, long after the USADA report it’s a very different matter.
If the book has generated headlines about Tramadol and race fixing this isn’t a tale of scandal. Most of the intrigue is reserved for the unreported aspects of the life of a pro cyclist, from injury to travel.
Nairo Quintana leads on the stage to Val Martello. He’d gone clear on the descent of the Passo dello Stelvio launching a post-race controversy – one of many to mark the race – but it was on the climb to the finish that he built his lead.
This was a race with plenty of action with no team was able to control the race either in the plains or the high mountains. Here’s a look back at events and some thoughts on the race.
The final stage promises to be a procession followed by a city criterium. If the “fight for pink” is over there’s still a fight for the red jersey and the stage win.
Monte Zoncolan awaits the riders in the Giro. Climbs like the Stelvio, Galibier and others have rich history but Monte Zoncolan’s as new as you get. Although it had been climbed before from Sutrio it was only in 2007 that the road from Ovaro was used with its infamous gradients.
But what makes a climb tough? The steeper the slope the more the contest is reduced to a rider’s power to weight ratio, stripping out tactics, roadcraft and everything else that makes road racing such a subtle contest.
The final stage of the Giro given tomorrow promises a procession followed by a city criterium. What a way to finish with the infamous Monte Zoncolan too.
A giant mountain time trial, a maxicronoscalata. This stage is long and deceptively hard. We could and should see Nairo Quintana win but the greater uncertainty is over who could claim third place overall. Not that today will settle everything, push it too much and a rider could be cooked for tomorrow’s crucial Zoncolan showdown.
Another day, another mountain stage. It’s easy to just see more peaks on the profile but each stage is different. Today’s
208km through the Alps but without a mountain pass and hopefully with out a polemic post-race debate too. Today might not be for the sprinters as we’ve seen teams reluctant to work and the Ca’ del Poggio wall sits 20km from the finish.
Today’s stage passes through the Veneto region so a look at the Italian cycle industry because no other region in the world has such a concentration of famous cycling brands, from Sidi to Pinarello. Even Oakley is owned by a company founded here.