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Here’s a guide to the 2014 Giro d’Italia with stage profiles and accompanying summaries plus all the technical information on race rules, time bonuses, TV schedules and more.
When is a shoe not a shoe? When it’s an elaborate Sidi trompe l’oeil. Look at the image above and it looks like a Sidi Wire but look again. Those ratchet dials are flat and it’s an elaborate shoe cover made to look like a Sidi. The next photo reveals another version, this time with perforations to help on a hot day.
With the spring classics done it’s time for the stage races. But there’s no immediate switch from embrocation to Ambre Solaire as this year’s Tour de Romandie offers similar conditions to last year with snow and rain forecast
With Cadel Evans in 2011, Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome in 2013 the race winner has gone on to win the Tour de France. This year’s edition is probably important to Team Sky in terms of recovering from a disastrous April rather than staking claims to the future. It’s also a race that serves a final tune-up for those riding the Giro.
Every site sponsor gets thank-you note and Trek are the sponsor for April. It’s an auspicious month given the focus on the classics for the Trek Factory Racing team. The ad is there to show Fabian Cancellara’s cobble-eating Trek Domane. Within days of the ad appearing on here the Swiss won the Tour of Flanders.
As well as the thank-you note since we’re talking site sponsorship there’s a quick housekeeping note where the elusive INRNG t-shirt gets an airing.
Katusha’s Giampolo Caruso is the the last attacker of the day. He led into the final bend but a trio of Simon Gerrans, Alejandro Valverde and Michał Kwiatkowski storm past to sweep the podium. This was the moment the race was won.
It marked a thrilling finish but it was a moment that might have had rattled millions of television viewers out of their siesta after they’d fallen asleep during Sunday afternoon’s coverage.
The hilliest of the one day classics, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is comparable to an Alpine stage of the Tour or Giro in terms of vertical gain, although it needs 260km to achieve this. Glance at the race profile for Sunday and you’ll see the 10 climbs on the route. These are the côtes répertoriées, or “catalogued climbs”.
Only the race has many climbs that aren’t catalogued. Here’s one that is crucial as it is climbed with less than 20km to go.
The ultimate one day race? This certainly one of the toughest athletic contests of the year where form and fitness trump brute force and a touch of luck. The 100th edition includes a nod to the past with some classic climbs back on the route.
But there’s plenty to look forward to. Philippe Gilbert and Alejandro Valverde are the prime picks to win but there’s a big field that includes grand tour winners and classics specialists alike. Here’s a preview with the route, climbs, contenders, TV info, weather and more.
I didn’t bother with a “The Moment The Race Was Won” piece for the Flèche Wallonne because the race is so predictable. It’s got a tough course and a hard fight just to get to the foot of the final climb. But it always comes down to the final kilometre and the Mur de Huy. North of the Pyrenees Twitter wasn’t full of joy at Valverde’s win. Indeed there were insinuations of doping and overnight I got a couple of emails asking if Valverde is doping, after all he’d set the fastest every time up the Mur.
Have BMC discovered the magic touch? Cadel Evans and Philippe Gilbert are back to winning ways and apart from Jim Ochowitz’s media gaffs the team has enjoyed a great to the season.
One factor might be Allan Peiper. The Aussie is credited with helping Ryder Hesjedal in the 2012 Giro and was recruited by BMC last year. But skip back almost 30 years to see him as a rider on the Peugeot team and the video clip above shows him as a fledgling road captain with ideas on team management.
What have Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland all got in common? One thing is a border with Germany. Another is that they all have a national tour, a bike race that lasts several days and aims to cover the whole country.
In fact if it doesn’t have a national tour, Germany doesn’t have a big team either, the number of race days is dwindling and the sport is hardly shown at all on mainstream TV. A headwind for German cycling fans but also a real problem for professional cycling as a whole too.