There are four jerseys in the race, plus several prizes on offer each day. Here’s a primer…
Girophobia: fear and stage racing in Italy
La paura. It means fear in Italian and I’m detecting a few riders expressing the feeling right now. Normally riders sound confident, at least in public, with statements like “I’m ready” or the Italian line about being “calm” or “serene”. Only with the Giro ways things are sounding different.
Valuing a rider: past performance vs. future prospects
Visit a stockmarket and you’ll soon learn the value of a company tends to be based on expectations of its future performance. The on-screen prices flash and change as tiny pieces of information, as well as big news, have their effect on the valuation of a stock.
A stockmarket isn’t the only place where assets are traded. In the world of pro cycling a team owner will regard riders as assets. Some teams do this openly, for others managers it’s more of a subconscious calculation.
Either way, teams need to put a value on a rider in order to decide whether to hire him. There are various factors at play. Obviously a star rider has a high price but this is based on expectations about his ability to win future races more than his stock of past wins. In addition, can the rider contribute to the team, whether in riding or via other means, from leadership to a sense of humour? Will the rider bring additional sponsors? Will the the rider keep away from scandal?
Past performance is a guide to the future
So far all these questions involve the future tense, they are about what the rider might offer once they’ve been signed. It’s like stockmarket assessing the outlook for, say, Nestlé or General Motors. It’s not so much what has happened in the past but how things will turn out in the future, what will happen to sales and profits. But there’s a new factor at play in cycling that is not about the future but the past: ranking points.
Bottom bracket failure?
I don’t do too much tech on here but it seems to go down well, my piece on the possibility of an electric SRAM group in particular proved popular. Today I’m interested by the variety of bottom bracket standards on the market because it’s something that seems fairly unique amongst consumer goods.
It’s common for industries to have various “standards” when it comes to technology, for example a Android smart phones or maybe those with Windows; a Blu-Ray disc or HD DVD. In times past VHS famously saw off Betamax and there are many more examples. But I don’t remember other industries offering so many options and above all, so many parts that won’t work together. Yet this is what the bike trade is doing with a variety of proprietary bottom bracket designs.
Weekend round-up
The weekend’s racing threw up some interesting things. The Giro looms big but don’t let the anticipation overshadow some interesting stories from neo-pros succeeding to old dogs having their day over the weekend.
First to Frankfurt, the Germany city that styles itself as Mainhattan, where a sleepy town meets global finance and skyscrapers. The traditional 1 May Grand Prix, these days known as the Tour of the Financial Square Eschborn – Frankfurt, a bit of a mouthful. I preferred the older name, the Henninger Turm, named after the local brewery’s visible grain silo. The race heads to the Taunus hills but it can come down to a sprint finish. As we saw yesterday several big names get ejected by the climbs, in particular in Mammolshain and it came down to a bunch sprint but not after several names got left behind.
This might be a bit mean but it was lucky John Degenkolb won. Why? Well go through the other 68 riders in the group and you’ve probably not heard of many of them. Even the top-10 isn’t quite star-studded.
Joaquim “Purito” Rodriguez – the nickname explained
Joaquim Rodriguez finished 2010 as the number one rider in the UCI rankings. He had a great year with several wins and many consistent finishes.
But how much do you know about him? With many riders it’s common to know where they’re from, what sort of person they are and more, at least to know their public persona. But I know nothing about Rodriguez except his nickname, Purito and that he’s from Catalonia. It sort of means “clean” in Spanish, a diminutive term… but that’s not the origin of his name.
Italian Cycling, Part II – regions
This year’s Giro celebrates the 150th anniversary of the unification of the country, marking the moment when a collection of kingdoms, fiefdoms and other lands on the peninsula were finally united into a single nation, in part by military force.
Italy might have obvious geography, being bordered by the Alps to the north and its long “boot” standing out from the Mediterranean sea. But the country is still very much a collection of regions. I’ll generalise but ask an Italian abroad where they’re from and they’ll often state the region; if two Italians meet outside their country they will quickly enquire which region they are from. To this day there’s plenty of local pride, indeed rivalry.
Divorce in the Kingdom: Omega, Lotto and Gilbert
Not all marriages last. Today came confirmation of a split in the Kingdom of Belgium between Omega Pharma and the Belgian lottery, Lotto. Both are long term sponsors of pro cycling. Omega boss Marc Coucke is a big fan of the sport and cycling is the most popular sport in Belgium, meaning the state lottery is almost obliged to get involved.
But there’s a twist, as explained by Greg Ienco of Cyclisme Revue. Lotto is effectively under the control of Belgian politician Didier Reynders. He’s perhaps the top representative of the Walloon region, being both deputy prime minister and finance minister. Plus as there’s still no government, he was also an informateur, a role appointed by the King to help form a government but like others, couldn’t get a parliamentary majority in place. Put simply, Reynders is big in Belgium.
The Giro d’Italia is bigger than Everest
Let’s play word association. When I say “Switzerland”, what do you think of? Punctual trains, chocolate, hard currency and secret bank accounts? Cheese, cows and yodelling? I bet mountains are an obvious thought, whether for the skiing or the postcard images of lush Alpine pastures. So when you think of the Tour of Romandie, you tend to think of a stage race for climbers. Romandie is the French-speaking area and like the whole Swiss confederation it has plenty of mountain passes.
More precisely the 2011 Tour of Romandie has 6,100 vertical metres of climbing (~21,000 feet). Despite several first category cols and plenty more other climbing, whether categorised or not, this is not the most mountainous edition of the race. Still, there are six days of racing with the prologue and you can’t escape the hills. But all this is less than one single day of mountain madness in the upcoming Giro d’Italia.
Pineau attacks the UCI’s point system
It’s the UCI’s points system that’s ruining everything. Teams think about finishing sixth or ninth instead of playing to win but maybe finishing tenth. They say the race radios are killing off panache, but the points system does just that. You play it defensive. Those are the words of Quick Step’s Frenchman Jérôme Pineau in … Read more