Rob Larsen

Contador

Clenbuterol appeals aside… this guy is a pretty good bike racer and he's on phenomenal form right now. This certainly isn't the guy we saw struggling to stay on Andy Schleck's wheel last year at the Tour de France. Contador is at his attacking, aggressive best at this race and when he's like that it's really pretty tough to beat him. It also seems like he's been unleashed completely in this race. It looks like he's basically free to attack at will, which makes him even tougher to deal with than he was in the Discovery/Astana days where he was being kept on a tighter leash. With so much climbing remaining he could push his final margin to over 5:00 minutes without much effort.

Nibali

Nibali has shown himself to be a rider of real quality. He's not quite the climber he would need to be to take a climb-heavy corsa rosa like this one, but he's definitely got more grand tour victories in his future. A course like the one DiLuca won in 2007 or the one Menchov won in 2009 would be more within his reach right now.

For the most part he's ridden solidly, intelligently and has played the race as well as he can tactically against the power of someone like Contador. Here's hoping a couple more years of development and a course more suited to his particular talents will lead the Shark of the Strait to his own Giro victory.

Today especially showed well for him. He attacked when it was appropriate and when that failed he rode within himself to limit the damage as much as possible. While he did drop some time, he's still on the podium. It could have been much worse.

Cavendish

Does any active cyclist gather up more controversy than Cavendish? This week he dealt with accusations of being dragged up Etna and being called "fat" by Cipollini and answered by… winning two stages back to back. Not a bad way to answer critics

Crostis

After all is said and done, I'm happy they pulled the climb out of the race. Watching the videos and looking at some photos it was clearly a brutal, dangerous descent and it really had no place in a pro bike race. This is especially true in light of Wouter Weylandt's tragic accident.

Euskatel

I was happy to see the Basque team win back-to-back stages. They animate the high mountains of every Grand Tour so it's nice to see them get some results. Anton's win, especially, was a classy victory for the squad.

Wouter Weylandt

(more…)

It's May, which means it's time to look closely at la corsa rosa and get excited for the first grand tour of the year. Not that I need any help getting excited for the Giro, of course. If Le Tour is my #1 sporting event of the year, the Giro is probably #1b.

For those of you keeping track, I'm hoping to publish at least one post a week on the Giro this year. Anything more than that and we're in bonus territory.

Anyway, this year's race looks like it's going to be a blast. The course is EPIC and it starts in Holland. You can't go wrong with a bike race starting in Holland.

GC Contenders

My Podium

3. Cadel Evans, BMC

Has looked great so far in the spring and looks like he has a new-found spirit (thanks to the rainbow jersey?) Still, I look at a mountain like Zoncolan and think- that's just not made for Evans. I also think the lack of a long, flat individual time trial hurts Evans. He was trailing Basso until the final time trial in La Vuelta last year. He has no such advantage this year. The race starts and ends with shorter efforts (and the finale has a bump in the middle.) The major contro il tempo test will be the brutal Plan De Corones time trial. While I wouldn't bet against the ex-mountain biker doing well on such a challenging course, he won't have the same decisive advantage he would if it were a more straightforward crono route. On a long, flat time trial course Evans would eat up minutes out of people like Basso and Sastre.
(more…)

I wasn't the most profiliic photograper this year, but that doesn't mean I didn't capture a ton of cool graffiti, the occasional bike race and some cool scenes/places. What follows are some of the cooler photos I posted to Flickr this year. Interestingly, the year begins and ends with JA XTC graffiti on a truck.

(more…)

I've been there a couple of times now. This time, I drew there. The mausoleum of Augustus is in the background of this image. I've yet to actually see it as it's been in renovation for several years. One of these days.