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Grand Tours promise exciting time for Australian cycling

GreenEDGE riders (AAP Image/Kathy Watt)
Roar Guru
3rd May, 2012
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Summer in Australia is well and truly over. If you are a cyclist, this means a few things. First of all, arm and leg warmers are your new best friend.

Secondly, crit season is over (in Melbourne anyway).

Thirdly, winter road racing is now underway.

And last, but not least, the Grand tours are about to kick off, beginning with the Giro.

As far as cycling goes, us Aussies have been blessed with a great start to 2012.

Anticipation for the Tour de France is growing, with everyone hoping Cadel can go back to back.

In Orice-GreenEDGE Australia finally has a team to call their own. And what a start they have had, with some notable wins already on the board.

Aussie RR: Simon Gerrans
Aussie TT: Luke Durbridge
Tour Down Under: Simon Gerrans
Tirreno-Adriatico team time trial
Milan-San Remo: Simon Gerrans
Volta a Catalunya (stage 1, 2 and overall): Michael Albasini
Tour of the Basque Country stage 2: Daryl Impey
Circuit de la Sarthe (TT and overall): Luke Durbridge
Tour of Turkey Green Jersey (points): Matt Goss

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The Classics also offered up some great moments. Some top picks were Boonen’s Paris Roubaix win and Gerran’s MSR win.

The Giro kicks off on Saturday night at about 11pm Sydney/Melbourne time with an individual time trial. The next two stages are flat stages, followed by a rest day on 8 May and a 32.2 kilometre team time trial.

GreenEDGE will look to place a particular emphasis on these opening stages. Directeur sportif Matt White has publicly stated that the focus is on stage wins and trying to get lead-sprinter Matt Goss into the pink-leader’s jersey (the Maglia Rose) in the first week.

This will take place before or after the team time trial, in which GreenEDGE should also expect to perform well, given the Tirreno-Adriatico win.

Matt Goss has started to show some consistency during the Tour of Turkey after four second places (one was by 0.0008 seconds). GreenEDGE’s ambitions are not without Merit.

The team will work very hard to try and achieve their goals for the Giro. The battles will be huge as Rabo Bank are sending Theo Bos and Mark Renshaw to take stage wins.

The sprints should be hotly contested, as Bos won two stages and Renshaw one stage at the Tour of Turkey.

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The team time trial is followed by another flat stage and then three Medium Mountain stages. The specifics of each stage are noted further below.

Gossy will likely finish stage 13 and pull out from there.

Giro Stages (live on Eurosport starting about 11pm) is detailed below. I highly recommend the first two weeks and especially the penultimate stage, being the Stelvio. This is one brutal climb.

Stage Date Course Distance Type
1 5 May Herning 8.7 km Ind TT
2 6 May Herning to Herning 206 km Flat
3 7 May Horsens to Horsens 190 km Flat
3 8 May Rest day
4 9 May Verona 32.2 km Team TT

5 10 May Modena to Fano 199 km Flat
6 11 May Urbino to Porto Sant’Elpidio 207 km Med Mt
7 12 May Recanati to Rocca di Cambio 202 km Med Mt
8 13 May Sulmona to Lago Laceno 229 km Med Mt

9 14 May San Giorgio del Sannio to Frosinone 171 km Flat
10 15 May Civitavecchia to Assisi 187 km Med Mt
11 16 May Assisi to Montecatini Terme 243 km Flat
12 17 May Seravezza to Sestri Levante 155 km Med Mt
13 18 May Savona to Cervere 121 km Flat
14 19 May Cherasco to Cervinia 205 km Mt
15 20 May Busto Arsizio to Lecco-Pian dei Resinelli 172 km Mt
15 21 May Rest day
16 22 May Limone sul Garda to Falzes-Pfalzen 174 km Med Mt
17 23 May Falzes-Pfalzen to Cortina d’Ampezzo 187 km Mt
18 24 May San Vito di Cadore to Vedelago 139 km Flat
19 25 May Treviso to Alpe di Pampeago 197 km Mt
20 26 May Caldes-Val di Sole to Passo dello Stelvio 218 km Mt
21 27 May Milan 31.5 km Ind TT

The GreenEDGE roster is Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn), Jack Bobridge (Aus), Matt Goss (Aus), Daryl Impey (RSA), Jens Keukeleire (Bel), Brett Lancaster (Aus), Christian Meier (Can), Svein Tuft (Can) and Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

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I will be providing a live blog for stage 13 on Friday 18 May and will have the Total Rush Racing team on hand to help out.

I am going to back last year’s runner-up Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD). After Contador was stripped of the 2011 Maglia Rose, he has publicly stated he wants to win it on the road.

Who do you think will win?

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