A week into the Giro d’Italia and the race feels just about ready to get properly exciting.
We’ve had some outrageous sprinting (good and bad), some big-name withdrawals, and some hills of the sort that whet the climbers’ appetite without truly satisfying.
Of the Australians, Matt Goss has clearly been the standout, claiming Orica-GreenEDGE’s maiden grand tour stage win. This is a huge achievement for the team and for Goss himself, and it bodes well for the Tour de France and Olympics.
Goss’s two second-place finishes behind Mark Cavendish demonstrate that both riders have found their form after beginning the season slowly. Even if they abandon the Giro during the brutal mountain stages, the anticipation of their duels over the next three months, and the corresponding battle between their respective lead-out trains, is pretty tasty.
In my view, Goss would still have won his stage even if Cavendish hadn’t been sideswiped by a rogue Ferrari, given he was a few bike lengths in front and moving beautifully. He has been the only sprinter to seriously challenge Cavendish this week, and only when his team-mates gave him perfect positioning – you have to get everything right to beat Cavendish.
The emergence of young riders Taylor Phinney and Ramunas Navardauskas to wear the leader’s maglia rosa during the first week was also a pleasing sight. The 26 year-old Phinney has been around for a few years now, winning regularly on the track and at U23 level. Seeing him step up to success in the pro ranks is great news for American cycling.
Navardauskas was the beneficiary of his team’s strength in the team time trial, but in only his second year in the big time he’ll be thrilled to have worn the pink jersey.
That jersey has been shared around between plenty of riders, as the changing terrain has gently sifted the sprinters and prologue specialists towards the back of the field. Keeping the pink jersey has almost seemed harder than getting it in the first place.
In stage six, the gutsy solo breakaway of Androni Giocattoli’s Miguel Rubiano was a perfect demonstration of how to take advantage of a dozing peloton. With most of the big sprinters dropping out of contention on the day, none of the teams seemed bothered with chasing Rubiano down, and he grabbed the opportunity to take the biggest win of his career, and probably the biggest win his pro continental team will manage this season.
In stage seven, defending champion Michele Scarponi flexed his muscles and reminded everyone that his 2011 victory, in unfortunate circumstances, has only motivated him to win it properly this year. That he was beaten to the stage win by Paolo Tiralongo doesn’t take too much away from the message Scarponi sent.
With Joaquim Rodriguez, Paolo Tiralongo, Frank Schleck, Ivan Basso, and Roman Kreuziger all in the top ten, Scarponi will have his work cut out. Schleck finally looks something like the rider who terrorised his rivals in the mountains through 2009-2011.
Basso on the other hand has spent the last two years (since his 2010 Giro win) looking like he fully intends to crush his rivals at any time now, just you wait, but never quite having the legs when it counts. Is a third Giro victory beyond him?
And did anyone else feel a thrill of recognition seeing a tiny Italian climber dancing away on the steepest part of the Colle Molella?
Domenico Pozzovivo is no Pantani, but for me the wave of nostalgia was impossible to resist, watching him slip away upwards, effortlessly, seeming to barely touch his pedals as he left his rivals toiling mechanically in his dust.
The next few days will be, like week one, a mix of flat stages and rolling hills. Something to excite the sprinters, and then something to embarrass them. The phony war for the GC will end on the weekend as the race heads into the Italian Alps.
The first week of the Giro has been intriguing, the second week will build the tension. The third will be brutal.
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