The Giro d’Italia finished in Milan on Sunday, with Ryder Hesjedal storming home in the final time trial to win by a mere 17 seconds over Joaquim Rodriguez.
After three weeks and 3,502km of racing, that is a ridiculously narrow margin, and the race organisers have been widely praised for producing a course that built tension until the very last minutes of the race.
They deserve credit for producing a close finish, albeit one dominated by an attritional style of riding that produced few fireworks. In a sport that glorifies suffering, the final few days perfectly showcased the extraordinary qualities required to win a Grand Tour.
The ancient Greeks had a concept of virtue called arete, or excellence. A person of arete uses all of their skills, intelligence and physical capabilities to achieve excellence, and it was an important moral virtue for the Greeks.
The final weekend of the Giro showed off the peerless aesthetic and moral qualities of professional cycling, as the race wound through spectacular mountain passes, requiring the riders to demonstrate arete in all its facets: physical power, endurance, mental fortitude, tactical skill, teamwork and fearlessness.
Indeed the brutality of stage 20, a 218km epic of Homeric proportions finishing at the 2,757m summit of the snow-capped Stelvio, resulted in racing that was about as attritional as cycling gets.
No self-respecting rider will ever agree with me here, but I wonder if the extreme difficulty of the last few days of the Giro forced the top riders into a sort of tactical conservatism that ultimately cost the race some excitement.
It was too hard for GC contenders to attack each other in the mountains. That much climbing means the riders are battling for survival, and are unwilling or unable to attack early enough to create significant time gaps.
Instead we saw Christian Vande Velde expertly pacing his Garmin-Barracuda captain Hesjedal up the Stelvio, while a steely-jawed Rodriguez and Scarponi clung to each other’s wheels and Ivan Basso was slowly chewed off the back.
Rodriguez and Scarponi knew they had to take time out of Hesjedal if they wanted to win the Giro, but simply looked too fatigued to attack until the last kilometre or so, and were unable to grab more than the handful of seconds that Hesjedal had himself claimed on stage 19.
They were similarly unable to resist the brilliant solo attack of Thomas De Gendt, who dragged himself into podium contention with the kind of ride that sets a rider up for a career.
I wonder what would have happened if the Stelvio and the Mortirolo had been split between two shorter stages. I suspect we would have seen much more aggressive attacks: it would certainly be easier to launch a blistering assault if you’d only ridden 130km before you hit the base of the day’s major climb.
Instead, Garmin Barracuda’s time-honoured tactic of using Vande Velde to drive the pace for Hesjedal paid off perfectly, as the relentless pace made it too difficult for Rodriguez and Scarponi to launch.
This is the value of a strong team-mate who is willing to sacrifice himself for the team leader. In contrast, Scarponi had his Lampre team-mate Damiano Cunego ahead of him in a breakaway on the Stelvio, which should have put him in a position to help his team leader. Instead, Cunego went for personal glory and a failed attempt at the stage win.
Must have been awkward around the Lampre dinner table on Saturday night.
Ivan Basso again threatened constantly, using his Liquigas team aggressively over the last week to control breakaways and put him in good position, but ultimately he didn’t have the legs to stay with Hesjedal, Scarponi and Rodriguez when it mattered.
Hesjedal and his team were too strong, too determined, and too united. As the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour, he should be incredibly proud to have won the toughest Giro d’Italia for a long time.
DanMan
Guest
Totally agree. the attack on the queen stage was so early that noone else thought it would pay off - lets face it andy had to do something drastic otherwise it was a wasted year without really trying anything. He paid for it big time on the Galibier (lost back 2min on Cadel and co.) and was spent for the next day repeating the galibier and alpe du huez. So again, tactics were not Andy's strong points but at that stage of the race there was nothing else to do.
Sean Lee
Expert
I think the difference with Andy's attack was that the rest of the 'heads of state' basically let him go. From memory Floyd just rode past everyone and no one could keep pace with him, while Ricco just blasted everyone out of his wake.
liquorbox_
Guest
I think Andy Schleck did a big attack in last years TDF As for this being due to the now "cleaner" peloton, I think it is just a case of different drugs and supplements giving different outcomes. If Landis had not gone so quick he would not have been caught, the drug he used had a time limit that it was testable and he got back early and so it showed up
Tristan Rayner
Editor
I vividly recall being astonished at Riccardo Ricco literally destroying the field in 2008. Sadly, I also recall being very hopeful that this was some new young weapon emerging, not really at all being suspicious of a dope-fuelled performance. As an aside, cricket has gone a bit that way as well, dubious Test matches are now thought of as fixed rather than naturally astonishing. Especially in the sub-continent... but I digress.
Sean Lee
Expert
An article of great 'arete' Tim! Agree with all that you said. Climbing tactics are more conservative now and maybe that is due to a 'cleaner' peloton. The last really big attack that I can remember was Floyd Landis back in the 2006 Tour, and we all know what happened after that. Riccardo Ricco also launched some stinging attacks in the 2008 Tour, but again, same story as Floyd!
GreenEDGEFans
Guest
Great article, when Damiano Cunego launched ahead to the breakaway I thought he was there to help Sacrponi and watching the climb up Stelvio I thought when is Cunego going to slow to help Scarponi? The die is cast in the Lampre squad now. I don't think Cuneogo will ever get support from Scarponi and that is going to play havoc all season as they don't back or support each other :D
Tim Renowden
Expert
Ah, but you'd still include the epic climbs like Mont Ventoux, Stelvio, Alpe d'Huez, Mortirolo, Madeleine, Tourmalet etc, which are by their nature selective, but you just might avoid stacking up three of them in one stage, or five of them in two days. It's a matter of balance. You need to preserve something for the real climbers, and sort out the best from the rest, while still allowing the riders to express themselves a bit.
Tim Renowden
Expert
The Dauphine is arguably the best gauge of form leading into the Tour, so my tip is to watch it closely and see how Evans looks over the big climbs ;) A lot of the Tour contenders haven't raced a whole lot recently while they've been putting in big blocks of heavy training, so it's difficult to pick a form line yet.
liquorbox_
Guest
the big issues I have with short climbs is that the whole peloton can get over them, they need to be long and hard to sort out the real contenders from the predenders. Long climbs get a bad wrap due to the tactics being employed by the teams now.
Mike Hart
Guest
Any tips for the Dauphine Tim? What do we need to see from Cadel to prove he's winding his form up? This is literally everything I know: "Running from Sunday June 3th to 10th 2012, the 64th "Critérium du Dauphiné" will be made up of 1 prologue 7 stages and will cover a total distance of 1,052 kilometres" :)
Hospital
Guest
re: F1 and cycling, it's the F1 drivers vs half the Tour de France field on a training ride today, apparently my Twitter tells me! Mark Webber loves to ride his mountain bike, but not road bike anymore after that incident...
John
Guest
Yes Tim a very salient point and Justin's follow-up comment works for me: "I agree with you, in that I would much rather watch blistering attacks on short steep climbs than long climbs of attrition where the attacks look like they are in slow motion." Yep! Give me attacks and a straining of Phil Liggit's voice! I'm an F1 fan at heart - after 300kms of racing the differences between winners is usually a few seconds at that, and they go 300kms an hour (avg speed: 150kms) unlike the peddle-pushers! Is amazing to see how close they finish ;)
Tim Renowden
Expert
Also, I've got a shiny new Twitter account for bike- and other sport-related stuff: http://twitter.com/#!/timehhh_sp if you feel like following.
Darryl Kotyk
Roar Pro
I'm with you, Justin...didn't realize we had a student of the Greek Gods among us. I agree, it's amazing that a three week race can come down to such little time difference. What a great sport we all love so much.
Tim Renowden
Expert
I have an honours degree in philosophy, man. My grasp of the ancient Greeks is limited and fading, but some of it sticks with you.
Tim Renowden
Expert
Agreed. If Contador can't win the Giro/Tour double, then nobody currently in the pro peloton can.
Justin Curran
Guest
Wow Tim, I didn't know you were a student of the ancient Greeks as well as a cycling enthusiast and writer! I agree with you, in that I would much rather watch blistering attacks on short steep climbs than long climbs of attrition where the attacks look like they are in slow motion. And also I agree it is quite amazing that such a difficult race was decided by a mere 17 seconds. The organisers must be thrilled. However I hope that does not spur them on to make the route more and more difficult.
Mike
Guest
In the past couple of years, it seems the Giro organisers have decided that if their race isn't going to be considered the most prestigious grand tour, then it may as well have the reputation as the most gruelling. Contador basically spent all his tickets winning the 2011 Giro, leaving him cooked for the Tour de France. It's a reasonable change in direction but it really puts an end to the prospect of riders using the Giro as a genuine Tour lead-in. The Tour of California and the Dauphine look to be far more suitable preps for those targeting the yellow jersey in Paris. Sadly, the days of guys doubling up in Italy and France seem long gone. Maybe we'll see someone like Hesjedal aim at the Tour in 2013, having proven himself a genuine GC contender this year in Italy.