Giro 2011 Curse

[LukeSchmid]

Riders who are doing better at the Vuelta than the Giro, apart from Menchov who is probably getting to be better than the Giro. He finished about 5 and half minutes behind Nibali at the Giro and is only a minute and half behind Nibali at the Vuelta

Daniel Moreno - 29th Giro - 10th Vuelta
Sergio Pardilla - 48th Giro - 14th Vuelta
Kevin Seeldrayers - 50th Giro - 16th Vuelta
Eros Capecchi - 60th Giro - 25th Vuelta
Sergei Lagutin - 91st Giro - 23rd Vuelta

 

[LukeSchmid]

well machado was 19th before today but was told to wait for zubeldia what made him lose 20 minutes. . . really bad decision by the shack imo, then again he wasn't climbing all that well so would have dropped a few places anyway. its his first season really peaking for specific races and he seems to be having a hard time learning how to do it (it has been hinted on his blog that he failed to peak at the right time again for this vuelta)

Machado was 21st for what little difference in makes and not sure it was a huge error to get Machado to help Zubeldia. They thought he would be able to get back on and never did and I doubt Machado would have been much help to Brajkovic under normal circumstances. As it was Zubeldia never got back on and Brajkovic blew up totally and maybe Machado could have helped him. Everything just went wrong for Radioshack.

 

[Fergoose]

Its possible you heard it from Rendell, seeing as a previous "I heard somewhere" quote from you came from him, and i know he said this very thing last time I watched ITV.

Of course. While I'm happy to make it clear I got the info from elsewhere ("I heard suggestion" - palming off the knowledge of others as your own is frightfully boring) I don't think name checking a fringe commentator on a fringe channel in a fringe country (when it comes to cycling) is going to carry much weight on this international forum! Incidentally, you got name checked for correcting the ITV lads about Wiggins never having won a Time Trial incase you never heard it.

Your suggestion about the national bias involved in stage profiles has more than a hint of the ring of truth.

 

[LukeSchmid]

If the Giro is only very mountainous because Italy has lots of climbers then I say may Italy have mountains crawling with climbers and may their sprinters be rare. Australia can produce enough sprinters to go around.

 

[42x16ss]

I read it and just saw it as a rider who is struggling from not doing a GT in over a year.

 

[greenedge]

I wonder if it is becoming too hard even to compete at the Giro and then the Vuelta. Anton and JROD are prime examples ( though JROD did not win at the Giro and he is not going bad here) and also Nibali/ Scarponi. Scarponi is out and Nibali just loses time a bit but is consistent.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Riders who are doing better at the Vuelta than the Giro, apart from Menchov who is probably getting to be better than the Giro. He finished about 5 and half minutes behind Nibali at the Giro and is only a minute and half behind Nibali at the Vuelta

Daniel Moreno - 29th Giro - 10th Vuelta
Sergio Pardilla - 48th Giro - 14th Vuelta
Kevin Seeldrayers - 50th Giro - 16th Vuelta
Eros Capecchi - 60th Giro - 25th Vuelta
Sergei Lagutin - 91st Giro - 23rd Vuelta

Can't vouch for all, obviously, but Pardilla was a domestique at the Giro, whereas with Movistar not having any defined leader or sprinter for the Vuelta he's had a free hand; the weather also suits him better as he's quite good when it's hot - winning the Vuelta a Madrid back when it was in July, and podiuming the Volta a Portugal. Eros Capecchi is Nibali's right hand man here, whereas Szmyd had that job in the Giro, so Capecchi was further down the food chain and letting go much earlier.

 

[theyoungest]

Kruijswijk's been at it since February. The poor guy is obviously tired by now. It's been a great year for him and he's got nothing to be ashamed of. Same story with J-Rod, who's had an even longer year.

Kruijswijk is having back problems. You can see from his results in the first week that his form isn't that bad (yes he lost time on the 3d stage, but that was due to a mechanical).

 

[LukeSchmid]

Can't vouch for all, obviously, but Pardilla was a domestique at the Giro, whereas with Movistar not having any defined leader or sprinter for the Vuelta he's had a free hand; the weather also suits him better as he's quite good when it's hot - winning the Vuelta a Madrid back when it was in July, and podiuming the Volta a Portugal. Eros Capecchi is Nibali's right hand man here, whereas Szmyd had that job in the Giro, so Capecchi was further down the food chain and letting go much earlier.

I agree with that but it is the other side to the point I was making that some of the riders who are doing worse here could be doing that because they have different roles. An example being Seeldrayers doing better here as team leader while Cataldo might be doing worse because he is not team leader here. He might not be capable of doing better because of the Giro but maybe it is other reasons. Same with Carrara was leading VCD at the Giro, Poels and Lagutin seem to be here, different roles may be the reason for different results.

 

[The Hitch]

Can't vouch for all, obviously, but Pardilla was a domestique at the Giro, whereas with Movistar not having any defined leader or sprinter for the Vuelta he's had a free hand; the weather also suits him better as he's quite good when it's hot - winning the Vuelta a Madrid back when it was in July, and podiuming the Volta a Portugal. Eros Capecchi is Nibali's right hand man here, whereas Szmyd had that job in the Giro, so Capecchi was further down the food chain and letting go much earlier.

Also Eros won a stage in the Giro

Stage > 23rd on gc.

 

[LukeSchmid]

Also Eros won a stage in the Giro

Stage > 23rd on gc.

Very good point, totally forgot about that.

 

[La Canaja]

Well, focusing on the main GC guys, I'd say it's not just a matter of this year Giro. The thing is: it's extremely hard to be solid contenders in two GTs in the same year.

Think about that. How many riders have concretely tried to win two GTs in the same season in the last ten years? Or an easier research: how many of them have podiumed in two GTs in the same year? We're not talking Contador here, we're talking human beings. Nibali and Sastre (who actually almost accomplished the task three times, amazingly so).
It's hard, guys. It's actually very unlikely to happen. You need to be one of the best around. Especially in contemporary cycling, which is (I presume) cleaner than before.

One could argue Nibbles did that last year, hence proving this year Giro was the only thing that prevented him from doing it again. But it's not as simple. Liquigas had scheduled a completely different season for him last year. He went to the Giro as a superdom, with no pressure at all, he wasn't even very prepared for it. Liquigas controlled the whole race amazinlgy, some stages were perfectly suited for him (Asolo) and nothing happened for the first two weeks basically giving him time to get good legs.
Then he went to the Vuelta and found one of the weakest competition in years.
He was lucky. An amazing rider, if you ask me, one of the smartest around and a true fighter. But you gotta admit that, he was lucky.

I've been lurking this forum for quite some time now, and I've read surprised comments on Scarponi being dropped, or Purito fading, and on and on. "How come they didn't prepare well for this Vuelta?" They prepared. They really did (I'll keep Anton out of this discussion, I don't know about him). They just don't have enough legs to compete and it's completely understandable after a whoole year at the top (all of them were already being strong in April, even March, go and check).


Had the Giro been less brutal, we might have seen more fire from these guys, but it's not safe to assume they would have been able to win the entire race otherwise.

 

[Parrulo]

riding hard on T-A, M-SR and L-B-L might have been a mistake for nibali and he may be paying the price right now

he certainly wasn't even close to his best on the last 2 stages. . .

 

[jsem94]

This Giro curse completely wrecked all my fantasy teams.