When did you start following the Giro?

[Gregory]

well, in 2006 it already was an inhuman cutting. in 2005 Basso attacked with real fire and emotions yet.. finestre was full of fans, unlike zoldo alto, ortisei and other stages. probably, "weak" is not best suited word, let's say "rarified" cos teams are much weaker than in le tour

I still think that the impression of 2006 Giro kind of merged in your mind with the 2005 edition. There was not a single stage in 2005 Giro, where Basso would drop all the GC contenders. On Zoldo Alto he couldn't drop Savoldelli and got beaten by him in the sprint. The next two Dolomite stages he was in deep crisis. In Limone Piemonte they let him get away, before the fight between GC contenders began as he was no longer a contender. On Finestre he got dropped from the contenders group very early.
Don't underestimate the strength of the field. The level of GC contenders was very high, much better then the year before. It's only that their supporting cast was on a weak level. Savoldelli was amazing in that Giro. His win is very underrated , becasue everyone has an image in their memory, of the Finestre stage in which he was desperately defending himself.
But earlier, in the Dolomites, he outclimbed Simoni on two stages. He rode great time trials. He outsprinted Basso, he put time to his rivals on the descent. He rode virtually without any support, he had to often go himeself to team car for food and bottles, which is ridicoulus for a rider of his position. Such was the support that Bruynell and Lance assigned for him. He rode with great intelligence and great strength of will. With such form and with strong team, he could've achieved 2nd place in Tour de France during the Lance era.

Back on topic. I started following Giro in 2003, and this edition made me a Simoni fan, as he dominated the race and rode with great style. It's a common psychological phenomenon, that you pick your idols when you start following some discipline. Later, when you see riders develop from rookies to stars, that magic is gone, especially given the fact, that you gradually become older than the current riders. It's hard to have someone younger as an idol, someone whom you saw when he was still very weak and undeveloped.

 

[goggalor]

Watching the 2007 Giro on TV was actually when I fell in love with cycling.

 

[The Hitch]

This year will be the first year I watch the giro, watched tour 2008-2011 and assumed it was all ther was in cycling. It was only last year when ITV (a free english channel) first showed vuelta that I started to watch cycling year-round

Yeah it was brilliant that Itv showed the Vuelta. I was so grateful i betrayed my beloved eurosport and watched it only on ITV. Unfortunately doesn't seem like they will show the Giro, and didnt they say the Vuelta was a 1 time thing?

 

[Lupetto]

1994.

 

[ingsve]

In 1999.

I watched the Tour in 1997 and 1998 but 1999 was the first season I started watching other races as well. I remember watching Tafi win Roubaix and Freire win Worlds and I watched both the Giro, the Tour and parts of the Vuelta that year and I believe I watched some more of the fall season of the World Cup as well.

 

[amp300]

2004 for me. OLN had coverage on every day. I had already been following the tour for a while, but never saw the giro because I never lived somewhere with OLN, and I didn't really make an effort to follow it online.

On a funny note, I couldn't remember what year I was looking for originally, only that Cunego won. So doing a little search brought me to cyclingnews page from 2004, with a link to the side that brought me to this:

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/giro04/diaries/ferrari/

Ah yes a Dr. Ferrari diary. What a great quote they used at the time to describe him:

has never been afraid to push the boundaries of sports science

No he sure hasn't!

 

[search]

I do remember Tonkov winning the Giro in 1997 but I think the first time I watched the race more than occacionally was in 2001. Perez Cuapio having his breakthrough after losing the majority of his teeth in a crash a couple of stages earlier is something you'll never forget

 

[Angliru]

2003. Being a Cannondale man and a lover of the little climbers, Simoni ticked all the boxes plus he rode with style and bit of an attitude. It was Pantani's last hurrah and the battle between Simoni and Garzelli. No one has looked better in their maglia rosa kit than Simoni (to me!).

It was Simoni's riding that got me hooked on the Giro, prompting me to gobble up whatever dvd's/video's of previous Giro's that were available at the time. Unfortunately it was right about that time that most distributors converting their libraries from VHS to dvd and in the process they chose to not carry over many of the Giro years, reducing their selections in the process. I was lucky enough to pickup the 2 years Ivan Gotti won the Giro but I hesitated on several others that are no longer available for sale.

 

[C50dream]

All of you must be dilitantes

All of you must be dilitantes.. I have been interested in the Giro
since i think about 1963, when my father brought home a "Gazetta dello Sport" with Franco Balmamion? the winner.
I also think, that he won 2 Giro's without winning a single stage.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

All of you must be dilitantes.. I have been interested in the Giro
since i think about 1963, when my father brought home a "Gazetta dello Sport" with Franco Balmamion? the winner.
I also think, that he won 2 Giro's without winning a single stage.

Most of us weren't born then.

 

[Carols]

I have followed the Giro for as long as I can remember and I'm 61. Of course it was via print and purchased vcr tapes until the advent of the internet and the first showing on tv in the US which was around 1995 I think..I know it wasn't there for the Indurain years, only had le Tour on tv then. It was broadcast in Italian on a special purchase satellite channel but I bought and watched every day

 

[Swede1]

2010 was the first time that I actually followed the race. in 2009 I was just starting to follow cycling with with LA's return. So i didnt really pay too close attention at the giro, only seeing how LA was doing occasionally.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

I saw the Giro for the 1st time in the 80´s.
I am contemporary witness of the epic "88-Gavia-Stage". Live at home on a warm sofa.

_________________________________________________
The Great Grand Tour Game 2012:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=16625

 

[blaxland]

My first was the late 8o's with chiappucci and Bugno riping up the mountains.And the americans of Hampsten and Lemond trying to do battle.Also miss watching Gert Jan Theunisse in the big mountains"

 

[ultimobici]

1984 via Cycling Weekly and the Kennedy Brothers Giro/Tour annuals.

The Moser/Fignon story was the ultimate "We wuz robbed" story. Stages cancelled due to snow that had miraculously disappeared 24 hours later & helicopter assisted/impeded TT's made the 1989 edition all the more deserved.

 

[auscyclefan94]

2009, that was the year we first had coverage of the great race in Australia.

 

[greenedge]

I only started last year. I only started to actively know riders/ follow races/ know how the season is comprimised in 2010 right before the TDF ( after i casually flipped through my dads' RIDE magazine )- even though i would watch the highlights from a young age.
I watch a lot of cycling events as many as i can but the Giro i like because it's a GT and it has a lot of mountains.

 

[royalpig180]

Well it was the 2009 Tour that got me hooked on cycling, so it was the 2010 Giro that was my first. Man, what a first giro that was... I think i sort of vaguely followed the 09 giro before that, but not really.

 

[Afrank]

I have followed the Giro before, but this will be the first year in which I will be able to watch every stage.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

I saw the Giro for the 1st time in the 80´s.
I am contemporary witness of the epic "88-Gavia-Stage". Live at home on a warm sofa. [/url]

Same here.

Watching the Giro outside Italia wasn't easy back then, that changed in the mid-nineties.

 

[wirral]

When I got Eurosport.

 

[CobbleStoner]

I got into the Giro the same way and time I got into the TdF, Het Volk, Coors Classic, Gent 6, etc... Winning

and I still regard getting my pic in there as my greatest cycling accomplishment

 

[Red Rick]

I wish i started following it in 1994, 18 day's old

Edit: it sucks i can't watch some great stages because of exams

 

[CatsNK]

My first cycling race-viewing was the Giro 2010. I'd never watched more than 5 minutes of a bike race until channel-surfing and came across Universal Sports Giro coverage that year. After a few minutes I was completely hooked. Obsessively so, even. What an awesome race and such great representation of the sport. Love everything about it. Love the Giro.

 

[Eshnar]

My first cycling race-viewing was the Giro 2010. I'd never watched more than 5 minutes of a bike race until channel-surfing and came across Universal Sports Giro coverage that year. After a few minutes I was completely hooked. Obsessively so, even. What an awesome race and such great representation of the sport. Love everything about it. Love the Giro.

which stage was it?
That Giro was really awesome.