Cycling News and Opinions
Unfair and Unbalanced
May, 2012
Unfair and Unbalanced
May, 2012
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May 28: Here are the UCI Post-Giro World Tour rankings
Individuals:
- Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) 404 points
- Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 366
- Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) 272
- Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) 252
- Peter Sagan (Liquigas) 229
- Bradley Wiggins (Sky) 224
- Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) 210
- Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda) 197
- Damiano Cunego (Lampre) 184
- Oscar Freire (Katusha) 180
- Michele Scarponi (Lampre) 174
- Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) 172
- Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 167
- Alessandro Ballan (BMC) 166
- Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) 150
- Roman Kreuziger (Astana) 149
- Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) 132
- Daniel Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) 132
- Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) 126
- Rigoberto Uran (Sky) 125
- Michael Rogers (Sky) 112
- Jelle Vanendert (Lotto- Belisol) 104
- Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) 100
- Christopher Horner (Radio Shack-Nissan) 96
- Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) 96
- Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 90
- Ivan Basso (Liquigas) 88
- Fabian Cancellara (Radio Shack-Nissan) 86
- Simon Spilak (Katusha) 86
- Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Barracuda) 85
- Rui Alberto Faria (Movistar) 75
- Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) 74
- Philippe Gilbert (BMC) 72
- Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) 72
- Tiago Machado (Radio Shack-Nissan) 72
- Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) 71
- Edvald Boasson Hagen (sky) 70
- Mark Cavendish (sky) 66
- Rochie Porte (Sky) 62
- Matti Breschel (Rabobank) 60
- Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky) 60
- Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) 60
- Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) 52
- Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 52
- Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) 51
- Bernhard Eisel (Sky): 50
- Sergio Henao (sky) 48
- Jan Bakelants (Radio Shack-Nissan) 42
- Lars Petter Nordhaug (Sky) 42
- Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 42
Teams:
- Katusha: 708 points
- Liquigas: 633
- Sky: 597
- Omega Pharma-Quick Step: 574
- Astana: 495
- Garmin-Barracuda: 457
- Orica-GreenEdge: 428
- Lampre: 378
- BMC: 368
- Radio Shack-Nissan: 333
- Vacansoleil: 318
- Euskaltel: 311
- Movistar: 298
- Rabobank: 273
- Lotto-Belisol: 227
- Ag2r: 156
- FDJ-Big Mat: 79
- Saxo: 43
Nations:
- Spain: 1,063 points
- Italy: 946
- Belgium: 740
- Australia: 436
- Netherlands: 409
- Great Britain: 312
- Switzerland: 278
- United States: 258
- Slovakia: 229
- Canada: 198
- Colombia: 173
- Czech Republic: 149
- Protugal: 147
- France: 143
- Ireland: 132
- Norway: 121
- Slovenia: 107
- Kazakhstan: 102
- Germany: 94
- Denmark: 82
- Croatia: 64
- Austria: 51
- Poland: 43
- Costa Rica: 20
- Argentina: 10
- Belarus: 10
- South Africa:: 10
- Russia: 8
- Sweden: 7
- New Zealand: 5
- Luxembourg: 5
- Lithuania: 4
May 8: Giro rest day. First off, it looks like the feared Danish coastal winds that had several teams concerned in stage 2 (see May 6 post, below) were milder than expected, allowing the peloton to arrive for the sprint finish intact.
It's Giro time, so we have polemiche (Italian for disputes). Stage 3 was marred by a high speed crash just meters from the finish line. Roberto Ferrari of Androni Giocattoli switched rightward and clipped Mark Cavendish's front wheel, sending the World Champion as well as maglia rosa Taylor Phinney to the ground. Both Phinney and Cavendish look good enough to go for the team time trial Wednesday in Verona. As of this writing, Roberto Ferrari has so far been unrepentant, but not so his team boss. Gianni Savio has apologized for Ferrari's dangerous sprinting.
If you'd like to see the final 5 kilometers of stage 3, I've got the Italian Eurosport video imbedded here.
Here's a crisp, clear short video of the crash:
May 6: I got an interesting press release from Team Lampre regarding the Giro's second stage, which will be in Denmark:
"The wind will be the bugaboo of the 2nd stage of Giro d'Italia.
There will be 65 km of the total 206 of the stage with start and arrival in Herning that will be covered on a coastal road where the wind usually blows at full force from the North Sea.
"Roberto Damiani, Lampre-ISD's technical director, made a reconnaissance on this sector of the race: 'Actually the wind is strong, even if it would be difficult to foresee the direction. In fact, some Danish cyclists told me that every day the direction and the intensity changes. In addition, it could be mitigate by some dunes that separate the roads from the beach. Attention: when the dunes are shorter, the wind could blow suddenly'."