Joined: Jan 16 2003 Posts: 6734 Location: At the cider bus, Worthy Farm, Somerset
not sure they have the points system right at all for the Giro, you need a decent incentive for sprinters as well as GC and mountains, evans could almost win the red jersey without really wanting to
The fight for GC didn't materialise but Nibali was a very worthy winner. Might have been a bit more interesting if Sky had realised from day 1 that Wiggins was not in the form he needed to be in and had a plan B in mind rather than sending Uran back to pace Wiggins back in the first week.
Cadel Evans looked good considering his lack of preparation (he was only flung in to try and get some form).
Batancour fulfilled some of the promise he'd shown in the Spring Classics. In fact - Columbian riders were very impressive all round.
Cav - well he went as the only OPQS plan and boy did he deliver. Very hard to win the points jersey at the Giro as a spinter and if the Saturday stage had not been cancelled then I'd argue he would not have won it anyway. 5 stage wins from 6 (ish) winnable sprint stages is a good record but........a lack of credible contenders made his job easier. Might be a bit trickier with Greipel, Kittel, Sagan etc at the Tour.
Overall. Not a bad Grand Tour but I can't help but feel that it lacked something. I didn't get overly excited about the race but then again Nibali had it won from early doors. A decent tit for tat GC battle really brings out the best in a Grand Tour and this just didn't have it.
Joined: Feb 21 2002 Posts: 31779 Location: The commentary box
Nibali's dominance was impressive, but the lack of anyone to really push him was disappointing and therefore made you look elsewhere for stories. Adam Hansen and Visconti's breakaway wins were great and it was a pretty good tour for Movistar. Shame they'll all be working that horrible nerk Valverde in France. Dowsett's emergence as a real time-trial contender was good, and while Cav did exceptionally well to win the points classification, his battle was more with the system than any other rider. I can't see him getting green in France - fancy Sagan for that mainly due to picking up intermediate sprint points in the hills.
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