Giro d'Italia 2013: An Overview & Team lists

The 2013 Giro d'Italia begins this weekend in Napoli as it makes it way down south to the 'toe' of Italy before turning around and heading north into the alps and across the border into France. The race will finish in the city of Brescia on the 26th of May.

The favourites for the maglia rosa have all won a grand tour which should ensure a top quality race and set the standard for grand tour riding in 2013. Ryder Hesjedal pulled off a surprise victory last year when he won the race by blitzing Joaquim Rodriguez on the final ITT stage. With the final stage a flat one a repeat of the excitement of last year seems unlikely. Vincenzo Nibali and Bradley Wiggins have both highlighted the Giro as a season goal. At the 2012 Tour de France which Wiggins won, these two went Mano-a-Mano with the now knighted Wiggins the victor. Cadel Evans was rather underpar in his Tour defence last year and will be keen to put in a good showing and reinforce his role at BMC as the top dog. Robert Gesink could challenge for a podium if he manages to avoid crashing which is becoming far too common for the Dutch rider. Sammy Sanchez likewise could finish on the podium but his time trialling isn't anywhere near good enough to challenge Wiggins or Evans.

2012: Another Tumultuous & Exciting Edition

The 2012 season will be defined by pictures of cyclists on the road as much as cyclists off the road. Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France, Alberto Contador made a winning return after his doping suspension, Philippe Gilbert won his maiden worlds rainbow jersey and Tom Boonen owned the cobbles. Yet for all the excitement and dominance of Team Sky plus individual and collective feats of the peloton, it was the USADA investigation into US Postal which lifted the lid on Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel as the masterminds behind the most organised doping practise the sport has ever seen. As the season comes to a close there are trails that seem only destined to be endlessly consumed with chasing the murky past down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. There has been no admission by Armstrong and the 1990s culture of Omerta has lessened but still exists among the peloton and with two major Italian investigations now looking like handing down their findings in 2013, this is certainly a tumultuous time for the sport. However there were brilliant rides full of bravery, panache and courage across the season. Looking back to the seasoning races in January of this year, it becomes apparent several of those rides will become timeless images of the sport, as well as part of cycling’s folklore for the years to come. 

Liquigas-Cannondale 2012 Season in Review

The 2012 Liquigas-Cannondale season saw Peter Sagan, the terminator, come to the fore as superstar of the sport while Vincenzo Nibali finished third in the Tour with Moreno Moser and Elia Viviani highlighted the depth of the Italian squad in a year of great success. Nibali moves onto Astana in 2013 and his loss will be felt but with Sagan remaining on the team’s books, there will be no lack of wins in 2013. Nibali has moved on as wanted a team which could guarantee total support in a tilt for Grand Tour success. Although Nibali finished third at the Tour this season the team had split loyalties with Sagan taking three stages and the points classification as well as team resources away from Nibali. Ivan Basso’s season objective was another Giro d’Italia win and would ride in support of Nibali at the Tour where he finished 25th riding as a super domestique but his season was largely disappointing with only one win. Besides the Nibali and Sagan show, Liquigas notched up wins with Viviani and Moser impressively winning stage races overall for the first time. 

Katusha 2012 Season in Review

Grand Tour classification jerseys and stage wins, one day classics and the UCI World Tour win would be more than enough to suggest that Katusha had a standout 2012. However 2012 was close to Grand Tour dominance for the Russian team as Joaquim Rodriguez lost the Giro d’Italia on the final day and was in a commanding position until Stage 17 of the Vuelta de España when Alberto Contador pulled off an escape ride to snatch the win from his compatriot. Rodriguez was once again the UCI rider of the season as he repeated his 2010 antics as the highest ranked rider due to his best Grand Tour result and his first Ardennes classic win. For Katusha their suburb season may have been overshadowed by Sky’s dominance but 2012 will be a season the team can look back fondly upon. 

Lampre-ISD 2012 Season in Review

Lampre-ISD’s 2012 season was largely underwhelming with not a single World Tour win and will end the season with a cloud of uncertainty engulfing the team. With only three riders winning races in 2012 this was a poor season for a team that regularly wins Grand Tour stages and is noticed in the peloton for more than just their pink jerseys. Michele Scarponi who finished second on the road in the 2011 Giro d’Italia inherited the maglia rosa after Alberto Contador was stripped of his results from the 2010 Tour de France but ends 2012 winless and suspended by his team for his meetings with the disgraced Italian doctor Michele Ferrari. Compatriot Filippo Pozzato was recently given a six month suspension for meeting with doctor and Scarponi looks likely to receive at least the same sentence. A new sponsor and team name in 2013 could see a rejuvenated Lampre team who will also be riding Merida bikes but two investigations into doping practices could derail the team’s preparation or season next year. 

2013 Giro d'Italia Route

Garmin-Sharp 2012 Season in Review

Season 2012 would again welcome a new season, a new sponsor for the American Garmin team. Initially Barracuda came on board as a new co-sponsor with Cervélo as last season’s co-sponsor downgraded their sponsorship to supplying team bikes. Before the Tour de France Sharp was announced as a new co sponsor and the team jersey for the rest of the season had Garmin, Sharp and Barracuda as sponsors. The change of sponsors and departure of almost all the Australian riders on the team to GreenEdge as well as the departure of Thor Hushovd to BMC had relatively little impact as Ryder Hesjedal became the first Canadian and Garmin rider to win a Grand Tour. With several distraction across the season Hesjedal's Giro win was confirmations of Garmin's place as one of the top Pro Tour team.

Recent Grand Tour ITT Results

With an increased number of time trial kilometres in the 2012 Tour de France compared to recent editions the GC candidates will need to have two good ITTs to stand atop the podium in Paris. The tables below are the finishing positions of the current top four riders on the GC at Grand Tours since 2007. These four riders appear to the fighting to the podium but after the 41.5km stage to Besançon the GC will be shuffled. This time the picture of who the overall candidates are will look a little clearer.

In 2011 Cadel Evans won the Tour following his Stage 20 heroics in the 42.5km ITT around Grenoble. On that day Evans finished second to Tony Martin who would go onto to claim his maiden world champion ITT and after two second places at the Tour won his maiden yellow jersey. What was more important than his finishing position on Stage 20 was that Evans had began the day 57 seconds in arrears to Andy Schleck but finished the stage 1:34 ahead of him and won the Tour by doing so. Evans won an ITT stage at the 2007 Tour after initially finishing second behind Alexander Vinokourov who won the Stage 13 time trial around Albi but later testing positive for doping. Bradley Wiggins finished one minute behind Evans in that stage but admittedly he was not as focused on the road as he is now. Evans will be looking to ride the last ITT of the 2012 in yellow and take the jersey on his shoulders all the way to Paris.

Wiggins has already won four ITT stages this season and will begin the Stage Nine time trial a slight favourite ahead of his GC rivals. Wiggins has shown that he the legs to go with the best climbers after his stage race wins this year but the ITT is where Wiggins will want to put serious time into his rivals. If Wiggins has to only follow his rivals in the mountains the Tour is most certainly his. However if he needs to make up time and attack his rivals in the mountains his tilt at the overall looks less likely. Wiggins and Evans are the two favourites for the overall in 2012 partly due to the high number of ITT kms. Evans is no slouch in the ITT and his time trial win at the Critérium International earlier this season will be a mental boost for the Australian. Depending on the results on the ITT Wiggins may intentionally lose yellow and want to stay out of the leader’s jersey until Stage 19.Wiggins appears at unease having to front the media for every day he is yellow and surrendering the jersey may actually be beneficial to his chances for the win. Without the pressure of yellow, Wiggins may be more relaxed and able to launch attacks without the full attention of the peloton.

At the 2008 Tour de France Carlos Sastre was in yellow heading into the final ITT which was a 53km race from Cérilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond but seemed destined to concede yellow to Evans. Evans had begun the Tour as a favourite and was wearing the number one bib on his back after Alberto Contador and his team Astana were not invited to the race following Vinokourov‘s positive test for blood doping. Without the Spaniard to whom Evans had lost the Tour by only 23 seconds to the previous year, the Silence-Lotto rider was a clear favourite for the overall and the Tour would be his to lose. Evans did lose the 2008 and his failure to catch Sastre on the final ITT was his undoing. Now with a one-one record in terms of final ITTs and the maillot jaune, Evans will be confident of making that record two-one in terms of Tour wins. Evans spent several days in yellow with a slender one lead over Franck Schleck in 2008 and as the outright favourite appeared to be seriously affected by this attention. Evans lost the yellow jersey after Stage 15 into Prato Nevoso to Schleck and slipped to third overall. Team CSC held onto yellow after this with the jersey changing hands to Sastre following his win at Alpe d’Huez on Stage 17 and Evans remained on the back foot watching his Tour dreams ride away. Sastre rode the ITT of his life to finish 12th on the stage to lose only 29 seconds to Evans. Evans managed to take back some time on Sastre on the final stage but it was not enough and for the second year running lost the Tour by under a minute. The demons of the 2008 ITT were exorcised in 2011 and Evans may be hoping to have the GC all but sown up by Stage 19.

Evans will be hoping that he will be in yellow during the Stage 20 ITT to Chartres and will have done enough throughout the race to hold a substantial lead over Wiggins. Evans showed during yesterday’s stage that he will attack where ever possible and claw back his current 10 second deficient to the Team Sky rider. Evans will have allies in the GC men who are not so strong in the ITT’s and will be looking to take time off Wiggins in the Alps and Pyrenees. Nibali and Menchov are both reasonable time trials but cannot count on taking time off Wiggins or Evans in them. They will need to attack in the mountains and at any opportunity that arises.

As the tables below show the current top four on the GC have all had impressive ITT results across the three weeks of the three Grand Tours. All have won an ITT stage at a Grand Tour and it appears quite possible that one of the four will win either tomorrow’s stage or Stage 19. The biggest threat from non-GC candidates looks like it will come from Fabian Cancellara as current ITT world champion Tony Martin is nursing several injuries. David Millar from Garmin-Sharp could be considered a dark horse for the stage win as could Rabobank’s Spanish national time trial champion Luis León Sanchez. However with the ITT looking to be decisive in the configuration of the overall, these riders may be pushed down the order by the GC men really wanting to gain some time over their rivals. There are several national ITT champions in the 2012 peloton but with the possibility of yellow after the conclusion of Stage 10, that may prove to be a bigger motivating factor than a stage win would be for the national champions.

Evans, Menchov, Nibali and Wiggins ITT performances at Grand Tours 2007-2012

Evans	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro d’Italia	-	-	-	3rd (Stage 1), 2nd (Stage 16), 4th (Stage 21)	-
Tour de France	1st (Stage 13), 2nd (Stage 19)	4th (Stage 4), 7th (Stage 20),  50th (Stage 20)	5th  (Stage 1), 12th (Stage 18)	166th (Stage 19)	2nd (Stage 20)
Vuelta de España	11th (Stage 8)	-	10th (Stage 4), 3rd (Stage 20)	-	-

Wiggins	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro d’Italia	-	157th (Stage 10), 4th (Stage 21)	7th, (Stage 12), 2nd (Stage 21)	1st (Stage 1), 67th 2nd (Stage 16), 7th (Stage 21)	-
Tour de France	4th (Stage 13), (Stage 19)	-	3rd (Stage 1), 6th (Stage 18)	9th (Stage 19)	WD
Vuelta de España	-	-	-	-	3rd (Stage 10)

Nibali	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro d’Italia	24th (Stage 13), 7th (Stage 20)	7th (Stage 10), 44th (Stage 21)	-	11th (Stage 1), 4th 2nd (Stage 16), 5th (Stage 21)	1st (Stage 16)
Tour de France		10th (Stage 4), 6th (Stage 20)	9th  (Stage 1), 26th (Stage 18)	-	-
Vuelta de España		-	-	15nd (Stage 17)	15th (Stage 10)

Menchov	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro d’Italia	-	6th (Stage 10), 25th (Stage 21)	1st (Stage 12),  10th  (Stage 21)	-	6th (Stage 16)
Tour de France	21st (Stage 13)	6th (Stage Four)	53rd (Stage 1), 17th (Stage 18)	11th (Stage 19)	-
Vuelta de España	4th (Stage 8)	-	-	2nd (Stage 17)	13th (Stage 10)

Note: Only ITT stages are considered, no Prologue results have been listed. None of these riders competed in the 2012 Giro d’Italia, therefore the 2012 Tour de France will be their first Grand Tour for the year.