(PS: Boy am I going to have to eat crow if he makes a huge comeback ;)

yeah, i agree, i think people get a little over excited when new blood shows promise. we'll see though in the tour. i'd like to see him to well in the GC, but i don't really think he has the reserves to make it to the podium.

Cunego, who won the Giro, Tour of Lombardy (which is after the Giro) and the Tour du Trentin last year?

The guy has a bad day and all of a sudden he's no threat? For all we know he's holding back for the TDF. Simoni was supposed to be Lampre's guy for this Giro.

How short sighted we can be.

Basso sure looked good though...

6 minutes is a bad day. Better riders than him have lost more time.

My point I guess is how stupid it is for people to call someone an overrated nobody after one stage. All riders have off days. Your god Lance has bad days. Merckx had bad days.

For gods sake, Cunego is 23 and is still racing at a time of year when Sir Lance has hung up his cleats and is smoozing at Hollywood cocktail parties.

Like it or not, Cunego is the future of grand tour racing.

As far as the "future" goes, I look forward to Tom Danielson coming into his own giving Cunego some serious heat in the mountains, and GC.

Keyword: Future

Exactly what I would have said...

i think now that Cunego fooked up he will hold back for the tour, he is supposed to be the lampre leader for the tour. He had a bad day, and to top it all off, he had a bad day on one of the worst days to have a bad day. I would not jump to huge conclusions, though. There are still what, like 10 days left. He won't make podium, but he is a strong enough rider to make up a lot of time. Also, since he has been designated leader for the tour, maybe he's not trying to bust his butt; maybe he's trying to actually peak for the event his team wants him to. An i think the fact that he won the freakin race when he was 22 (or had he just turned 23?) says a lot about his riding abilities. He probably gets more hype than deserved, but, he is undoubtedly a great grand tour rider.

they said the same about Garzelli...

whatever...he goes to his grave someday doing what most everyone else would sell their soul to do...win a grand tour in their home country...

I watched it live...I wonder if he was sick. But even Simoni got dropped by Basso and Savoldelli.

It's not like Cuenego's a one trick pony. He ended up last year the #1 rider in the world. I'd take that in a heartbeat.

Show me where I called anyone stupid.

You're basing the entire future of a 23 year old on the first 11 stages of 1 race. That's what makes no sense. How do you know that he's not sick? How do you know that he's not holding back? Do you have some hot line to the Lampre director?

No reason for having a bad tour or stage is good enough for you since no one could ever be sick or down. And oh yeah, youth is no excuse either is it? Riders are all fully formed by the time they hit 20, right?

As someone else mentioned, he did end last year as world number 1.

Everyone has bad days.

Even me! ;)

Any mention of Danielson as a future tour threat is absurd as discounting out Cunego.
Danielson won Tour Georgia which is some rinky dink bull-sheit compared to a grand tour.

Cunego won a grand tour and did it in dominating fashion. No one just “sneaks in” and wins a grand tour as the original poster put it.

Landis could kick Cunego's ass. :p

it's clear you have a thing for cunego. you think his haircut's cute, don't you? you're acting like a schoolgirl.

Hahahahaha. I love this Ignore List thing. Really, some people are so full of shunk.

I am curious about your racing background, the level and depth of your knowledge of stage racing and team tactics, how many stage races you have done, your category, etc...other than what you have heard on TV.
Because you are hacking on the world's #1 ranked cyclist.
And everybody's kind of chuckling about it....

Very good points... and yes, i'm chuckling too.

Ahhh. The last bastion of people who have no rebuttal to facts. Personal attacks. Really, is that the BEST you can fans can come up with? And you call yourself tifosi?

(much laughter)

Six minutes "A bad day?"

(holding sides now)

Stop. You're killing me. That's what Ulrich lost in a howling rainstorm to the best climber in a generation...

(tears streaming, howling)

Tour de Tretin...Slovenians...

(having trouble breathing)

Saving himself...

(gasping for air)

Personally I hope Cunego puts on a good show at the TDF. It will be nice to have someone real young who can stay with the big guns and potentially shake things up.

I don't think Cunego will podium at the TDF this year, but don't downplay his Giro win last year because the competition wasn't the toughest. I think that he showed a lot of versatility in winning the multi day, and 1day races last year. I think that this kid has a real bright future, just not this year.

Also, as far as Lance or the other big guys...I heard several times during the early stages of the TDF last year that the USPS team was happy to stay out of the yellow, so the "X" wasn't on their back so early in the race...so its not just Cunego.

I didn't think so...all I asked was a question, but, hey, I guess it was too close to home.

BTW don't look now but your fly is open.

wait a minute... didn't this guy named Lance Armstrong loose 2 minutes to Iban Mayo in a 21km time trial on Mt Ventoux last year at the Dauphine Libere, 1 month before the TdF and finish almost 7 mins down on GC in 7th place!! where did Mayo finish in the Tour again? oh yeah, he didn't, he dropped out. and where did Mr Armstrong finish? oh yeah, he won it and the closest rider was over 6mins away..

i have no bones about anyone claiming to know anything and dismisses Cunego's chances at the TdF based on one stage in the Giro stupid... they are. Cunego dropping back might even be to plan... Lampre did say that Gibo was leader at the Giro and Cunego was leader at the Tour at the onset. so it can't be ignorance if you follow cycling.. if you claim to know something. if you follow cycling you'd know that it really means nothing about his chances in the TdF, you'd know about last year's Dauphine Libere and 100s of other similar cases.. you'd know that Lampre split the tours between the Gibo and Cunego.. so it can't be ignorance... has to be stupidity, given the facts you can't put 2 and 2 together... that's stupidity. that's not a personal attack, that's an observation... anyone who is new to cycling may make that kind of mistake because they just don't know any better.. that's ignorance.

but by divekrb's winking eye, i think he's trying to being 'controversial' an flame a tread.. i actually think he know's better... ;)

what is this guy's obsession with editing his posts...

Ha, I noticed that too.

One race doesn't make a season. So much could have taken place that we are unaware of. Just because he had a bad (maybe a terrible) day doesn't mean this kid (he is a kid in this sport) isn't the real deal. Do I think he'll win the TdF this year? It's highly unlikely but it could happen. Like Basso last year Cunego needs to up his TT game to be a true TdF contender. If (this is a huge if) Basso can peak a second time he's the biggest threat to Lance (actually Ms Crow and all the other distractions are LA's biggest threats but they aren't in the race). In three or four years Valverdi, Cunego, Boonen and a few others will be the new "heads of state" but at 23 we are asking a hell of a lot from this kid.

I think that Cunego is being truthfull when he says he finally felt the pressure of the expectations on him and suffered because of it. I also think he will continue to be an animator in the mountains in order to put pressure on CSC and Salvodelli to help Simoni.

Before this bad day, I felt that Cunego had no chance to Podium in the Tour, fighting too hard in the early stages of the Giro, alot to ask of a young fellow. Now that he's had a bad day and the pressure will be off of him and squarely on the shoulders of Simoni, I'm not so sure that a Podium in Paris isn't possible for him. It'll take an unusually good TT from him, but I think it's possible.