40 Cent

Ebeth, that refers to chainring x rear cog, so 30x36 is the smallest (granny gear) up front and largest cog, i.e., the easiest gear. A 30x36 is even a negative gear ratio I believe (https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/), meaning your feet are rotating faster than your wheel. Pros generally don't use triple chainrings BTW so no granny gear for them.

Suzie Green

ebeth, if you end up buying a copy of the 2008 Giro d'Italia race DVD, it is well worth watching several times over. Last year's race was spectacular, even with the guys who ended up hurting things by getting bagged for drug doping (like Ricardo Ricco). The mountain stages are incredibly exciting!

dingonan

Last year's Giro was great, it was funny seeing Contador beating the crap out of the other guys while coming back from his supposed holidays on the beach. There was one stage where he was beaten by Ricco who later on in the Tour revealed his true colors by being caught doping.

gear

One of the details I wish race TV would cover is the various gear choices a rider would request from his mechanic on a particular stage. They sometimes will show a rider's bike but they never get into gearing details. Occasionally during race coverage they will show a drivetrain being lubed from a car and you can see the gear a rider is in, and sometimes they will mention a rider being in a particular chain ring but (on TV) you never hear about the number of teeth on sprockets or rings except in the most general of ways.

dolophonic

The Giro rocks... it gets crazy ..

40 Cent

You're right, you'd never know how central gear choices are to the riders. Most of us non-pros don't change cassettes depending on our ride but talking gears isn't just a bike-nerd thing, any more than talking fastballs and sliders is just for baseball nerds. It's pretty important. But I'm not sure VS wants to or can go into those details. To be fair, I'm sure cycling is a very difficult sport to cover well, as opposed to tennis where the players stay put. But VS is taking the European feed and overlapping in with lots of graphics and whooshes, and bull-riding ads, and throughout the action, I think they have to rely on what the camera shows them. When they do a little technical aside, they whoosh in, talk to the expert for about 20 seconds and whoosh back out. It can start to feel a might dumbed down.

oldfujiman

OK, so does anyone know if VS is going to show any of the Giro? Thier schedule does not show any coverage?

I would also like to see what gears they are in!!!!

merlinextraligh

I'd be willing to bet 3 things:

1) you don't follow bike racing other than the TDF,

2) you did not follow the TDF prior to 1999,

3) you're an American.

Nothing wrong with any of those.

But I'm also willing to bet that the majority of cycling fans that do not fit that matrix (at least the ones that don't hate Armstrong) are interested to see him in the Giro.

Keith99

That probably puts it after Mig in 92 and 93. But Pantani won both in 98.

Pantani also picked up the KOM jersey in the Giro that year. Making him one of the rare 3 major jerseys in one year club members.

kunsei83

Wow, way to quote my one sentence out of the whole paragraph and generalizing me. What you don't get and what lots of other people don't get is that I'm not arguing at all about the excitement and fun of watching the Giro. I'm not saying at all that Giro is a bad race. It is a great race with tough mountain stages, and much much more unexpected attacks and crazy fans. However, bottom line and the fact is that the Tour de France in the modern era brings the best GC riders (except Contador last year b/c he couldn't ride in the Tour) in the top form, best teams, and the most pressure out of all of the races.

I'm a fan of competition. I want to see the best duke it out. I feel like I've repeated myself over and over.

vinofan

The same teams that are in the tour will be in the giro, save the local wildcards.
It is like comparing the Indy 500 to the Daytona 500, not the same but equally exciting and more times than not the Giro has better racing.

kunsei83

First of all, your analogy is just dumb and doesn't make sense. You begin by saying tour and giro basically have same teams competing and comparing that Indy and Dayton which they use completely different cars and drivers.

Second, I don't know how many times I have to repeat about this; I'm not saying anything about Giro is not exciting or is not better racing. Read what I write before replying directly to me.

Third, Tour and Giro having same teams doesn't mean they're using the same roster.

vinofan

Maybe it was the person reading it, I'll explain it for you.
The Indy 500 and Daytona 500 are both great races and it would be hard to say one it better than the other because there are so many differences.
So what I am saying is that the tour and the Giro, although both bicycle races, have a great many differences(culturally, competitor, route, etc...). Many riders would rather peak for the giro than the tour, your idea that the tour is the crowning glory of cycling and that every cyclist should try and win it is just your opinion.
There is a pride in saying you have won the Giro as it carries a different sense of pride with it than the Tour, nobody wants to be a one trick pony.
Who is to say that riding the giro means you won't ride tour? Plenty of riders have done both and done very well riding both in the same year.
Sounds like your making excuses for LA in case he loses.

kunsei83

Yes, there are many riders who've done well in both Giro and the Tour in the same year. It's the miracle of doping.

kunsei83

And again Vinofan, noone is arguing which race is better or more fun to watch. All I'm saying is that in the modern era, Tour brings the BEST GC riders competing at their peak.
Yes, many riders do peak for the Giro; the riders who can't win the Tour. It doesn't go vice-versa. The riders who can win the Tour can win the Giro. Giro course may be tougher, but Tour has more pressure and BEST riders.

Suzie Green

Yeah, I wish they would provide more details occasionally too. Every once in a while, on a particularly hilly stage, like the Marmolada or l'Alpe d'Huez, Paul Sherwen might say something to the effect that the riders are carrying a 25 tooth cog or something. But not very often. I guess they figure if they start diving into specifics about how light a set of climbing wheels might be or what the actual gearing is on a TT bike, they risk losing the less-than-hardcore viewer. I think it's a risk worth taking...we wanna know!

Laggard

It's nice to see him do it. He's been such a one trick pony for so long he should get some credit for trying something different.

As far as gear ratios, Peta at the Giro a few years back was sprinting in a 53x11 at 110 rpm. Amazing.

Laggard

You mean like Indurain? Oops, never mind.

Suzie Green

^^^^^^

benajah

A lot of stars and champions move on to a support role in their later years, in all kinds of sports to include cycling. Very common, and many see it as a responisibility to stick around and use experience to give big brother advice to the new, younger stars and champions.
As far as the Tour de France...commercially it is the biggest race, but many pro tour riders do not see it as the greatest race. The Giro, Paris Roubaix, and others are often seen by Europeans as the most romantic, dramatic or exciting races, and they are still dominated by Europeans. Personally Paris Roubaix is my favorite race to watch, but it never is on TV where I live in the US.

Suzie Green

Agreed! I would love to be on the roadside in the Ardennes, on the rainiest, muddiest, sloppiest day imaginable. Yelling at the riders bouncing off the cobbles, getting splattered with mud, soaked to the bone. When can we go?

iab

Except the best Italian racers race in the Giro and are not peaking for the Tour.


Correct, but when was the last time a pro used a triple in a Grand Tour? If you answered stage 17 in the Giro, you also would be correct.

USAZorro

I actually think that one of the reasons for his comeback (although not a primary one), was to ride in the Giro. Imagine, having won the Tour 7 times, but never having ridden in the Giro. If I were in his position, I surely would want to do it.

Definitely not a mistake IMO. Consider, if he doesn't have it to win the Tour, he has a very honorable excuse for it.

brentvelo

he stated the other day that he is looking for at least a top ten in the giro. it's starting to look more and more like he really is gearing up for the tour. i think in the back of his mind he really wants number eight. could he actually win both races?

Laggard

Nope.