Cycling News and Opinions
Unfair and Unbalanced
Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories
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
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
Croatia: 64
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'."