The 2010 Giro d’Italia – 5 Questions

by Whit

The 2010 Giro d’Italia starts tomorrow in Amsterdam, here are 5 questions for the year’s first Grand Tour:1. Will Tyler Farrar continue to progress as a Grand Tour field sprinter?I like that Garmin’s giving Tyler Farrar lots of chances to improve his field sprinting against top competition. After a dense spring, Farrar took less time-off than others, resting just long enough to arrive at the Giro with what Garmin hopes will be enough fitness to contend for multiple stage victories. Farrar developed right before our eyes last year, building upon his near-misses in the Tour to take the HEW Cyclassics...Continue Reading

The 2010 Giro d’Italia – 5 Riders to Watch

by Whit

The favorites for this year’s Giro d’Italia are well-documented—Evans, Basso, Sastre, and the rest have already received more than their fair share of press in the week leading-up to this Saturday’s Partenza in Amsterdam. Thus, a more interesting conversation might be which young riders will shine in this year’s race, perhaps revealing themselves to be future contender for the maglia rosa.Here are 5 riders to watch:1. Jan Bakelants (Age 24) spent the last season-and-a-half riding for Topsport Vlaanderen following wins in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Circuit Ardennes, and most importantly, the 2008 Tour de l’Avenir as an amateur. This past off-season he jumped...Continue Reading

Monday Musette – Pavé Awards (2010 Classics)

by Whit

Several hours in the air this weekend offered me a perfect opportunity to reflect on this year’s classics. Here’s a run-down of this spring’s Pavé Awards, with videos to tell the stories my words could not.  Enjoy! Rider of the Spring:How could we not give the Rider of the Spring award to Fabian Cancellara? Spartacus put on a display seldom seen, beating the best of the best to become only the second rider to win the E3 Prijs, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix in succession. What impressed me the most was the variety of Cancellara’s race-winning moves: a savvy...Continue Reading