Levi Leipheimer is one of the favorites in today’s Solvang time trial stage of the Tour of California. Will his custom painted Giro Selector be enough to make up the time difference his team mate Chris Horner holds, who we suspect will also be sporting a Selector, albeit a more subdued one?
The folks over at Laekhouse have been nice enough to sponsor our coverage of this month’s Giro d’Italia. We’re big fans of their work, and figured there’s nothing like a contest to give a lucky (or perhaps race-savvy) reader an opportunity to win one of their T-Shirts
The challenge: pick the winner of the climb over the Cima Coppi. This year it takes place on Sunday (5/22) during stage 15, over the Passo Giau. Topping out at 2,236m, it’s reached by climbing what the organizers call 16k, but is really closer to 40k following the descent of Forcella Cibiana, at an average of around 6%, with portions as steep as 16%. It’s long, it’s steep and it’s nasty – and it’s the highest point reached during the Giro. If you’re the only one to correctly pick the first person reach the top, you’ll win your choice of a Laekhouse T-Shirt from the Icons or Classics series!
It’s not an easy challenge! The race-within-a-race is always tough to predict. Much like in the race itself, making bold moves rewards the risk taker. Make an educated guess, or throw a name out on a lark – you never can tell.
Entries must be submitted before the start of the stage on Sunday. You can place your pick in a comment, or email us at contest@pavepavepave.com. Only 1 entry per person please! Make sure to use a real email address so we can contact you if you win. In the event of multiple people picking the first rider to cross the Cima Coppi, the winner will be randomly selected from the correct entries. If no one gets it right, we’ll go down the list to determine who got it closest. Good luck!
Fotoreporter Sirotti
Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, May 19, 2011
Fotoreporter Sirotti
Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, May 18, 2011
Pavé would like to thank Laekhouse for supporting our coverage of the 2011 Giro d’Italia.
Fotoreporter Sirotti
Mark Cavendish finds himself enmeshed in scandal more often than other racers, it seems. He felt unfairly penalized when his teammate, Mark Renshaw, was ejected from the Tour de France last year for headbutting Garmin’s leadout man, Julian Dean. He felt unfairly demonized when the peloton reacted against him for crashing into Henrich Haussler during a spring in last year’s Tour de Suisse (the injury took a just-returned Haussler out for the rest of the season). On Stage 2 of this year’s Giro, Cav reacted against Alessandro Petacchi’s sprinting, claiming that he himself would have been relegated had he sprinted like Ale-Jet did, and calling for the rules to be enforced fairly.
The latest scandal involves rumor that he hitched a ride on his team car up Mt Etna, keeping his legs fresh while sprint rival Alessandro Petacchi was pounding away at the front of the peloton. If it’s true, it paid off – he blew Petacchi out of the water the following stage. It should be noted that getting modest assistance is part of bike racing – returning riders to the bunch after a flat, a mechanical, or a crash is quite common and doesn’t render assistance that makes a difference in a race. The “sticky bottle” is a common form of food and velocity support even to riders in breakaways, though commisars doubtless keep a closer eye on them. Getting towed up a mountain and finishing within the time cut-off, when other sprinters were unable to do so and were thus removed from the Giro, however, is a much more significant breah of the rule and the spirit.
Reports of Cav’s free ride up Mt Etna are just rumors – thus far there appears to be no photo or video proof of it. Are rivals sullying his image?
And so, discuss: is Cavendish regularly discussed in unflattering terms because of occasions where his mouth is quicker on the draw than his brain? Or is he unfairly penalized because of his sprint dominance?
Editor’s Note: Peter Horn is an American racing with the Geox-Fuji Test Team, the amateur development team of Geox-TMC. As Geox-Fuji Test Team’s captain, he’s looking to lead the team to victories in Belgium and around Europe, and help break the team’s riders into the Professional ranks. To go along with his latest Letters From Abroad post, he was nice enough to pass along some pictures, taken by Emmanuel Ernst. Enjoy!