UCI failings, Contador's resilience, Greipel's struggles, plus more
Monday 25 May 2015 13:43, UK
The second week of the Giro d’Italia produced crashes, controversies and significant shifts in the general classification.
Here are five things we learnt…
Sadly, the main talking point of the second week was Richie Porte’s two-minute penalty for an illegal wheel change on stage 10, which effectively ended the Australian’s hopes of overall victory and simultaneously deprived the race of one of its chief protagonists.
The decision provoked widespread criticism of the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) rules, with fans and commentators alike regarding it as punishment for sportsmanship.
The rule Porte fell foul of, which forbids riders from different teams assisting each other, has its merits, but the two-minute penalty is without doubt excessive and should be reconsidered by the UCI.
Alberto Contador’s outstanding attribute may be his climbing ability but he proved once again in the second week of the Giro that his resilience and race craft also have few peers in the sport.
Having already recovered from a dislocated shoulder following a crash on stage six, Contador fell for a second time in the race towards the end of stage 13 and not only did he once again bounce back up, he also did a brilliant job of minimising his time losses.
Porte was also involved in the crash and while he spent vital seconds looking for his bike, Contador didn’t even bother searching for his and instead jumped straight on team-mate Matteo Tossato’s.
The result was Porte lost 2min 8sec but Contador lost just 40 seconds – ample evidence of the value of his toughness and speed of thought.
Andre Greipel may well have won stage six in the opening week, but that victory doesn’t disguise the fact that he was well-beaten in three other sprints in a Giro not featuring Marcel Kittel or Mark Cavendish.
Having already lost out to Elia Viviani and Moreno Hofland on stage two, Greipel finished behind Giacomo Nizzolo and Sacha Modolo in a sprint for fifth place on stage 10 and then finished only 13th on stage 13.
All of the aforementioned riders are up-and-coming sprinters with their best days ahead of them, but Greipel is 33 years old in July and his defeats in the second week of the race in particular suggest his powers may be fading.
Astana have been the outstanding team of the Giro so far, but the excellent efforts of their domestiques has not yet been reciprocated by their leader, Fabio Aru.
Despite Tinkoff-Saxo holding the pink jersey, Astana have done the bulk of the pace-setting on the front of the peloton and you could only look on with awe at the way Andrey Zeits, Tanel Kangert, Paolo Tiralongo and Mikel Landa decimated the pack on the mountainous 15th stage ending at Madonna di Campiglio.
However, once again Aru was unable to capitalise on the armchair ride he was given and it seems highly unlikely that he will be able to take any time out of race leader Alberto Contador in the remaining mountain stages, let alone regain the overall lead.
Aru will probably get the plaudits at the end of the race if he consolidates second place, but the biggest credit should go to his team-mates.
Only one of cycling’s “Big Four” has been present at this year’s Giro and the absence of the other three has become all too noticeable.
Contador has been as competitive as ever, but with Porte and Rigoberto Uran’s challenges both falling apart and Aru lacking the punch to trouble the Spaniard as yet, the race has desperately missed one or more of Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali.
The quartet are set to go head to head at July’s Tour de France, so we can only hope that race will compensate for the Giro’s shortfalls.