Alright people the Giro kicks off in less than 8 hours- 7 am CDT, so let me throw some stuff together really quick so y'all know who to root for. If you're following from Chicago, I believe you can watch delayed footage on Universal Sports, also known as NBC channel 5-3.
Teams we love:
Saxo Bank- Because they have the Schlecks!!! The dynamic brother duo who placed like 2nd and 9th (maybe?) in last year's Tour de France. For pictures, please refer to my earlier cycling post. Right, but neither Schleck is competing in this race, so we'll root for the Sorensen brothers: Shlecks-lite! And check out their team jerseys - so professional looking, so corporate, oooh.
Liquigas- The only guy we've heard of before is Ivan Basso. I believe he either rode in last year's Tour or last year's Vuelta, or both. Not that much to remark on here aside from the announcers always seeming to find something to comment on the Liquigas team....and I have no idea why that ends up kicking them over into the Root-For category, but it does. We're definitely not picky. Go Liquigas-the Meh team we love of 2010!
Milram- COW JERSEYS????
Ok. Last year they also had a surfeit of young, good looking riders, so we're not complaining. Gooooo Milram!
Teams that make us go BOOOOO:
Rabobank- Ah yes, Saxo we meet again. Tell the Rabo to be quiet, we anticipate a riot, this common crowd, is way too loud! Boooo!! Better get the ECB to give you a bailout because you're gonna need it by Stage 7, thatsright, Rabo, how bout them monetary policies? :D
Garmin Transitions- ARGH, this team is just way too smug and smooth for it's own good. It makes us want to go down to the Garmin store on Michigan avenue and kick it!! Well, not really, but we had to watch them pace their way through the Tour all last July with their perfectly uniform, streamlined, efficient cycling, riding around like they owned the course. BAH. They're the Type A, ivy-league MBA grads of the pro-cycling world and now that we've typed that, we want to punch something.
Teams that intrigue us:
Astana- National team of Khazakhstan and formerly Lance's old tour team. They say that new guy Alexandre Vinokourov is all that and a bag of chips this season.
Columbia HTC- What, Cavendish isn't riding in this one? Never mind. Oooh, but that Greipel guy is good. I think last year he was on a different team...not sure about that and really too lazy to check on it, so moving on.
One Man Wolf-Packs:
Cadel Evans, baby! How could you not root for a mug like this?
And now that he's recovered from his mental blow-up that occured in the later stages of last year's Tour?
Yes, Cinderella story, people, Cinderella story. He IS australian after all, like Russell Crowe. We'll see.
Viva la Giro!
Pictured below: your friendly, neighborhood Saxo Bank rider, aww:
*pictures are from posts on www.podiumcafe.com
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