Quick and dirty Cheering Guide to the Giro d'Italia 2010

by Colleen

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????

Need I say more?
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? 

(yikes)
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

Guess who got a little too into following the pro-cycling circuit this summer?

by Colleen

With the end of the third Tour of the summer, La Vuelta, this past Sunday, the cycling season is officially over. Or at least the Grand Tour portion of it is. There was talk of world championships coming up, or something. I’m not quite sure – I didn’t get that into it.

Know Your Grand Contender Cyclists:

Don’t be fooled by their skinny appearance! Cyclists aren’t jockeys. They’re taller. To put it in some perspective, if jockeys are like hobbits…well hold on, hobbits are kind of fat. Okay, if jockeys are like skinny hobbits, then pro-cyclists are close to, but not quite elves. Better than humans though. Right, jockeys are skinny hobbits and cyclists are a human/elf hybrid. Except Lance Armstrong. Lance can be full elf.

eh?

Alberto Contador - 2009 Tour de France Winner

 

Frank and Andy Schleck (the younger one is Andy) Andy came in 2nd in the Tour de France and 1st in the under 25 years category.

Lance riding for Team Astana in this year's Tour de France - the Kazakhstan team (yakshimash)

Cav(endish)

Oh those Brits..

Brice Feillu

Won one of the Tour de France stages, looks vaguely rodent-like.  But in a 'small furry mouse that you want to hug' way. And hey, how about that name? Clearly, Europe is decades ahead of us when it comes to nomenclature.

Alejandro Valverde. Won the Tour of Spain - La Vuelta Espana

Showed up wearing gold (1st place colors) on the first day of the race - classy.

Cadel Evans

Oh, Cadel. He has the dubious distinction of being the only rider to "blow up mentally" (actually said by a commentator) towards the end of the Tour de France, finishing in 30th place and almost getting fired by his cycling team. Admittedly, he also has the dubious distinction of being Australian, hehe.

He finished 3rd in the Vuelta, but may have been able to take 1st. His fall down the podium was due partly to a punctured tire during a critical portion of the race. His team car was supposed to hand him a new bike in under 30 seconds and his teammates were supposed to pace him back into the race. Well, the team car took a minute thirty to show up and his teammates never showed up. wa waaa.

A random rider from Team Milram