Re: 2013 Cycling Thread
Little late to the party here since I usually have to hide from news and watch the weekday stages late in the evening, but agree with most everything that's been said. I think the coverage is quite solid despite the goof in the studio -- and the camera work is indeed superb. It's far better than last year, which I believe was on USN. It was on somewhere here as I know I watched it. Since the feed comes from Italy it appeared whatever network it is really upped its game this year.
And what a great stage yesterday. Obviously entertaining, and all the credit goes to the stage design. I'm glad we're just getting started. This made me think about the TDF stages -- am I the only one who thinks the race is becoming somewhat stale? Compared to the Vuelta and Giro as of late, the stage designs rarely seem to promote the sort of racing we saw yesterday. There are exceptions of course -- perhaps I'm just a bit testy because I think they really dropped the ball on the 100th edition route. It's not horrible, but considering the potential that was there I don't think it's very special at all.
Back to the Giro, I found it interesting that Hesjedal took a bunch of heat for that small attack yesterday. What's the problem with it? He's not trying to open up a ten minute gap there. At the time I figured he was merely testing the other GC guys to see how they would react, plus upping the tempo if you're capable certainly can only hurt the other guys. Vaughters more or less confirmed on twitter that putting Sir Wiggo into red early and often, even if for short bursts like yesterday, is the plan as far as taking an axe to Sky goes. I'm also a bit surprised that Nibali didn't get more aggressive on the descent. Him, Evans, Hesjedal and many others are far more capable than Wiggins on the downhill and time bonuses are going to add up. Drill him as much as possible, imo, since he's going to take a decent chunk of time on the long ITT. Even if you don't open up a real time gap on him...make him suffer and work.
Today's stage should also (did also?) prove rather exciting and that final climb might offer our first look of who the real top contenders are, though of course I won't watch it until later. And now...the cycling news embargo resumes...
