Not Fugly
Thoughts on La Vuelta 2021
We'll be going up to Piedmont Cycling Resort next month to discuss our plans for 2022. Before that we're excited about Il Giro di Sicilia though we don't know anything about the route yet. While up north we also plan to see some of the end-of-season races like Milano-Torino (Zio Lorenzo really wants to watch from the Superga climb) Gran Piemonte and perhaps even Il Lombardia.
Otherwise, not much to report from here in Sicily where the summer heat is (finally) going away and we're enjoying ride, eat, repeat as usual since we moved here for good back in 2018.
We hope you are safe and healthy in this pandemic and looking forward to next summer when things (we hope) might be more back to normal?
Meanwhile, "Chaiman Bill" of BikeRaceInfo has posted Zio Lorenzo's thoughts on La Vuelta 2021. Go HERE to read 'em.
Thoughts on LeTour 2021
Our friends at BikeRaceInfo published Zio Lorenzo's essay. You can read it HERE.
Since comments can't be made on that site, feel free to add yours here.
Vive LeTour!
Stay out of the road - PLEASE!
Did you see this?
C'mon! We can all tell you care nothing about the bike race - your goal was to get your mug on TV, but did you have to ruin the bike race in the process?
Fortunately this ditz has been identified and arrested. Zio doesn't understand why some crowd "justice" wasn't administered right away, before she fled the scene?
Zio blames most of this on that stinky guy who dresses up as a devil and cavorts around the races. Granted, HE doesn't often get in the way, but he's inspired legions of other dolts who for some reason just have to put on a costume or hold a sign to get their few seconds of TV "fame" whether it's in a Borat-suit or a football helmet with steer horns attached.
The least you self-obsessed clowns can do is stay out of the road!!!
FUGLY!
Vive LeTour!!!
Will ASO come after us for using the world "LeTour" and posting a photo from the race that we took?
In a couple of weeks Le Beeg Shew will get underway again. We last saw it live in 2019 when this photo was taken. How will this year's race play out?
One thing could be extra-interesting - how the team that has dominated this race for so many years will race and can they win?
The team boss claimed their racing strategy had changed after the Giro d'Italia in 2020. You can read what he said HERE, but as Zio Lorenzo says, you can tell when he's, well...not telling the truth....it's when his lips are moving.
Why does Zio say that? The current issue of Italy's Bicisport magazine has quotes from Giro d'Italia 2021 winner Egan Bernal. He claims HE told the team boss he was no longer interested in racing in the team's famous style - all that "by the numbers" stuff vs attacking on instinct.
But the boss claims it was all the team sponsor's idea in the article we provided the link to. Who would YOU believe?
We'll see soon enough, as the team's designated leader is one of those Zio Lorenzo calls "the royals" the same guy who eked out his sole win at Le Grand Boucle back in 2018 over 2nd and 3rd place riders who'd both ridden a grueling Giro d'Italia. Otherwise his palmares are right up there with...uh...Richie Porte.
Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz is supposed to be the backup rider just-in-case. But then there's another "royal" - the guy who won the Giro in 2020 despite never wearing the maglia rosa until the finish in Milano. At the Giro with Bernal, the rest of the team seemed like the "butlers and kitchen help" but at the Tour they'll have a lot of "the royals" so which strategy will prevail?
Zio's guess is "Mr G" will crash out or have a bad day (he's 35 now while the oldest winner was 36 back in 1922) after the team rides pretty much as they did in the recent lead-up races to LeTour rather than how they raced the Giro. Once his chances are gone, will another "royal" take over or will the "butlers and kitchen help" take the reins?
Either way, you know who will take the credit...or the blame and that it won't be the same person(s).
Vive LeTour!
Some Thoughts on La Corsa Rosa 2021
First, let's review my pre-race predictions: "I think Bernal’s back will act up**, Yates will croak in the third week**, Nibali will end up chasing a stage win*, Vlasov will get sick***, Martin will be duking it out with Mollema for 5th on GC at the end**, Evenepoel will ride around learning how a Grand Tour plays out*, Hugh Carthy will flap around like an air-powered attention-grabber at a used car dealer*, Landa will look great until he croaks or loses the plot before it’s all over* …so it’ll be a race among Hindley*** Bennett*** and Almeida*….and maybe Ciccone** or Formolo***?"
*dead-on ** half-right *** way-off
While the team we love to hate ended up winning, just like in 2018 and 2020, this win (just like the others) didn't seem to be the result of SKY/INEOS steamrolling/suffocating the race as they do way too often at the race where the leader wears a yellow shirt. While they used their team extremely well in almost every case, this group, dubbed by yours truly "the butlers and kitchen help" instead of the "royals" they usually deploy at Le Grand Boucle never had me rooting against them as I always do at LeTour.
Why? Who can't like Bernal, the Colombian brought up in Italian cycling and then bought fully finished by the team with the biggest budget in cycling? He's not a "royal" despite winning Le Grand Boucle in 2019 and was coming back from back issues that stopped him in 2020's event.
And it's hard for us not to like Ganna, Puccio and Moscon, not to mention the guys who ran the team - Tosatto and Cioni, so while we dislike the backer of the team, he's not as awful as some others we could mention.
Another one of those teams with backers we don't care for thrust our almost neighbor from Ragusa into a leadership role after their designated GC guy crashed out and Damiano Caruso did us proud!
Seven stage wins for Italians overall, including "Lucky Larry" Lorenzo Fortunato atop Monte Zoncolan created a very satisfying and entertaining race this year - truly:
The World's Toughest Race in The World's Most Beautiful Place
W Il Giro!
