Giro look back

Shark attack...the rise of Dutch cycling...new Luxembourger on the block...predictions review...plus other lists and thoughts

It was a good Giro, though when again, most of them are. The organisation clearly hoped that the race would come down to the Alps in the final few days, and so it proved to be. But they were a little lucky too for going into those Alpine stages the Giro seemed won and done by Steven Kruijswijk only for his crash to throw the whole thing wide open again. With so many key stages packed into the later part of the race it meant for wide open results in the early going but with the acceptance that there may not be any major shake ups. Indeed, it took about half of the race to whittle the GC contention down to a handful of riders and even that was due to the likes of Tom Dumoulin, Ryder Hesjedal and Mikel Landa abandoning the race. Still, the pink jersey changed hands eight different times among eight different riders and with 17 different stage winners over the 21 stages, we can't say we didn't have variety. Throw all that in with the story of Nibali and what was wrong with him before the story of his superb comeback and there was plenty to talk about and discuss across the three weeks.

I'm not going to sit and review the race in depth here. I wrote about it almost every day and those articles will stand up as my review of each stage as it is. I tended to write in the hours after each stage, sometimes a day later, and my memory was fresher then than it is now and so more details were covered. What follows here is a generic overview of the race, some thoughts on Nibali's achievement and the usual reaction to it on the likes of social media, a word on Kruijswijk, a look at how the other jersey's played out, how the Italians done, where each man to wear pink finished up, and a dreaded review of my predictions!\

Controversial sprint to end fantastic Giro won by Nibali

The Giro rolled into Turin today, the final act of the three week show piece. No threats to the pink jersey today, this one was for stage hunters, or sprinters more like...what's left of them. Gone are the Kittels and Greipels and so it was over to the secondary men to step out from their shadow and grab a little glory on the final day. Call it a watered down version of the final day of the Tour de France in Paris if you like. Some might say the Giro as a whole is a watered down version of the Tour, and that might be true in the sense that there was no Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana, Peter Sagan or Mark Cavendish, but it certainly isn't the case with regards to entertainment, good racing and edge of the seat action.

That isn't to say the Tour isn't all of that too, but the Giro certainly offers a race of its own that is just as worthy. It's for no reason beyond that of sponsor obligations, name status and perhaps prize money that some of those names I've just mentioned prefer to focus on the Tour more often than not (Contador and Quintana, the past two winners of the Giro respectively, being a slight exception).

Anyway, I digress. The stage indeed came down to a sprint with Giancomo Nizzolo finally getting his way, or so he thought. About half an hour after crossing the line with his arms aloft and yelling out in relief, the Italian was disqualified for changing his line and his victory handed to German Nikias Arndt.

All that was left was the pomp and ceremony and the presentation of that beautiful trophy to Nibali. An Italian winner...they certainly love that, and given how he went about fighting back in the Alps when it might have been easier for him to say he wasn't feeling right and abandon the race earlier in the week, you have to admire him. Some will maintain that Steven Kruijwijk deserved this Giro victory, but in a three week Grand Tour, the man who wears the race leaders jersey over the line on the final stage, tends to be the deserving winner.  It's not always the strongest who wins, but the one that negotiates the course the fastest. And that was Vincenzo Nibali.

Nibali cracks Chaves, grabs pink and wins the Giro

Vincenzo Nibali has won the Giro d'Italia. 4th place and almost five minutes behind overall on Saturday morning, he goes to bed on Sunday night with the pink jersey hanging in his hotel room closet and a lead over Esteban Chaves of almost a minute. Steven Kruijswijk, the man who looked nailed on to win this race as they rode towards the Alps, comes out of them two days later, off the podium. Shades of fellow countryman Tom Dumoulin's late collapse at the Vuelta last year, also at the hands of an Italian on the Astana team.

Let's get the niceties of the stage result out of the way first: Rein Taaramae took the victory. He got into the early break before shedding his fellow contenders and rode in alone, 52sec ahead of Colombian John Atapuma and 1min 17sec up on American Joe Dombrowski. A day for so nears yet so fars for the Colombians.

And it was the so near yet so far of Esteban Chaves that stood out the most. Stage 20 was the final mountain stage of this Giro and the Colle Della Lombarda its final major climb and for Chaves it proved a day too many; a ridge too far.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Alps...

We should all know by now never to concede the outcome of a Grand Tour when there are mountain passes still to come. Not when there's a Shark in the peloton itching to find his form and take a bite out of this race. He is leaving it late, but Vincenzo Nibali has waited until the highest mountains of this years race to find his form and launch his attack. He went into the Alps with a place on the podium in question; he now has one day to find 44sec and pull off an incredible come back victory.

So what happened? How on earth did Steven Kruijswijk not see it through considering he had a 3min lead on second place Esteban Chaves and 4min 43sec on Nibali? Can the Colombian, Chaves, with the feel of the pink jersey upon his shoulders really pull it off? Today was into the climbs with high altitude, made for a man like Chaves; it is also the long climbs that surely Kruijswijk could defend on and see it out?

But cometh the hour, cometh the shark. It was a day of high drama, massive excitement and brilliant bike racing in every sense of the word. And there's more tomrrow.

Transition to the Alps: Silver lining for IAM...Mugging by Etixx

Two transitional stages as they are better known did little to affect the general classification except to stir them up with every turn of the pedals taking them closer to the Alps and the final two big mountain stages of this Giro that will once and for all confirm whether Steven Kruijswijk can indeed become and Grand Tour winner.

Both stages though were quite exciting in their own right. Stage 17 was a sprinters day and as such the early part of the day held nothing to write about except for the break that went clear and which was eventually swept up, albeit a lot closer to the line than the chasing pack might have hoped. And yet, a sprinter didn't win. Perhaps the difficulty with which the early escape was brought back served to remind us that not many pure sprinters were left and of those that where, they were riding for teams full of men with tired legs. The upshot to that was Filippo Pozzato darting out of the pack in a bid for glory with a kilometre to go only for Roger Kluge to respond by jumping across and then past the veteran Italian to hold off the sprinters by a handful of lengths for the win.

You wait years for someone to try one of them final flying-kilo efforts to upset the sprinters only for two to come along at once.

Kruijswijk gets stronger...Nibali cracks...Valverde marks an anniversary

It was a long weekend here in Canada and as such I spent a lot of time out on my bike than near a computer writing about the Giro. I did however get to watch most of the two stages either side of the rest day, both of which served to change the pattern of the race a lot since I last wrote on Saturday.

Even then we were looking at a three horse race between the leader Steven Kruijswijk, his nearest rival Vincenzo Nibali and the Colombian Esteban Chaves. The likes of Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Andrey Amador, as well as Rafal Majka of Tinkoff were more than three minutes adrift with their hopes fading fast. The big question was whether Kruijswijk could hold his superb form over a couple of difficult days, with Niblai surely set to step up his game, and how the rest might go about trying to wear him down?

Today, with Sunday's mountain time-trial and a leg busting short-mountain stage to shake the riders awake after a day off, completed, Kruijswijk appears a man in complete control, leading Chaves by 3min. Nibali on the other hand has capitulated and now sits a distant 4th at 4min 43sec behind the Dutchman.

So what changed?

A Dutchman back in pink as a Colombian contender takes the stage

Day-by day, climb-by-climb, one-by-one the contenders for this Giro d'Italia have fallen by the wayside as the number with the potential to win dropped from double figures, to half a dozen to five, four and today perhaps just three as the race entered the Dolomites and the general classification was turned upon its head.

It was a 210km epic from Alpago to Corvara, crossing six climbs in total, five of which had an altitude of more than 2,000 metres for a collective 5,000 plus metres of total altitude gain by the riders who spent upward of six hours in the saddle.

And by the time all was said and done we had a Colombian stage winner in Esteban Chaves, another Dutchman in the pink jersey in Steven Kruijswijk, an Italian hanging on for grim death in Vincenzo Nibali, and the likes of Alejandro Valverde, Andrey Amador, Rafal Majka, Ilnur Zakarin and Rigoberto Uran all in real trouble.

Jungles loses pink to Amador...Sky salvage some pride

The big story today was at the top of the general classification as Bob Jungels was finally exposed on one of the final climbs and despite his best efforts to time-trial his way back across to his rival Andrey Amador, it proved to be in vain as the Movistar rider became the first man from Costa Rica to pull on a race leaders jersey at a Grand Tour. They'll be dancing on the streets of San Jose tonight.

That last climb had also caught Amador out, but not as much and he had descended like a demon to get back on and complete his dream. His large group of 14 was led home by Vincenzo Nibali in third place on the stage, who took enough bonus seconds to leapfrog Alejandro Valverde into third place overall by two seconds. Up ahead of them on the stage was Giovanni Visconti and 43sec further ahead of him was team Sky's Mikel Nieve who had salvaged a little pride for Team Sky who seen their GC ambitions vanish when their other Mikel -- Landa -- abounded earlier in the week.

It had been a rough Giro for Team Sky before today. With all their eggs in the Landa basket for the overall title, it left Sebastian Henao as their best placed man overall some thirteen and a half minutes adrift when that basket dropped and the eggs cracked.

So Greipel hasn't abandoned after all...well, he has now

As of this morning, for reasons I don't quite know, I was under the assumption that Andre Greipel had already abandoned the Giro. Which was surprising to me given the profile of today's stage with not a single rise on the road. If ever there was a day designed for the fast men, then this was it. As a result of my assumption I was trying to think on who might win the days gallop now that Marcel Kittel and Greipel had gone home.

But he hadn't, and no wonder. Imagine though my surprise when I did tune in with just two kilometres to go, with that Italian commentary again, and all I could hear was the name Greipel and all I could see was the Lotto-Soudal team moving up towards the front. The big man was still very much a part of this race and he was going for his third stage win of the race. There was never going to be any doubt.

Caleb Ewan made more of a fist of it than anyone else managed in Greipel's previous two wins, but even he came up a few lengths short, though partly because he had to check his sprint when he decided to come over Greipel's right shoulder and realised there was no room between the German and the barriers. Would Ewan have won had he gone the other way? We'll never know, but now that Greipel is indeed bowing out of the race ahead of the terrain that will never suit him, to rest and recover for other targets over the summer, perhaps Ewan will get his chance on one of the few remaining flat stages.

There was no change in the overall.

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Over in at the Tour of California, yesterday, Peter Sagan won yet again. No longer in contention to win the overall classification, Sagan is sweeping up all other stages beyond that of the queen stage that he lost big time on a few days ago. Stage 5 is underway as I write this, so we'll see what it brings.

Ulissi wins again but Jungels remins king of the Giro

So much for that being a sprinters day on what looked on the profile like a pan-flat stage with a couple of little bumps near the end. Turns out those hilly were harder than they looked and enough to shake virtually everyone not in GC contention from the final shootout for the stage win.

Vincenzo Nibali turned up the pressure on the descent of one of those hills and split it up nicely. For a moment it looked like himself, Alejandro Valverde and Esteban Chaves might take time on everyone else with 15km to go, but the leading duo on GC -- Bob Jungels and Andrey Amador -- soon bridged across...and then attacked. It was an attempt by Amador to take the jersey from Jungels, but the young Etixx - Quick Step rider had more in his legs than they thought and it was soon about the two putting time into the rest with Jungels looking the strongest of the two. With 4.5km remaining Diego Ulissi, he of one stage win to his name in his Giro being quickly dominated by Italian stage winners, sprinted across the small but holding gap to join the attack and set up the potential three man sprint and with the Italian then present it should have been obvious who would win the stage.

The gap held and Ulissi took the win, sprinting around Jungels who was more focused on keeping the chasing group at bay with a huge effort in the final kilometre that resulted in him finishing third of the three. The result gave the Luxembourgian four bonus seconds, though his lead of the Giro was reduced by 2sec with Amador finishing in front of him and gaining 6sec overall. Still the limited bunch that contained the other GC contenders trailed in behind Giacomo Nizzolo at 13sec thus improving Jungels advantage over the likes of Nibali and Valverde by 17sec.

Youth springs forth with stage win and race leadership change on stage 10

It was a good day for youth on day that seen another Italian winner, a change in the race lead, a conflict between team-mates, Tom Dumoulin losing time, and the abandonment of Mikel Landa after falling ill over night. The stage winner was 21 year old Giulio Ciccone, who became the third different Italian stage winner at this Giro and the race leader is now 23 year old Bob Jungles, who became the first rider from Luxembourg to pull on the pink jersey since the great Charly Gaul in 1959.

It's been a mighty impressive Giro for the Italians. On top of having Gianluca Brambilla in pink for a few days, they now have three stage wins from three different riders, and none of them have been sucked up via bunch sprints either. Indeed, if you remove the sprint stages and the two individual time-trials from the equation, Italians have now won three of the four remaining stages thus far.

And it was fitting that it should be this way for I had to stream the final 15-20km in Italian. I had no idea what they were saying other than the mention of riders names, but there was little doubt that they were enjoying what they were seeing. No let up in the shouting and yelling that gave the impression that I was watching the most dramatic race of all time.

Notes from rest day 2, Giro 2016 edition

A pretty decent first week of racing with a little bit of everything and a general classification that is still completely wide open heading towards the mountains. You cannot really ask for much more than that and so I suppose, with a kind heart, those fine athletes deserve a day of rest! Still, there's plenty to muse about both at the Giro and beyond.

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Kittel abandons

Let's start with the German sprinter who lit up the first two road stages in the Neterlands with mighty victories in which nobody else came close. On stage four he arrived in Italy for the first time in his Giro racing career but only lasted a further five stages before failing to take the start at yesterday's time-trial. As a result Kittel leaves the Giro with his record intact of having won four career Giro stages without ever having won the race on Italian soil.

Maybe it was the weather he didn't fancy yesterday or maybe he's satisfied with his two early victories and will now rest up and turn his ambitions to stage wins at Le Tour in July. Still, with Andre Greipel in the assendency it would have been nice to see them go head-to-head a few more times, and perhaps even fight out the red points jersey all the way to a conclusion. Stages 11 and 12 coming up this week look ideal for the sprinter so it's a surprise he didn't hang around a few more days.

Dumoulin fails to gain as contenders remain close

If you'd have told me on Saturday morning that come Sunday night after the conclusion of the long individual time-trial that Tom Dumoulin would be sitting almost one minute off the overall lead and behind the likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde, I'd have thought you were nuts. Saturday didn't look exceptionally tough on paper and Sunday's TT was tailor made for the big Dutchman.

As it is in reality, Dumoulin has had a weekend to forgot. An implosion on Saturday clearly left his legs too tired to recover on time for Sunday and while he still bettered the time of his main rivals, he did only finish 15th and is left with his GC ambitions hanging by a thread with all the major climbing stages still to come.

Indeed it would appear that Dumoulin may now decide to lose time in a bid to later win a stage, especially now that the time-trial stage he had hoped to win for himself has come and gone. Perhaps he was right after all when he told us that he wasn't in this GC race for the long haul but to try retain the jersey for as long as he could before accepting his fate, and that he hadn't trained at altitude unlike the others. Maybe he wasn't bluffing. Of course, he remains with a minute of the overall lead and closer still to the men expected to compete for the overall glory, but the mountains are their terrain and Dumoulin looked shaky on that climb on Saturday.

The weather was awful too for the TT, but not that it could be used as any excuse. Sure the surprise winning time of Primoz Roglic was set on dry roads, but others who faced the same conditions put time into Dumoulin while the climbing sort he must have hoped to bury today, did not lose anywhere near what we thought they might.

Dumoulin cracks as Italians sweep the podium and take pink

So maybe Tom Dumoulin was right after all. Maybe he doesn't have designs for the overall classification of this Giro d'Italia and maybe he didn't train at altitude like the rest; not that today's stage was at altitude or even near the high mountains but, you know, climbing legs and all that. And maybe his goal was a few days in pink up through the first long time-trial before resigning himself. That goal took a big hit today though it still remains a possibility should he show his true colours against the clock tomorrow, but it would appear the reality is that when the going gets steep, Dumoulin isn't ready to challenge the climbers.

That said, you'd also be a fool to write Dumoulin off as anyone who watched him in last years Vuelta will attest. He could very well be back in pink tomorrow with some time to play with and he could yet begin to find some climbing legs. Just todays ago, it is worth remembering, he put the likes of Nibali and Landa on the back foot. But, today was a tough one.

He surrendered his pink race leaders jersey to the impressive Gianluca Brambilla who on the roads of Tuscany threw back reminders to this years Strade Bianche and his talents on this kind of terrain when he came third. This time he took the win when he escaped from a large group that had gone clear earlier in the day. The group was full of names suited to this kind of stage: rolling roads with quite a large dusty, gravel climb near the finish before a drop down into Arezzo.

Greipel makes it three straight for Lotto-Soudal

Two days ago Andre Greipel made up for lost ground on sprint rival Marcel Kittel by winning his sprint by as many lengths as the impressive Kittel had in his two combined. Which was no mean feat given how dominant Kittel had been. Today, on the 211km stage seven from Sulmona to Foligno, Greipel won again and in doing so matched Kittel for race wins at this Giro and moved into the red jersey as points leader ahead of his fellow countryman, 119 to 106.

Greipel's two sprint victories came without Kittel present however (the first had Kittel missing after being dropped on prior climbs, the second seen Kittel puncture with 5km to go), but his wins sandwiched the win of his team-mate Tim Wellens on stage 6 and thus made it three wins in-a-row for the likeable Lotto-Soudal team.

They may not lead the overall team competition (they're only 16th, 14min 58sec behind Astana), but they now have Greipel in the points and Wellens in the King of the Mountains jerseys. Clearly the target for Lotto is stage wins in this Giro, and they're getting it done. You get the impression there is more wins in Greipel and certainly Wellens and that still leaves names like Adam Hansen, Lars Bak, Jurgen Roelandts and Jelle Vanendert who can all win a Grand Tour stage.

No major changes overall though Ryder Hesjedal lost a handful of seconds yet again when he was caught in a late split that cost him 9sec. It also caught out Orica GreenEdge's GC hopeful, Esteban Chaves as well as Michele Scarponi.

Some answers, but more questions as Wellens wins, Dumoulin gains and Nibali struggles

I said yesterday that the first summit finish of any Grand Tour is exciting because it starts to give you some answers on how the race going forward might unfold, what I failed to mention was that often a whole set of new questions arise in the place of those answers. Today's stage was no different.

We got answers like: Tom Dumoulin has his climbing legs, Vincenzo Nibali has yet to peak and that this first Grand tour stage win by Tim Wellens will not be his only Grand Tour stage win for a young rider who appears to have a real gift for picking off race wins following his victory at the GP Cycliste de Montreal last year and stage of Paris-Nice this spring.

But while Wellens' victory was perfectly played and a fine performance, all eyes were on the men several minutes further down the road, racing hard, not in a bid to catch him, but to try hurt one another. And the winner proved to be Dumoulin, but the questions that arose:


Can Nibali come good? Is Landa in trouble? Will Nibali's team-mate Jakob Fuglsang, who finished second to Wellens and who is now second overall, willing to assume the team lead and race the Italian? Is Ilnur Zakarin, third on the stage and now third overall, a GC contender to win this race? Is Dumoulin bluffing by continuing to claim he isn't in the GC hunt for the long haul? And, is the race leading Dutchman likely to put another couple of minutes into his rivals come Sunday's time-trial?

And that in many ways is the joy of Grand Tours. The answers you get on one stage coinciding with the questions that are also thrown up. And the better the Grand Tour the more questions you find yourself asking for longer in to the race.

Here comes the first big test...

I do love the first mountain top finish of any Grand Tour. You really get the sense that you're moving from the unknown towards some answers as to how the race is going to unfold; to what form certain contenders have, and who is no longer in contention. Until now everyone who has desires to win this Giro have played their cards close to their chest, though when the roads point up, especially with a finishing line at the top, there's nowhere to hide and a riders form is duely exposed.

As things stand less than one minute separates the top 23 in general classification, but you can bet it won't be like that tonight. All the main GC contenders are within that 23, except perhaps for Ryder Hesjedal who sits 27th at 1min 17sec, and as a result there is so much to play for.

With so many hard stages to come there is the possibility that many will look to keep their powder dry. Follow the moves but not expose themselves too much. But one or two will feel good enough to test the waters and it only takes one or two to break a finish like this one wide open.

Greipel does a Kittel, and then some...

When Marcel Kittel won stages two and three of this years Giro he did so by what appeared to be a combined length of about eight lengths. His chief rival and fellow countryman, Andre Greipel was well beaten, finishing 15th and 4th respectively. Until today that was, when the next sprint stage presented itself, though not before enough short little climbs eliminated Kittel from contention, and Greipel, duly delivered with a sprint victory that ought to have come with a time gap as he put a fair ten lengths between himself and Arnaud Demare in second.

If there were a sprint competition for wins by lengths then I'd reckon Greipel on this sprint alone had taken the lead back from Kittel.

It was a statement of intent by the Lotto-Soudal rider who must have been feeling a little pressure to show his own turn of speed, and a reminder of his abilities to navigate the smaller hills that catch some of the other pure sprinters out. It now means he has won at least one stage from every Grand Tour he has entered dating back to the 2008 Giro. A fantastic level of consistency.

While I'm OK with bunch sprints being limited to a handful of stages in Grand Tours, I do hope we get at least another opportunity for one and with it a proper elbow-to-elbow battle between the two big Germans. Kittel appears to have the edge when he is there, but Greipel will have felt a surge of confidence with that performance today.

Ulissi makes it three in-a-row while Dumoulin moves back into pink

Back on Italian soil after three stages and already an Italian winner in Diego Ulissi, though it was not all doom and gloom for the Dutch, who waved goodbye to the Giro on Sunday, as Tom Dumoulin retrieved his pink jersey again from Marcel Kittel who had used time-bonuses and two stage wins to leap frog his former team-mate on the weekend.

The stage was 200km in length and reminded me a little bit of a mini Milan-San Remo what with those tough little hills on the run-in before a fast descent into the finishing town of Praia a Mare on the coast, and it didn't disappoint.

As usual the early break went clear and, as usual, they were swept up when the days racing reached the business end of the stage, but it only resulted in more attacks going with riders conscious of the kind of run in and aware that the sprinters teams would not be the ones in pursuit. Indeed, Marcel Kittel in the pink jersey was having a rough go of it. Dropped at one stage he got back on but would eventually lose contact on the final climbs and roll into Praia a Mare 8min 10sec down, and well out of pink. Still, he got to enjoy it for one day on the roads of Italy, the first time he has rode the Giro in its home country despite four career stage wins to his name.

525km of bike routes for Toronto is a huge step forward

As someone who has cycled on the streets of Toronto before, though granted not in the downtown core, it was great to see this article in the Toronto Star this morning:

A 10-year plan to invest in the build of '525km of new bike lanes, cycle tracks, trails and other routes that, if built, would create the kind of connected network Toronto's bike advocates have long pushed for', including infrastructure on eight of Toronto's busiest streets.

I for one would welcome that, as should anyone with a forward thinking attitude towards the city, and not just those who ride their bikes at present.

Of course, some people will object and while the one Councillor quoted in the article, Stephen Holyday, is far a dissenting voice, his quote did express what I think is a view among many:

“I hold a very high test for any time there’s an attempt to take out a live lane of traffic. We live in a very congested city as it is,” said Holyday, who sits on the public works committee.

“Often you are inconveniencing the majority for the desires of the minority, if the ridership is low.”

The thing I'd say to that is that the city is very congested in its downtown core because too many people are driving and that ridership is low because too many people don't feel safe in riding. If you build these cycle networks you may encourage more people to leave their car and home and ride on Toronto's streets.

It can only be a good thing.

Kittel is prolific in Giro stages held outside Italy; moves into pink ahead of Dumoulin

The only difference between this years opening weekend of the Giro in the Netherlands and the opening weekend in Belfast two years ago is that they began with a team-time-trial rather than an individual TT, and that the weather was better for the Dutch. Other than that it was the Marcel Kittel show once again as the Etixx Quick Step rider took both flat stages ahead of the Giro's return to Italy and in doing so has now won four career Giro stages without ever having raced on Italian soil given he abandoned after his second win into Dublin in 2014. I assume he has every intention of taking the plane to Italy this time around?

Other than that the race has been largely uneventful. The crowds were big but the drama short and none of the big favourites were seriously tested beyond that of the 9.8km time-trial. Tom Dumoulin won that on home soil by a fraction of a second and thus with it he took the first pink jersey, though he lost it yesterday when Kittel took his second stage win and enough collective bonus time to make good on a solid time-trial of his own to jump into pink.

Fabian Cancellara had hoped to spoil the Dutch party but had taken ill on the Thursday and had to settle for an 8th place finish 14sec behind Dumoulin. He still was clearly struggling a day later when he came in 1min 51sec down on Kittel and again on Sunday when he finished 6min 3sec back. Cancellara will hope to battle through and recover in time for the 40.5km time-trial on stage 9 from which he'll be on of the favourites for the stage win. Snatching pink for a few days is now a lost ambition.

The biggest loser of the main contenders was probably Mikel Landa of Sky who conceded 40sec to Dumoulin, or perhaps more crucially, 21sec to Vincenzo Nibali who was likely best of the rest as far as the favourites are concerned.

Last gasp Giro d'Italia preview

I guess I've taken my eye of the cycling ball over the last week because while I knew the Giro was getting underway this weekend, I thought it started tomorrow, so imagine my surprise to be sitting on the bus this morning, reading the sports new on my phone and seeing something about a live blog for the opening time-trial of the 2016 Giro d'Italia. Yes, it's already underway, though just a glorified prologue at 9.8km in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

Which means I can pin together some quick 'pre' Giro musings without feeling like I've got some inside knowledge off the back of a result. Shy of someone crashing out of completely falling apart over the 9.8km course, there will be no implications to the overall classification and the sprinters will be keeping their powder dry for another day. Indeed the only real question that may be answered by the time I publish this is whether Fabian Cancellara has pulled on his first pink jersey as race leader by winning the TT? Answers at the bottom...

So quick look at the route: Three days in the Netherlands, one for Cancellara, two for the sprinters, before a glorified rest day/travel day (much like the Giro when it came to Northern Ireland a few years ago) as the race relocates to the south of Italy and begins in earnest with a couple of lumpy stages that might still suit the sprinters but will allow for a breakaway to perhaps survive before the first summit finish on stage 6. Then we'll be down to the nitty-gritty and have an early idea of who isn't in contention for general classification contention.

A rough week for British Cycling

What a week for British Cycling? From an alleged sexism and bullying scandal against their Olympic program boss Shane Sutton that has seen the hard nosed Australian resign his post, to a positive drug test for Orica GreenEdge's young British star Simon Yates that has thrown his reputation into doubt despite claims by the team of an administration error, to the Tour of Romandie were Ben Swift was taken to hospital following a crash and Chris Froome struggled in the GC following a mechanical incident on stage one that left him behind.

It certainly kept the British sports writers busy and perhaps gave British cycling more dirty linen on the sports pages than they might have hoped for, especially in a week that seen two million spectators line the roads to watch the Tour de Yorkshire pass by; a race won in the end by a Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler, but which seen Simon's brother Adam Yates finish third overall, while at Romandie, Froome bounced back with a stage win.

The Sutton scandal, or as every scandal likes to be known in today's world: Sutton-gate, or British-Cycling-Sexism-Gate, got underway in earnest on April 23 when British track rider Jess Varnish made the allegations of sexism against Sutton, claiming that upon being dropped from the Olympic program she was told by Sutton that she was too old, too fat and that she should go "have a baby". The pressure only mounted three days later when British cycling legend's Victoria Pendleton and Nicole Cooke both made claims of sexism within the British Cycling structure and although Sutton denied any wrong doing he was suspended by British Cycling a day later when they launched an independent review into the claims and soon resigned his post.