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.


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Katusha disqualify their own rider

Russian team Katusha took the unusal step of furthering a race officials punishment to one of their riders by adding one of their own. Alexey Tsatevich was handed a small fine and a 7min time penalty for drafting during yesterday's time-trial, but feeling the punishment was too lenient, Katusha boss Dmitry Konyshev pulled Tsatevich from the race saying that the way his rider tode the stage "was absolutely unacceptable". Who knows whether this is a wider move by Russian sport to try bolster its image ahead of its bid not to end up banned from this summers Olympics following a numbers of doping scandals and allegations across multiple sports, or just good old fashioned sportsmanship?

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Canucks at the Giro...mostly Hesjedal

As a Canadian, I'm always interested in the fortunes of Canuck riders at this Giro. Naturally Ryder Hesjedal is the big name with big expectations given his overall win back in 2012, but it's been far from a comfortable start for the new Trek-Segafredo rider. He has coughed up time on a couple of stages, missing splits or struggling for his top form, and with more time lost in yesterday's time-trial, Hesejdal now finds himself 3min 29sec off the pink jersey, or for better reference, 2min 36sec behind Vincenzo Nibali. To some that gap could already be seen as disasterous, but we all know how well Hesjedal rides in the later stages of Grand Tours, getting stronger with each passing week, so don't rule him out quite yet. Last year he was even further back and still finished in the top 5 overall.

As for other Canucks: Hugo Houle is 89th @ 39min and Svein Tuft, the perennial Lanterne Rouge contender, is 170th @ 1hr 4min 13sec down (or 16 places out of last!)

One Canadian missing is Mike Woods, the young Cannondale rider in his first year at the World Tour level. He's been a bit of a revelation on the hills and it would have been great to see how he handled his first Grand Tour, with a few stages this past week clearly suited to his talents, but he was unable to start when he picked up an injury at Liège–Bastogne–Liège a few weeks ago.

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Cancellara abandons

It was a tough Giro for Cancellara who in his final season had hoped to show up and take the pink jersey in the opening time-trial and then win again at yesterday's long TT, but the Trek-Segafredo rider took ill the day before the race began in the Netherlands and failed in his first goal. He slowly recovered and entered yesterday with desires to still take the stage win, but could only manage 4th, 28sec behind stage winner Primoz Roglic. With no targets in front of him and the mountains looming, Cancellara bowed out and will now, like Kittel, look to recover ahead of the Tour in July.

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Sagan winning as usual in California

Make it 14 career stage wins at the Tour of California by Peter Sagan who must surely love this race more than any other outside the Tour de France. The Slovak won a bunch gallop, that included the likes of Alexandre Kristoff and Mark Cavendish (neither of whom featured), and with it the race lead -- a race lead he won overall last year and will have ambitions of repeating again this year. More on this race throughout the week as the Giro continues too.

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Rider of the week:

This wasn't easy. Several riders have had good openings weeks at the Giro. Kittel and Greipel both took two stage wins with the former also having a day in pink before Gianluca Brambilla won a stage in style and took the race leaders jersey. There's also been fine performances by Diego Ulissi, Tim Wellens and yesterday, Primoz Roglic, but I had to go with Tom Dumoulin. It may no longer look like his GC ambitions will sustain, but he did what was expected of him: He won the opening time-trial, took pink, retained it on stage 4 and took time on his rivals on stage 6 before his legs finally gave way on the weekend. It was still a solid effort by a very classy rider.