The Cycliste Moderne, May 11, 2005

Bettini Follow Up

Leading up to the Giro, Cyclingnews.com reported on Bettini’s reconnaissance of Stage 7 of the Giro. An undulating but not mountainous stage, Bettini told reporters that he viewed it as a stage that he could win. Clearly he was sandbagging as evidenced by Quick.Step’s pink cars at the start of Stage 2. Quick.Step management conceded that it had come prepared to have the team’s cars match its leader’s jersey. Quick.Step came to the Giro knowing that the race’s first stage was the type of stage that Bettini, “Il Grillo” (“the Cricket”), could win and take the pink jersey with time bonuses.

It has been an incredibly difficult spring for the current Olympic road race champion and last year’s World Cup champion. Bettini showed the form that has made him one of the strongest riders in the peleton. If Quick.Step had true GC aspirations, which as a Belgian-Italian classics team it does not, and if Bettini received the type of direction and support as provided by a directeur sportif like Johann Bruyneel or Bjarne Riis, (although it is undiputable that Quick.Step directeur sportif Patrick LeFevre is the best classics manager in the world), then it is conceivable that Bettini could have been much more of a GC threat than he is. That said, Bettini is and should be one of the most feared cyclists in the professional peleton. In any one-day race he has all the skills needed to be a threat every time he lines up at the start.

Giro Stage 2 Recap

It has been a tough start to the Giro for the blue and silver train of Fassa Bortolo. Although Alessandro Petacchi has been in the mix and been competitive, Stage 2 evidenced the fact that a strong train will not necessarily deliver a stage win. During the finish to Stage 2 it was clear that all the sprinters teams were going to contest the sprint to the finish and that they would not just lay down for Petacchi.

Robbie McEwen of Lotto-Davitamon became the second Australian to wear the pink jersey at the Giro with his victory in Stage 2. His sprint victory was overshadowed, however, by Fassa Bortlolo’s claim that McEwen and Jaan Kirsipuu of Credit Agricole had “conspired” to ride Petacchi off the wheel of his set-up man. It is unusual for Petacchi to complain about race conditions and circumstances. It is not unusual, however, for Robbie McEwen to be at the center of controversy during sprints at the Grand Tours. That said, Kirsipuu’s involvement in the alleged “conspiracy” is interesting. Estonian Kirsipuu is one of the faster men in the peleton, although he has not had very many significant results during the last couple of years. He is fast and can certainly hold his own in a field sprint during a grand tour. Kirsippu is not typically known as a rider who gets mixed up with the politics of the peleton. McEwen is just an aggressive rider and clearly with the ProTour raising the level of participation at the Giro, teams have come to contest every sprint during the race.

The claims of Petacchi and Fassa Bortolo of a conspiracy have more to do with frustration than with the actual circumstances of the Stage 2 final. Petacchi won nine stages last year to set the single Giro record. Petacchi came to the Giro with fourteen victories already in 2005. This year’s Giro route, however, does not lend itself to the number of pure field sprint stages as last year’s Giro. Fassa Bortolo came to the Giro for one purpose: for Petacchi to win as many stages as possible. Fassa Bortolo’s failure to win the first two stages after Petacchi’s strong prologue are clearly a source of frustration for a team that came prepared to validate its leader’s new status as the best sprinter in the world (after Cippolini’s recent retirement).


Stage 3 Recap

On a day that was not expected to have a field sprint, Petacchi’s dreams of the pink jersey were dashed when the peleton split on the run-in to the finish due to a climb in the closing 20km of the race. The final was contested by a group of fifty which contained all of the GC leaders.

It was not surprising that Danilo Di Luca of Liquigas-Bianchi managed to win the stage. He out-sprinted Damiano Cunego of Lampre-Caffita and teammate Steffano Garzelli for the win. This stage could have had GC ramifications had the leaders not been paying attention and riding at the front.

Petacchi finished in the group a minute down. He will not be able to gain enough time from time bonuses to spend any time in pink this year. There are stages to come which suit him and the points jersey, the “Ciclomina Jersey,” is still a possibility. However, with the incredibly high expectations that Fassa Bortolo had coming into the Giro for Petacchi to dominate the early sprints and be in pink for an extended period of the first week, the results over the first three stages have to be viewed as an absolute disaster.

Paolo Bettini now finds himself back in pink for a second time. Due to the time splits that have occurred during stage three, his time bonuses from the win, his sprinting and climbing ability, and his lack of GC ambition, Quik.Step’s leader could stay in pink for another week.


More Fashion Commentary

As the current points leader of the ProTour, Di Luca is wearing the white and blue ProTour points lead jersey. It is debatable whether the white jersey is better than the Liquigas-Bianchi team kit. However, although a ProTour leader’s jersey does help the UCI to better “brand” the ProTour, it is not a really big step forward. In reality it is just another jersey to confuse the average cycling fan. The World Champion’s jersey is cool and distinctive with its rainbow stripes. The national champions’ jerseys are cool. The ProTour leader’s jersey is not. Moreover, the UCI in a moment of irrationality required Oscar Freire of Rabobank, the current World Champion, to wear the ProTour leader’s jersey instead of his World Championship Jersey during Milan-San Remo. That was a silly and petty action by the UCI. The rainbow jersey of the World Champion should be the one thing that every cyclist aspires to wear.