The Cycliste Moderne, May 25, 2005

It is the third week of the Giro d’Italia and people’s tempers are starting to flare.

Petacchi v. Cippolini

Mario Cippolini criticized the performance of Fassa Bortolo and its team leader Alessandro Petacchi. Needless to say, Petacchi and Fassa Bortolo disagreed with Cippolini’s characterization of the team’s performance. Cippo had the audacity to point out to the media that Petacchi’s recent stage wins in the Giro have come with most of the strongest sprinters having abandoned already. After acknowledging that Petacchi is the fastest man in the peleton, Cippo noted the poor job Fassa Bortolo has done controlling the final kilometers of stages and delivering Petacchi to the finish.

Petacchi had the audacity to actually defend his team in light of the poor performance that it has had during this year’s Giro. Fassa Bortolo cost Petacchi a stage when the “Silver Train” missed a corner and took the entire team out during the run in to the finish. Fassa Bortolo has also failed to keep control of the pack by keeping the tempo high enough to avoid attacks and to keep challengers behind Petacchi.

Cippo has not been overly critical, he is just making the same observations that everyone else has made to this point.

The Peleton v. RCS

The labor accord reached between the Giro’s organizer RCS and the peleton does not seem to have actually been finalized. Reports out during today’s rest day indicate that RCS has not in fact agreed to the riders’ demands and will indeed reduce this year’s prize money. At this point in the race it is unlikely that there will be a strike, but there still could be and that would be unfortunate as this has been one of the most exciting Giro’s in recent memory. Every stage between now and Sunday will likely have an impact on the GC and the other competitions. A strike would unfairly taint the victory for whoever wins this year’s Giro.

Simoni v. Everyone Else

Gilberto Simoni took the rest day opportunity to once again guarantee his own success. Simoni told Gazetta dello Sport today that he not only would win the Giro but that he had to be the favorite at this point. Simoni has won the Giro twice before. Simoni is one of the best climbers in the peleton. Simoni also has a history of making statements and promises that he cannot back up.

En route to a victory in the 2003 Giro, Simoni promised a victory in the Tour de France and that he would be the first real climber Armstrong ever had to face during the Tour de France. Simoni went on to disparage the rest of the Tour de France team leaders indicating that they were just “time trialers” and not climbers. Of course, Simoni made the statements after finishing 18th in the final time trial of the Giro that year.

As you may or may not recall, Simoni then proceeded to go to the Tour de France and have his team lose three minutes to US Postal Service in the Team Time Trial, lost 6 minutes to Armstrong on the first mountain stage, and lost another 10 minutes on the next mountain stage finishing at l’Alpe d’Huez. Saeco team management had to beg him to stay in the race and he did manage to win a stage of the race but finished more than two and a half hours behind Armstrong, all in what turned out to be Armstrong’s most difficult Tour victory.

It is one thing to be confident in one’s abilities. It is quite another to make promises that you not only cannot keep, but that show a complete lack of respect for the abilities of your opponents. Simoni should be able to do well in the remaining mountain stages. However, in light of the fact that he lost more than two minutes to Discovery Channel’s leader Paolo Savoldelli during the first time trial into Firenze, a stage that has an almost identical profile to the upcoming final time trial, his claim that the final time trial suits his skills is laughable.

Moreover, Simoni could not stay with Savoldelli during the finish of Stage 11 on the Zoldo Alto and lost time to him on the finish of Stage 13 in Ortisei. Simoni did gain thirty seconds on Savoldelli during Stage 15 when he worked with Di Luca to ride away from Savoldelli on the final descent. However, Savoldelli showed significant restraint riding within himself that day, having completed the last 100km without any team support. Savoldelli, “Il Falco,” clearly rode a conservative race as he did not take any risks on the descent. More importantly, Simoni had to ride aggressively as he was in danger of losing his position on the podium to Selle Italia’s Jose Rujano had he not raced hard to the finish on the stage after Rujano’s two monster performances in the mountains.

It does not require any real foresight to know that the last two mountain stages and the time trial will decide the Giro. The winner of the Giro will likely be Savoldelli, Di Luca or Simoni. Ultimately, the last one to crack will win the Giro. If Simoni cannot pick up two minutes on each of the remaining mountain stages, he cannot win because Savoldelli should gain two to two and half minutes on Simoni during the final time trial. For the last seven to eight years the Giro has favored climbers who are marginal time trialists. Di Luca and Savoldelli have equaled or exceeded Simoni’s performances in the mountains this year. They have out-performed Simoni in the time trial. There is no reason to believe that those performances will not continue.

However, the remaining mountain stages have difficult climbs at the end of the race as opposed to the series of high mountain passes that were encountered during last weekend’s trip through the Dolomites. Both Liquigas and Discovery will be in better positions to defend their leaders and Simoni will have to attack. I will not be disappointed if Simoni once again fails to back up his claims. He has a really big mouth for a really little guy.