Il Falco

blazing_saddles

ddraver wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

andyp wrote:

I spent the afternoon shouting at the TV. Cheating Belgian bastards.

Me too. Disco had 12 doms that day.
Great, great stage though and overall, a fantastic Giro.

Can you give me some background....

The Belgian reference or great Giro?

Disco hired the Lotto boys, half way up the Finestre.
Wim Van Huffel and Mauricio Ardila sat in front of Il Falco and towed him for km after km.
Still, Simoni had taken virtual pink by the top, then held until Paolo did his descending bit
and Gibo became the second of his 3 man group to get cramp, climbing to Sestrieres.

shazzz

I haven't watched that stage for years. Seeing Honchar and Rodriguez in the same group is a bit odd. I think of them in completely different eras.
Amazing to watch Simoni again, gliding uphill on his six13

joelsim

RichN95 wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

What sort of drug makes you ride downhill really fast?

Cocaine

Speed obviously.

rick_chasey

Blazing Saddles wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

andyp wrote:

I spent the afternoon shouting at the TV. Cheating Belgian bastards.

Me too. Disco had 12 doms that day.
Great, great stage though and overall, a fantastic Giro.

Can you give me some background....

The Belgian reference or great Giro?

Disco hired the Lotto boys, half way up the Finestre.
Wim Van Huffel and Mauricio Ardila sat in front of Il Falco and towed him for km after km.
Still, Simoni had taken virtual pink by the top, then held until Paolo did his descending bit
and Gibo became the second of his 3 man group to get cramp, climbing to Sestrieres.

Pretty much.

The Lotto boys got an earful from the Belgian press after that.

rayjay

Macaloon wrote:

Behind the scenes, at rayjay's

Nice post, My wife laughed.

I'm now off to do the vacuuming,,,,,,,,no choice or she will beat me to death with her fighting sticks

takethehighroad

The Giro 2005 was when I moved from being a TDF only fan to full time addict, and that stage was what cemented it for me.

They day before was a decent stage as well, that Basso won. Been thinking about cracking the DVD out again recently, this has confirmed that I'll watch it over the next few weeks.

rayjay

I used to just take a bit of interest in the tour, Armstrong , Ulrich. years.

You start to get to know the riders and what they are good at and then all of a sudden it's Sunday afternoon your staying in to watch a race you have never even heard of.

What I find interesting is watching some of the old footage that is available.

The riders seemed to be more charismatic.

Postal introduced a new feel into the tour and although we did have some exciting moments IMO that's when the tour started to become a world wide commercial monster and it started to lose some of it's soul.

I think the Giro. Vuelta , the classics are much more in line with the feelings I get when I watch some of the older racing.

Macaloon

I think riders look more human stretched out, old school style, and more robotic in the compact modern 'aero' profile. The effort seems more tangible to me - which probably explains why they don't ride like that now.

As for charisma, it's about time some of these teams started putting the 'pro' back into confessional and delivered what the fans want most of all. Feuds. Intra-team preferred, but we'll take Nibali mercilessly mocking nodding-Dawg's style. Some serious bad boy action is what this sport needs to go next-level. It's badly missed.

frenchfighter

Lol, part of me agrees there. Rivalry evokes strong human responses and would be great for the fans.

Good point re Giro etc being more old school...its definitely my favourite race.

takethehighroad

Typical Americans, coming in and ruining everything. No American's ever won the Giro or Vuelta, bet they've never heard of them.

Thinking about it, are there any real rivalries in the sport at the minute? You can't call Cav vs Kittel a rivalry because they're always saying how they respect each other.

iainf72

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Typical Americans, coming in and ruining everything. No American's ever won the Giro or Vuelta, bet they've never heard of them.

Aside from Andy Hamspten, of course :P

Wheelspinner

iainf72 wrote:

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Typical Americans, coming in and ruining everything. No American's ever won the Giro or Vuelta, bet they've never heard of them.

Aside from Andy Hamspten, of course :P

And, um, Chris Horner?

You lot having short term memory loss???

takethehighroad

Haha can't believe it took that long for someone to notice.

I was jesting of course. Or does it not count because I didn't put a winky face?

ugo.santalucia

Savoldelli notoriously showed hematocrit at 49% on a few occasions... I really liked Savoldelli

No_Ta_Doctor

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Haha can't believe it took that long for someone to notice.

I was jesting of course. Or does it not count because I didn't put a winky face?

The art of the deadpan is dead. Long live the smiley.

takethehighroad

No tA Doctor wrote:

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Haha can't believe it took that long for someone to notice.

I was jesting of course. Or does it not count because I didn't put a winky face?

The art of the deadpan is dead. Long live the smiley.

:shock: :? 8) :x :P :oops: :evil: :twisted: :roll: :!: :?: :idea: :arrow:

disgruntledgoat

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Another charmed career finally exposed.
He's been working for Rai since his retirement, as their resident
studio/commentator "expert" and from the back of the motor bike,
during the Giro.
I guess he can kiss that goodbye.

Will this mean that Gibo will eventually get that 3rd Giro title that eluded
him?

knedlicky

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Another charmed career finally exposed.
He's been working for Rai since his retirement, as their resident
studio/commentator "expert" and from the back of the motor bike,
during the Giro.
I guess he can kiss that goodbye.
Will this mean that Gibo will eventually get that 3rd Giro title that eluded
him?

Blazing Saddles is wrong about Savoldelli still being a studio expert at RAI. He was in the past, but then in March 2013 he was dismissed by RAI for whatever reason. Martinello, sometimes Cassani, and others hauled-in-for-the–day were the experts last Giro.

However, since it became known that Cassani was moving on to bigger and better things, there has been an online petition going on over the last 3-4 weeks in Italy, to try and persuade RAI to to take Il Falco back in place of Cassani. Here’s the link if you want to join in:

http://www.change.org/it/petizioni/rai-rivogliamo-savoldelli-commentatore-in-rai

Whether that’ll lose momentum in view of the latest news is of course another matter.

(I always thought he was anyway overrated as a rider)

blazing_saddles

Apologies for not realising he'd been sacked, although I had noticed he'd gone missing.
I'd just assumed he had other commitments.

If he was "quietly" dismissed in March, there's one, obvious dot that could connect.
At least it would make my conclusion right!

Le Commentateur

His hematocrit value after the Madonna di Campiglio stage in 1999 that caught out Pantani was 49.9%, so 0.1% safe. Refused to wear the pink jersey next day.

disgruntledgoat

Le Commentateur wrote:

His hematocrit value after the Madonna di Campiglio stage in 1999 that caught out Pantani was 49.9%, so 0.1% safe. Refused to wear the pink jersey next day.

That may have been partly in fear of what the Tifosi would have done to him had he elected to wear it.

frenchfighter

“I never used doping products. I’m tranquillissimo, very calm,” Savoldelli said, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. “If I wasn’t calm, I wouldn’t even have come. I’m not registered anymore and I haven’t raced for five years.”

Savoldelli downplayed speculation that his was one of the redacted names (“Rider 1”) in the testimony provided by former teammate Tom Danielson to USADA on the doping programme in place at Discovery Channel. Danielson described how “Rider 1,” a fellow Ferrari client, had organised a system for obtaining EPO during the 2006 Giro d’Italia. “I went to Rider 1 and asked him if he could help me with EPO for the race but he said that he had only enough for himself,” Danielson said.

“Of course I know him, but I don’t know English and he doesn’t know Italian, so how could we have discussed it?” Savoldelli said of Danielson, according to Corriere della Sera. “Danielson was given a two-year ban that was reduced to six months for collaborating, so what he says should be taken with a grain of salt. You only need to read his confession with intelligence to realise what it’s worth.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/savolde ... ry-channel

iainf72

He's just copped a 2 year 8 month ban for doping and working with Dr Ferrari

blazing_saddles

iainf72 wrote:

He's just copped a 2 year 8 month ban for doping and working with Dr Ferrari

Can you be banned from retirement?

thomthom

Yep. He'll be forced to do a 200+ tommorrow morning - and it's not on the Vespa..

blazing_saddles

Savoldelli has got a gig commentating for Sky Italia's Bike Channel.
Watching a repeat of the Dwars d V, this morning and I thought:
"hang on, I know that voice......"
Checked and there he was.

Pross

I'm guessing zero tolerance doesn't extend to their presenters then!

Richmond Racer

Pross wrote:

I'm guessing zero tolerance doesn't extend to their presenters then!

I've had to tolerate some shocking sports commenatators on Sky, when I'd have loved some zero tolerance