2013 Giro *spoilers*

In hindsight, looks like he was sick - chest infection.

And yesterday's stage was by all accounts miserable at 245K of rain, snow, and hills. Apparently half the peleton is or was sick (or exhausted). Today's stage looks even worse. The RD's chopped off half of the final climb up the Galibier already.

Doesn't look like that's enough for the sick, exhausted gruppo, tho...the peloton neutralised the first climb because 1) it's cold, 2) they thought there might be ice on the road, and 3) half the peleton is or was sick.

Anecdotally, the climbing in today's stage started at about an hour in...Up until that point, the peloton was rolling along at a pedestrian 23mph on downhills and flats. When the road kicked up, immediately Taylor Phinney was being dropped, along with a few other guys that should have been able to get over that first col.

Hence the neutralisation, they were worried about how many riders wouldn't make the time cut if they actually raced the first climb.

So what do we think will happen in the TdF with the Wiggins/Froome and Tejay/Cadel sagas?

Last year, it seemed like Tejay was poised for a run and Cadel fizzled out. But Cadel is looking strong at the Giro.

I don't know where Froome is, (Norway maybe?) but it will be interesting to see what happens with both this year.

I think the course will decide things just fine. The first week is going to be largely dominated by the sprinters, and neither Sky or BMC will be at the front of the peloton doing any work. The yellow jersey won't actually be worn by an actual GC contender until stage 8 or 9 at the earliest so there really is no need to figure out who the team leader is until that point.

Stage 8 is the first mountain stage, and the first hill top finish, so that where we'll see the first real time gaps created between Tejay/Evans and Froome/Wiggins and it will likey determine who the team works for on stage 9. Stage 9 will be extremely important because while it is a mountain stage, it is not a mountain finish. So if somone gets dropped during the last climb, the team will have make the decision to drop back for that rider and try to help him bridge the gap or limit the losses in the final 30k before the finish...or they can let him go and work for the other rider (assuming he wasn't dropped as well).

The ITT is on stage 11, so I think by then we should have a very clear picture of who is working for who.

This has been a strange Giro. Cancelled Stages, everyone's been sick, horrible weather, fan favorite withdraws with sores on his tuckus...

I hope Le Tour is a little better.