MN Peloton - Giro d'Italia, 9th May Belfast to 1st June Trieste.

[PansBigChainring]

Almost here....how's the training regime going?

The first of the three Grand Tours, Tour of Italy, departs from Belfast with a team time trial from the Titanic shipyard, before a second day riding round the North, and then a third day from Armagh to Dublin centre, and then a flight to southern Italy and few weeks easy riding up through central Italian Apennines, over the Dolomites and a cruise through to Trieste on the Adriatic coast. No problems then...

Some useful links?

Overall route and maps

The understandably excited local Belfast press

and a bit more general fuss

Most of the usual pro-cycling suspects will be competing, and returning for the Tour de France Yorkshire in July.

Before all of this though there's a few 'classic' races to be had, but we can put those to another thread? Nothing else should get in the way of 3 days of professional racing in the Irish sunshine.

Apparently Pirazzi was fined 200 swiss francs for that gesture - which seems fairly cheap, frankly.

yes it wasn't a good gesture was it?

Tour de Yorkshire thread? I'm okay to commence one at the weekend. I've been so caught up with worky and dd stuff recently it's been bottom of my list tbh.

I'll do this at the w/end unless anyone else sees the need to do it before then?

I think, as you are clearly our Road Captain, it would be an act of lese majeste, if one of us were to start it, Pan!

Hello again SDTG & Endo

Very much agree that our captain on the road, aka Pan, should be the one to start the TdF thread

New BT telly box has arrived this morning which means we can get Eurosport! Now just need husband to get home from work and set it up, because he'll sulk if I do it.

New telebox! Yay!

Why was Quintana wearing 1970's Disco boots? Had a pair myself back in the day.

TdF under construction..

And we are in the TdF neutralised zone

You'd hope he was kidding yesterday when Luke Rowe asked what the French word for 'musette' is.

You'd hope..

Quintana was very pink.

Do you think he took all that with him expecting to be wearing it, or did he send someone out shopping for pink boots?

On Eurosport yesterday, the commentator and Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly said that Quintana's boots were the normal size, but because Q is so small they looked like wellies on him

Lordy. Just seen the first Giro mankini....at least I hope there was a front to it!

Quintana is indeed a little pink pixie of a cyclist this week, makes me :-D I'm not sure the pink handlebar tape looks that good though, making me feel a little queasy!

Did you see the footage of the fan pushing the rider into the bike in front of him? I haven't been following the race closely enough to know if he was in with a decent chance of winning the stage but to have to stop and get going again on that kind of gradient is a killer, took me back to my days riding round Longleat Center parcs with a giant toddler on the back of the bike, having to stop for tiny random children in front of me was a killer, I had to keep getting off to push. (that's exactly the same sort of thing right?)

JUST like Center Parcs

Nooooo I just did a FB emoticon on MN, that's it, I can never post again

That was dreadful, wasn't it? I hope that fan is properly ashamed of himself - he cost Bongiorno the chance to challenge for the stage win.

And the OPQS rider snatching the sun specs off an idiot fan. THAT takes supreme ing skill!
Just finished cutting the largest hedge in the world (3 hours. WTF?) so reward is settling with a beer and Giro. Pink Belfast seems a very long time ago.

And I'll probably bore you all with sharing on my next bike shortly - a Cannondale or a Specialised. Fun decisions!

The OPQS rider has apologised to the fan on Twitter and offered to send him another pair of sunglasses.

Last day of the Giro. What a race it's been. I've been pushed off the TV by rugby & hurling again, so I'll watch the final stage later.

Feel free to bore away about your new bike, Pan, as long as you post a picture so we can admire it

I saw the fan pushing, it must be really annoying for the cyclists I can see why some of them lash out.

Just having a good catch up now, Quintana's entire bike was pink today, makes me feel like I've eaten too many sweets looking at it! Can't believe OGE's luck either, they never do anything by halves do they, poor Matthews with a broken coccyx, how do you carry on as a cyclist after that, it's not somewhere that often heals perfectly, can't cycle thousands of miles with an achey butt.

I give in, . This is why I don't post much at the moment, stupid pain killers make my head to woozy to appear half way intelligent when I type!

Poor Matthews. I hadn't heard about the broken coccyx. Ouch.

Painkillers, Lost? Hope you are OK . Your posts are making perfect sense, btw apart from the FB emoticon

The fan giving Bongiorno a push & causing him to lose his rhythm reminds me of many years ago, pre-DC, when DH & I were cycling up to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt on hired bikes.

DH hired an old, but reasonable, hybrid bike with gears. Mine was a rattly old boneshaker with no gears. It was the only ladies' bike in the shop that was the right size for me (I'm tall), and the hire shop owner was scandalised at the notion of me taking a man's bike, so I had to put up with it. I think we paid £5 each in Egyptian pounds for a day's bike hire.

DH headed off up the mountain at a steady pace, while I struggled along behind him on this rattly old boneshaker with no gears, trying unsuccessfully to keep up. Every few hundred metres I would roar at DH to slow down & wait for me because I didn't want to get left behind. He got mightily pissed off with me as he wanted to keep his rhythm going, but had to constantly keep stopping & starting off again on a steep hill because I was struggling to get up it. I did it, though! The long ride back down the hill was brilliant, and well worth the climb up.

So - the Dauphiné starts next Sunday, the countdown to the TdF begins

OGE end of Giro news hopefully I've c&p'd that ok, says Matthews fractured his coccyx in the last couple of paragraphs. Now I've got the boys all back to school I can get on the computer again and have a proper look for news.

(An all about me moment, even though I hate people who whinge on about themselves - I have Stupid Arthritis, which is an auto immune disease as opposed to your usual wear and tear arthritis of a joint, normally I have it fairly well under control but my Bil is in his 66th week in hosp with a head injury, I split up with H and life is just spiralling into stupid, so cortisol levels up = arthritis out of control = sleeping a lot of the time and lots of tramadol for the pain in the day and morphine at night and I really REALLY need to have a 'no posting on the internet after morphine' rule . The bastard being I can't even ride my bike until it's all under control again, humph!)

Bike riding in Egypt sounds amazing, I'm sure I would melt riding about in the warm out there. I would have been fuming about a sub standard bike because I was female though, You should have made DH swap with you

Oh, Lost, you are having a tough time, aren't you? MIL had stupid arthritis too so I have an idea of how horrible it is & how much it affects your daily life. I remember your BIL's injury from a previous thread & had wondered how he was doing. I know there's nothing I can say that will help, but just know that I'm thinking of you. Keep posting when you can, MN is a great distraction when life is a bit rubbish, as I know all too well

I am hoping to fit all the shitty bits of life into a couple of years, more efficient that way . Bil, lovely boy, isn't going to leave hospital any time soon if ever. Drs said he was dying this week so we all rushed to his bedside but by the time we got there he was getting better don't think they are used to dealing people who were fit enough to cycle Ventoux!

So Sir Brad to Switzerland and Froomey to the Dauphine, let the speculation over the final TdF squad hit the frenzied home straight.

Quite right, Lost. Get all the nasty bits of life out of the way all at once & then move on. Good, positive way to look at it. Your BIL sounds like a real fighter despite his injuries. I hope he continues to improve.

I wonder if we should move over to Pan's shiny new thread for the Dauphine & Switzerland, as they are the run up to the TdF?