Giro d’Italia Stage 16 – Flat Tire At The Most Critical Moments!

Yaroslav Popovych rode like a true champion today. Good on you mate! Bad luck has happened though as Levi had a flat tire at the worst possible moment on the mountain.

Let’s watch the final kilometers of the race and see for ourselves how difficult todays stage was for Levi. It may just show on his face that he is hurting:

Giro d’Italia / Tour of Italy 2009 – Stage 16 – Final kilometers (climb of Monte Petrano) 10′

I do believe that the race has sure taken a toll on Levi. Lance still looked pretty good. It must have been hot as hell for the boys. Popo sure looked beaten when Carlos passed him up. He just shook his head and kept riding his own race. Good try today anyway. Ivan Basso sure looked to be at the brink of popping didn’t he? Carlos, Denis and Danilo all actually looked really good on todays climb. I was surprised at what kind of form they actually have – Especially Menchov. Let’s see how they fare in Lance’s race coming up in July!

Ivan got caught in the last kilometer – Man that’s gotta suck! Menchov sure pulled it off in the last sprint to the finish to get them bonus points! Ivan did well just to hang on to the leaders as they passed him. I think he will be in great form come the Tour De France.

I only wished that the end of the video would have shown Levi and Lance coming across the line. Don’t count Levi out yet. There are still more mountains to go. I’d like to see Lance in a break away and race like he did before he became the super human he is today! Boy, would that be a race to end all races. Think its possible to pull back over 8 minutes and take the lead. Probably not, just hopeful dreams on my part. Let’s have a look at tomorrow’s stage and make a prediction:

Stage 17 Viewpoint Advantage

Check it out! This looks like another daunting task and the boys will have there work cut out for them tomorrow.

Blockhaus is another beautiful climb, one day after Monte Petrano. It will trash the classification again. It is short, but sure to lite the classification on fire. Lets hope its not as hot as it was today for the guys of Astana. Watch out for Danilo Di Luca, he won the race two years ago and will be out for blood on Blockhaus.

Tomorrows race will take the peleton all the way up to 2,000 meters tomorrow. Altitude is sure to play a key role tomorrow. Let’s hope the boys are sleeping in a altitude simulator tonight. They’re going to need it.

We saw today that Levi was being pulled up the mountain by Lance Armstrong. I sure hope they decide to release Lance and give us a better indication as to just how in shape he really is. It sure has looked as though he has been holding back this tour and is ready for the chance to show his stuff. Then again, maybe he is intentionally showing everyone that he is vulnerable as a ploy to sucker punch the peleton when they arrive in France.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. Let’s get to todays stats shall we?

Damn, I still cannot believe Levi didn’t have it in him today. I thought for sure that he was going to mop up the non-believers and take over the pink jersey. Oh well, better luck next time. Todays Stats:

Stage 16 Results

General Classification After Stage 16

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Giro d’Italia Stage 13 – Flat, Fast & Perfect for Team Columbia-Highroad

Mark Cavendish pulls another trick out of the hat and wins todays stage. He did it today differently than his other two wins in the Giro d’Italia so far. Mark was back in the pack something like 6-7 riders deep. Usually he’s right up front and right behind his teammates. Today however, he was not. At least not until the end when Edvald Boasson Hagen and Mark Renshaw drove the killer to the front. This happened in the last 50 seconds of the stage. Talk about playing the game on the edge!

I have located the finish of the stage over at YouTube and loaded it up here. Unless you understand Italian, go ahead and turn down you speakers. Or, leave them up and listen to the language, you just might learn something:

Todays general classification did not change so you won’t be seeing the stats for that below. I will however show todays stage results. I was informed yesterday that I spelled Denis with two N’s. Sorry about the typo, I must have been excited about something and fat fingered the keyboard. Speaking of Denis Menchov, he still thinks he can hold on to the jersey all the way into Rome. Fat chance Denis!

Levi and Danilo will have something to say about that. In my opinion, Levi’s team Astana is much stronger than Danilo Di Luca’s team LPR. If you look at the stats for each of the teams, you clearly see that Astana is well suited for the remainder of the tour. Three tough mountain stages will prove Levi is up to the task. Now the real Giro d’Italia will begin. Wouldn’t you want to have Lance Armstrong as your super domestique? I know I sure would…

That’s it for tonight! Here’s todays results:

Giro d'Italia Stage 13 Results

By the way, Lance finished the stage in 94th place in the pack. Of course, like I said Earlier, the General Classification did not change, so no stats on that today. See you tomorrow – Go Team Astana (Or whatever your name will be)!

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Giro d’Italia/Tour of Italy 2009 Stage 12 – Go Levi & Lance!

Today was the test of all test in the Giro d’Italia! A 60 km time-trial that would surely kick just about anyones ass! Todays stage was everything you could ever want in a professional bike race. I managed to get a hold of a video on Levi Leipheimer, Lance Armstrong, Dennis Menchov and even a little bit of footage on Danilo Di Luca:

Lance Armstrong really is coming into form from this race. I could only imagine how well he’d be doing right now if he hadn’t crashed and broke his collar bone a while back. Of course, I wasn’t to surprised at Dennis Menchov and his performance today. The three mountain stages coming up will tell us a little more about how well to form he really is. Danilo Di Luca Fell back a little and lost the pink jersey today which also didn’t surprise me. Over confident people like that will inevitably fall.

What did surprise me today is that Levi didn’t win the stage! I am hoping that he will kick ass on the mountain stages coming up and take the pink jersey from Dennis Menchov. It sure would be nice to see an American take both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour De France. Let’s check out the carnage after todays stage. I sure do like where Levi is now sitting in the General classification. 3rd ain’t to shabby and only 40 seconds down from the leader. Lance Armstrong moved up to 12th overall and is only 6:34 behind the race leader. Not bad for a guy who is coming out of a 3 year retirement and is 37 years old.

OVERALL STAGE RESULTS AND GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

Stage 12 Results

Lance Armstrong at 2:26 behind the stage winner is phenomenal. Good job today Lance and keep climbing that ladder to the top!

General Classification After Stage 12

One last thing to note about the video above. Lance really looked like he is riding into great form. You can start to see he’s beginning to dance on the peddles in a form that only Lance can do best. Count his revolutions and you’ll see what I mean. Up hill at approximately 95 revolutions per minute. Its hard to count when the video cuts out the way that it normally does in the trees, but I managed to catch a section that allowed me to count it out.

What did you think about todays stage? CrankyBike.Com wants to know. Leave me a comment! Until tomorrow – Keep Crankin’…

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Giro d’Italia / Tour of Italy 2009 – Stage 10 – Climb of Pra’ Martino

Todays race was quite the spectacle since the Giro took the day off yesterday and the fiasco on Sunday. I’m still a little tweaked over the outcome. But that still doesn’t stop me from watching and writing about the Giro d’Italia. So, today I thought, why not show some video footage I discovered on YouTube. Your in for a treat today as I have two very important parts of the race for viewing. Here is the first one – Pra’ Martino…

What a great part of the race to get on CrankyBike.com! I hope to be able to bring you more videos as the race progresses. If you watch the beginning of the video, you can see just in the background, Lance pumping away on the cranks. If you know anything about Lance, if you see his peddle style, you’ll know what kind of shape he is in. The way he is looking now tells me he will be a force of reckoning in the Tour De France. Next video is the final kilometers of the stage. Enjoy!

All that’s left is to show you the results of Stage 10:

Stage 10 Results

And Finally…

General Classification after Stage 10

It was a great day for Astana in my opinion. Lance moved up from 25th to 18th. I’d like to see him place in the top 15. When we get to the time trial, I think we are going to see Levi fly and Lance is going to tap it out for an even higher finish come the day we show up in Rome! That’s it from CrankyBike…

I forgot to mention that I was trying to set up the site to do a live feed. I didn’t quite work out the way that I’d hoped it would. That’s Ok. We will have it ready by the close of the Giro and will be ready for the great show coming up in July.

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Giro d’Italia Stage 9 – What A Disappointment!

Stage 9 – What A Disappointment!

Did you see today’s stage? Sure, the race organizer’s really set up a tough course for this years Giro d’Italia. But what really gets me is that these professional cyclist have enough time to survey the course and get a good idea as to when an attack would be beneficial. They can also gauge how difficult or how dangerous a course will be!

I for one am disappointed in the fact that they protested it and even stopped to voice there opinion about it. Man – just get your ass on the saddle and give it hell! Its a bike race and just about every bike race I’ve ever been involved with had a degree of danger.

I’ve been stewing over this all day long! Anyway, I’ve vented and said what I wanted to say. The end of the stage did throw out a few cool moments. The first cool moment is when the pace went from 32km to 52km and the guys started jockeying for position. The second cool moment is when Cavindish crossed the line to win the stage. I feel he probably thinks he got ripped off by how the race began as well.

Of course, Seeing some of the crashes in this years tour has shown that the racers are right about it being dangerous (I guess).

I’m kind of glad tomorrow is a rest day because I really don’t feel like following the race at the moment. Maybe the rest day will give me a day to cool off. Me personally – I would have tore that stage up! Of course, only because I have a few screws loose when it comes to riding a bike. My at-risk behavior is a little more dangerous than most normal cyclist.

Let’s get to the standings and I will leave you with an absolutely perfect picture that will sum up todays stage:

Stage 9 Results

General Classification - Stage 9

By the way, I forgot to mention that yesterdays results were actually stage 8 and not stage 9. I guess I got a little ahead of myself. Good thing tomorrow is a rest day!

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