Unpredictable Giro promises thrilling week

CORDENONS, Italy - Reuters

Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali wears the pink jersey of the overall leader as he celebrates on the podium after completing the eight stage of the Giro d’Italia. AP Photo

Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali wears the pink jersey of the overall leader as he celebrates on the podium after completing the eight stage of the Giro d’Italia.

As the Giro d’Italia enters its second week, cycling’s top directors have been reminded just how different the race is from the Tour de France.

“It’s so unpredictable,” Rod Ellingworth, Team Sky’s performance manager who is helping oversee Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins’ bid to become Britain’s first Giro d’Italia winner, told Reuters.

“The Tour is much easier to define as a format. The first week, some mountains, flat again and then more mountains and a time trial at the end while the Giro has a very different structure.

“We’ve already been up some climbs here in the Giro that are really tricky, there have been some very technical stages too. The Tour doesn’t usually do so much of that in the first week.”

After yesterday’s rest day, Wiggins faces a tough challenge in the second mountainous week of racing after enduring his own trials and tribulations in the Giro’s challenging first nine days.

The Briton lost 84 seconds after crashing on a tough downhill section on stage seven, slumping from sixth to 23rd overall, as well as losing 17 seconds on stage four.

He had to chase the rest of the field for 10 kms after he was blocked by a crash on stage six and he is currently lying fourth overall behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali of Italy.

“The two races are becoming more similar, but they are still races you have to tackle in a very different way,” said former rider Jose Azevedo and now a director with the RadioShack team.