Although David Millar gained the maglia rosa on today’s Giro d’Italia, it paled into insignificance with the news of the death of Wouter Weylandt of Team Leopard Trek.
Millar’s pink jersey would normally be something I’d do a wee post on, but there will be no celebration… the podium ceremonies were cancelled and Leopard Trek and the peloton at large will be trying to think of the most appropriate way to honour the fallen rider on stage 4 on Tuesday.
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Click this link to see an image from Garmin Slipstream’s flickr stream. Their flickr is protected so I can’t embed it in the blog.
image © sirotti/steephil.tv – click the image to see 35 brilliant quality large images from Stage 7.
David Millar limited his losses on today’s epic Giro D’Italia stage, which finished on the strade bianche dirt roads. He finished 1:29 down on GC, in third place.
Cadel Evans and Alexandre were stongest, on a day where several GC contenders were blown away, including Nibali and Sastre.
It remains to be seen whether Millar will be able to hang in the mountain stages… Stage 8 has a hilltop finish
Steephill.tv is a good place to start for links to live cycling feeds, highlights, photos, the GC and race reports of the Giro D’Italia and other races.
giro87foto2, originally uploaded by giroitalia.
Robert Millar in the Giro d’Italia. Riding for Panasonic, this must be Stage 2, which he won. He also won the King of the Mountains classification – it was the first time he had ridden in the Giro.
The quality of the photograph is not great but for historical value it is worth a look.
This pic is © Gazzetto della Sport, and I don’t have permission, so I have lowered my standards by posting it. Er, don’t tell anyone I posted it please or they might send Primo Carnera after me.
giro87foto4, originally uploaded by giroitalia.
Stephen Roche (Maglia Rosa winner) and Robert Millar (King of the Mountains) on the podium of the Giro d’Italia 1987.
Roche ended up riding without much support from the Carrera team and Millar, riding for a similarly fractured Panasonic team, helped him, or at least, did not ride against him.
Note Roche’s ‘shhh’ gesture: the Italian fans despised him, and he took great pleasure in winning the Giro, despite being spat on and coming under great pressure. Millar empathised with this having endured similar treatment in the ’85 Vuelta à España.
This pic was found on flickr but is © a well-known Italian newspaper, so gonny no tell them, or I’ll be in trouble.
Billy Bilsland. Photo A Hamilton / PEZ Cycling News
Here Billy Bilsland recovers after a 10th place finish at the 1970 Tour of Lombardy. The day before he had also raced the Coppa Agostini. Click the photo to read an interview by Ed Hood on Pez Cycling News.
The race was won by Italian national champion Franco ‘Mad Heart’ Bitossi, who outsprinted Felice Gimondi on the concrete track at Como. The field ganged up against Eddy Merckx so an Italian rider could win.
Billy Bilsland is one of Scotland’s greatest ever racing cyclists- have a look at my Top 10.
I am reading Will Fotheringham’s Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi. I decided to look for YouTube clips of him but most of the original footage is overlaid with music and powerpoint-style text that wasn’t really to my taste. I did find these dreamlike recreated scenes, from an Italian film about Gino Bartali.
The clip of Coppi and Bartali riding together in the Tour on an Italian team is particularly evocative. Bartali was a bitter rival in the Giro, the Classics and the Italian racing circuit, but when it came to the Tour and the Worlds, it was a real struggle for the Italian team manager Alfredo Binda to get them to bury the hatchet and ride together. On one occasion Binda decreed that Coppi was the team leader
This footage seems to be from a two-part Italian TV drama focusing on Bartali from a channel called Rai Fiction or Rai Uno.
Info on the programme
Still shots
Film available here! (Italian no subtitles)
Will Fotheringham’s book naturally covers his phenomenal success in cycling, including his two Tour-Giro doubles. It also delves into the then-scandalous breakup from his wife Bruna and Giulia Locatelli, and gives some surprising insight into the state of Italy, and cycling just after the second world war.
Dan Martin took 8th place in the Lombardia bunch sprint. This finish followed some problems with injury in the middle of the season (he missed the Tour de France and wasn’t on top form in the Vuelta a Espana), but his early season was fantastic with 2nd overall in the Volta a Catalunya and 3rd overall in the Tour of the Mediterranean.
Above Dan is pictured in the bunch of riders sprinting for 3rd (Gilbert and Sanchez had already bagged 1st and 2nd place). Another big photo © of the always-excellent Sirotti which features regularly on steephill.tv’s galleries.
I have been a fan ever since Andy from Bike-Pure told Dan he liked my photo of him in the 2008 Tour of Britain.
I did have a copyright issue with this image. One day I was surprised find it in a marketing email from Chain Reaction Cycles, used without credit or permission. More info here.
Back on topic- my opinion of Dan was further enhanced in a Cycle Sport feature. He seems to have his feet on the ground, doesn’t shoot his mouth off, and is looking to progress at a sensible pace. He says, when I climb, it’s all on feel. A man after the Scottish Cyclist‘s heart then!
