Pink? In touch with my feminine side? No…

… It’s Giro time again!!

I’ve always been quite comfortable with pink, it’s a nice colour and I’m more than happy to wear bold pink stripes at work, and pink lycra jerseys if I’m out [on your bike… Ed]. But it’s this time of year when the whole family gets a bit twitchy when ‘pink’ starts to dominate my screens.

The thing is, despite any untoward connotations about the colour, the Giro D’Italia is way better than the Tour De France. Where the Tour De France has evolved into a media circus and become the cycle focus for all non-cyclists the world over, which in turn has skewed the way that some professional cyclists and team have approached the whole race schedule, the Giro D-Italia has remained closer to its roots as a raw sporting event.

This year’s start in Belfast has been a great way of  speding the ‘cycle’ word, but now the race is back in Italy and the proper racing starts.

The main reason the Giro is better than the TDF is that the race is more open… we weren’t seeing discussions on which specific rider will lead a team to victory, and instead are seeing teams approach the race in a much more team-centric fashion. They’ll let the race evolve and see which team members are performing best as the race progresses, and who best to support to victory.

And you should forget the history and heritage… the Tour De France may have been running longer (it started in 1903, versus the Giro in 1909), but Italian cycling has a much stronger cultural background than France… Italians are the uber-passionate cyclists, wearing the hearts on their sleeves and screaming for their riders.

The big question for me right now is still which team to support following the demise of Euskadi Euskatel… it’ll probably have to be Cannondale, who are currently lying last in the standings! Maybe I’ll desert them for Movistar… but I’ll still be wearing pink!!

Giro-Feature

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