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Americans at the Giro d’Italia
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Courtesy Hampsten Cycles
With rare exceptions the Giro d’Italia has not been kind to Americans. In fairness, Americans have given pretty short shrift to the second most important Grand Tour, so maybe the relative lack of results have been well earned and well deserved. Last year an American rider on an American team lit up the race from the get-go. It was an exciting start, but Christian Vande Velde and his Slipstream-Chipotle (soon to become Garmin-Slipstream) team were not prepared for, nor focusing on, the general classification in that race.
This year may be a different story. Not only is Garmin back with serious ambitions on winning the opening team time trial again, but Astana has come with a true contender (Levi Leipheimer) and a dark horse (Lance Armstrong). Vande Velde is back for Garmin, but an interesting addition to this year’s team is Tom Danielson. Danielson was once considered a possible heir to Armstrong’s Tour throne, but the past few years have been filled with injury and subprime results. There are no clear indicators pointing to him as a true contender, but there is no doubt that at one time he was good enough to finish top 10 in Grand Tour races.
Although this year’s American contingent should be fun to watch, the Italians are not going to cede the Giro without a fight. There are no less than five previous winners lining up this year, all of them Italian (Garzelli, Simoni, Cunego, Basso, Di Luca). Of course this race has always been dominated by Italians. Whereas the Tour de France has become a truly international race, with the French riders mostly marginalized over the past 20 years, the Giro is still the province of Italians.
Having said that, it’s probably fair to say that one of the best Giro riders in history is none other than Eddie Merckx of Belgium. Using a fairly common scoring methodology for the rop 5 riders each year of the Giro’s history reveals the top 20 Giro riders of all time:
1. Coppi; 2. Gimondi; 3. Bartali; 4. Binda; 5. Merckx; 6. Brunero; 7. Simoni; 8. Magni; 9. Moser; 10. Anquetil; 11. Galetti; 12. Gaul; 13. Saronni; 14. Hinault; 15. Adorni; 16. Tonkov; 17. Balmamion; 18. Savoldelli; 19. Valetti; 20. Zilioli
Boulder’s own Andy Hampsten is not on that list (he ranks 43rd using this system), but he is still the only American to have ever won the Giro. His (over-used but appropriate in this case) epic second place finish on the Gavia in 1988 paved the way to a win in the gc that year. To relive the amazing story of the deprivations he and Erik Breukink went through on that epic day, check here.
Hampsten was geared up and motivated to win the race again in 1989, but a freak occurrence denied him back-to-back wins. In the team time trial that year, his 7-11 squad was cooking along, turning in a great time with strongman Sean Yates hammering and cajoling the boys along. But a black cat proved true to superstition. He bolted across the road just in front of the 7-11s, froze when he saw them bearing down on him, then reversed course just in time for Yates, leading as usual, to smack into him, crashing in the bargain and taking four of the other guys down with him. By the time the confusion had been sorted out, the boys lost at least two minutes, dooming Hampsten’s race (he finished third).
For those of us (i.e. me) who thought that Versus would jump back into daily coverage of the Giro given Lance’s appearance there, a glance at their schedule shows nothing but disappointment. Not only is there no daily coverage, there’s no weekly coverage and not even a wrap-up show scheduled. Bummer! There are plenty of online sites that promise to keep you up-to-the-minute, so if you’re interested in following the Americans at the Giro, get ready - the action starts Saturday.
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