Pink pink pink … it’s May and the Giro d’Italia has started on schedule. Phew! And need I say, the cycling fans were afroth with excitement – which means great tweets! Let us begin as we mean to go on … it’s GIRO TWEETS OF THE WEEK!
It begins
We all prepare for grand tours in different ways.
#Giro HOT MESS MAP 2021 Edition
Your non-pro guide to the #Giro104!
Stage-by-stage details, tips, & highly accurate fresh facts. #GTHotMessMaps#Giro2021 #CouchPeloton pic.twitter.com/ltlSWwt8j5— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) May 7, 2021
On the road again
With a band of riders we go down the highway
Spotting cows & randoms
Insisting that the snacks keep coming our way
Or just my way😉
Is on the #Giro again
I just can't wait watch the Giro again
The life I love is watching bikes with #couchpeloton
& I can't wait..— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) May 9, 2021
Today @giroditalia starts.
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So I always watch the finest piece of cycling committed to film.
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José Manuel Fuente descending through the mist and rain during The Greatest Show on Earth, the 1974 Giro.
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Turn the sound on. It’s perfection. ✌️❤️
–#Giro2021 #Giro104 pic.twitter.com/3LmNwqzhU8— Rich Mitch (@rich_mitch) May 8, 2021
Stage races are jam-packed with complicated logistics. In today's Giro Diary, Daniel Oss shows how riders navigate them with race bibles and stage cards.
Full video for members here:https://t.co/gt7av4PxO3 pic.twitter.com/tjMXO5mybx
— VeloNews (@velonews) May 8, 2021
Skinsuit Saturday
It was a short individual time trial to kick off festivities on Saturday.
#couchpeloton misheard rider names. Alex Dowser. pic.twitter.com/krX6rSV5HE
— caveman (@0112358aphorism) May 8, 2021
Goosebumps, tears, excitement, just so happy to be here racing again! Giro d’Italia here I come 🤍🇮🇹🐺 #happykid #giro #TheWolfpack pic.twitter.com/FGiMxxk5Fa
— Remco Evenepoel (@EvenepoelRemco) May 8, 2021
Affini: “It was a really fast TT, of course, but you basically have to destroy yourself to get a good time. You really have to push yourself over the limit, it’s really an intense TT. You cannot really pace it, you just have to go full gas & it’s really hard for the body to take.
— British Cycle Sport (@VeloUK) May 8, 2021
The beast of a rider that is Filippo Ganna. The rainbow stripes were a blur …
Ganna sets the new fastest time at the finish, well ahead of Affini
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) May 8, 2021
Just shy of 59 kph. Fuck. #Giro104
— John Galloway (@VelocastJohn) May 8, 2021
We found the inspiration behind Filippo Ganna's sensational stage 1 #SBSGiro win… #Tourdog 🐶🇮🇹Join us for stage 2 tonight on @SBSOnDemand from 2030 AEST with @SBSVICELAND joining at 2120 #sbscycling #couchpeloton pic.twitter.com/Qbeemha4h6
— CyclingCentral (@CyclingCentral) May 9, 2021
Filippo Ganna's stage 1 time trial was the third fastest ITT performance in the history of the Giro.
🥇 Rik Verbrugghe 58.874km/h @ 2001 prologue
🥈 Filippo Ganna 58.831km/h @ 2020 Stage 1
🥉 Filippo Ganna 58.748km/h @ 2021 Stage 1 pic.twitter.com/LrAl9XFWyl— The Road Book (@CyclingAlmanack) May 9, 2021
While the worst luck ever for ISN’s Krists Neilands – he hardly got started before he found himself getting x-rays and dropping out before stage 2.
Unfortunately, we also have bad news🤕
On his way back to the hotel, @Neilands_K crashed and was taken to hospital where a scan confirmed a fracture on his right collarbone. He will need surgery and therefore won’t take the start of stage 2 on Sunday. Speedy recovery, Krists!
— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@TeamIsraelSUN) May 8, 2021
Sketchy sprint
It was one of those ho-hum days of long kilometres of riding along before they started to wind up the speed. The maglia rosa was all about keeping his team leader (ish) safe until they’d gone under the 3km banner.
Sitting behind Ganna must feel like motorpacing for Bernal. #Giro104
— John Galloway (@VelocastJohn) May 9, 2021
But it was the fast, twisty, most nerve-racking sprint finishes that made Twitterers hit the send buttons.
That was a proper sketchy bend to have in the final k of a sprint stage #Giro104
— Sadhbh O'Shea (@SadhbhOS) May 9, 2021
I think I said "oh my god".
— Sadhbh O'Shea (@SadhbhOS) May 9, 2021
Cam Meyer's summary of stage 2 😅#Giro pic.twitter.com/lFkuNeBMNu
— Dan Deakins (@DanDeakins) May 10, 2021
Taco triumph!
A day that made all of Twitter happy. Taco van der Hoorn rode his guts out – silent screaming the whole way – while the Bora-led peloton got their timings all wrong.
#Giro104 🇮🇹
HE'S DONE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/0Av8B2HdKu
— Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert (@IntermarcheWG) May 10, 2021
We had a camera on @IntermarcheWG rider @TacovanderHoorn's bike as he rode to a gripping victory on #Giro Stage 3 🎥
Listen to him roar with delight as the chasing sprinters fall short 🏆
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🇮🇹 #Giro104 #Giro2021 pic.twitter.com/4kncMnrFpw— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 10, 2021
When a rider from the breakaway wins the stage #Giro #couchpeloton pic.twitter.com/Ta70wz4vG0
— Rachel (@super_ruck) May 10, 2021
Not sprinters winning sprint stages is one of my favourite things in cycling.
— Edward Pickering (@EdwardPickering) May 10, 2021
That’s why we love cycling
— AT Murphy (@ndrwmurphy) May 10, 2021
Bloody love the Giro
— Dan Deakins (@DanDeakins) May 10, 2021
More Wanty love
#Giro104 🇮🇹
We have the oldest debutant (@AndreaPasqualon, 33) and the rider with most race days this year (#ReinTaaramäe, 35) of this @giroditalia
📸 @cyclingmedia_ag pic.twitter.com/xPByweDDKt
— Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert (@IntermarcheWG) May 9, 2021
Some keen observations
Ciccone is the most enthusiastic pedaller I’ve ever seen. #Giro #CouchPeloton pic.twitter.com/8XORuZRW0f
— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) May 10, 2021
Sean Kelly gives top class advice for free on Eurosport. For Skill development! Youth and Junior cyclists should take part in cyclox.. all cyclists should do some of their training in groups rather than doing lots of training alone focussed on Watts. @TheCyclingBlog_
— Paddy Doran (@PEC_Coaching) May 10, 2021
Become a cycling fan they said.
Do you *understand* how many daily podcasts we have to squeeze in to our schedules around the actual stage coverage?
This is a full time job.#Giro104
— Issie 💙 (@IssieAtch) May 8, 2021
Slightly proud I told my soigneur this is my 18th Grand Tour. More than 350 stages in total. He told me it's his 72nd. 72 Grand Tours. Grande Chopi. @TrekSegafredo. pic.twitter.com/KWkA1eHeKh
— Koen de Kort (@koendekort) May 9, 2021
Sammy B shockwaves
Some were outraged, some were sanguine, most were wondering why it was announced now.
"The fastest man in the world!" ⚡️
Patrick Lefevere sent shockwaves through the cycling world after he announced Sam Bennett will be leaving Deceuninck Quick-Step
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 10, 2021
Sam Bennett (TDF stage winner & Green jersey) to leave Deceuninck-QuickStep. Patrick Lefevere “He doesn’t want to leave, but I don’t have as much money as certain others. The fact that these types of riders leave is life. As pros they have to earn as much money as possible.” pic.twitter.com/n9hle9Lz0o
— VeloUK Cycling Mag (@AussieLarry) May 10, 2021
Don't do it @Sammmy_Be ! You and @deceuninck_qst are a match made in heaven …… https://t.co/rIREtf9I14
— Conor McGrane (@ConorTMcGrane) May 9, 2021
Being the caboose on the DQS sprint train will always be a temporary position. It’ll raise your price, but most sprinters never see the same level of results after leaving. https://t.co/j2BO4TcaI9
— nyvelocity (@nyvelocity) May 9, 2021
— midge (@pariswheels) May 10, 2021
The last word
The Giro does not forget Wouter Weylandt. After having permanently retired the bib number 108, the whole Carovana Rosa wanted to remember the rider, in the 10th anniversary of Wouter Weylandt's tragic death at the Giro d'Italia in 2011.#Giro #WW108 pic.twitter.com/Cn0uLRQvuw
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 9, 2021