Giro Stage 3 Blown Apart!

It’s Stage 3 and it seems like the race has already been blown apart. Although riders crashing, crashing and crashing again are stealing the headlines, the real Stage 3 headline should be about the WIND. Let’s take a look at the tactical errors that I saw. Obviously I wasn’t there in the moment, but let’s take a stab at this from an arm chair perspective.

Strung Out!

Stage 3 blew the race apart for a number of riders. The pack was stretched out along the coastline causing large pack splits and making the big teams put in some hard efforts to chase. It was incredible seeing the pack stretched out so far, then one by one, the splits started to happen. The front group was about 25 riders strong, the second group was 45 seconds back and about the same size. So far the two main Giro GC contenders (Cadel Evans & Bradley Wiggins) were in the second group trying to get themselves back into the race. However, they were left wasting their energy.

Cadel Chasing?

About 15k to go I see Cadel with three other riders going as hard as they can to bridge the gap to the front group. CADEL! It’s only Stage 3! Save your energy! He should have been able to recruit help from other teams to bridge the gap, or at least get close enough to limit his losses. For some reason he was committing a huge amount of energy chasing guys who, for the most part, would be dropped in the mountains. Before he launched himself into the chase group, he was with Wiggins, who shares the same goals as Cadel. Wiggins had teammates with him, Cadel did not.

Conclusion

Whenever you are racing along a coast line, winds are likely and cross winds are a given. The race leaders should have planned ahead and moved up towards the front of the group, anticipating the crosswind carnage. Lastly, Cadel should NOT have chased. Instead, he should have encouraged Wiggins and other teams to help limit their losses. Cadel was without teammates, it’s still early in the tour and he gave a bunch of energy for a minimal gain.

Bummer for the crashes, especially for Christian Vande Velde. I really wanted to see him throw down a great Giro.