Death Valley
Week from Monday 8th May 2023 - Once I'd located whichever funny little teevee channel is carrying the 'highlights' this year, there was a disappointing* start to the GIRO D'ITALIA - but it's early days yet! Saturday's TIME TRIAL was a strong indication that the race will once again be dominated by the likes of Evanepoel and Roglic. Trek's MADS PEDERSEN had the fastest time early in the day, but he was never realistically going to compete with the TT 'specialists' in the end!
Stage Three looked a lot more promising. I'm really impressed with how the chaps are working together as a TEAM on this Giro. Whoever's picking the squad has finally got the chemistry right! But in the end, MADS PEDERSEN was beaten to the line by 'Bling' Matthews, a margin of about a wheel's width...
Tuesday's Stage Four is when things start to look a little more MOUNTAINOUS and when the RAIN came down. Slavic Character TOMS SKUJIŅŠ and the African champ AMANUEL GHEBREIGZABHIER (checks spelling!) were both involved in a seven-person BREAKAWAY right from kilometre zero. But they didn't quite make it to contend the sprint, such as it was... (Amanuel did however get the COMBATIVITY award, as voted for by followers on that SOSHUL MEEJER they have now.)
On Wednesday, the rainy weather got REALLY treacherous! There were skids and crashes aplenty right up to the end, with some of the so-called 'favourites' coming down at least twice. MADS made it to the line in third place...
Thursday's stage looked to be an extremely dull race for the most part, and I found myself just ENJOYING THE SCENERY instead (Amalfi Coast, Vesuvius, Napoli...). A two-man BREAKAWAY was set free fairly early and the 'big teams' were doing that most BORING feature of the modern sport, which is "CONTROLLING THE PELETON". So all attention was on them. ZzZzZz. But all that changed in the final kilometre! The breakaway was caught with seconds to spare, there was a SPRINT FINISH after all, and MADS PEDERSEN finally got his Giro stage win! He now joins that unique number (Mark Cavendish... Peter Sagan... um, that's it, I think...) of former World Champions who have won stages in all three GRAND TOURS. He's achieved all three of his within a single twelvemonth! Which is nice.
There was no new episode of "LE SHOW" broadcast this week. I guess that Harry and his missus are attending the NOLA JAZZ FEST instead (although it's very unusual for him not to fill up the slot with something from the archive!?!)
"FURTHER ADVENTURES ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT" Episode 563... On Tuesday evening, there was a massive LANDSLIDE somewhere near Micheldever (Wot? Again?), which brought the entire SOUTH WESTERN network to a standstill. I glimpsed habitually at the online DEPARTURE BOARDS before leaving the house on Wednesday morning, only to find that everything was painted PINK'n'RED with cancellations. NOTHING AT ALL was leaving Portsmouth for Waterloo, let alone all the places in between. So I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to catch the 'DEATH VALLEY 69' bus to Winchester instead. Tee Dee Ummmmm! The only redeeming factor is that taking the bus is now considerably cheaper, as the bus companies have brought back that muchly-popular 'ANY SINGLE FARE FOR TWO QUID' scheme for the summer. (The fun'n'games on SOUTH WESTERN continued into Thursday. There was "a police-informed incident" near Salisbury, which AGAIN ground the entire network to a halt.)
(*For once it's only 'DISAPPOINTING' in the sense that, while at least the TREK team have been PRESENT throughout, their plans have so far been thwarted. Much better than the kind of 'disappointment' one got from previous years' race coverage - "Are They Even In The Race?"/"Not Picked Up By The Telly Cameras Or Spoken Of Cos They're Not Jumbo-Vizma Or Ineos".)Then Sunday's first major SPRINT stage ended in total calamity. Great teamwork all round in the earlier part of the race, and everyone was expecting that MADS would go head-to-head with Mark Cavendish in an epic sprint-off, but a crash before the three-kilometre cut-off meant that neither of them was involved in the finale at all! It sure shakes up the GC standings at this stage though...
Stage Three looked a lot more promising. I'm really impressed with how the chaps are working together as a TEAM on this Giro. Whoever's picking the squad has finally got the chemistry right! But in the end, MADS PEDERSEN was beaten to the line by 'Bling' Matthews, a margin of about a wheel's width...
Tuesday's Stage Four is when things start to look a little more MOUNTAINOUS and when the RAIN came down. Slavic Character TOMS SKUJIŅŠ and the African champ AMANUEL GHEBREIGZABHIER (checks spelling!) were both involved in a seven-person BREAKAWAY right from kilometre zero. But they didn't quite make it to contend the sprint, such as it was... (Amanuel did however get the COMBATIVITY award, as voted for by followers on that SOSHUL MEEJER they have now.)
On Wednesday, the rainy weather got REALLY treacherous! There were skids and crashes aplenty right up to the end, with some of the so-called 'favourites' coming down at least twice. MADS made it to the line in third place...
Thursday's stage looked to be an extremely dull race for the most part, and I found myself just ENJOYING THE SCENERY instead (Amalfi Coast, Vesuvius, Napoli...). A two-man BREAKAWAY was set free fairly early and the 'big teams' were doing that most BORING feature of the modern sport, which is "CONTROLLING THE PELETON". So all attention was on them. ZzZzZz. But all that changed in the final kilometre! The breakaway was caught with seconds to spare, there was a SPRINT FINISH after all, and MADS PEDERSEN finally got his Giro stage win! He now joins that unique number (Mark Cavendish... Peter Sagan... um, that's it, I think...) of former World Champions who have won stages in all three GRAND TOURS. He's achieved all three of his within a single twelvemonth! Which is nice.
There was no new episode of "LE SHOW" broadcast this week. I guess that Harry and his missus are attending the NOLA JAZZ FEST instead (although it's very unusual for him not to fill up the slot with something from the archive!?!)
"FURTHER ADVENTURES ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT" Episode 563... On Tuesday evening, there was a massive LANDSLIDE somewhere near Micheldever (Wot? Again?), which brought the entire SOUTH WESTERN network to a standstill. I glimpsed habitually at the online DEPARTURE BOARDS before leaving the house on Wednesday morning, only to find that everything was painted PINK'n'RED with cancellations. NOTHING AT ALL was leaving Portsmouth for Waterloo, let alone all the places in between. So I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to catch the 'DEATH VALLEY 69' bus to Winchester instead. Tee Dee Ummmmm! The only redeeming factor is that taking the bus is now considerably cheaper, as the bus companies have brought back that muchly-popular 'ANY SINGLE FARE FOR TWO QUID' scheme for the summer. (The fun'n'games on SOUTH WESTERN continued into Thursday. There was "a police-informed incident" near Salisbury, which AGAIN ground the entire network to a halt.)
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