What is this, the Giro d’Netherlands? How does one tour Italy beginning in Amsterdam? I suppose if you smoke enough hash in the red light district you might come to think you’re in Italy, but wouldn’t the windmills and wooden shoes spoil the illusion?
Today marks the kickoff to three very long weeks indeed in the VeloBarrel. The Giro starts today, followed by the Amgen Tour of California on the 16th, and VeloNews.com has a twitchy WordPress-based website (much like this one, only a money-maker) and a staff that you could fit into a Smart car, laptops and all. So don’t be surprised if posts during May are mostly short and pointlessly vitriolic.
Come to think of it, I guess it will be business as usual around here. God help us all.
Mad Blog Media 
Well, Patrick, thanks for the race coverage. Just keep the fridge full of beer and burritos, eh?
If you think a Nederlande start is a stretch, wait ’til the Giro starts in the good old USA! Maybe some of the Giro marketing folks should do the trans-Atlantic transition and then park their butts on a bike for the next 2 1/2 weeks to see how well they perform?!
Some might even be tempted to use stimulants!
Amsterdam is in Italy? Makes sense to me … but then again, I lived in a Georgia congressional landscape where me and my two neighbors were in three different districts.
Hell TWO Tours are starting in Holland this year and that is not even including the actual Tour of Holland!!! I hear that the ToC will be starting in China in a few years. You know, get the carpet fibre bikes right off the factory floors and ride them out the door.
Hopefully the volcanic ash cloud doesn’t shift over the flight paths back to Italy, or we could have a hell of a mess getting back on schedule.
Even if you don’t post here we still get to enjoy your Velo wordsmith-ing: I love recent titles such as “Parasites and Popinjays” and “Tales from the Crapped”.
Sheesh,
Next thing you know they’ll be starting the Tour of California in Wattalottaland or Spaminacanistan. Inflated and decorated goat bladders for the podium and a ceremonial circumcision for the stage winner.
Libby, glad you liked those headlines. Is my style that readily identifiable? Yeah, I guess so. Writing heds was always one of my favorite things to do in the bad old days, when I was still a rim rat armed only with a reduction wheel, a pica pole and a rapier-like wit born of a three-martini lunch.
Too bad the day of the 3 Martini lunch is in the rear view mirror. The skeleton crews manning the sinking ships are chained to their posts. No Beefeaters for them!
As you probably know by now, the volcanic ash cloud may just keep the airplanes on the ground so the poor Giro riders, etc. may have to take a LOOOONG bus ride down to Italy. Note to Giro about DC start plans — taking a ship across the Atlantic from DC will delay the Corsa Rosa more than a day or two!
Larry: If they get a big enough boat, they can do a couple of crits around the deck instead of a traditional road race.
RCS/La Gazzetta dello Sport hypes direct video coverage on http://www.gazzetta.it though I’d bet the folks charging to watch it on their website (Cycling TV?) have had this made inoperative in the USA. Here in Italy it’s practically “all Giro all the time” with a morning Giro show, another mid-day, then the direct broadcast around 3 pm each day followed by the wrap-up “Processo alla Tappa” for another 30-60 minutes then another highlight show in the evening. Some of the non-race coverage bits are shown on RAI SPORT PIU, a digital channel which comes in only sporadically (along with BBC news) on our tiny TV set. I’d be the only way ToC can be seen here is via Eurosport which we don’t get. Today’s wrap-up show had a funny moment when the stage winner used the f-word (in English) and the host said, “I can’t translate that!”