You know what I find funny?
 Everybody complained about how hard Zomegnan was making the Giro.
 He's gone, the route is more "traditional" and the teams turn around
and send even worse bunches of rejects than usual.

 I suppose the Lympics are to blame.

i never thought the Olympics was such a big deal to the pros! It sure isn't to me 

Unless you fancy 4 years of golden handle bar tape and a golden helmet, it is not even near a monument, GT or World champ victory(which is only good cos you get a free jersey for a year that no else has ;D)

Farnese Vini coud be.

Pippo, Gatto, Guardini, mazzanti, matteo rabbotini, Fallil Francis, elia favilli, Pierpaolo De Negri,  ..one spot left since kevin hulsman is injured.

I wonder if it depends a bit on what country they are from?  Places like GB and Australia (perhaps Germany) where many of the riders have come from the track, the Olympics is the biggest thing there is. Even if they have not come from the track the culture in their country is that Olympic gold is about the greatest achievement that a a sportsperson can attain.  In Australia we dont really care too much about politics and policies... but if we make top 5 in the medal tally at the Olympics then we think we live in the greatest country eva! (Obviously this is an over-generalization but you get the idea)  If Gerro was to win Olympic gold (or any medal) it would mean much more to 99.9% of Australia then his MSR win.

I dont know about some of the other European cycling nations - how big is the Olympics culturally?  Is the winter Olympics more important to some?  I would imagine that somewhere like Belgium where there is a huge tradition of road cycling, a race with tradition (a monument) would rate much higher as a personal achievement and also with the general public then the Olympics with has very little tradition in road cycling.

I think you are right FW. It depends on the country and their attitude towards the Olympics. I think it is a recent phenomenon in the UK after the success of track(cycling) and a few other sports coupled with them being host nation.

There is not much about the 'games' in Italian media yet, as Calcio (football) is king and takes up about 80% of the sports broadsheets. The Giro will then take pride of place in Gazzetta dello Sport and push the football back a few pages :tu

 Matt Lloyd to throw a wobbly in 3.......2.......1
 Utterly hopeless, both "on" and "off" the bike, since January, so he can expect no less.

 Cunego helps to beef up the wishy-washy startlist.

 Come on Nibs, dump that Californian promotional tour.

I think you are right FW. It depends on the country and their attitude towards the Olympics. I think it is a recent phenomenon in the UK after the success of track(cycling) and a few other sports coupled with them being host nation.

There is not much about the 'games' in Italian media yet, as Calcio (football) is king and takes up about 80% of the sports broadsheets. The Giro will then take pride of place in Gazzetta dello Sport and push the football back a few pages :tu

Thanks Benotti, it is nice to hear what things are like in other countries... while the week in week football codes (depends on which state as to which code) take the main headlines, there are always other stories that are relating to the Olympics a few pages in.  The national swimming trials (Australia's biggest chances for Gold) were shown live on prime time TV and that was big news, made more so by the fact that a bunch of yesterdays hero's made a comeback for one last chance a glory, with varying success.

But the fact that swimming is so big show how much Aussie just care about results... because, if anyone is honest, swimming has to be one of the most  boring sports around... but we all watch it because we win. 

But in all that news, track cycling gets a little bit of press... but not road.

CyclingFever has the OPQS squad down as: Bandiera, Cataldo, Chicci, Golas, Kwiatkowski, Maes, Pauwels, Velits M, Vermote.

Do we have an emoticon for expressing underwhelmed?  I like Maes and Golas but as a squad, it's not the most fearful looking.

God knows. Cav requested eisel and flecha took the spot appo was expected to get. Shame him and puccio looked good in the spring. Puccio especially.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fuglsang-out-of-giro-ditalia-with-knee-problems

Fuglsang out of the Giro apparently. Not that he would have done much there, but still very siasppointing for him. Perhaps this will mean Frank will go after all, or is that just false hope?

Be a shame if Appo doesn't get to ride a Grand Tour this year, last year he went 6, 5, 5, 5, 2 in sprints in the Giro before pulling out.

In terms of who is IN, I have to raise an eyebrow at the inclusion of THREE guys coming off the track. I'll be happy to be proved wrong on that front.

On the plus side the trackies will be ace for the TTT and Henao and Uran splitting GC leadership is awesome.

I agree with Beno that Cav probably won't finish.

Interesting Lloyd finishing only 6 mins behind the winner today and he cant get on the Giro sqaud yet Geraint T 12 mins down can. Different strokes for different folks.

Will Lloyd make the Tdf team?

Sky are OK, but OPQ and RaNT?
I never thought I'd miss Aqua e Sapone, but even Patxi Vila and the Utensilnord mob are looking good compared to this collection of Pro Tour minimum wagers.

yeah it does look like teams are not paying the Giro much respect this year?

But that might turn out to be a blessing in disguise and we get to see some of the next generation produce some performances.

Radioshack's bad luck continues. I do genuinely feel bad for Jakob though, I think he fought hard to obtain captaincy of the squad for the Giro and it's incredibly disappointing for him.

I can't guess at who they will send to replace him - a super-sub or anyone who just happens to be free.  They've got the Tour of California and Bayern Rundfahrt to cover also and riders with injuries so it's not immediately obvious to guess who'll be drafted in.  With Horner claiming California is like the fourth grand tour ( ), he's not going to go.  Andy and Frank won't go.  Popovych? Monfort?

According to this they think it could be frank
 http://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/sports/sports_luxembourgeois/story/Fraenk-Schleck-devrait-courir-le-Giro-29371103

Be a shame if Appo doesn't get to ride a Grand Tour this year, last year he went 6, 5, 5, 5, 2 in sprints in the Giro before pulling out.

In terms of who is IN, I have to raise an eyebrow at the inclusion of THREE guys coming off the track. I'll be happy to be proved wrong on that front.

On the plus side the trackies will be ace for the TTT and Henao and Uran splitting GC leadership is awesome.

I agree with Beno that Cav probably won't finish.

theres no probably about it.

Looks like it is Frank going to the Giro.

The Lampre-ISD squad a short bios

- Matteo Bono: born in 1983, pro since 2006, 4 victories in career. Fourth participation in Giro d’Italia. His generosity is huge as his skill in analyzing in a clear way all the race situations.

- Damiano Cunego: born in 1981, pro since 2002, 46 victories in career. Eigth participation in Giro d’Italia. The 2004 edition winner (in addition to 4 stages), this year won one stage in Giro del Trentino, obtaining also the second place in the overall standing: he approaches Giro d’Italia relying upon an increasing condition.

- Adriano Malori: born in 1988, pro since 2010, 2 victories in career. Debut in Giro d’Italia. The Italian time trial champion will be the point of reference for the team time trial in Verona and he’ll have the chance to make the assault to the time trials of Herning and Milan.

- Przemyslaw Niemiec: born in 1980, pro since 2002, 14 victories in career. Second participation in Giro d’Italia. He’s a climber that can set an irresistible pace and in 2011 he was one of the best domestiques on climbs. He trained hard in the first part of the year in order to be ready for the Giro.

- Daniele Pietropolli: born in 1980, pro since 2003, 9 victories in career. Fifth participation in Giro. Traditionally he’s very competitive in the early part of the season, but in the 2012 he showed an outstanding fit also in the Ardenne Classics. He’s very competitive on mixed courses and he’s quite fast in the sprints.

- Daniele Righi, born in 1976, pro since 2000, 2 team time trials victories in career. Fourth Giro d'Italia for him, the wisest cyclist of the team. He's very useful in order to approach every difficulties.

- Michele Scarponi, born in 1979, pro since 2002, 24 victories in career. Eight participation in Giro d’Italia. He’s the defending winner of the Corsa Rosa and he chose to accept the challenge of trying to conquer again the Giro d’Italia after that he received the 2011 title after it was stripped from Alberto Contador.

- Alessandro Spezialetti, born in 1975, pro since 1997, 1 victory in career. Fourteenth cap in Giro d’Italia. Lampre-ISD can’t renounce to the experience that Spezialetti assures to the team, in order to have a solid base for the Giro.

- Diego Ulissi, born in 1989, pro since 2010, 6 victories in career. Second participation in Giro d’Italia. As rookie in the Pink Race, he obtained immediately a stage victory. Thanks to his versatile class, he’s the surplus value of the team.