2015 Giro d’Italia team presentation

Here we go! It’s Giro Eve, the first Grand Tour of 2015!

Sanremo, which you will already know from Milan-Sanremo, is host to Saturday’s TTT which kicks off the 98th edition of the Giro. While nothing can ever compare to the amazing spectacle that Belfast put on to celebrate the 2014 Giro, Sanremo has pinked the town in its own style.

 

They even rolled out the pink carpet at the casino!

 

Someone went to a lot of trouble to individualize a few hundred of these bizarre, little wooden doll things which lined both sides of the carpeted stairs.

 

Teams were scheduled to start arriving around 4:30 and a decent crowd, up to 3 people deep in some spots, eagerly awaited the riders.

 

Italian procontinental team Southeast arrived first. Below: 41 year old Alessandro Petacchi, the oldest rider at the Giro.

 

Caleb Fairly and Cheng Ji were just of the riders who were visibly impressed by the scene.

 

Three cheers for Poland! That’s a lot of orange…

 

Androni Giacattoli.

 

Ethiopian road race champion Tsagbu Grmay.

 

Przemyslaw Niemiec.

 

Roberto Ferrari.

 

A disinterested Sylvain Chavanel led IAM into the casino.

 

Jerome Pineau and Australian road race champion Heinrich Haussler.

 

The last member of Trek Factory Racing was Japan’s Fumy Beppu. There’s a Japanese photographer I usually see at the races and while he photographs the bulk of the peloton, he and Beppu were both thrilled to take a moment and enjoy having the pink carpet all to themselves.

 

FDJ.

 

Bardiani CSF.

 

Lotto Jumbo’s Steven Kruijswijk was the only rider tonight who brought a bike with him! Also noteworthy about the Dutch team is that their kiwi climber, George Bennett, was absent from the presentation.

 

Nippo-Vini Fantini.

 

There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when a team would arrive, which lead to long bouts of nothingness. This is when I like to see what the photographers are up to.

 

BMC.

 

Sergey Lagutin may have changed his cycling license to be Russian, but he will always be Uzbek to me!

 

I’ve never seen such a huge smile from Luca Paolini! Riding in his native Italy does wonders for him, it would seem!

 

Adam Hansen is about to start his 4 millionth consecutive Grand Tour. Or something like that.

 

Claudio Chiappucci, an Italian climber who won Grand Tour stages and jerseys in the 1990s, was on hand as a TV commentator.

 

When the Tinkoff bus pulled up, none of the riders emerged for several minutes, but that didn’t stop the crowd from wildly applauding nonetheless. They all wanted to see Alberto Contador. Then, at the last moment, someone behind me remembered that Italy’s two time Giro winner Ivan Basso (below) was also riding.

 

 

Astana with Fabio Aru.

 

Jesus Herrada marched his Movistar teammates into the casino.

 

Rigoberto Uran, 2014 Giro runner up, and Classics great Tom Boonen, who is making his Giro debut at the age of 34.

 

All smiles and chit chat from the Cannondale Garmin squad. The team will ride in support of Canada’s only Grand Tour winner, Ryder Hesjedal.

 

 

AG2R.

 

Handshakes from Salvatore Puccio while Richit Porte bounded up the stairs.

 

For anyone keeping score at home, Sky was the 21st team to walk the carpet. There was another one of those long lulls and it had been well over 90 minutes by this point, so spectators started to wander off. This woman took the opportunity to rifle through the Giro dolls and take her favorites home as a souvenir.

 

I know just what you’re thinking. “Twenty one teams? But the Giro has 22 teams!” Indeed. And the defending 2014 Giro TTT champs were in no particular rush to show up.

Doing things their way as usual, around 6:30, a full 2 hours after the first time kicked off the evening, Orica GreenEdge strolled up the street and sauntered happily up the steps. Unfortunately for them, they missed the great crowd. In fact, it had thinned out so much that I’m very visible in this team photo below!

 

Simon Gerrans autographed a jersey.

 

With the last team headed inside for the formal presentation, I meandered around and discovered the riders were exiting the building through a side exit to get to their buses. Plenty of people took this opportunity to hound the riders for autographs and photos. Race favorites like Contador were very gracious but you could tell they really just wanted to get on their buses and head back to their hotel for a good dinner and maybe some functioning wifi.

 

When I’m at the races, I like to keep my eyes open for what jobs I could do. Sometimes it’s a serious thought, sometimes not. But I’m pretty sure I’m qualified to be the Official Cross Walk Guard for Cannondale Garmin!

 

Sleep well, everyone. You’ve got a long 3 weeks ahead of you.