Last year's Giro began with the drama of Wouters Weylandt, who crashed on the Bracco descent, and ended with the farce of Franco's anthem to greet the Spanish victory of Alberto Contador. It is hoped that the drama will never repeat itself even if danger is always lurking in every curve for those who go down to 100 per hour on a thin palmer, skimming over railings and ravines. However, the farce did not end there, on that hot Milanese afternoon at the end of May in Piazza del Duomo, on the contrary it was magnified if, twelve months later, the organizers of the Giro, wholly innocent if not actually injured, showed up in the wind of Danish Jutland from where the pink race will start, with a reworked general classification where last year's first has been removed and in its place, with the number one on his jersey, there is now Michele Scarponi, a good rider there is no doubt, but who in the last Giro saw Contador at the start only to see him again after the race, detached in the decisive stages, like all the others in the group, from the Iberian champion. The facts are known: the fault of a steak, an infinitesimal trace of clenbuterol, a bronchodilator included among the prohibited drugsi, was detected in Contador's urine at a checkup during the 2010 Tour. Unable to 100% prove his innocence, after more than a year and a half of the "crime", he was banned and stripped of all victories, from the 2010 Tour to the 2011 Giro.
For the first time, the Giro must also suffer the setback of a winner decreed at the table. But in today's cycling, engaged in the sacrosanct crusade against the scourge of doping but completely incapable of calibrating penalties and punishments, the order of arrival of each race is always sub judice, no longer linked only to the force on the pedals but rather to the test tube response. In five years the Tour has twice stripped the yellow jersey from anyone wearing it on the Champs Elysées to give it to the second: in 2006 the American Landys, Armstrong's ex teammate, was disqualified in favor of the little-known Spaniard Pereiro; in 2010, via Contador, it was Andy Schleck – who last year had been on the brink of triumph, beaten only in the final time trial by Cadel Evans – who entered the annals of winners without glory. The Giro, if it didn't know the victory at the table, had however already seen the classification upset in two other cases that remained historic: the stop to an overflowing Merckxx, caught positive, at the end of the stage in Savona in 1969 and in 1999 the sensational halt to Pantani for abnormal hematocrit at the finish line in Madonna di Campiglio, on the eve of the Mortirolo which should have been the apotheosis of the Pirate and which instead dramatically marked his end as an athlete and as a man. Both Mercx and Pantani were dominating the Giro pedaling with one leg. But the pink jersey and the final victory went to Gimondi (who thus took the second of his three victories in the Giro) and to Ivan Gotti who repeated the triumph obtained two years earlier in a certainly more convincing way.
Expulsions, suspensions, revoked victories: in doubt, it is usually acquitted, but in cycling it is condemned. Dura lex sed lex but the “show must go on”. Even without Contador who, moreover, didn't have the Giro in his plans having staked everything on the Tour and the London Olympics. The idea of starting the Giro from Denmark also came about as a tribute to Saxo Bank, Contador's Danish team, led by Bjarne Riis, a monument of Scandinavian cycling. At the Gazzetta dello Sport, with the Scandinavian choice, hope was not lost that Saxo herself would convince Contador to put his pink jersey back up for grabs. The disqualification upset everyone's plans. With Contador lost, the Giro was also about to lose Saxo Bank, because if the points accumulated by its leader were canceled due to doping, Riis's team risked being relegated and therefore excluded from the big tours. At the beginning of April an accommodating solution was found by the licensing commission of the International Cyclical Union according to which "the special circumstances" of the Contador case "cannot justify the withdrawal of the World Tour license", a passport necessary to compete in the Giro and the Tour, which was granted to the Danish team on November 18th. The Saxo he will be at the start in Herning for the first time trial stage. But without Contador it's back to being an ordinary team, with greatly reduced objectives.
As always, the organizers have prepared yet another beautiful Giro, choosing this year to concentrate the most difficult stages in the last week with breathtaking climbs – such as Fedaia, Pampeago, Mortirolo – which will culminate at the 2.758 meters of the Stelvio Pass, finish line of the penultimate decisive stage. But any layout, beautiful as it is, always needs interpreters to enhance it. Eddy Merckx, who has won five Giri, an absolute record shared with two other great champions of the past, Fausto Coppi and Alfredo Binda, this year's pink race seems tailor-made to enhance the qualities of Andy Schleck but the Luxembourger will not be there: after three consecutive second places – the penultimate of which earned him the victory at the table – Andy, also second in the 2007 Giro won by Danilo Di Luca, is betting everything on the Tour. But Schleck is only one of the many big foreign absentees: too many and too important, Contador aside, not to undermine the importance of the pink race compared to the Tour. There will be no Cadel Evans, winner of the 2011 Tour. Bradley Wiggins, winner of Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie, also said no, and is a candidate as the anti-Schleck at the next Tour. Another great absentee is Tom Boonen, the ruler of the northern spring classics who is betting on the Valkenburg world championship .
The only "motivated" forfeit is that of Fabian Cancellara after the disastrous fall in the Tour of Flanders. At this point, the Giro orphaned by Contador and the big foreign big names can really become an all-Italian affair: Ivan Basso, who has already won it twice, has all the cards, if he has recovered from the aftermath of his crashes at the start of the season, for make three of a kind. Given the good progress made by Ivan in the recent Tour de Romandie, Liquigas will bet everything on him, saving Vincenzo Nibali, who is concentrated on preparing the assault on the yellow jersey. A chance must also be given to Michele Scarponi who will certainly want to honor the success obtained through "judicial" proceedings on the mountains awaiting the tadpoles, reviving the nickname of "Filottrano eagle". For the final classification it is difficult to go beyond these names unless there are unlikely resurrections (of Damiano Cunego for example) or some always possible surprise of foreign origin that could have the identikit of the Venezuelan Rujano, of the Spaniard Joaquin “Purito” Rodriguez, of the Czech Roman Kreuziger (popular with Basso) or, last but not least, of Franck Schleck, older brother of Andy, third in last year's Tour, hijacked in extremis by RadioShack on the Giro due to the injury of designated captain Fuglsang. Runners far from being champions but if in shape capable of taking advantage of the many absences (including the Italian one of Nibali himself, second behind Scarponi last year) to make the exploit that is worth a career. For the victories of the stages one name above all: Marc Cavendish, who will however have to do with other thoroughbred sprinters such as the Norwegian Thor Hushvod and the American Tyler Farrar.
