The Giro d’Italia had a special place in Cadel’s career history. He loved the race because it was there, at 25 years of age, he had grabbed his first major road cycling stage win. Of course, Cadel also remembered the day after that glorious win, when he lost the pink jersey so dramatically.
When BMC got its invitation for the 2010 Giro, the team still didn’t know if it would be invited to the Tour de France. Cadel always wanted to have another shot at the Giro and it might be the only chance to race a Grand Tour that season. So BMC accepted the invitation.
BMC’s lead-up to the Giro was not ideal. They started the race four riders down. Both Alessandro Ballan and Mauro Santambrogio were caught up in a doping case involving their old team, Lampre. Another BMC rider, Thomas Frei, tested positive for drugs, so he was out too. Cadel was disappointed, but at least he knew the team’s drug-testing procedures were working. Then a fourth rider, Steve Morabito, got bronchitis and was too sick to race.
These gaps in BMC’s team meant that less experienced riders had to step up. For three of BMC’s riders, the Giro would be their first three-week race.
BMC’s Brent Bookwalter proved he was up for the challenge early in the Giro. He came second in the Stage 1 individual time trial, one place ahead of Cadel. Bradley Wiggins, leader of Team Sky, won the day and was looking like the rider to beat.
The next day Team Sky had a crash that took out Wiggins. Cadel grabbed the leader’s pink jersey. The following day was also spoiled with crashes, and one took down Cadel. He got back up again and caught the lead group. This time he had no BMC teammates with him for support and he lost the pink jersey.
After a rest stage, the race continued with a team time trial. Here BMC suffered from lack of experience, failing to make the top ten. The Liquigas-Doimo team won the stage easily and their rider Vincenzo Nibali took the pink jersey and held it to the end of Stage 6.
Stage 7 was always going to be a challenge. It included the Strade Bianche, meaning ‘white roads’ in Italian. The Strade Bianche were unpaved roads in the Tuscany region of Italy. Unpaved roads were difficult to cycle on at top speed, especially in the heavy rain that fell on race day. The famous white roads quickly turned to mud.
BMC had planned carefully for the Strade Bianche. The team had tested which tyres would work well on the rough surface. They even held a special training camp to learn how to cope with the tricky conditions.
Other teams were not as prepared. That led to a huge 30-rider crash on the day. Cadel was involved in the crash, but somehow he stayed upright.
Cadel pushed to catch up with the lead group. With so many riders down in the crash, he couldn’t really be sure who was left. Lucky for Cadel, he remembered some tricks from his mountain biking days. More than many other riders, he was comfortable with steep descents, uneven surfaces and flying mud.
Cadel was soon up front with Alexander Vinokourov and Damiano Cunego. All three riders hurtled towards the finish line. But Cadel’s mountain biking skills helped him cross the line first, two seconds ahead of the others. Even though it was Vinokourov who took the pink GC jersey, Cadel’s stage win was just the boost BMC needed.
The next few days were tough. All the riders were exhausted after the difficult conditions on the Strade Bianche. Rain continued pouring down and there were steep climbs and headwinds to face. By the time he finished Stage 10, Cadel was even too tired for a massage. He felt so bad that he went straight to bed.
He woke up feeling even worse. Cadel’s temperature was over 38 degrees, and he was shivering and sweating. Team doctors told him it was stomach flu and advised him not to ride. But Cadel wouldn’t quit, not even with a 262-kilometre stage ride ahead of him. He took some antidiarrhoea medication. Being in the rainbow jersey, he knew the news cameras would be following him closely. They’d even film him if he stopped to go to the toilet by the side of the road. The last thing Cadel wanted were the gory details of his stomach flu splashed all over international television.
Thankfully that didn’t happen. Still, the day’s racing was very unusual. At one point, there were 50 riders in a breakaway with a 20-minute advantage over the favourites. That meant the GC standings were massively reshuffled. Some favourites dropped way down the rankings while other riders shot back up.
For his part, Cadel’s illness explained his performance. Cadel could only guess that the other favourites were all too exhausted to think straight. The Giro had been a particularly tough course that year, nearly as challenging as the Tour usually was. There had been crashes and bad weather to deal with. On top of that, the first rest day was early, leaving the peloton to face 12 days of riding. By Stage 11, the riders were not at their best.
The following day Cadel was still feeling sick. Frustration and disappointment were starting to build. Cadel kept up all day, but towards the end of the stage a ten-rider breakaway got away from him. Cadel tried to speed up to reel the breakaway back in. But another rider, Daniele Righi, touched his brakes right in front of Cadel. Righi wanted to stop Cadel’s attack to protect his team leader, who was in the breakaway.
Cadel’s temper flared. The peloton was travelling at 60 kilometres per hour. Touching the brakes at that speed was dangerous. Righi thought it was all part of racing. The situation got so tense, the two riders started hitting each other.
Later on, Cadel admitted he’d lost his cool. He knew the way he’d acted wasn’t good for the image of cycling. He wouldn’t behave that way in normal life and knew that he’d let the pressure of the race get to him. Cadel apologised to Righi and the Italian said sorry too. There could have been time penalties or even disqualification for their behaviour. Both riders were lucky to get off with 1500-euro fines.
Stage 15 was the last before the much-needed rest day. The stage started out flat but finished with a tough climb up Mt Zoncolan. Cadel fought hard, but Italian Ivan Basso out-paced him near the end. Cadel took second place. It was a good result, because Cadel still wasn’t completely over his stomach bug. If he’d been feeling better, he probably could have held Basso off and won the stage.
Cadel did claim the Giro’s red points jersey though, which he held until the end. Cadel’s focus was always the GC, but this time his points were high. He had placed well a number of times during the race.
After the rest day came Stage 16, an individual time trial. Cadel was feeling better by now and managed the second best time of the day. He gained time in the GC too, going from fifth to fourth overall. As the third week wound up, Cadel slipped back to fifth in the GC and stayed there. He came second in Stage 20. In the end though, it wasn’t enough to earn him a podium finish in the GC.
Overall, it hadn’t been a bad Giro. It was great experience for the young BMC riders. There was a stage win and the overall points jersey for Cadel. In fact, Australian riders took all the minor jerseys in the 2010 Giro. Richie Porte took white for the best young rider and Matthew Lloyd the green for the mountain classification. Australians had won three stages and worn the pink jersey for four days. The 2010 Giro was a sign of just how far Australian cycling had come.