From Top of the World

There'll be no defining moment for Ryder Hesjedal atop the Stelvio Pass this year – but you can still have the poster. The Leafs crash out as only the Leafs can, and Hesjedal is out of the Giro. What's left? With another couple of mountain stages set before Sunday's finale, there will always be the scenery.

You really should check out this set of images on Flickr. Stunning. And to think I was whinging on about a 12% grade that lasted all of a few metres.

Too Much To Ask

Apparently, the Universe doesn't want Torontonians to be too happy. Too smug. Too self-assured. The Leafs can win a couple of games against the Bruins but Ryder Hesjedal can't gain time in the Giro d'Italia. Sure you can have a comics book festival, but you can't have sunshine, or even approximate May temperatures. Is it too much to ask that more than one thing go well at a time? I guess so. As Hesjedal continues to lose time against other G.C. contenders, now +3:11 mins off the pace, I have to wonder if he can claw it back. Even with the toughest mountains ahead, more than three minutes is the toughest mountain of all, especially in this time-trial-heavy Giro. Even if Ryder scratches and crawls back into the leader pack, there will still be time trials to win, where the other big names are certainly favourites. All we can do is watch and wait and bide our time. Just over three minutes of time.

Girographica

This month the prestigious grand cycling tour, Giro D’Italia is off and running and on the Giro d'Italia official site, there is this great infographic / volvelle outlining each stage of the three week race which is all whiz-bang animated whenever you choose a stage. Each segment shows the start and end towns, the total distance, the date it will run, an overview map of the stage, links to more technical information, the points available (or difficulty rating; the more difficult the more points in play) and most importantly, the elevation change. I hadn't really been using the official site as I've been getting all my updates in Twitter or from cycling blogs. At first glance it looks like any other Flash thing, but looking under the hood it’s a curious mix of bootstrap.js library and images. It’s an impressively compact design that shows the progression of the race over 21 days. I’m a little surprised they didn’t go further in making the text and graphs CSS or use an interactive OpenMaps. Still, it’s a pretty neat way to see all the information in one place no matter how it is built.

I've always said there is strange nexus where designers, typographers, coffee aficionados and cyclists meet and the Giro is one of those events that perfectly encapsulates that.