Give Up
After Jason gives eveyrone a much needed pep talk in what has been a really exciting Giro, its now time to tell everyone the news:
It's Over.
Salvodelli, barring a crash, is going to win the maglia rosa. He built his lead on the time trial, taking a full minute from Simoni. Of course, he lost 23 seconds to the stage winner, Ivan Basso. Really, how badly is Basso getting robbed? Outside of two days in which he lost 40 minutes because of a stomach flu, he's been absolutely dominant. There's no one on the course who can really hold his jock, and everyone knows it. Thursday and Friday was the Ivan Basso Show, in which he demonstrated why he should have won this thing if not for really bad luck.
Salvodelli has lucked out, as he's been losing time to the superior Basso, not that it matters. While losing time to the best cyclist, who unfortunately is out of contention, he's been building time on Simoni, the closest competitor.
Today was the last chance for anyone to pick up time on Salvodelli, and pick up time they did. Jose Rujano Guillen absolutely dominated the final climb of the race, and came within a breath of coming from nowhere to win the Giro. Really, its the first time I've typed his name in three weeks, and Rujano Guillen's climb picked up nearly two minutes on Salvodelli. DiLuca and Simoni also tried to blow up the race, but they couldn't keep up with Guillen's insane pace. It was a desperate gamble, and one that almost worked.
But let's give Salvodelli credit. He won this Giro by simply not getting blown off the course. And as it looked like he was going to lose the race in the most agonizing fashion, on the second-to-last day, he instead gutted things out and kept just enough time from the superior climbers. In fact, he started the climb down by 2:05. He lost by 1:55, actually gaining 10 seconds on the final climb. That's just amazing, as Salvodelli is not the climber Simoni or Rujano are.
But he won this Giro on guts. Pure guts. What a finish. Un-frickin-believable.
28 seconds on Simoni, 45 on Rujano Guillen. The Discovery channel team's looking to win two Grand Tours in a row, when Lance suits up for the Tour.
Wow. Wow. Wow.
It's Over.
Salvodelli, barring a crash, is going to win the maglia rosa. He built his lead on the time trial, taking a full minute from Simoni. Of course, he lost 23 seconds to the stage winner, Ivan Basso. Really, how badly is Basso getting robbed? Outside of two days in which he lost 40 minutes because of a stomach flu, he's been absolutely dominant. There's no one on the course who can really hold his jock, and everyone knows it. Thursday and Friday was the Ivan Basso Show, in which he demonstrated why he should have won this thing if not for really bad luck.
Salvodelli has lucked out, as he's been losing time to the superior Basso, not that it matters. While losing time to the best cyclist, who unfortunately is out of contention, he's been building time on Simoni, the closest competitor.
Today was the last chance for anyone to pick up time on Salvodelli, and pick up time they did. Jose Rujano Guillen absolutely dominated the final climb of the race, and came within a breath of coming from nowhere to win the Giro. Really, its the first time I've typed his name in three weeks, and Rujano Guillen's climb picked up nearly two minutes on Salvodelli. DiLuca and Simoni also tried to blow up the race, but they couldn't keep up with Guillen's insane pace. It was a desperate gamble, and one that almost worked.
But let's give Salvodelli credit. He won this Giro by simply not getting blown off the course. And as it looked like he was going to lose the race in the most agonizing fashion, on the second-to-last day, he instead gutted things out and kept just enough time from the superior climbers. In fact, he started the climb down by 2:05. He lost by 1:55, actually gaining 10 seconds on the final climb. That's just amazing, as Salvodelli is not the climber Simoni or Rujano are.
But he won this Giro on guts. Pure guts. What a finish. Un-frickin-believable.
28 seconds on Simoni, 45 on Rujano Guillen. The Discovery channel team's looking to win two Grand Tours in a row, when Lance suits up for the Tour.
Wow. Wow. Wow.
posted by Poseur at 6:30 PM
1 Comments:
Listen, stage 18 makes the "never give up" theme of stage 17 seem like a quitters' convention. Let's highlight the fact that Savoldelli actually lost the pink jersey on the road. At the top of the penultimate climb he was more than 2:09 behind Simoni, meaning Simoni actually led the Giro in real time.
Savoldelli is the best descender in the world. Period. That's how he won in 2002--he blew people away going down the mountains. His descent saved his skin today, as it brought him back into the lead.
Oh, and the climb was pretty impressive too. I thought he might hold on, but I didn't think he'd actually beat Simoni on the climb.
Hey, Savoldelli has nothing to apologize for. His time trials were great. His climbing was consistently among the elite--he did win a mountain stage. And then he was the best in the field at one thing, the descent. And he did it with a team that disappeared once they saw mountains--come on, Pavel Padernos is Discovery's 2nd highest rider at 60th, +2:10.
Best Giro ever? Maybe. Certainly the best in a long time.
The points jersey is still up for grabs, but I think Bettini has it won. Petacchi can beat him to the line easily, but Bettini will manage to get a high finish, meaning he'll score enough points retain the jersey. I think.
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