Just another weekend at the Giro
To say the Giro had an interesting weekend would be a terrible understatement.
Stage 12: Petacchi wins another stage. At this point he can't trade stage wins with McEwen, but what's not to like about another stage win. By the end of the weekend, he'll have another reason to celebrate. And no change in the GC.
Stage 13: Doing his Alessandro Petacchi impersonation, McEwen doesn't start the stage, leaving the points jersey to Paolo Bettini. Petacchi, who couldn't expect to make up 22 points on McEwen, is suddenly back in this thing because he may be able to overcome the 15 points between himself & Bettini.
Ivan Basso wears down because of stomach flu and drops a minute to Savoldelli, who takes over the race lead by 50 seconds. But a 50 gap to Basso won't last all the way to Milan, right? Di Luca and Simoni not far behind on the stage or the GC.
Stage 14: Doing his Lucho Herrera impersonation, Ivan Parra wins his second consecutive mountain stage. This is Columbia's contribution to cycling--the occasional mountain climber who can outlast the breakaway and hold off the GC studs. Nice job.
Basso's stomach flu is worse. How bad? 88th place, almost 40 minutes behind Savoldelli. OK, this is what illness does to a cyclist. One day he's on course to win, two days later he's vomiting on the road. Basso is a tough guy for even starting the stage, even tougher for finishing. And if he finishes the Giro, I'll be really impressed. Lots of cyclists are primadonnas, and we pick on the Italians most of all. Most team leaders would pack it in at this point. Heck, most team leaders would have packed it in after stage 13 (Garzelli?). Basso is one tough dude, and he's got a lot of heart to suffer through illness in a losing cause. He is well on his way to being my favorite non-American cyclist. Man, I'd really like to see him win one of the Grand Tours.
No easy day for Savoldelli either. He's still in pink, but Simoni and Di Luca attacked him on the final climb. They exploited his fatigue to take 27 seconds off his lead. After 14 stages, Savoldelli leads, Di Luca trails by 25 seconds, and Simoni is lurking at 1:48. Tight!
While Savoldelli and Simoni are experiencing a renaissance, Di Luca is just having an out-of-body experience. Even his mom doesn't think he's this good a rider, but he's right there in the thick of things. I don't just mean the GC, either. He now wears the ciclomena jersey of points leader (123 to Bettini's 120 and Petacchi's 104). The gap Petacchi needs to make up is managable because he should be able to beat both of these guys in every bunch sprint, which is something we could not say about Petacchi in regard to McEwen. But he's got to be concerned with the way Bettini & Di Luca pick up points. Di Luca has been picking them up on mountain stages, and Bettini has been picking up points in the intergiro. Don't expect either to beat Petacchi in a bunch sprint, but expect both to get some points out of a bunch sprint. So, really, Petacchi is going to have a rough time chasing them down.
In the next 3 days we have two flat stages and a rest day. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we get two mountain stages plus a time trial with a small climb. And that's when the race will be won.
Wow! This is shaping up to be the best Giro in years. It might be better than watching Francisco Casagrande crack on the last climb to lose the race.
One more note. Joseba Beloki abandoned after stage 12. He was having a really miserable time. Remember after his crash in the 2003 Tour I said his career might be in jeopardy. Well, sadly, I may have been right. That crash was so bad, he'll probably never regain the same form.
Stage 12: Petacchi wins another stage. At this point he can't trade stage wins with McEwen, but what's not to like about another stage win. By the end of the weekend, he'll have another reason to celebrate. And no change in the GC.
Stage 13: Doing his Alessandro Petacchi impersonation, McEwen doesn't start the stage, leaving the points jersey to Paolo Bettini. Petacchi, who couldn't expect to make up 22 points on McEwen, is suddenly back in this thing because he may be able to overcome the 15 points between himself & Bettini.
Ivan Basso wears down because of stomach flu and drops a minute to Savoldelli, who takes over the race lead by 50 seconds. But a 50 gap to Basso won't last all the way to Milan, right? Di Luca and Simoni not far behind on the stage or the GC.
Stage 14: Doing his Lucho Herrera impersonation, Ivan Parra wins his second consecutive mountain stage. This is Columbia's contribution to cycling--the occasional mountain climber who can outlast the breakaway and hold off the GC studs. Nice job.
Basso's stomach flu is worse. How bad? 88th place, almost 40 minutes behind Savoldelli. OK, this is what illness does to a cyclist. One day he's on course to win, two days later he's vomiting on the road. Basso is a tough guy for even starting the stage, even tougher for finishing. And if he finishes the Giro, I'll be really impressed. Lots of cyclists are primadonnas, and we pick on the Italians most of all. Most team leaders would pack it in at this point. Heck, most team leaders would have packed it in after stage 13 (Garzelli?). Basso is one tough dude, and he's got a lot of heart to suffer through illness in a losing cause. He is well on his way to being my favorite non-American cyclist. Man, I'd really like to see him win one of the Grand Tours.
No easy day for Savoldelli either. He's still in pink, but Simoni and Di Luca attacked him on the final climb. They exploited his fatigue to take 27 seconds off his lead. After 14 stages, Savoldelli leads, Di Luca trails by 25 seconds, and Simoni is lurking at 1:48. Tight!
While Savoldelli and Simoni are experiencing a renaissance, Di Luca is just having an out-of-body experience. Even his mom doesn't think he's this good a rider, but he's right there in the thick of things. I don't just mean the GC, either. He now wears the ciclomena jersey of points leader (123 to Bettini's 120 and Petacchi's 104). The gap Petacchi needs to make up is managable because he should be able to beat both of these guys in every bunch sprint, which is something we could not say about Petacchi in regard to McEwen. But he's got to be concerned with the way Bettini & Di Luca pick up points. Di Luca has been picking them up on mountain stages, and Bettini has been picking up points in the intergiro. Don't expect either to beat Petacchi in a bunch sprint, but expect both to get some points out of a bunch sprint. So, really, Petacchi is going to have a rough time chasing them down.
In the next 3 days we have two flat stages and a rest day. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we get two mountain stages plus a time trial with a small climb. And that's when the race will be won.
Wow! This is shaping up to be the best Giro in years. It might be better than watching Francisco Casagrande crack on the last climb to lose the race.
One more note. Joseba Beloki abandoned after stage 12. He was having a really miserable time. Remember after his crash in the 2003 Tour I said his career might be in jeopardy. Well, sadly, I may have been right. That crash was so bad, he'll probably never regain the same form.
posted by uberschuck at 11:38 PM
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