playing catch up--stages 8 & 10

OK, I've been negligent because I've been moving, but the Giro goes on.

Stage 8--Basso beat the entire field with a club. It was the first real test in mountains, and he was awesome.

Stage 11 Time Trial--OK, Basso did a great time trial. He was just 28 seconds behind stage winner Jan Ullrich (more on that later) and put time on everyone else. So, aside from the stage 1/prologue, Basso has asserted his claim in the first two big tests. Right now he's got almost 3 minutes on second place Jose Gutierrez, 3 and a half on Salvodelli, and over 6 minutes on Simoni and Cunego. Speaking of Cunego, he got his clock cleaned in the time trial.

At this point, the contenders are fighting for Basso's table scraps. They've got to hope something freaky happens to Basso in the third week when they are in the mountains every single day.

Now, Ullrich won the time trial by half a minute, which is a signal to everyone that he's going to be formitable in the Tour (no kidding). Right now his Giro is a success--he's got a stage win. His point here was for training, and he shouldn't change a thing. If I were Ullrich, here's what I'd do--I'd ride really hard in the next two big mountain stages. I mean ride with Basso's group just to show strength. After two stages of hard climbing, just lay back--either abandon or sit up and coast to Milan. Ullrich's goal is a yellow jersey, not a pink one. He can use this chance to intimidate his competitors, but stop short of hurting himself.