Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Already?!?!

Stage 3 may turn out to be really big. It's not because Schumacher won the stage and took the pink jersey (and congrats to him), but because Alessandro Petacchi crashed. He cracked his knee cap and couldn't start stage 4 on Tuesday. We're accustomed to seeing Petacchi abandon a race, but usually it's the Tour, not the Giro. Usually it's while he's winning, not trailing. Usually it's because he's too wimpy to ride uphill, not because he's really hurt. The injury also makes him doubtful for the Tour, so he might not get the chance to abandon that race. Tough break.

That makes it much easier for McEwen to win the points competition. He celebrated that thought by winning stage 4. Really, so long as he doesn't get injured or sick, McEwen is a colossal favorite to win this. The only chance is if a guy like Bettini limits damage on the flat roads and picks up a lot of points in the mountains. Finishing second in stage 4 was a step in the right direction.

Schumacher still holds a slim lead, but stage 5 is the team time trial, so he's probably going to cough up the race lead. Discovery has the pole position, so Salvodelli might end up in pink again.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Stage 2: McEwen

Well, how typical. This could have been any random flat stage from any grand tour in the past couple of years. There was a breakaway which was slowly reeled back into the pack. Petacchi's team then drove the peleton to the finish line, only to have McEwen eschew his team and ride Petacchi's wheel the whole way in, slingshot around him in the final 100 meters, and win the stage.

Robbie McEwen is a badass. He don't need no stinkin' support team. Pollack and Bettini also passed up Petacchi on that final sprint, announcing their presence in the sprinter's competition as well. But McEwen looks like he's on perfect form and is going to stalk the hell out of Petacchi.

Savoldelli holds on to his overall lead, which holds at :11. He's not going to be dumb enough to try and hold on to this lead during these flat stages, so it's only a matter of time before someone else gets to wear the maglia rosa for awhile. But since I didn't chime in one the prologue (or Stage 1, whatever they are calling it): wow. That was almost Armstrong-esque.

Two straight days, the biggest contender for a jersey has announced their presence with authority. Nuke LaLoosh would be proud.
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