That’s Bike Racing For Ya!

The Giro saw its first major contender—depending on who you ask, I suppose—crash out yesterday: Christian VandeVelde. It’s a bummer to see a a nice guy like that go, but he’s staying upbeat—as Bob Roll says with alarming frequency, that’s bike racing for ya!

Garmin-Slipstream’s day wasn’t a total loss, though. Tyler Farrar managed a second place finish to an on-form and motivated Petacchi, despite a few technical difficulties. Guess he really likes 53/14.

Asa nice consolation prize, Farrar will get to start today’s stage in the Purple jersey—not mauve, not cyclamen, not ciclamino (unless you say “maglia ciclamino“, with italics), it’s friggin’ purple—how hard is that? Alessandro Petacchi leads both the GC and Points competition, meaning he’ll be in pink going into today’s stage, and leaving the points leadership jersey to Farrar. Safe to say that situation will change by the end of the day.

I think for today I like Gibo Simoni. Veteran Italian riders have been treating me well this Giro, the more viable GC contenders will be marking each other, the last time the Giro had a first week mountain stage, Simoni won it, and frankly, the old man doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot else to train for. For Gibo, this Giro is Festivus, New Year’s, the 4th of July and Boxing Day all rolled into one.

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