Now that was exciting. Simoni, DiLuca and Rujano take off on the old-school gravel road, putting 2 and a half minutes on Savodelli. What does Il Falco do? Stays cool as the other side of the pillow, that’s what. He lets Wim Van Huffel (what a great name, eh?) and Lotto set tempo, then rakes back nearly a minute of the lead. Definate lack of props to Simoni for not convincing Rujano to let DiLuca back on; the Man in White tore sh!t up on the gravel Col de Finestre, a little cramp on the downhill shook him off, but he definately still had gas. Mad props go to the very diminuative Rujano for showing Simoni how it’s done the second time up Sestriere.
Tomorrow’s stage into Milano is meaningless, save for a last bit of elbow-banging from what few sprinters are left. Quick-Step looks to take home two jerseys (azzura and ciclomino), while Discovery Channel must no doubt be contemplating a Grand Tour hat trick (Paolo in the Giro, Lance in Le Tour, and perhaps Tommy D in the Vuelta?). The big losers so far? EUSKATEL. The only reason the chicos in naranja even got mentioned this Giro is because one of their riders managed to crash land onto his face. My advice? Put up some freakin’ ProTour points already, or risk being Boygues Telecom’s bitch.