Another Giro Rest Day

Many important things transpired over the past few days of racing, and I would have gone on witty little tangents about all of them. But, because I cannot open tabs in Internet Explorer, and because have I fried another logic board on my iBook just days after exhausting the warranty period, blogging has been all but impossible. Sadly, in the war of reality vs. biking, the former is a very frequent victor.

It’s sad, too, because I really wanted to make a gag about how fat Jan Ullrich only managed to keep up with the rest of the T-Mobile guys in the TTT because the stage ran downhill. (I ‘d have segued into questioning whether Rabobank’s Graeme Brown had luck problems or weight problems.) After Stage 7, I was ready to harass Jeff Jones for citing 2001 Fleche Wallonne winner Rik Verbrugghe as the “worst climber” in the break, as well as pounce on Velonews for calling Savoldelli the day’s “big winner”, for netting netted a mere 6 seconds at the line. But Rik, along with the runner-up of that 2001 Fleche Wallonne, Ivan Basso, made sure I didn’t have to, by putting it to the rest of the bunch on that day and the next, respectively.

But as my employment takes me into every more serious cube time (read: enough isolation to watch some live Giro coverage without getting fired), things are beginning to look up. Though a few headlines might suggest that this year’s Giro is a fait accompli, let’s not forget that Ivan Basso’s last stint in rosa ended in a rather spectacular fashion. Besides with The Kid and yet another Phonak surprise (yes, the implication is intended) less than two minutes back, I’ll venture out onto the greatest sporting cliche of our time and say that it ain’t over. And, believe me, if ever any race was ever not over this year’s Giro is it. And, should both Yogi and 7k of this prove wrong, thanks to the marvelously under-thought and over-stuffed ProTour schedule, there’s always other racing to be had.