6 stages out of 11, including beating Garmin in their speciality, the amazing Boasson Hagen and both Lovkvist and Rogers exceeding expectations on the climbs. I tend to believe that they’re just a talented bunch of riders, but my perspective might be different if they were a team I had a poorer opinion of going into the race.

Di Luca has been extremely strong, obviously.

 in the third week, I’ll raise my considerable eyebrows (clearly he’s a smart and talented rider, but I expect his youth to leave him gasping by the end). Otherwise, folks seem to be following expectations.

1) Di Luca
2) Garzelli
3) Pellizotti

Just saying.

I don’t trust DiLuca, but to be fair he does have a history of winning races, and the rest of his team are dying away in the final stages just as I’d expect them too.

Throw in the bizarre way he was dropped from the Liquigas team after winning them the Giro and Liege no less (makes you wonder if Lebron James will be getting his pink slip from the Cavs soon) and his aversion to seriously discussing a lot of circumstantial evidence which shows that he doped during the period of ‘04-’07 and the guy is far from trustworthy.

the benefit of the doubt. Even if they have been suspect or served a ban in the past, in all honesty, is Di Luca’s history that much more questionable than Armstrong? I hope the ex-dopers in the peleton remain just that, ex-dopers.

and on Di Luca’s performance, I don’t think its that surprising, although I expected Cunego to be doing this over Di Luca, the climbs have all been short and explosive to this point, perfect for a rider like the Killer.

I don’t see any too-good performances. And it is the first time in a while that I can say that about a GT. Progress!

Sure, there may be a B- rider who gets popped like Beltran and Duenas at the Tour last year…but no one at the top seems too unusual to me. Ex-dopers sure, but not current ones…at least not with the hardcore stuff.

It is because of what we’re seeing now that I have mixed feelings about nailing Valverde three years after the fact. I have no doubt that he came up doping in the Kelme system and that he is Valv.pit, but I also feel pretty certain that he’s been scared straight ever since Puerto.

That’s why I’m a little suprised by Garzelli’’s performance. He went full gas on the stage to Bergamo and then a couple of days later was flying on the stage to Pinerolo, he even had enough energy to grap onto the the back of the leaders when they passed him. I know he’s a solid rider, but he’s getting pretty up there in age and I have a hard time believing that he could recover so quickly. As far as him losing 5 minutes, well, I’m sure he wasn’t seriously targeting the overall, he even stated that before the race began, so it came as no suprise when he was dropped on that stage.

I mentioned Pellizotti because his track record at the Giro, outside of last year which was a race ripe with dopers, shows that he had never broken into the top 5 in the overall. Now this year he shows up and he’s riding much stronger than Cunego and Simoni, guys that used to easily distance him in the mountains, and it’s rather suprising. I hope I’m wrong about these guys but after the last few years it’s hard to have much faith. :(