It was just a couple of years ago that the fine folks here on Podium Cafe piqued my interest in the Giro d'Italia, so much so that I finally came out of lurker mode and signed up.  Since then, my love of all things Giro has grown stronger each year.  It's certainly my favorite grand tour now.

 I will say that watching an Italian feed is an extra-special experience for the Giro.  (And last year they had all these wonderful little centennial-celebration vignettes with vintage film footage.)  But to get the most out of the broadcast, you need to have a handy cheat sheet of Italian cycling terms.  I've started a collection of terms, and I want to enlist your help, for the good of all.

 Last year, I was determined to watch as much as possible of the centennial edition of the Giro.  Since Universal Sports is not available on Dish Network, I needed an alternative.  Finally, I purchased the RAI Italia channel on Dish and my family and I had the most wonderful experience of watching the entire 2009 Giro d'Italia on an Italian channel!  As the race progressed, we here at Gamasot Cycling became more and more possessed with all things Italian, and we began a home-brewed Italian immersion program.  Eventually we downloaded three versions of BYKI Italian, each competing for the most dramatic improvement in common vocabulary.

  I was getting up ridiculously early and joining the PdC live threads to watch the Giro and get a geology lesson on the side.  I began to jot down terms I heard repeatedly, with the intention of creating my own deck of BYKI vocabulary cards that I could then upload to their site for all to enjoy.  I have only a small list, and I am not even sure of the correctness of what I have.  I would like to enlist YOU, dear reader, to add what terms you'd like to see, and I will create this deck for those of us who want to use the BYKI program to improve our foreign Italian.

Here's what I have in the list so far:
i Fugitivi                breakaway riders
Testa della corsa  lead group
Inseguitori             following group
Tappa                    stage
incrinato                cracked
caduta                   fall (crash)
cima                      top
traguardo volante  KOM goal ("flying goal")
subito                    quickly
(polemica goes without saying)

I'm thinking about 20 terms would make a fun deck.  Anybody want to play?