Before you know it, the Giro will be over and you won't have to tolerate my crude attempts at Italian any more...
- But there's racing! Hushovd nips the crashmaster down in Catalunya, taking the overall lead on bonus seconds, and putting the U27 Project in its place for a day. Tomorrow the GC will explode on a long climb up to Andorra, where most of the last 45km will be spent going uphill, including a decisive final climb of 17 km at 6.7% avg/8.8% max. Begging the question -- how do you measure tenths of a percent of grade?
- Back to the Giro... nobody sums up where we are better than Sam Abt.
- Most of the main sites spent the rest day... resting. But Pez flogs it, with a recap, another interview with Cioni, and a preview of coming attractions.
More on the flip:
- Axel Merckx takes his bike and goes home.
- Diary of the Day: World Time Trial Champ Mick Rogers, gettting ready to represent the rainbow tomorrow.
- The Paceline has its usual Graham Watson hindsight, and although I couldn't launch it from my mother-in-law's computer, they now have short video clips under a series entitled "the race to replace Lance."
A quick time-out here... whatthefuck!? I have two serious problems with this. First, the idea of "replacing Lance" is not only stupid but completely divorced from what the team is actually up to, which makes the Paceline (and OLN) seem kinda creepy. Second, it's hard enough educating a neophyte American cycling audience without using blatantly false storylines. What Disco are actually trying to do -- a more CSC-like attempt to be strong everywhere -- is not only true but compelling. Does someone think we're too stupid to handle the real story?
- Back to team websites that actually give information, CSC has a nice feature on U27 Project charter member Frank Schleck.