Nice win by Paolo Savoldelli, who blitzed the course of today's prologue-in-all-but-name to record the only time under eight minutes and score an 11-second victory. Prologues are famously sub-optimal blog material... the dude went faster than the other dude... But still, I wonder why Basso didn't have more of a say today? He's a climber who can time-trial, which is why I figured on him today. But although 23 seconds in 6km is a large gap, maybe he was playing it safe, watching the corners, not burning matches. Pez had said in his pre-ride that it wasn't technical, but Pez probably didn't hit that one turn with the same speed as the riders who hit the barriers. So, perhaps it's best to chalk one up to Savoldelli's expert time-trialing and bike handling. Shouldn't have ever talked myself out of making him the favorite. [Never bet against il Falco...]
Fun Fact: the eleven seconds between Savoldelli and McGee was by far the largest gap between any two consecutive placings.
Anyway, get your race coverage from CyclingNews, or the more colorful Pez version, or the home team take at BiciRace.
More of today's links... on the flip:
- Prof Wilcockson throws down his generic Giro preview, just in time.
- Fix a tube... with the pros!
- Eurosport indulges Savoldelli's concerns about the course. They voted against Savoldelli before they voted for him.