The official presentation of the 2008 Giro d'Italia isn't scheduled til December 1, but RCS is apparently anxious to beat the holiday rush and leak all the highlights in advance. From today's CN notes we learn:
- There will be four (!) time trials.
- Stage 1 will be a team time trial in Palermo (meaning, no prologue).
- The final stage will be a flat 30km time trial around Milan (think Le Tour, 1989).
- There will be a shortish (15km?) time trial up the Plan de Corones, presumably including the 24% grades first paved for use in the 2006 Giro (but skipped due to weather).
- Somewhere early on there will be a traditional ITT, of unknown length or difficulty, though presumably it'll be in the flattish, 30km range.
In unrelated news, Paolo Savoldelli, the rider most recently associated with winning the Giro d'Italia via time trial, is ditching Astana for Team LPR, a Continental Tour outfit. Mentioning him as a favorite is now done more out of courtesy than anything else, but it's not immediately clear why he wants to avoid Johan Bruyneel.