Alessandro Petacchi's victory today gives him four for the Giro and 23 Giro stages in his career, putting him back on his pre-injury track. Petacchi won four stages in what was then considered a disappointing effort in 2005 (after 9 in 2004 and 6 in '03). But with two winnable stages remaining -- well, at least one -- Petacchi has at a minimum restored his place as the Patrone of the sprints. His maneuvering through today's last-km chaos shows again why he wins a lot.
Pez wuz there for yesterday's epic clash. Great photo essay as usual.
According to the CN notes, the Giro 2008 will feature a mountain stage in Austria. Innsbruck has been featured a few times in the Giro in the past, though the Austrian stage organizer is clearly hoping for Kitzbuhel. Maybe they can get Savoldelli to ride down the Hannenkahm (sic).
From the same notes, there is concern at the UCI that the plan to run a Cross world cup event in Providence, RI, might not come off. Is everyone at the UCI on orders to speak freely and recklessly about every type of race? Sounds like the real message is, wait and see.
Unibet's Goret Gardeyn won stage 2 of the Tour of Belgium in a mass sprint. Tyler Farrar, profiled in VN today, lies 6th overall at 0.11 after finishing third in today's finale. Sounds like he's recovered from his meeting with the Kemmelberg.
All is forgiven? Ete Zabel won stage 2 of the Bayern Rundfahrt, to the cheers of the crowd. He's first overall, sitting on the same time as Stuart O'Grady.
Finally, if you hadn't noticed, Youtube is positively flooded with Giro videos, from the homemade to the official feeds. Someone named MMaurizio has been posting short videos from the finish, including the Tre Cime summit, the Zoncolan summit (note the difference in crowd sizes), and a harrowing ground level shot of the Pinerolo crash. As for official feeds, there are shorter and longer versions of yesterday's finale. Here's the four-minute, final km from RAI:
