Tomorrow's Giro di Lombardia will go off on time, apparently, as the plans by the peloton to sit still for the first ten minutes of the race have been shelved in favor of stickers the riders will wear on their helmets instead. The source of this sudden solidarity is comments by CONI prosecutor Ettore Torri to the effect of "they're all doped." While this description may fit some riders better than others, there was unanimous disapproval in the peloton of being labeled in this manner. So, yeah, protest. But apparently someone woke up to the fact that the first ten minutes of the race aren't very closely scrutinized, and a ten minute delay is hardly a shocking development in Italian life and business. So, yeah, stickers.
I don't like to follow this sort of banter too closely, but one wonders where the riders draw the line? In the US we say sticks and stones will break my bones but names, like "doper" or "clenbuterol-huffing-cattle-flesh-eater," will never hurt me. So why is everyone upset because Torri said something foolish? Don't the riders hear stuff like this all the time from the pox-on-all-their-houses wing of cycling fandom? Didn't Crashdan essentially say the same thing, in print, last spring? Shouldn't that have been worth at least a five minute standoff? Anyway, like I said, some semblance of sense has prevailed, and kids looking to pose with their favorite stars in the Piazza Lombardia can no longer afford to show up nine minutes late.