After today's early rest day, the Giro continues tomorrow with a 33.2 kilometer team time trial around Verona. The course looks like a spilled can of silly string, but it's almost entirely flat. There are two time checks along the way to keep it interesting.
Favorites for this thing? I'd say Garmin-Barracuda, Team Sky, Liquigas-Cannondale, and BMC Racing Team. What? I can't have four favorites? Why the hell not? It's my preview, and I'll pick every team on the roster if I want to.
Garmin always shows up for the team time trials, and have won a few. Liquigas-Cannondale is riding their home race with dreams of the Maglia Rosa in Milano. Team Sky may be hindered by Mark Cavendish's road rash, but they are a strong team for this discipline.
For the final starters of the day, the BMC Racing Team, much will depend on how well the Maglia Rosa Taylor Phinney has recovered from his stage 3 crash. The doctors found no fractures in his injured ankle, but he did receive three stitches. He rode during the rest day, but who knows how things will go for him at full speed during tomorrow's stage. In the normal way of things, Phinney and BMC would be favorites to keep the Maglia Rosa, but that crash does throw a wild card into the works.
I always like the team time trial. The best teams make it look like cycling as interpretive dance. The worst teams make it look like bad farce. Certainly, these stages nearly always set a general classification contender well back in the standings. Who will it be this time?