Giro D'Italia 2008 : Stage 2 - Sunday, May 11: Cefalù - Agrigento, 207km

thunder

yeah, cos it will be piano for the first 200 km. Only the last ten will be racing.

Cobblestones

Well, Astarloa won't win today. Those pesky stomach bugs.

Soler crashed but apparently, everything is alright. Roy and Loosli have a 7 min lead with 60 km to go. The peleton better starts working now.

TheDarkLord

What happened to Zabriskie? He seemed to be stretchered out...

Eldrack

Yes, Zabriskie crashed badly and is out. Don't know how badly he is injured but he didn't look too serious.

Apparently Contador went down as well but is up and riding again.

Anticyclone

For a dark horse, how about Iglinsky (astana) today? He did well in the Tour de Romandie, winning an uphill sprint on one stage and coming third on the uphill climb at the end of the last stage. He also did well on the other stages. The climb at the end today is probably longer than the ones he faced at the end of stages in Romandie but on the mountain stage he came about 15th so he should be able to deal with a longer climb. Problem is that he may be working as a domestique but maybe he stands the best chance out of the Astana riders today?

Eldrack

Wow, that last climb really did split the whole thing up. Nice win by Ricco. Looks like LPR is in pretty good shape.

Aquamarinos

Agreed with Ricco, very nice win for him! After a hard start of the season, the victory was great.

But I can't stand DiLuca (and his team), amazing that his on paper weak team(except 2 top riders) were able to destroy the peloton single handly today.....
Wonder if we get to read of some child hormone values again from him after his looming mountain victory, and he skates free yet again... Why was he even allowed to race the Giro is beyond me (since he had a doping ban this year), but the Italians are true patriots.

VdV lost the GC by 1 sec, how annoying is that!!!

Cobblestones

Not a good day for Slipstream. It seems almost as if they all lost power toward the end of the race (except Vande Velde). If it is because of the disappointing news re Zabriskie, or just the fact they were chasing for most of the day (or both), remains to be seen. Anyway, they should get a break tomorrow with Liquigas doing most of the work.

limerickman

The TV footage didn't show the Zabriskie crash - just the aftermath.
He was carted off to the ambulance.

I enjoyed todays stage - brave break by Rodriguez in the final km - but Liqi and Duval chased him down.
Di Luca tried his best to Ricco was just too strong.
Pretty select group at the end Rebellin, DiLuca, Rodriguez.

Excellent finish for a stage so early in to a GT - good planning by RCS.
Fair more imagination shown than ASO and the usual sprint finishes causing crashes in week 1.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

plectrum

Wayne666

IMO, the Tour parcours is always the poorest of the Grand Tours. It is so formulaic, they claim they can't have the nice hilltop finishes like the Giro very often does, including today because the logistics of running the course into town on anything other than big boulevards, they need room for the media circus, etc.

Anticyclone

Hm, less said about my long shot the better i think

True, although stage 1 in the tour this year is similar to today's stage

Smilf

And Simoni already giving up almost a minute to Di Luca

Powerful Pete

Gazzetta website says that Zabriskie has broken a lumbar vertebra. No other news yet.

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