Stage 1: Seraing (Belgium) ITT



Good ride by Rogers (T-Mobile) as well.... but Savoldelli was king today.... the 15+ seconds he has over other contenders may prove pivotal later in the race..... last year he only one by 20 or so seconds....... I just hope DC get TommyD riding for Il Falco......
 
Significantly, DC gets to go last in the TTT if no team rankings change. Or at least DC will make sure it stays after its main competition CSC.

It's Il Falco's 33d birthday tomorrow. Great way to celebrate it in the maglia rosa. :p

Il Falco looks leaner than he did last year. I think he lost the weight in order to do better in the climbs.

I think this DC team (without LA, Hincapie, Popo, etc.) has a chance to beat CSC (without Zabriskie). On paper, CSC has strong ITTists, and is a stronger TTT team. However, DC has a chance against them.
 
musette said:
Significantly, DC gets to go last in the TTT if no team rankings change. Or at least DC will make sure it stays after its main competition CSC.

It's Il Falco's 33d birthday tomorrow. Great way to celebrate it in the maglia rosa. :p

Il Falco looks leaner than he did last year. I think he lost the weight in order to do better in the climbs.

I think this DC team (without LA, Hincapie, Popo, etc.) has a chance to beat CSC (without Zabriskie). On paper, CSC has strong ITTists, and is a stronger TTT team. However, DC has a chance against them.
Click to expand...
Salvodelli rocked.
Disco is on fire.

I think the plan from Basso is to peak in the last week and not come in on fire. I wouldnt worry about that since he never does well in prologues, but still...it is a big first bow pyschologically. Voigt did well but Julich didnt. So much for his plan to do well in the ITT and grab pink.
 
Yeah, there goes his plan to "keep warm" the maglia rosa for Basso. ;) Another uncertainty in Julich's original plan was the assumption that CSC would win the TTT. :D
 
Interesting that Salvodelli left the Tour de Romi under a cloud has done nothing else all year and now this ! Hmmmmmm very suspicious..... The Giro is well known for police raids and the team needs to be very careful of their practices.... jail terms follow convictions of drug uses.... pink looks nice but black and white stripes do not......
 
This is an interesting photo comparison of Il Falco last year and this year:

Last year's ITT (notice in particular the arms)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/giro05/?id=giro050/FS011
(the upper arms have a bit of curvature to them)

By the end of last year's race, his arms were still not looking as thin as they are now, even though they were thinner than at the start of the Giro:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/giro05/?id=giro0520/5

This year's ITT

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/giro06/index.php?id=giro061/_TM_7563
(arms are a lot thinner)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/giro06/index.php?id=teampresentation/s-BASSOSAVOLDELLI
 
Kudos to Savoldelli. Brilliant result.

CSC underperformed today.

Nice to see McGee back in form.

DiLuca with a nice time too. Watch out for him.
 
Basso on Il Falco:

"It's plain to see that he's in great shape, but at the same time he is a specialist in this particular discipline. The Giro is rolling now and there's still a very very long way to Milan,” said Ivan Basso after the stage."

I wouldn't say that Basso has focused on the fact that there was a bit of a climb in today's ITT.

Except for me: People hadn't focused on the fact that Il Falco had never done wind tunnel testing before this year, to my knowledge. He did velodrome work and wind tunnel work this year, and got the DC Formula One team's input for the first time this year. If he was strong as an ITTist last year (which he was), he will be better this year.

So:
2005 Excellent ITTist among GC contenders --> Better this year due to Formula One input and testing

2005 Weaker than main GC contenders in climbing, but still fairly good --> Better than last year because (1) lost weight, (2) will have better support since Danielson will not exit early and he now has Rubiera and Beltran. Still weaker than main rivals in most difficult climbs.

2005 The best in descending --> That hasn't changed

2005 No Giro ITT --> Now, will take a chunk of time on main rivals (other than Basso) in TTT. Rujano is especially vulnerable, but Gibo, Cunego, etc. will lose meaningful time as well.
 
...think the biggest deal is Basso not performing and DiLuca over performing... looks like DiLuca is not going to loose as much time in the TT's as people might have thought... he's been working on his TT and as well he's totally devoted himself to being a GT contender and specifically winning the Giro.

the other thing is that Rujano is it seems, saving himself for the Tour... unfortunately.. so i wouldn't look for him on GC unless opportunity presents it's self look for him taking the monster mountain stages instead...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/giro06/?id=/riders/2006/interviews/jose_rujano06


and don't look at last year's Giro as evidence of Rujano's lack of TTing ability... he was totally devoted to taking the climber's jersey and was so successful at it he ended up in contention for the win (a few more kms on that last mountain stage more and he would have won the Giro). here is results from Langkawi 2005 with Rujano taking 36 seconds out of Danielson in 20ks, 10 seconds out of Barry... and taking 3rd overall in the TT... Rujano is not a Great TTer but he's no slouch either... he's not going to loose anywhere as much time in the TT as people think he is... especially if he's going for GC from the start.

the other thing is that Tour has nothing to compare to some of the climbs in this Giro.. e.g. the Corones stage. so you can't look at Tour history to guage how Basso and others will do in these climbs... most tour climbs don't come any where near 20+%... have not doubt... Basso and Salvoldelli will have there hands full gaining enough time out of the climber to win the other thing is that most leader's helpers will not be able to help them on stages like these.. climbing will determine this years winner.. look how Basso did on the queen stage of last year's giro (the closest stage to this year's corones stage.. this years is harder).. remember he was "back", he had won the TT, he had won the previous stage.. after CSC had worked really hard for half the stage after the first attack on Sestriere... he went backward like a sack of potatoes and ended up 20+mins back.. i'm not convinced that Basso can handle stages like these... stages that are not present in the Tour..
 
whiteboytrash said:
Interesting that Salvodelli left the Tour de Romi under a cloud has done nothing else all year
Click to expand...
He did ride pretty well in the Tirreno-Adriatico this year.
 
Here a few pics:

1. Ivan Basso
2. Bradley Mgee
3. Paolo Savoldelli during yesterday's first stage. More pics later on our website
 
There are some torrents of Stage 1 available at www.mininova.org. Just search for "giro italia" or something.

No one seems to be seeding at the moment, though :(. Maybe in a little while...
 
lazysegall said:
descending wasn't why he won...he was up 10 seconds at the top of the climb. What was bettini doing with his bike...Does he not want to wear pink if he wins stage 3?
Click to expand...
It was significant, because he managed to maintain and even increase his lead from others especially Basso who started breaking even before the speed bump near the last corner. Paolo virtually touched the barriers while he was exiting the turn (the German commentators in Eurosport were stunned)
 
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