Di Luca and Cunego in a Tight Sprint, Stage 3
Christophe Detilloux Abandons the Giro
Stage 1 of the Giro, Bettini in Pink
Tour de Romandie Heats Up, Read More
Giro d'Italia, Italy
Stage 4, Giffoni Valle Piana - Frosinone, 197K
11 May
Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
The Tuscan Terror
Stage List, Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Another day of Alessandro Petacchi walking away empty handed! I’m sure Giancarlo Ferretti though he would have a handful of stages, as well as the Maglia Rosa well within his grasp at this point of the race. The organizers seem to have made life difficult for Petacchi, and everyone else for that matter, with some pretty technical finishes in the first week.
![Marco Pinotti](javascript:ImagePopup("../../photo/2005/Giro/04/MatteoAlgeriMarcoPinottiInBreak.jpg", 640, 480, "Marco Pinotti In Break with Vasseur"); "Marco Pinotti In Break with Vasseur, photo: Matteo Algeri")
Marco Pinotti, photo: Matteo Algeri
I was excited to see a breakaway including none other than BiciRace.com diarist Marco Pinotti along with Cèdric Vasseur. Getting some good TV coverage was about all they could hope for. But I tip my cloth cap to Marco. You gotta love that kind of effort!
![Bettini and Cooke](javascript:ImagePopup("../../photo/2005/Giro/04/QsBettiniCookeCrash.jpg", 450, 322, "Bettini and Cooke"); "Bettini Sprints and Cooke Crashes, photo: Quick-Step")
Bettini Sprints and Cooke Crashes, photo: Quick-Step
OK, so how about that sprint? Geez, Cooke was pretty irate (and understandably so) if anybody heard his post race comments. Swearing like a sailor. I must say, I’m with Cookie, that was a dirty sprint by Bettini, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the days of Djamolodine Abdoujaparov. Did he do it intentionally? I don’t think Bettini is that type of rider. The sporting thing to do would have been to apologize to Cooke or at least express some regret at how things turned out. Bettini is almost as fired up about being relegated as Cooke was about being run into the barriers. I'll bet they patch things up later after they cool off.
The Dust Devil
Pedro Delgado Interview - "In my opinion, of the directors I know, I like Vicente Belda the most."
Chat with the Director Sportivo, "Very beautiful and "rigida"( how do you say in English?)"
Robbie McEwen in Pink after stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia
Tom Danielson Interview, Before the Giro d'Italia, "We looked at Lance a lot for that stage. And if I was able to do it, then I was going to try to do it. Lance had a lot of faith in me, and kind of stressed me out a little bit..."