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Giro d'Italia, Italy

Stage 18, Chieri - Torino ITT, 34K

27 May

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Ivan the watch-maker

Stage List, Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

I'll bet right now Lance Armstrong just hit the floor and did 50 push-ups. After seeing the kind of mountain and time-trialling prowess that Ivan Basso has displayed thus far in the Giro d'Italia, I think Lance (and all of us) has just seen a preview of who is likely to be his most worthy of challengers this July.

I thought Zabriskie's time would stick again. The flying American is proving to be quite a man against the clock. He will earn himself a lot of security by his showings here. But Basso, jeez-what can you say? It is truly a shame that he got sick earlier in the race. If he had been healthy, he would've easily won this Giro. I think he would've won it in LA fashion too, which wouldn't have been incredibly exciting for the race's sake, rather it would be exciting to see the birth of a new superpower.

Not quite as big of a dent as I predicted, Savoldelli did still manage to put 1:11 into Simoni. He doesn't have it in the bag yet, by any means, but he's got a very nice and comfortable lead going into this penultimate stage. The way I see it, the pressure is all on Simoni. It is all on his shoulders to attack if he wants to take the maglia rosa. All Savoldelli needs to do is mark his every move, and let's hope he has enough left in the tank to do that. Simoni will also need to defend himself against a clearly inspired Jose Rujano. If Gibo isn't careful, the little Venezuelan could usurp Simoni for second place on the podium. And who knows, if he's really dialed in he could move into overall lead!

2:09 doesn't sound like much time. But, in a mountain stage it's a big job to put that much into somebody who is a contender. Simoni will not only have to attack, but he will have to attack from pretty far out to give himself enough time to open that sort of gap. You can bet tonight at the Lampre hotel, they have course maps and calculators out on the table trying to compute exactly when he will need to make his attack. And you can bet that with Milan only one day away, Savoldelli isn't going to give the jersey away. Savoldelli's got to be prepared to ride out of his skin to salvage whatever lead he can. And we've seen Savoldelli go on the offensive before and drop Simoni. He could still manage add to his victory margin.

The Dust Devil always likes an upset, especially when it comes in the form of the little guy. And in this case I mean that figuratively and literally. I would love to see Jose Rujano move up a place on GC to second with an inspired ride tomorrow. He would no doubt be the first rider from Venezuela to ever stand atop a Grand Tour podium. And I wouldn't be upset if Rujano took the overall from Savoldelli. He will need to earn it though. And it would truly be a worthy upset.

But, like I was saying before. 2:09 is a lot of time. Unless Savo bonks or crashes or suffers some other sort of crisis, I have to think he will walk away with his lead in tact. It's just too much ground to cover for the others.
The Dust Devil