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89th Giro d'Italia - presented by

Stage 8, Civitanova Marche - Maielletta/Passo Lanciano, 171K

14 May

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Basso's Misty Mountain Hop!

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap, Stage List, Stage Profile, Photos

Alright! Now the Giro is getting somewhere! We see that Basso is clearly the man of the hour and open for bidness.

Man, I knew when he sent Sastre to the front things were about to get exciting. That's a classic move reminiscent of Armstrong sending Heras, Azevedo or Popovych to the front to set an infernal pace, and everybody else preparing themselves to be dropped.

A mountain stage in the Giro up through the misty mountains with mass carnage all around! That's what the Tour of Italy is all about!

Also, we saw Paolo Savoldelli's chances severley dimished today. The Thursday TT is heavily favoring him over Cunego, where he (Il Falco) will certainly pull back time from Cunego. But there's too much climbing (in the rest of the Giro) to be had, and if his showing today was any indicator of his climbing prowess-Savoldelli's in trouble.

I would say that from what we saw today, Basso and Cunego and possibly Gutierrez are the real deal challengers. Everybody else was struggling to follow when the hammer went down. All was well and good with the leaders until Cunego attacked and Basso responded, blowing the field to smithereens. Then what we saw was a race, essentially for 3 people. And 2 of those were competing for second and third!

Things will settle down for a few quiet stages between now and Thursday when the big guns will come out again for the TT. Basso will surely be looking to hammer the others out of sight and further distance himself from Cunego. And unless there is a miracle, he will.
~The Dust Devil