VeloVeritas

Once you have your creds, you feel better, despite the fact that Gord Cameron has sussed them out for you a week ago, it's still a relief to hang that pink lanyard round your neck and stick those big lumps of sticky back plastic on the wind screen.

The Giro and the Tour are so different; creds at the Tour is a big, officious production but at the Giro, it's so much more laid back - and the guy on the PC likes us, so we get free Giro laptop cases.

We're expected, press cards in order, but it's still good to get the creds around you're neck - until then, access to anyone and anything is difficult.

Edz Credz.

It was a red letter day, today; we met Richard Pestes - your actual Pez - for the first time, along with the wife and children.

All too brief, but never mind - he's smaller than I imagined and wirier, a fit looking dude.

Ed and Martin meet The Pez! (click for the full image)

It's a fact of modern life that you can build up quite close relationships by digital means, without ever meeting the other person.

'Tutto Ill rosa della vita.' - the line below the masthead in the Gazzetta dello Sport - 'Everything in life is pink' that's not strictly true today, there's a lot of grey about as we traverse flat urban landscape for kilometre after kilometre.

Today is all about the strade bianche, the 'white roads.'

The gravel starts at 18.9 kilometres to go and lasts 13.9 K - of which 12.6 K is the Poggio Civitella, a climb with an average grade of 3.7% but rearing to 15 and 16% in parts and a total elevation of 470 metres, around 1,450 feet.

We bump into Paolo Bettini on the race route, so stop and say hi, so Ed can reminisce about Paolo's first six day in Grenoble a few years ago.

Front tubs of 25mm and rear rubber of 24mm at eight bar with gears of 39 x 21 or 23 will be the order of the day.

'Super Mario' Cipollini has ridden the climb for the Gazzetta and just in case we've forgotten, it reminds us that he holds the record number of stage wins for the Giro - 42.

Cipo's faves?

Vino, Evans and Pippo - we'll see.

I wrote all of that in the car, en route the strada bianche - to be honest it was one boring 200 kilometres from the start to the final climb.

We contrived to miss the short first section of dirt road but got back on track for the final climb.

The Strada Bianchi road surface and gradient is horrendous.

We were unprepared for the strade bianche, we were thinking, 'farm track' - but it's more like forestry track, twisting up through the trees on to the ridge, then running along the hill tops before reverting to tar and dropping into Montalcino.

Vino and Evans lead the charge, Garzelli, Cunego and a surprising Marco Pinotti were all there, too.

Vino and Evans out in front. (click for the full image)

Martin and I both missed David Millar who boosted himself to a solid third, today.

Nibali knows he's having his last day in pink, for this year at least. (click for the full image)

Wiggins too, was well to the fore but those eight minutes he dropped back in Holland are gone forever.

Is it a lottery?

You could say that, but like Billy Paul said; "Only the Strong Survive."

Vino is riding very well this season with a Doyenne win and Evans is world champion - 'nuff said, really.

Pippo in the start village, heading for signing on. Looks great, doesn't he? (click for the full image)

Towards the end of the stage, Pippo doesn't look quite so cool. (click for the full image)

I pontificated about that on Pez; but it's bizarre that in a world where we're obsessed with progress and bikes are made ever lighter and hi-tech, the races that capture the imagination involve parcours where the main factors are decent tyres, a good position and brute strength.

It was the usual long haul off the hill, even though we tucked in behind the convoy.

Passing through the finish we spotted the Columbia team getting a rough wash down with bottles of mineral water before they boarded the bus - for all that carbon and sports science, sometimes it's just like the old days.

It's not exactly glamorous.

Mountain top finish the morn, ciao, ciao.

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