VeloVeritas

We made sure we were in plenty time for the stage start today - our mission was to get pics of Diquigiovanni's Cameron Wurf for Jered at Pez, but Cam didn't arrive at the sign on before our appointed time of bolting.

The lass that introduces the riders onto the signing on stage, and keeps the crowd enthralled.

We did get some pics of the lovelies that accompany the race - I'm not sure what they do, but who cares?

The podium girls were queuing up to get their picture taken with Martin.

Last night was a little bit of a culinary disaster; we had our hearts set on pasta but ended up with pizza - again.

Martin asked our hostess if she could recommend a good restaurant.

'You like fish?' she asked, 'not so much' replied Martin.

'Ah!' she continued and gave him a map and directions.

We got lost - of course - and reached the restaurant after a death march, around 11:00 pm.

'Still, the pasta will be good,' we told ourselves; there was octopus, squid, salmon, trout, bass - in fact, the contents of the Adriatic, but no pasta.

'Ehm... pizza Napoli, per favore,' - but the red wine was inexpensive and fruity.

Charlie Wegelius at the sign on this morning.

And to use that old journalistic device - 'fast forward' to 20:00 Wednesday.

Spotted whilst having a coffee, this example of the ape is very cool.

Today was another of those moments where we can say; 'I was there!'

A huge gulley running into the valley.

We were doing the 'drive the stage thing' when I received a text from Dan Fleeman, who was monitoring the Cycling News live report of the stage - 'what about this 50 man break, then ?'

We knew nothing of it; there are radio reports of the finales but they're interspersed with music and endless chatter.

Already there are stories flying around about how such a thing could have happened - the organizers wanted Vino out of pink and set it up, is one.

But more likely is the one that the 'Capi' - top men - agreed a truce and were caught out.

Vino is saying that the others placed the onus on him and he called their bluff.

Whatever the truth it was a sensational situation - I can't remember anything like it.

Well, there was Floyd, but . . .

We settled down on the last climb to watch - we felt it was our duty to give our readers a snap shot of what it was like.

The only person on this section of the climb with us, was a moto cop who was 'burstin'.

There's a lot up there on Pez, but I have to say that it all felt very strange.

There were few fans on the mountain - the stretch of tar we chose we had to ourselves and it was easy to get parked.

The rain was brutal, cold, stinging and so heavy for the first riders that it played havoc with our auto focus.

Steve Cummings did a mountain of work in the break, to lift Wiggins up as high on GC as possible.

The lead group was totally committed, working hard, especially Caisse - they must fancy their chances with Arroyo.

They'll be thinking that the youngsters like Porte and Agnoli will crack when it goes into the really big mountains, next week.

But Sastre is the big winner - the longer, hotter and harder it is, the better he likes it and whilst his deficit isn't small, it's not on Vino or Cuddles.

The gap between the leaders and the Vino group was huge - we made it 14 minutes.

Charlie again, this time after 145 wet and hard miles, with 25 still to go.

Apart from a few stragglers the road was quiet - there was just us, the rain, the thunder and that single song bird I mentioned on Pez.

Rubens Bertogliati - with Scarponi and Basso tucked in - lead the Vino group.

They all seemed to be accepting their fate and again it was all so quiet.

In the gruppos it was the same, absolutely no chat and no acknowledgment from the guys we know when we gave them a shout.

As soon as the race was past we high tailed it off the mountain and headed straight to our digs - we needed dry clothes and wi-fi.

As we got closer to the sea, the weather got better and by the time we arrived at our digs, here in Città Sant'Angelo it was a different world, it didn't look as if had rained at all.

It was our Pez colleague, Gordan Cameron who gave us the race result, by email - the radio station's live reports dried up into half baked chat and bad music.

An epic day and such a pity that after we see the stage start today, we head home.

But never fear, we'll be keeping coverage of the 2010 Giro going to the end.

And did we get pasta, last night ? - damn right.

Gnocchi cooked in the jug - beautiful.

Ah well, best wake Martin and tell him about what Floyd has been saying.

A domani.

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