Giro d'Italia Diary
11th May - 3rd June, 2007
by Ed Hood

Day 1 : Day 2 : Day 3 : Day 4 : Day 5 : Day 6 : Day 7

Day 1 - Friday 11th May, 2007

Sardinia is hot, damn hot, real hot, but our Peugeot 107 has air-con and a CD which plays John Hardie's 70's compilations just fine.

It's 09.10 and we're north-bound to catch the ferry from Palau out to the island of Maddalena, where tomorrow's TTT takes place.

Dave is at the wheel, doing his best to coax some speed out of the little Peugeot. We arrived late last night, flying from Liverpool to Alghero in north west Sardinia.

The B & B we stayed in was sound, and we enjoyed an al fresco breakfast before heading east and north towards Palau and the ferry.

The game plan was to drive the TTT course and preview it for Pez (you can read that article here).

The country is green despite the heat, but jagged mountains thrust out of the earth to give saw-tooth skylines. Big flocks of sheep graze; olive groves and vineyards are well-tended - the Italian Government's plans to drag the island into prosperity appear to be working.

The roads across the plains were straight and well-surfaced but lazy-rolling trucks make for slow progress.

The driving is, as you would expect, radge. In the towns, traffic lights are few and it's hard to imagine what you would have to do to get the police upset - Olbia, where we spent last night is just a huge dodgem track.

The TTT course is a real "test of man and machine" - not like last year, Dario Cioni (then Liquigas, now Lotto) told me that he only braked once during that entire race. This year there are all manner of climbs, dangerous descents and bends - we fancy a 'road' rather than one of the TTT specialist teams to win.

The lethal Bailey bridge on the TTT course - thank goodness it was dry!

It takes a 20 minute ferry trip to get to Maddalena where the race finishes.
It starts on the neighbouring island of Caprera, where Italian folk hero, Guiseppe Garibaldi spent his later years. He was born 200 years ago, hence the hassle of dragging the whole Giro across to a little island; we'd do the same for The Bruce, I guess.

After our course recce and the 20 minute ferry trip, we had to find the "Permanence", in order to get our credentials. Finding the conference centre where this went-off was a pain but actually getting the creds was OK.

The wi-fi in the press room was grim, it went-down twice, but eventually we got the words and pics of to Vancouver.

The hotel was sound, as was the pizza place. As my tutor at college told me never to say; "we went to bed, tired but happy."

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Day 2 - Saturday 12th May, 2007

It's now 19.45 on Saturday evening, and we're sat in the car listening to The Pioneers, 'Let your yeah be yeah' - crucial, John.

The ferry port at Maddalena is grid-locked, but we've got our reggae and a cold Dreher beer, so waiting for the ferry isn't so bad.

We shared the ferry out with CSC and Saunier, but they are long-gone on the first ferry out. It's been a cracking day, weather and gig-wise. I think we broke our record for looking at bicycles today - around five hours.

Our faves were De Rosa, Ridley and Time; the last-named largely for the amazing graphics.

Stunning Time Time Trial machines, if you know what we mean.

We also grabbed an impromptu interview with Rosella Signora of Sidi, hopefully that will be up on Pez before too long.

I was really pleased with myself - I managed to transfer all the bike pics from the camera to the laptop in the car at the TTT start. I've been using my new Finepix; my faithful wee Canon packed-up the other day. I'm chuffed with the new tool, even though it consumes batteries like Dave does beer.

Robbie preps for the TTT

I had to clear the memory in preparation for the main event of the day - following a team in the TTT, that's on Pez now here, but suffice to say that it was a great experience.

The Rabo's "warm up" in the baking sunshine...

You only think you can ride a bike until you follow the likes of Cancellara and Zabriskie in a gig like that. The speeds they corner and descend at are awe inspiring.

The tyre-squeeling roller-coaster ride that was trying
to keep up with Team CSC in the TTT

Like I said on Pez yesterday, it was a really technical course, not particularly fit for purpose; the TTT is all about speed and precision, the classic example being the Tour two years ago when Zabriskie crashed on the run-in, what a race.

However, to repeat myself, it was a marvellous experience: Dave handled it like a real pro, keeping pace with the deranged CSC drivers all the way.

We grabbed a load of pics of Cancellara and the others at the finish then headed for the salle de presse. We had our report and most of our pics in to Pez before the last team finished.

Dave is taking to this press life well and had the buffet sussed within minutes!

A typical VeloResults "buffet".

There's no point in false modesty, we did predict a Liquigas win; and so it proved, although it looked as if Di Luca was none too chuffed at Gasparotto taking the sprint - and that coveted pink jersey.

The CSC boys - glad that's over. A short race,
but hard parcours and mentally exhausting.

We're off the ferry now and headed for Olbia and the digs. It's the first road stage tomorrow, we'll be there !

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Day 3 - Monday 14th May, 2007

It's 06.30 on Monday morning and we're in Macomer, Sardinia. It's going to be another beautiful day; there's not a cloud in the sky and the sun has begun its climb.

Yesterday was one of those days that makes you realise, you only think you know about pro bike racing.

The mission for Pez was to drive the whole 205 kilometre stage, describing it to the readers in words and pictures. You can read the article here.

We took a bit of a wrong turning coming out of Olbia but soon recovered our bearings to get on the road to the start town of Tempio Pausania, set in the northern hills.

It was a nice drive, quiet Sunday morning roads and all around the strikiing rock formations which the island is famous for. We didn't linger in the town, just to take a snap or two, zero the trip meter and purchase, 'even dearer than home' fuel .

We drove every metre of the route: the start was tough, climbing immediately then rolling and snaking across a high plateau before droppimg to the sea - through what could have been Scottish countryside - and long rolling straights across coastal plains.

The thing that struck us was the very low numbers of fans at the roadside.
I drove a complete Tour stage last year and the crowds, hours before the race was due, were incredible. Sardinia isn't a cycling hotbed though and it's not the simplest place for the tifosi to reach - or has the Basso nonsense disillusioned folk? We'll know better once we return to the mainland.

There are still a few folk who believe in Basso.

After the beach town of Alghero, with around 70 K or so to go, the road began to climb, a tough ascent with varying gradients and tight hairpins.
There was a dip in the middle but a final hard three kilometre battle to the 'king of the mountains' line.

There was a snaking road over a high plateau before the technical descent on tar so warm the smell of it was in your nostrils.

Off the descent was another smaller climb then a long dangerous hair-pinned drop to the finish town of Bosta.

There was a twist in the tale though; a 10 kilometre loop out through challenging countryside, complete with nasty 2.5 K climb and horrible diagonal downhill traverse of a railway line. The finish was flat and fast however.

We thought that it would definitely split on the big climb and the sprinters would be shelled; the TV monitors in the permanence told a different story however and the huge bunch breasted the summit virtually intact in pursuit of a break of six. When you say that the likes of McEwen or Petacchi can't climb, that's a relative statement; they can't live with Simoni or Cunego dancing up some Alpine giant - but believe us: they can climb just fine!

Only 18km to go on this "easy" Stage 2.

I was too busy stabbing-away at my word processor to see much of the action but I paused to watch McEwen use the Milram lead-out machine to full advantage, beating Bettini and Petacchi to the line. A result I just could not imagine whilst driving the course.

The wi-fi in the press room is the usual rip-off, 18 euros/day and the signal wasn't great; "Sir, many people send photos, so is a bit slow just now."

Eventually I got all my stuff away, no time for VeloResults pics though - the wi-fi crashed again and all my patience was gone by then. Besides, there were still digs to find.

Di Luca was happy though, he snaffled the maglia rosa from team mate Gasparotto on points after mixing it with the madmen in the finish straight.

We drove for around 40 minutes to Macomer and found a tiny hotel straight away, with a cracking restaurant around the corner.

It's 07.30, Dave has stopped snoring and is now ranting about the plumbing, so it's time to go.

We have a little logistics problem to deal with today - there's a ferry back to the mainland after the race and we're not booked on it.

Watch this space!

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Day 4 - Tuesday 15th May, 2007

It's 05.00 hours, Tuesday, in the Tirrenian Sea, somewhere west of Civitavecchia - that's the sea port for Rome.

"An ugly and forgettable port that's best avoided" according to the 'Rough Guide to Italy', so we won't be lingering here!

Saying bye to Sardinia in the evening - braw.

The Motor Vessel Clodia is rolling a wee bit and I think I've done my sleeping for the night; but yes, we caught the ferry. There are a lot of Giro personnel, wait for it, 'in the same boat as us' - sorry, in having been unable to get aboard one of the three ferries chartered by the race organisation.

Clusters of sad people, with pink Giro passes round their necks who huddle in corners of the bar. The trouble with this ferry is that Rome is 300 kilometres to the north of Salerno and as soon as we leave our sea-going Alton Towers, we'll have to drive all the way down there.

Fabian chills on the ferry.

Sardinia spoils you. Every morning, when you open the curtains its sunny and there's a blue sky - I haven't seen a cloud for days. There are plenty of clouds in the sky that's pitching outside our porthole now though.

Yesterday was a hectic one: we were up early for breakfast, but there were two sets of people in the hotel's tiny dining room, so we had to go for a pre-breakfast walk until the crush died down. Breakfast comprised things in little celophane packages, I couldn't face any of it, but the coffee was good.

Barumini, where the stage started, was just a spot on the map rather than a place. There are famous, ancient ruins there, but not much else.

Dave helps the locals tells us where we are.

It took a bit of finding, but eventually we saw the race ambulances and tucked-in behind them.

It was damn hot again and before the stage the riders sat in their nice air-conned buses whilst we sweltered outside and gazed in awe at the publicity girls, like Charly Wegelius said: "they're definitely better-looking this year, and there are more of them!"

We coaxed Charly, Steve Cummings and Brett Lancaster out of their buses for a chat and some of that banter is up on Pez here. I've hardly actually seen anything I've written on the site this trip; just the way things have worked-out.

Danilo Di Luca emerged from the Liquigas bus when we were talking to Charly, and 'The Killer' really does suit pink!

Danilo was much happier this morning, where he wanted to be:
in pink, and looking fantastic.

By the time we had spoken to those three, there was a steady stream of riders heading up to the start area to sign-on, one of them was Dario Cioni. Dario does pieces for Pez; I interviewed him at the start of the Giro last year and did telephone interviews with him throughout that race and then in the Vuelta.

He's a big, strong boy and has an Italian TT title and a fourth place on GC in the Giro to his credit. And - as David Duffield never tires of telling us - he was born in Reading. I can be even more boring and tell you that he has relatives in Pitlochry. His season wasn't the best last year, but he rode a very solid Vuelta, getting in some good moves but not winning a stage. Strong Vuelta or not, he didn't do enough to keep his place at Liquigas and he's with Predictor/Lotto this season.

The fact that Liquigas let a rider like Cioni go, says a lot about Charly Wegelius' stature within the team; a very under-rated rider in the UK. Dario is always very analytical about what's happening and his English is better than mine.

Before the stage we had made a list of the guys we wanted to talk to, the only one left was Nicolas Roche and we caught-up with him in the 'Giro Village', sheltering from the sun.It's 20 years since his Paw pulled-off his fabulous Giro/Tour/Worlds treble, and his son is a chip off the old block - he launched a strong last kilometre attack on the stage yesterday, getting some good prime-time TV for his sponsor.

We asked him about his uncle, Lawrence Roche who was a Carrera pro back in the early 90's and a really nice guy. Apparently he's in real estate in Spain now, but texts his nephew regularly on the eve of big races to offer encouragement.

The stage rolled out among the usual chaos and as soon as we had seen it off we headed for Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. Dave rattled the wee Peugeot south as I clicked-away at my copy on the BlackBerry.

Top Tip # 145: Sellotape the stage details to your car interior.

We didn't see much of the city because we had a number of missions to accomplish. First-up was to book a ferry; just to make matters interesting the ferry operators had moved from the ferry terminal to a temporary office - which was, of course, shut until 3.30.

Duly ticketed-up, it was time to abandon the Hertz car, we tried to get them to change our booking for our mainland car to Civitavecchia from Salerno, but no-dice. Fortunately the race permanence wasn't far away and the wi-fi was perfect so we sorted things out on the Hertz helpline.

There was just time to send my pics to Pez, catch the last 10k of the stage on the monitor and then hobble across to the ferry dodging the tail-end stage finishers. Petacchi won, so at least everyone was in a good mood.

Again, there was no time for VeloResults pics, but I promise that once Dave has hustled whatever automotive attrocity Hertz serve up down to Salerno, we'll get things illustrated for you.

It's the rest day today, but not for us, and a mountain top finish tomorrow - braw!

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Day 5 - Wednesday 16th May, 2007

"Rest day", that's a misnomer right away. The ferry was late into Civitavecchia; we had to do a death march with our bags across town to get our Hertz car; then there was a 300 K drive south; the Permanence in Mercogliano wasn't set-up (there were mountains of rubbish in the streets, so maybe it wasn't surprising) and to finish-off we had to pad the streets of Salerno until we found an internet cafe. But we found one eventually and got our pics off to Pez.

The pictures were for a couple of rest day pieces; one on TTT bikes and one on Rosella Signora from Sidi. Canada and the US, which are the main Pez markets, are 8/9 hours behind us, which is good for us, deadlines are later, but eventually the stuff has to go.

This is Mr. Tinkov himself. Hates a bit of advertising. Loves cycling.

We're heading for the Permanence this morning, so we'll get those long-promised VeloResults pics away then - honest!

Salerno isn't Edinburgh, every second bar doesn't have wi-fi and the internet caff we found went like a fair. The cyber-world is in its early days here. It's typical big city and the bad manners and abruptness come as a jolt after the easier experience of Sardinian people.

Speaking of travel arrangements, the pro riders association is on the war-path about the seemingly disastrous stage transfer yesterday - see our piece here. We're a bit concerned about a rider's "pedal to rule" protest today - let's hope not.

Monte Casino now...

The day wasn't all bad though, we saw a lot of Italy that was new to us, it was special driving past Monte Cassino, the hill top abbey founded in 524 AD by St. Benedict is visible for miles. In world war two it was the scene of a six month battle between the German garrison of crack Paras, and the Allies. I've read about it many times, but the there it was: big, squat and square on the summit.

... and Monte Casino after February 14th 1944, when the US bombers totally destroyed it. Over the following months, the Allies tried different assaults to capture the ruined summit from the German para's, losing 54,000 of their number, whilst the Germans lost 20,000 troops here.

Another example of slightly squint Italian architecture.

The stage starts here and finishes at Montevergine di Mercogliano, the first mountain finish - the profile in the race manual looks interesting; just a squiggly line.

It's 07.00 now in Salerno and the city is coming to life, we plan to be on the road for 08.30 and waiting outside the permanence for it to open at 10.00; get the pics off to Scotland then get on the climb for around lunch time.

We want to log the build-up to the stage and the race itself, taking plenty of pics during the day. The permanence is 16 K from the finish, so it will be a bit stressful getting off the hill and back to get our pics in, but that's the journo life.

Best get my washing-in off the balcony and get moving!

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Day 6- Thursday 17th May, 2007

Thursday 08.30, Caserta. We're in Italy's answer to that hotel where Jack Nicholson lost the plot in 'The Shining'.

Huge, empty corridors, plumbing and electrics that have a mind of their own, plus the world's most disinterested and rude staff - maybe they are zombies? Still, we were glad to lay our heads down here late last night: it was a long day.

We left Salerno yesterday around 09.00 and drove up to Mercogliano at the foot of the big climb and where the permanence was located. The press room is supposed to open at 10.00 but it was nearer 11.00 before our first pics hurtled into the ether; I think Mertin should have them up by now [I do, and they're peppered throughout the diary now! - Editor.].

We thought we had nothing better to do than drive up the climb but it was not to be, there was no one except the police and velos going up there before the race. Our mode of transport was the funicolare (funicular); what is a ten kilometre-plus drive takes less than ten minutes as the little carriage wheechs straight up the mountainside.

We were up there all afternoon and the results are on Pez here.

The crowd was nothing like you would get at an equivalent Tour stage, but getting up there was a pain and this is still southern Italy; cycling heartland is further north in Tuscany and Lombardy. I think the pics we took gave a good sense of what it was all about.

Moser still has it: tall, fit, oozes class.

It's hard to convey the excitement among the young fans though, it's verging on football fan frenzy and just a little unsettling.

Liquigas' Vincenzo Nibali is up and coming, he sets pulses racing, as does Saunier's Riccardo Ricco. Both are precocious, attacking riders, not afraid to upset the 'old order', they are also good-looking laddies; it's easy to see why the young fans identify with them.

Wee Ricco chats away to the press.

Ricco was second behind Di Luca on the stage and propelled himself into the climber's jersey whilst Nibali retained the white jersey of best young rider. He's not one of my favourite riders (Tom Boonen + Guy Smet) but I have to say, Di Luca looks amazing in the maglia rosa; super-cool.

Getting-off the mountain wasn't super-cool though, it was grim.

The queues for the funicolare were huge and every now and again "VIP's" would be forced to the head of the throng by officials, making for a dangerous situation on a steep staircase - but that's Italy!

The pain was eased by meeting Maurizio Fondriest in the crush and chatting to him for ten minutes. It was Fondriest, who, in 1988 benefited from Steve Bauer's decking (that's allegedly, if Steve's lawyers are reading) of Claude Criquelion at the end of the world road race championships in Ronse, Belgium. As 'Claudy' limped over the line on foot, young Fondriest had already snaffled the title.

He was a nice guy, easy to talk to and still looking very fit. As I recall, Robert Millar used to reckon that Fondriest was the coolest-looking guy in the world when it came to position on a bike.

Eventually we got off the hill and in to the permanence. The wi-fi behaved and it wasn't too long before we could head north, to where we are now.

It was late when we finally got to bed and like Dave said - "mind and double-lock that door son!"

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Day 7 - Friday 18th May, 2007

It's our last stage today, it's Friday morning and we're in Tivoli. Yesterday was an up and down sort of day, although by the sixth grappa last night it seemed fine.

We left our hotel (as featured in George A Romero's movie - Zombies, Dawn of the Dead) and headed for the stage start at Teano, we would never have found it if we hadn't tagged-on to the Mavic neutral service cars.

It was hot at the start, which was on the outskirts of town near a run-down football pitch where the team buses parked-up. We had planned to do a 'beginning and end' piece on the stage, so focused on the logistical aspect of a stage - you can see it on Pez.

We grabbed some interviews, again these are up on the site here; we're in our own little bubble here, there's not really time to sit and skek the 'net so I have hardly seen anything I've written, or read the latest on Floyd.

Oleg Tinkov - good guy. Bike nut.

Oleg Tinkoff was an interesting man to meet, tall with craggy good looks and a good command of English. The man is driven; I would bet on a Tinkoff stage win before the end of the Giro. He must have thought we were OK because we are now the proud owners of Tinkoff baseball caps, rare items in Fife.

We had a blether with Steve Cummings, he's a James Stewart kind of a guy, big, quiet, friendly but not to be messed with - riding for Discovery in the Giro: you have to admire the man.

3 Aussies: Nick Gates (centre) entertaines Matt White (l)
and Brett Lancaster with a very animated story.

After the stage we high-talled it to the finish in Frascati by way of the autoroute; following the team buses as they raced each other. Dave kept us alive as I sat and pressed the buttons on the BlackBerry.

The permanence was in a beautifully restored old building but that was where things started to go wrong; I spent ages trying to get connected to the wi-fi and even with the help of the technicians we couldn't get a consistent connection.

I had all my pics from the morning to send and I could feel the frustration building inside me as the afternoon disolved. Eventually we hard-wired the thing and off went the pics.

By that time Forster had out-dragged Petacchi and Robbie and the show was over. We got a few half decent shots of the riggers breaking the stands and fences down, then nipped-back to the permanence to send them.

It was wearing or 8.00 pm by then so we decided to pitch camp in Frascati. We got a nice wee hotel just two minutes from the permanence.
We had a quick shower and settled-down to rattle-off the last of our copy before our pizza.

Did I mention the grappa?

Later....

Now it's 15.30 on Friday afternoon, we're inside the last 40 K of stage six, Dave is hustling the little Lancia down the second big descent of the day and we've found the real Giro - at last!

We're driving the whole course again today, but it's a different experience from Sardinia and the south - people wave and laugh here.

If you stop to take pictures then you have to take a glass of wine with them. The crowds aren't huge - that's for the Alps and Dolomites - but they are warm and enthusiastic.

It didn't take us long to get from our nice wee hotel in Fracati to the stage start in Tivoli. It's a beautiful place with waterfalls and Roman ruins amid lush greenery.

Fast-forward to 20.45 on the Autostrad A1, headed north to Pisa, where we catch the plane home in the morning. We completed our stage recce around 40 minutes before the stage finish and headed for the permanence.

I had hassle with the wi-fi straight-off, so we went hard-wired with the connection and off-popped the 50 images to Vancouver in jig-time. I'll get more pics off to Mertin tomorrow, as soon as I get home.

The cyber world had one last kick to administer though: I had been writing-up my Pez report on the BlackBerry as the day went-on. The game plan being to have it virtually complete for the finish, give it a quick edit, then send it. However, whilst the mobile phone and text functions on the BlackBerry were fine, there was no data connection.

That happened to us a couple of times in Italy, maybe it's the area, eventually it 'clears' and the email wings-off on its own. You can read the course overview on Pez here.

I couldn't take the chance though, and had to sit down and transcribe 800 words from the BlackBerry into the laptop so as I could get them away. Naturally, within five minutes of hitting the trail, the message sent from the BlackBerry - aren't computers a laugh?

We didn't see much of the stage today but Dave predicted a break would 'stick'. I think that the fact Di Luca let the jersey go today tells you that he's serious about the GC.

If he was thinking short-term then he had plenty of horse power to bring the break back and keep himself in pink: but he didn't burn-up his squadra - there'll be a bigger game in town in a week or so. The pressure is off him now with Pinotti in yellow.

We were chatting to Aldis, the T - Mobile soigneur, in Sardinia, he told us: "No big riders, no pressure, it's good!". Todays events have changed that a wee bit.

I think it's a disappointment for the fans at the finish when there's an 'arrangement' like there was today but it's a time honoured arrangement in stage racing: "Work with me, and if we stay away I'm going to take the jersey, so you can have the stage." That's how it worked-out, Pinotti got his jersey and Laverde got his stage - the public? They get a damp squib finish.

That's our Giro over, but Pez will continue to have men on the ground right to the bitter end.

As we say in Kirkcaldy, ciao !

That's these buggers finished, put the pasta on hen.

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