Giro d'Italia Diary
Friday 23rd May - 1st June, 2008
by Ed Hood

The 91st edition of the Tour of Italy has finished, and it's been a fascinating battle, with a few surprise stage winners, apparently "out of form" riders in the top 10 on GC, and plenty of great stories.

In fact, the final week was the deciding section in all the in-race competitions, and VeloResults has been there!

What a week to join the race: Stage 14 finished at the top of the Alpe di Pampeago where Simoni took the race by the scruff of it's neck 5 years ago, and the next Stage, 15, had no less that 6 serious climbs including the Passo di San Pellegrino and the Passo Fedaia, where it's the first time a stage has finished at the summit. These were followed the by a mountain time trial with nothing but uphill. Then there was a rest day, a couple of "easier" days, and the second last stage on Saturday 31st was an awesome 224-kilometre run over the Passo Gavia, the very steep Passo del Mortirolo and the infamous Aprica, before arriving in Tirano. The race hasn't finished with a time trial since 1992 when Miguel Indurain won, and today's pan-flat 28.5 kilometre course keept the final maglia rosa unknown until the very end.

We've brought you daily behind-the-scenes updates of the action and our adventures, so why not grab a coffee, read on, and imagine yourself there too!

Day 1 : Day 2 : Day 3 : Day 4 : Day 5 : Day 6 : Day 7 : Day 8 : Day 9 : Day 10

Day 1 - Friday 23rd May, 2008

Ciao ! Ciao !

It's 9.30 pm here in Verona, city of opera, Romeo and Juliet and Stage 14 of the 2008 Giro.

We're sitting outside our hotel with our "welcome drink" - not a bad beer, as it happens.

It's been a long one - up at 03.30 am; car to Turnhouse; Easyjet to Stanstead; Ryanair to Brescia with two screeching Essex girls in the seats in front of us, then hire car to Verona.

We threw caution to the wind and bought a map of Verona on the way in to the city at a filling station; finding the hotel was a breeze.

I've got all the hotels pre-booked this year; it won't be as much fun as driving around Italy at midnight looking for a bed but we're a year older and getting soft.

The start for tomorrow's 14th stage - the ancient Roman coloseum at Piazza Bra.

Ale, who has been 'roadside' for Pez had a camera failure today and couldn't do his piece, so we stepped in and did a wee "story so far" piece.

This meant that we had to nip into Verona and get some pics before diving back to the hotel to finish the piece and get the images away.

There's no wi-fi in the hotel but they've got free lobby internet terminals.
That means that the pics have to get edited on the laptop then transfered onto a memory stick, taken down to the lobby and emailed from there.

Fortunately there was no problem getting access to the USB's and the pics flew off into cyber space without too much hassle.

Verona was under going Giro-fication when we got there, the rigging crews were busy building the start village as the dinners in the pavement cafés sat and observed.

Verona is a Roman city and the start area sits under the Arena, this was built in the first century and is still in use as an opera venue - Meadowbank was only built in 1970 and it's getting torn down, so much for progress!

We had a wander round and grabbed a pizza before driving back to the digs.

Now we know the lie of the land for tomorrow and the stage start. We'll be picking up our credentials in the morning. Usually this is done at the Stampa, (press room) but these are always located at the finish. However, the Gazzetta has a camper van at the stage starts, where you can get your creds; so that's our game plan tomorrow.

The alarms are set for 07.00, breakfast will be 08.00 and then it's down to get our creds. The game plan for tomorrow is do a big bike recce; I want to do a number of articles about the velos - sprinters, time triallists, climbers plus any 'novelties' we suss - watch this space! We'll also begin to suss out interviews.

After our bike skek and just before the start we plan to bolt to the finish and do a piece on how the day comes together there - the crowd, the atmosphere and then, of course, the riders.

There'll be winners, loosers, also rans and eliminations - we'll try to do our best to take you there.

Not sure if we'll sleep tonight...

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Day 2 - Stage 14 - Saturday 24th May, 2008

Another long one, it's 11.35 pm local time, Saturday and we're still in this pizzeria at Pozza di Fassa.

The stage finished down on schedule and by the time we walked off the mountain; got set up in the press room, fired the pics away, completed the words, drove here, found the hotel and checked in, it was well after 10.00.
The hotel is nice, this is ski country and the Austrian border isn't far away so it's all chalets, wide eaves and timber - very picturesque.

The owner was doing a fair Hank Marvin impersonation on the electric guitar when we arrived, entertaining some of his guests. He has good patter; "Are you the owner?" Reply;"No, I just look after it for the bank!"

Anyway, we were glad to see him; the fact that you have a bed for the night lifts the spirits - driving about Italy late at night in the dark with no place to stay is a tad scary.

Simoni's team is staying just around the corner, their bus is hard to miss, with it's huge graphic of old 'Gibo' opening a PVC window - his main sponsors manufacture them.

Gibo is having a good Giro thus far.

Simoni is still hugely popular here, his best days are behind him but he'll still have a stage win in him - maybe on Sunday? Serramenti are paying him a lot of money, Saunier couldn't match it - but 'Gibo' was Serramenti's ticket to the Giro.

Even one stage win in a Grand Tour generates huge publicity, especially if it's a national treasure like Simoni. He's an eccentric wee chap, a little disconnected from what's going on around him, like David Millar said; "...he lives on Planet Gibo!"

By chance, we took a photo of the winner's pockets before the start.

We we're looking at his Bottechia this morning, a small machine with short stem - the old fahioned climbers style. Talking of small, old fashioned, Bottechia riding climbers; Mario Beccia - 70's and 80's smallest, oldest and baldest ace climber - is a TV pundit these days and his wig perches on his napper like a crow's nest; only on Italian TV folks!

Our mooch around at the start
wasn't as long as we'd have liked; getting our creds from the Gazzetta camper van took an age - still, we have them now; we can roam to our heart's content and use the press room.

I swear that press rooms get unfriendlier as the years go by; one day there'll be racks of baseball bats at the door as you walk in, so that you can collect one and take a swing at the boy sitting next to you.

Even though I've scraped around at a lot of big races, it's still a buzz to be among the bikes and to be in such close proxomity to the riders. At the start they are usually pretty relaxed and it reminds you that they are just young men, not automatons. Riccardo Riccò was happily posing with fans, laughing and chatting - totally at odds with his 'pain in the bum' rep.

Adam Hanson discusses the day ahead and sets up the Garmin.

Millar and the boys at Slipstream rode 'choppers' to the sign on; David seemed almost relaxed. He's a nervous character - never completely at ease with the press I feel - and will probably be more comfortable when he moves into management, as seems likely.

Dave Millar not quite focused yet. His presence here is "all for the Tour".

The Slipstream manager, Matt White is relishing the change from bike to team car; relaxed and 'easy' with everyone - but I guess his being an Aussie helps, they're different to us Europeans.

...That said, when there's racing to be done, the messing about stops.

We said 'farewell' to Verona as the race rolled out and headed north into the Dolomites, we were on the actual race route from around half distance.
Hard doesn't do it justice, the Manghen Pass is 2000 metres plus - and brutal. Dave rode up it in the 2000 Campagnolo Fondo, 39 x 26 virtually all the way and it was too high!

Winner Serra's sprocket choice for the day - is that a 30 bottom?

Dave and Didi enjoy a moment.

The finish to Alpi di Pampeago wasn't as deadly a climb but was very tough nonetheless. They wouldn't let us up the last four K with the car; but we only had temporary cred stickers on the car - all they issue from the camper van - and maybe that was the problem. The car was duly parked and off we went - walking up climbs isn't my favourite activity, but needs must.

Fans of all sorts get involved.

We got to around one kilometre to go before the race arrived - we had planned to be at the finish; never mind.

Serra was well clear and the remnants of the break were scattered behind him.

Il Grillo enjoys a good day in the break, and finished 5th on the stage.

One of our favourites, Vlad Karpets, loses 13 minutes.

The big boys were all riding hard, but none of the favourites lost serious time. There would be a litte bit of their minds thinking about Sunday's five cols, no doubt.

Pelli and Marzio wrap up to make their way down to the bus.

It gets chaotic very quickly after the leaders pass. Riders who have finished freewheel down as those still racing slog upwards. Meanwhile the fans jump the barriers and begin to walk or cycle down.

Jurgen Van Den Broeck and friend share the road back down.

As the 'autobus' - full of men with 'thousand yard stares' - ground past 42 minutes behind Sella, it was as if they were riding along Princes Street on a Saturday.This kind of thing simply wouldn't happen at le Tour -it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Vladimir Miholjevic is glad that's over, losing nearly 18 minutes to Serra.

Nearly forgot - as we approached the Alpi we spotted a guy ripping along on a Carrera, long black hair streaming in the wind - Claudio Chiappucci, he's still looking good and was quick with his smile; 60% or not, I miss him!

Forza Claudio!

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Day 3 - Stage 15 - Sunday 25th May, 2008

"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglay," Rabbie Burns must have had a premonition about the Giro when he wrote that.

It should have been a short hop over the Pordoi Pass from the digs to the start at Arabba. The jobsworth policeman at the top of the Pordoi settled our hash though; "No, you stop now, road closed, no journalists, only team cars!"

Aye, cheers pal, you'll soon get that job you want in the riot squad, bludgeoning students. Sorry..., I was ranting, wasn't I?

We had to turn the little Matiz around and head back down the Pordoi to take route B to Arabba, via three alternative mountain passes.

We would have managed the whole route if our pal at the Pordoi hadn't stopped us and caused us to drop that time, but we got stopped again with five to go on the Marmalada - we set off to walk the last to the top, but there just wasn't enough time.

It's like that addage your old journeyman used to quote; "An hour in the morning is worth two in the afternoon!"

Pozzovivo road a stellar stage today.

The piece is up on Pez here and details our day.

The scenery in the Dolomites is - to use an over worked word - stunning.
Everywhere you look there are mountains and rock formations of such diverse shapes and colours that you can only stare in wonder. Apparently the Dolomites were ancient coral reefs, thrust high, way back in time and leaving the 'saw tooth' profiles which now leave you gasping.

Riccò road like a challenger again today.

Spanish champ Rodriguez had a better day today.

There perhaps aren't as many fans out as one might expect, but there are still healthy crowds on the finish climbs.

Bosisio lost his jersey after 1 day.

Contador taking the jersey won't have helped audiences, Italians like Italians winning!

Brad rides to finish 35 minutes behind Serra - there's 2 more time trial to come, but perhaps only next Sunday's parcours suits him.

I said the minute I heard that 'Bert' (as Alan Buttler calls him) was riding, that he'd win - there's no one will drop him by a significant margin on the climbs and he can time trial with the best.

Bert rode sensibly and looked well within his limits most of the time.

I'd like an Italian winner, Di Luca, Ricco or preferably Simoni - he's so eccentric - but I honestly can't see 'Bert' loosing it now.

Kloden folded today, I think the German could still win the Tour one day, but he hasn't many chances left. He's still super classy - not today though. Andreas's bad day is more good news for 'Bert' - there's no conflict of interests now.

The Pordoi Pass.

Over the last few days we've become big Bruseghin fans, he's such a 'bear' and his fans are all deranged. The donkey is his mascot, his fans have posters and pictures of the long eared, stubborn criturs everywhere.

Dave resists the temptation to swap something for a Bruz hat.... for now.

I dare say we'll have 'Bruz' hats, complete with donkey ears, by the time we go home.

One of Bruz's deranged fans, dressed in priests gear today, 'blessing' all and sundry. Like Dave said; "I'm no' sure that boy is a real priest!"

Dave rides along in the autobus.

Another party piece from his fans is the "donkey cry" air horn - wonderful!
We think that Bruz's fans would even make it to the top echelon of demented fans in the world centre for crazed supporters - Flanders.

It's 8.36 pm and Dave has just taken us over the summit of the Marmolada en route our hotel.

We didn't see this part of the route today due to the closure, but if I tell you that Dave had to take the car down to first gear at one stage, then I think you'll get the picture on the gradients.

The descent of the Pordoi - gives you an idea of the gradient around here.

The scenery up here is even more awe inspiring, whole mountain sides look like melted candle wax and the huge rock domes and stumps remind me of Ansel Adam's pictures of Yosemite National Park in the States.

The digs aren't too far away now and I can almost smell our pizzas.

Feeding time.

Sella - 2 in a row: great stuff.

Plan de Corones tomorrow, can Sella make it three? I don't think so, Contador is my tip.

Ciao, ciao !

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Day 4 - Stage 16 - Monday 26th May, 2008

The balcony from our digs has the most perfect views you can imagine.

It was a hassle to find, but now that we're here it's simply magnificent, it's like looking out of a plane, we're so high and the view across the valley is so spectacular.

The Plan de Corones stage made for great TV and if we'd had mountain bikes with us and no deadlines to worry about it would have been great to be up there on the dirt section.

However, in the 'real world', we knew it would be nightmarish trying to get down off the hill after the finish and there are deadlines to meet.

Andreas Klöden heads for 19th place @ 2'40"

The mountain TT was a big deal to the 'capo' but to the other riders it was just a pain, do it - get back to the bottom, get to the hotel and start the rest day early.

Dave gets a hug from Claudio Chiapucci.

Dave meets Gabriele Bosisio on his way down the mountain after racing to 21st place on the Stage at 3'04". He looks pretty fresh for having fought tooth and nail to keep his Pink Jersey yesterday.

Geraint Thomas, oor Dave, and Steven Cummings.

We had a good scrape about the buses in search of interesting toys, but the fact is that the 'every day' bikes ridden by the teams are so light now - virtually all pushing the UCI limit - that there's no need for 'specials' anymore.

David Millar's crankset for the day: a Shimano prototype mountain bike version, 180mm cranks with 34/50 rings. Dave ran 11 thro' 27 at the back.

Our travels are charted in Pez here; we didn't get high onto the climb, but we had a walk up for a couple of K. It was overcast, but the UV rays were working just fine, as the 'somebody playing a blowlamp on my head' sensation kicked-in, I was never so glad to see the boy handing out the free Skoda hats.

You'd think, that having been bald for most of my adult life, I'd remember to take a hat? Dave, always quick with a comforting word told me my head looks like a "Bellisha Beacon" - cheers Dave. The euro 1-90 I spent on Nivea cream at San Lorenzo was my best investment in a long time.

Coolest guy bar none: Daniele Bennati.

We watched the top 50 go off, it was one minute intervals for the first 30 but no following car. The last 20 - that's top 20 on GC in reverse order - went at three minute intervals and had the luxury of a following car, but only until 5 K to go, when the dirt road started.

Jurgen Van Den Broeck - 12th @ 1'58"

Paolo Bettini riding in his club colours for a change.

When we were chatting about the stage over breakfast this morning it dawned on us why the orgainisation would get involved in such a logistically complex operation - money! The Plan de Corones ski resort is probably paying the race a fortune.

'Bert' Contador, 4th place today @ 22 seconds.

After Contador bounced past, looking pretty in pink, we watched the finalé on the big screen.

Franco Pellizotti - a great win today.

Pellizotti's ride was an excellent, if surprising one - we just have to hope that too much of that Tyrollean dust didn't get into his hair or he'll be up 'til late with the conditioner.

Marzio Bruseghin warms up.

Just off the plaza where the big screen was situated they were hard selling Marco Pantani's life story DVD's. One of his Bianchis was on display together with a few of his jerseys.

I've just finished Matt Rendell's book about 'The Pirate's' life and death; try to read it - a sad, sad story.

One quote of the little man's, regarding female attention strikes a chord, along the lines "Before, I was a little, bald guy with stick-out ears, then I make two big efforts in the Giro and suddenly I'm very attractive!"

(Coincidentally, as I get this diary up to date, Tuesday lunch time, Dave has just pointed out that we're passing the road end for the Madonna di Campiglio, where Pantani was ejected from the '99 Giro.)

The drive back to the digs last night was a bit of a stress job - the address was listed as San Lorenzo, but the hotel was actually about 10 K from there, high in the mountains. If we hadn't bought a map, we'd never have found it.

The owner was a sound chap and let me use his computer to (slowly) send my pics off to Pez.

Dinner was on the premises and we had time for one last look out over the valley in the darkness before lapsing into comas.

Rest day tomorrow - ciao, ciao !

OK, we're sold: full-blown Bruss fans now.

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Day 5 - Rest Day - Tuesday 27th May, 2008

"When you hear the tootin' of the whistle, you never have to guess; it's Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball Express" - Dave and I were just debating the lyrics of the Casey Jones 60's TV programme, if anyone can give us the full lyrics, we'd be much obliged.

Sorry, on long transfer drives like this, you get to talking about all sorts of things.

You left us at San Lorenzo, now we're en route to Sondrio - not a huge distance, maybe 250 K but on B roads and involving two mountain passes.

The weather is glorious today, 23 degrees and we're at 1000 metres plus as we head east across the north of Italy.

Tomorrow's stage goes from Sondrio to Locarno in Switzerland, another for Cav maybe? The only thing he has to work on, is his style, he's maybe challenging 'Benna' for speed but he's not in the same league for 'cool'.

The Gazzetta is good today, with a full run down on the Plan de Corones stage and some great pics.

I was talking about Matt Rendell's Pantani book yesterday and looking at the Gazzetta today made me think about it again. The Gazzetta was "bigging up" the TV audience for the Marmolada stage - 4 million, 35% audience share. In his prime, Pantani was attracting 6 million - those marketing guys must miss him!

The stats in the Gazzetta make interesting reading, a good few teams are still intact, LPR, Caisse, High Road, QuickStep (would you like to tell Patrick Lefevre you've climbed off?) and Diquigiovanni.

But some are in tatters, Euskaltel have five survivors, Cofidis are down to four and big hitters, Gerolsteiner have two left

Six got the chop from the time cut at Plan de Corones yesterday - surprisingly including strongmen Belohvosciks (Saunier) and Haymen (Rabobank) - the field is down to 146 from 198.

We're on the Tonale Pass at the moment, our second Passo of the day, the first was the Mendola, which had stunning views across the valley to the Dolomites.

Bressanone Cathedral.

Bressanone

Two cyclists appeared up ahead, old guys with really fit legs, one was Gianni Motta, 1966 Giro winner. He does the rounds for one of the big banks at Giro time; last year we saw him in Sardinia. They had Moser on the roster too, last year but Motta is a more tranquil character than Francesco. "Vai Motta!" and on we go.

Gianni Motta, 1966 Giro winner.

It's 14.36 as I write this, we left well ahead over 09.30 schedule and had thought we'd be at Sondrio in four hours; I should know better.

Sinuous roads, mountain passes, road works, tucks and tractors all conspire to making progress across Italy very slow. And up here, there are no Autostrada to resort to.

You can read about the whole trip on Pez here; the first 70% or so of the journey was great, the last couple of hours was a slog - slow and little to see except the brake lights of whatever was crawling along in front of us.

Compared to the glorious valleys where we've just come form, it's a bit of a downer; but like I said on Pez, you get to the stage where you just want out of the damn car.

Journeys end was more than six hours after we left, apart from photo stops and five minutes to guzzle our strudel, we didn't put off any time.

Back to work tomorrow, I'm just glad today was so easy!

Ciao, ciao!

Journey's end - phew!

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Day 6 - Stage 17 - Wednesday 28th May, 2008

The girl in the petrol station where we just filled up, was stunningly beautiful - I sent Dave back in to buy Coke, so he could see her; why don't they have girls like her in the filling station at Wester Hailes?

The Gazzetta is on my lap as we head for 'partenza' in Sondrio. Even though you can't speak Italian, you can get the jist of most of what's being said; "Sorpresa Van Den Broeck, delusione Savoldelli."

The stats are great too, ideal for saddos like us, particularly the 'rating so far' - "Bert" on 9 out of 10 and "The Killer" way back on 5; he won't like that!

It was beautiful where we stayed last night - Valdidentro, one of the up market ski valleys, nestling below the Stelvio Pass. In the summer they go big on mountain biking and walking to grab some revenue at what is for them the 'off' season.

Riccardo Riccò kills time before the bunch rolls out.

The plan today was twofold, get more pics of bikes, for pieces we have planned and do a feature on the fans roadside.

The bike pics worked out just fine, but crazy fans were thin on the ground - you can read all about my panic on Pez!

The fans idea probably wasn't the best, given that a big chunk of the stage was in Switzerland. What is it Harry Lime says, in the 'Third Man?' - "Five hundred years of peace, and what have the Swiss given the world? - the cuckoo clock!"

The children get to leave school for the race passing - and really get into the festa spirit..

The folks roadside were interested polite 'civilians' rather than rabid tifosi. Dave was just saying that it's typical of when you take a Tour outside of it's national boundaries - it then ceases to be that Tour. Sometimes, of course, it generates huge interest, like when the Tour visited London, but on a lot of other occasions, it just doesn't work.

Lake Como.

It was all too easy to get a 'hing spot' (vantage point; when translated from Fife dialect) on the barriers well inside the last kilometre. When I was at the Tour prologue in Strasbourg, there were folks booking their spot at 06.00 am.

Lake Lugano.

The organisation seems shakier than last year and one thing that wouldn't happen on the Tour is that they allow normal traffic on the roads between the publicity caravan and the race - if you are on the corsa between the caravan and the race, you have to be very careful, with vans and buses hurtling towards you in typical demented Italian fashion.

Dave adds another rider to his Facebook friends.

Moans over! To be here, chatting to Mark Cavendish, driving the race route, being part of the Giro - it's marvellous.

At the moment we're on the road running south alongside Lake Maggiore to our hotel at Verbania. it's very much like the old road up Loch Lomond, faithfully hugging every twist and turn of the shore.

It's beautiful, with the lake and the mountains beyond over to our left and wooded hiils on our right. The villages are picture post card perfect, with pan tiled roofs, ancient bell towers and bars that just make you want to stop and go in.

I've stayed in Verbania before, you can take the ferry to the Isola dei Pescatori (Fishermen's Island), it used to be a haunt of Hemingway's and despite the tourists, it's cool.

Anyway, enough of the 'Holiday Programme' stuff!

Tomorrow's stage is rated ** 'difficolta' by the Gazzetta and has a real 'saw tooth' profile, including two laps of what will be the circuit for the Worlds, in September. A break could go tomorrow, but Cav and Greipel's boys will be on a high after today, so they'll chase hard.

A well-organised Team High Road delivered their two sprinters to the front with perfect timing.

'Benna's' Liquigas won't be so willing to pour out the watts, though. Pellizotti is in 5th place, just 2'05" down on 'Bert' and only 44 seconds away from Gibo's third spot on the podium.

They also have up and coming Vincenzo Nibali (aka 'The Shark' - I don't make them up, I just tell you what they are!) in 11th spot. He'll want to go top ten, so 'Benna' won't have the luxury of a full squad throwing themselves into the fray, like Cav and Greipel do.

Nearly at Verbania and I can taste my pasta! Buona notte.

Ciao tutti.

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Day 7 - Stage 18 - Thursday 29th May, 2008

We belled Viktor from Verbania last night...

We were feeling quite mellow; words and pics sent, a nice plate of pasta, a glass of beer and a stroll by Maggiore in the warm air.

"The only reason I watch the race is because there's nothing else on TV, those photos you take are holiday snaps, Sella looks like a schoolboy, 'certain of the GB rider's' aren't proper pros, the scenery is terrible . . . . "

Climber Domenico Pozzovivo looks like a schoolboy - or is that Graeme McGarrity!?

You have to hand it to him - he is the Eddy Merckx of ranters.

The view from our verandah is stunning - again! - out across Maggiore to the mountains, albeit the rain and low cloud is obscuring the vista this morning.

We've availed ourselves of the Verbania to Lavena ferry, straight across Maggiore.

This saves us the drive round the bottom of the lake; the traffic down there is horrific. I experienced it at Lombardy last year and it really has to be experienced to be believed - two hours to do 30 miles is normal.

The Gazzetta has a tiny 40 mm x 40 mm panel on the front cover recording Greipel's win - not that the Italians have anything against a German winning a Giro stage...

Part one of the plan for today is to complete our photography for our 'bikes of the Giro" piece.

The everyday bikes are fantastic, and often the only way to make them "special" is with the finishing kit.

There was a day when "specials" would be wheeled out for selected stages in the Grand Tours. Riders like Switzerland's Beat Breu (now a comedian!) would ride bikes in the 80's with no handlebar tape and fragile resin gear levers to save on those precious grammes for the big climbs.

That said, the new Shimano Dura-Ace was getting a run-out here...

More recently, ONCE supremo Manolo Saiz would have riders like Alex Zulle and Laurent Jalabert on superlight aluminium Kleins running 650 wheels for mountain time trials.

The UCI weight restrictions have changed everything, virtually every bike in the peloton is nudging down towards the minimum permissable weight.

Bearing this in mind, the bikes ridden for even the most mountainous stages are the same bikes ridden in all stages except time trials.

The one area where there may be "specials" is for the sprinters; riders like Cipollini and Boonen who generate huge wattages and have to have specially strengthened frames. The down tube on Tom's Specialized is like a section of the Alaskan gas pipeline.

We started at Lampre and got Bruz's bike; a carbon Wilier with integrated seat post and curved seat stays. An ISP is lighter and stiffer than a normal seat post, but some maintain it gives a very rough ride. Maybe the curved seat stays are there to 'dial out' that roughness?

Astana next, where we had to ask politely to get snaps of Bert's Trek; last year at the Tour, Alan Buttler handed us Contador's bike; "Here. Do what you like with it!"

Bert's headset. Actually, we reckon that is pretty special.

At Liquigas we had already arranged a skek at the Cannondales via Rory Mason, who we met at Paris-Roubaix last year and he keeps us well informed of what is happening within the company.

Up at High Road, the guys were very helpful as we snapped away at Cav's double stage winning 2009 prototype Giant - all 6.85 kilos of it.

The 'ful mulsh' is on Pez here.

We ambled up to the village after that to see what we could see, again it's on Pez; but to get close to two of your heroes in one day: Bruz and Cipo - that's a result!

Dave keeps on meeting the class acts. Cipo is actually shouting at Ed: "It's raining - hurry up man!".

With the rain, it wasn't the best day to talk to riders, they were hiding in the team cars or in the start village.

Brad, Dave Millar and Cav were hanging out together in one of the hospitality cabins at the start village, a pretty hostess standing guard, to keep pains in the neck like me at bay.

Vladimir Karpets

Two of the coolest looking dudes on the circuit (next to Benna and Bruz, naturally!) are big Russian, Vladimir Karpets), and German sprinter (albeit with some 'previous') Danilo Hondo - his Guerciotti is cool too.

Danilo Hondo

We saw the race go by, had a jaw with Luca Scinto, and then hit the press room where we sorted out A LOT of pictures for a couple of forthcoming features.

Luca Scinto - Cipo's mate and fearless ex-leadout man.

Steve Cummings cruised through today, behind the Astana led bunch.

Bruss gives us a moment, and chats about his chances of finishing on the podium on Sunday.

The Citu Hotel in Varese is where we are now, best get to sleep before Dave's snoring starts!

Back in the montagna tomorrow, ciao!

Stop-Press... Spanish-based VeloResults correspondant Al Hamilton eludes the immigration authorities to meet up for pizza with thebicycleworks.co.uk's John Anderson, Alex Coutts, Mickey Mallen and (this is a rare sight) a smiling Viktor!

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Day 8 - Stage 19 - Friday 30th May, 2008

Buon giorno !

Another German stage win and the Gazzetta front page says - "three days of truth waiting to attack Contador" - old Jens doesn't get so much as a mention until the fourth page of Giro reports, deep in the paper - like I said yesterday, the Italians just love the Germans winning their tappas...

Contador is given a 55% chance of final overall victory, Ricco 20% and Simoni 20%.

There are 480.0 kilometres left to decide the race, of which 28.5 K is against the watch. Today's stage is 228 K with three GP Montagna, including a mountain top finish; it could be a seven hours job.

If you've read yesterday's offering from us for Pez, you'll know that we bumped into Stefano Barzaghi, graphic artist to the stars at the Liquigas bus - check his site www.barzadesign.it.

It's 09.15 and we're on the autostrada tailing the F des J team car to the start, the traffic in Italy is simply the worst; it's well-nigh impossible to schedule journey times, on the transfer day our average speed was 40 kph.

It's 12.20 now and what was I just saying?

We're on the autostrada for Brescia, we've just come through the mother and father of all traffic jams. One of those big truck and trailer combos has just cowped, scattering scrap metal across three lanes - messy!

We got in a good wee bit of work at the Legnano start, it's on Pez today, we had interviews with Geraint Thomas, Cav, Charly Wegelius, Adam Hansen, Claudio Corti, Phillip Deignan and Giovanni Savio - Simoni's DS.

Dave and Geraint Thomas

Geraint is a good guy to talk to, he looks you in the eye and isn't averse to the odd bit of spicey language to make his point.

Come the Olympics, him, Brad and Steve Cummings will all have dragged themselves round this Giro - no other team pursuit squad is going to have background like that.

Mark Cavendish

Cav has his feet on the ground too, despite his space shuttle like rise to fame. He's a likeable little fellow and the stage wins here place him in the absolute top drawer.

Charlee

Charly Wegelius is the 'forgotten man' of British cycling, year in, year out, he gets contracts with the very best teams in the world. I once asked him, how he would describe himself as a rider; "Somebody who is paid to do a job and can be relied upon to go out and do it." He's very popular in Italy and is constantly being wished well; the old lady who was the desk clerk at our hotel in Verbania told us that she; "likes Charlee very much!"

Adam Hansen

Big Hansen is cool, with the trendy facial hair and jewellery, but like most Aussies he's very down to earth and easy to talk to.

Claudio Corti is 'jack the lad,' but good for a quote; he was a talented pro in his day - second to Claude Criquelion in the Worlds at Barcelona in '84.

Phillip Deignan

Phillip Deignan is a good looking boy, with a great smile and a personality to match - he reminded us of Stephen Roche's brother, Laurence who was a pro for Carrera in the late 80's.

Giovanni Savio - Simoni's DS

Savio is 'Gibo's' DS: dapper and with good English - like most of these guys, if you're polite and sensible, they'll take time to talk to you.

To use a journalistic device - "fast forward to 8.55 pm" and we're still in the press room. The 'net went down and just as we were fixing to bolt and send the pics from the hotel, they got it fixed, it was down for ages, we should be long gone, but we're still sat here, attaching pictures - it's a glamorous life on the Giro !

We've got a one hour drive to the hotel, but hey! that's show biz !

Danilo Di Luca lead the attacks today.

Di Luca was impressive today, when you're roadside you're not fully sussed as to what's going on out on the the road and it was an email which I received from Richard on the BlackBerry that clued us that Di Luca was on an 'adventure.' I think I said it on Pez, but The Killer was riding visibly faster than anyone else at that summit - he was great to watch.

Paolo Savoldelli

Savoldelli is a local, he comes from Bergamo and there were a lot of "Falco" posters to be seen today. It would have been great to see him with Di Luca, but fairy tales are scarce in the world of pro cycling - still, he did a great job for Bettini and between them they've reignited this Giro. I don't think that the Gazzetta will still have Bert on a 55% chance of winning, tomorrow.

The autobus was out there for seven-and-a-quarter hours today. We caught sight of Adam, briefly after the finish; at the start this morning I was telling him how well he looked - at the end, he looked about 40 years-old!

Winner today - Belorussian Vasili Kiryienka.

I mentioned it briefly on Pez, but the way the fans react here really is dangerous. Once the leaders are past, then a mass exodus starts, cyclists by the hundred take to the road, well before the autobus has passed. It strikes us that it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Cheers!

Anyway, last pics nearly done, so as we say in Bowhill; Ciao, ciao !

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Day 9 - Stage 20 - Saturday 31st May, 2008

Paolo Savoldelli 10 out of 10, Danilo Di Luca 9.5 out of 10: the Gazzetta gave Friday to LPR - and so they should. Stage racing at it's best; even if Contador wins on Sunday in Milano, Di Luca can hold his head high.

Ricco gets a 9; if he can keep his feet on the ground then he must surely win a giro - but not this one.

Contador on 6.5; as Diquigiovanni's DS, Savio told us yesterday; "Perhaps Contador will have a bad day."

The problem for Savio, was that his contender, Gibo Simoni also had a forgettable day, dropping from third to tenth on GC and earning just 5 out of 10 from the Gazzetta - he must attack today to salvage something from this race.

As we drove down the road away from Presolana last night, we were just saying how lucky we'd been with the folks at the hotels we'd stayed in.

That was until we arrived in Selvino; the road up was an endless serious of horrible hairpins; boy racers tailed gated us up, passing on the inside of the bends; the woman in the hotel was vile and the "Irish Pub' across the road from the hotel looked like the waiting room at Saughton. Apart from that, it was fine!

That snow doesn't ever melt completely.

It's 27 degrees at 11.00 am on Saturday morning and Dave is piloting the Matiz north. We didn't go to the start this morning; prefering instead to book our spot early on the huge Gavia climb, where we're going to 'embed' for the day. Pez's Italian correspondent, Ale - 'so handsome he makes you sick' - Federico is going to the Mortirilo and between us we hope to do the stage justice. Like I usually say; "the day is up there on Pez."

It wasn't maybe the stage we expected, after the "total bike racing" of yesterday, but I guess guys can't race like that everyday.

Riccò and Bert.

Riccò and Bruss were both suffering from "Podium Fright Syndrome" - do you risk standing on one of those golden steps by going on the attack against Contador and his automatons, or do you play safe?

For Riccò, two stage wins and a podium is a marvellous result.

Bruz grabs a snack whilst putting his rainjacket on.

If Bruz can find 1-56 on Ricco tomorrow; and that's possible, despite 'The Cobra's' super-slippery new Scott Plasma, he can go second, without risking all in the mountains.

I think if Bert has his worst day, and maybe a puncture, and Bruz is 'super' then the big man with the ready smile can win. Let's hope so, anyway.

Gibo and Bert just behind.

For Di Luca and Simoni, it's over, at least Di Luca's gesture was more than the token one made by Gibo today.

The Gavia.

The Gavia was a huge climb, very narrow at some points and unrelenting, the grade might vary, but the there's only one trend - upwards!

We've been over so many passes that perhaps one gets a bit blasé about seeing them.

However, the descents always confirm my admiration for pros.

The road off the Gavia is in terrible condition, potholed, rutted, crumbling at the edges where melt water runs like a burn.

There are no barriers on many of the hairpins, just huge drops to angry mountain streams, way down the steep valley sides.

On the way back to the digs, we passed a guy whose saddle had broken - sore one!

We stayed at this hotel the other day and had confirmed there was internet.

Geraint gets over the climb riding comfortably within himself.

So, instead of battling to the press room and back, we had the luxury of working from the hotel bedroom, with the Giro on TV - bliss!

Dave Millar togs up for the descent of the Gavia.

After the words and pics had flown, we went for a wee stroll and a pre dinner beer to Bar Betollini.

The owner used to race; had a pair of Pantani's Briko shades as a treasured momento; gave us a bottle of his wife's home made liquer to give to Navigare's Domenico Pozzivivo in Milan; and wouldn't let us pay for the beers - only in Italia.

Chrono tomorrow, ciao, ciao !

Dave befriends the officials and forresters.

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Day 10 - Stage 21 - Sunday 1st June, 2008

Today's Gazzetta has Emanuele Sella's little face smiling out at us with a headline that makes a play on his name S(T)ELLA - star.

Life is so much easier when Germans don't win stages! Inside, a headline says; "Bruseghin da podio. Di Luca si arrende."

I ask our hotelier what 'arrende' means; he slumps his shoulders, drops his arms to his side, puts his head to one side and let's his tongue hang out - yes, we can understand the translation.

Our ride for today.

Sella apart (on a 9 out of 10) the Gazzetta isn't fullsome with stars for the other Italian riders, whilst Bert gets 8. Simoni gets 7 for his fruitless attack, Bruz is on 7 - but as a "chronoman" he couldn't be expected to do anything but wait.

Riccò gets 6.5; Pellizotti 6 - and for us, he was the disappointment, he's fourth, and as Claudio Corti would say, fourth or 14th, what's the difference?

Di Luca gets 5, but at least the man set pulses racing on Friday.

Evgeny Petrov (Rus & Tinkoff Credit Systems) heads fro 20th place.

We've got a long drive today, from the Valdiddentro to the start, north of Milano. The good things are that the sun is out and we're going against the traffic heading north to the mountains and lakes - escaping from the grey industrial hinterlands of Milan and Bergamo.

It's almost midnight now CET, Milano and the Giro is won and lost.

I'll give you the old "read it on Pez" line, but there's no doubt that it was a bit of a strange one. Generally in time trials which conclude a stage race the best times will come from the guys racing for the GC.

There are exceptions, if it's dry early and wet late for instance, or if it's a one way race and a head wind rises. But as far as we could see, there was no appreciable difference in temperature. However, around one hour from the end, it went really clammy, putting oxygen at a premium - that's our theory.

Charlee is rewarded with a hug after his hard 3 weeks.

Enrico Gasparotto was 3rd last today. Maybe get an aero-bike for next time, eh Gaspa?

Wiggins was impressive - catching three guys in just 28 kilometres; the fact that he did that made us realise that he was going well - maybe top ten?

However, he ended up fourth, behind team mate Pinotti, another High Road early starter.

Pinotti is Italian TT champ, so he knows the chrono, but it was a most unexpected result.

Recognise the 'bars and seat cluster from Bradley's GB track bike?

Brad was riding a GB WCPP "Stealth" machine - I know it said 'Giant' but those decals stick to virtually anything.

Because we opted to follow a rider, we didn't have time to do a mega TT bike skek.

But we did see the new Bianchi, complete with slotted chainstays - nice!

Also nice were the Slipstream Felts - very Darth Vader.

Giovanni Visconti on the triathlon-like Specialized.

The organisation was shocking, I've followed several riders in TT's in the Tour with no drama and no problems about taking pics. The start was a mess, pure and simple.

I was amazed at the lack of professionalism by the Gerolsteiner and Euskaltel teams - still, it's been a long hard three weeks, I guess.

Sometimes following a rider on the course isn't the best way to see what's going on!

The guy from the organisation who accompanied Brad was a real 'jobsworth' - he just wouldn't let us near to get decent pics.

We got reasonable photos roadside later in the day though.

Bruz didn't ride to plan, but held onto his podium spot - just.

We had expected a 'charge' from Bruz, but it wasn't to be, and he clung to the podium by his fingertips. Pello almost nicked the spot, beating Bruz in the TT by one second - totally against the form book.

I know it will sound churlish, but Pello's performance today just reinforces our disappointment at his failure to attack yesterday - he obviously had legs left.

We were happy to see Bruz third, but if he'd been 'special' he could surely have taken second; Ricco rode a weak race, way down in the sixties. The word is that he's been sick, so no doubt he's happy with second.

Contador rode "a la Lance" - that's to say, revving between 100 and 110 rpm the whole way - iimpressive. But so is the fact that Geraint Thomas got the same time as him, and achieved 12th in the TT : faster than Miller, Leipheimer and Menchov - fantastic!

Bert couldn't manage a top ten and so ends up in that most unsatisfying category of Grand Tour winners - those who win overall, but don't win a stage.

He didn't attack, he didn't gamble, there were no 'exploits' - he just didn't loose time. Di Luca's charge on Friday was the effort of the race, albeit it left the gas tank empty on Saturday.

68th @ 2'32" today, and over 4 minutes lost to Bert in the TT's: Riccardo Riccò needs to either improve his buffer in the mountains or limit his losses better in the TT.

Whilst the Giro would like to think that is's at least the equal of the Tour, the last stage underlines that it is not.

Paris shows it's best side for the Tour, with the route taking in some of the most famous streets and squares in the world and barrier space is at a premium for the entire finishing circuit.

Yann Huguet races through near-empty streets.

The Giro TT route was on non descript roads and hardly 'sold' Milan.

Apart from the last 500 metres, it was easy to get a vantage point.

The French are about as insular as you get, but they've accepted that a huge proportion of the world speaks English and it's only sensible to have an English translation for manuals and communiques - not in Italy; Italian or UCI French.

Old war-horse Fabio Baldato, still doing a great job for his team.

The hotel was five minutes from the finish, which was a blessing, it was - as Billy Idol would say - 'Hot in the City' yesterday and we were glad not to have the stress of scraping around in the heat and crazy traffic.

Mauro Facci nicks his name-board from the official's car as a souvenir.

We caught up with our Pez Italia colleague Ale briefly, for a coffee, before he drove home with his wife to Genoa. It was nice to see him, he's never raced, but is passionate about cycling.

Something to eat, back to the digs for a shower and tomorrow, as Dave says; "Oor creds are nae guid tae us !"

Hope you enjoyed the diary folks. Ciao, ciao !

And just like the pros, we're saying our goodbyes and heading home.

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