First stage of the Giro: Columbia!!

And so the Giro has finally started.I don’t know if this race is so important also in the other countries,but here in Italy it is.I think that every person that likes sport here in Italy has got some memories of the past Giri (Giri is the plural of Giro) that helps them to understand how time passes fast.My first "Giro memory" (or at least one of the firsts) brings me back to the Giro 2004 and to a certain cyclist who ran that race.Then I’ve got other memories of other Giri d’Italia.For example,talking about 2006 I remember very well the argument between Basso and Simoni during the stage of Aprica and the stage that Voigt left to his breakaway‘s companion Garate.And then there are the memories of 2005,with Savoldelli winning the Giro and Basso suffering a lot on the Stelvio (I wasn't very interested in cycling at that time,but I remember that my mother and I were in front of the tv that day and we were both thinking:"why the hell doesn’t he get retired?!?").It was just 3 years ago,but lots of things have changed in this period.Anyway,let's stop being sensible (sensible or sensitive? I always confuse these two words…) and let's start to talk about what happened today.

Unfortunately for me,today I managed to sit on my couch in front of the tv just at 16.30. “Who’s first?”,I asked.And who could answer if not my dear sister? “COLUMBIA is first! And Garmin is 2nd”,she said grinning.I tried ignoring her and supporting SB,but after 3 kms they had already left one boy of the team behind.At the end,they didn’t get any great result (even if Fab Fab looked pretty hot...).
Rabobank did pretty well,as well as Lpr.Astana of course did very good and the chronists kept on talking about how strong sir Lancelot is/was/will be in these next 3 weeks.Oh yeah,I was forgetting to talk about the chronists of the Giro: today there has been a very hilarious moment at the beginning of Astana’s TT.The subject of the discussion between the chronists turned out to be Levi Leipheimer.Levi is a rider I quite like and he's been racing as a pro since 1997.Well,Italian chronists have called him Levi (pronounced “Levi”) for 11 years,but today at 17.15 they decided,during the live coverage,that since that moment Leipheimer’s name would have become "Levi" pronounced as “Livai”.This really made me laugh a lot.Does someone of you know how the name "Levi" has to pronounced? You would solve a great mistery.
Another moment that I really liked was HGS’s interview after the race (don‘t get me wrong:I don‘t like him at all,but he made me laugh a lot this afternoon).He said: “Well,I’m a bit disappointed.I think we could have done better.There was a bit of wind and then perhaps they were tired”."They",not "we".In fact he was probably feeling better than his teammates because of his Hair Gel Power (HGP).Hopefully he won't force all his teammates to become addicted to gel in order to get that power as well.
Btw,at the end the stage was won by Team Columbia and Cavendish got the first Maglia Rosa of the 100th Giro d'Italia.I don’t have nothing against him and I really like his team,so I was pretty happy (of course someone else in my house was much happier than me and kept on making fun of the favourite team of someone else in the family).I think it could have gone worse: try to imagine sir Lancelot or HGS dressed in pink and you’ll immediate understand what I mean.
So,the first day of the Giro has come and gone.I don’t think I’ll be making posts about every single stage of the race and perhaps this may relieve you,considering my not-so-great posts about races.
Oh,I was forgetting: have you noticed who is 2nd in the overall classification behind Cavendish? Well,that’s the man I’m probably going to support in some stages.Why? Well,because of the simply reason that he really does rock! Allez Pinotti!

1 Team Columbia - Highroad 21.50 (56.33 km/h)
2 Garmin - Slipstream 0.06
3 Astana 0.13
4 LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 0.22
5 ISD 0.27 6 Team Katusha 0.35
7 Rabobank 0.38 8 Liquigas 0.40
9 Lampre - NGC 0.42
10 Team Milram 0.49
11 Cervelo TestTeam
12 Barloworld 0.54
13 Team Saxo Bank 0.55
14 Caisse d'Epargne 0.58
15 Bbox Bouygues Telecom 1.01
16 Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli 1.06
17 Quick Step 1.14
18 Xacobeo Galicia 1.19 19 Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 1.21
20 Silence - Lotto 1.22
21 Ag2R La Mondiale 1.35
22 Fuji - Servetto 1.37