The Cycliste Moderne, May 16, 2005

Week One – Giro d'Italia Highs and Lows

American High

David Zabriskie, CSC’s time trial specialist from Salt Lake City won today’s time trial. He moved from Postal to CSC during the off-season after winning a stage of the Vuelta a Espana last year and finishing fifth in the time trial at the World Championships.

Zabriskie went off really early on the day with the mission of setting target times for his team leader Ivan Basso. His time held up through the next 167 riders of the day. One of only eight riders to complete the 45km in less than an hour, Zabriskie was so fast that when he finished, he had a five minute lead over the other eighteen riders that preceded him. In fact, Zabriskie went off so early on the day that RAI, the Italian broadcaster, did not even show his ride.

It is a huge result for a rider who nearly retired after having his pelvis broken by an inattentive driver during a training ride in Salt Lake’s Emigration Canyon two years ago. Dave Zabriskie is also a past participant in the annual Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho.

Italian Low

Friday’s Stage 6 stage was perfect for the sprinters. Fassa Bortolo was lined up with about five kilometers to go to deliver Alessandro Petacchi to his first stage win. That was until the silver train got derailed and piled up, ending Petacchi’s day. That pretty much sums up Petacchi’s poor Giro.

Aussie High

Friday’s Stage 6 was a high for Davitamon-Lotto’s Aussie hard man Henk Vogel who attacked with 500 meters to go and almost got the win. Ultimately his teammate Robbie McEwen won the sprint and Vogel finished 5th. Vogel used to ride for America’s Team Navigators and is a past winner of Boise’s Twilight Criterium. It is not only amazing that a guy who won in Boise is competitive in Italy, but Vogel had a horrific crash a couple of seasons ago in a domestic US race that nearly left him paralyzed.

Danish-Italian Low 2

Ivan Basso had difficulties during Saturday’s Stage 7. Team CSC took a page out of the US Postal Service play book and put the team at the front to decimate the peleton in the climb to the summit of the Sammomme', 13km from the finish. However, an inopportune bike change resulted in cramps and caused Basso to lose over thirty seconds to the group containing the other favorites. The team rode like Basso was the leader of the race, putting in a significant amount of time at the front. It was a wasted effort as Basso ended up losing time.

Spanish High

During Stage 7, Liberty Seguros’ Koldo Gil attacked and managed to stay away for 180km. He won the stage by 20 seconds over the hard charging chase group led by Lampre-Caffita teammates Cunego and Simioni. Gil showed his strength by not folding on what proved to be a very difficult climb. This is certainly the biggest win of the year for Liberty Seguros.

Italian High

Liquigas-Bianchi has had an impressive first week. Danilo Di Luca has won two stages and has managed to wear the pink jersey for three days. Currently, Dario Cioni and Stefano Garzelli are fifth and sixth as well. All three had strong time trials during Stage 8. But for an unfortunate crash at the end of Stage 7 where Cioni and Garzelli both went down, it is conceivable that Liquigas-Bianchi would have three men in the top five.

Aussie Low

After watching the finish of Stage 4 and having gone through it frame by frame, I think it is clear that Francaise de Jeux’s Aussie sprinter Baden Cooke was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that his crash was not caused by improper riding by Quick.Step’s Bettini. Bettini clearly rode to the left side of the course, but Cooke had more than enough distance to go around Bettini and win the stage. There was no contact between them and Bettini was not trying to ride Cooke into the barriers. Cooke just managed to hit a sign and go down. Cooke’s frustration is understandable; however, his expletive filled tirade was unnecessary as Bettini was clearly apologetic for the result on the day. Bettini’s display on the podium, pouring the champagne onto the ground, was unfortunately the cap on a day of poor sportsmanship.

Looking Forward

After one week, the top ten still has all of the expected leaders. There have been no accidents or poor showings. Clearly, Di Luca, Garzelli, Basso, Savoldelli, Cunego, Simioni and Honchar are all in a position to finish strong. There is still a long way to go but it will be interesting to see how Liquigas-Bianchi and Lampre-Caffita will deal with their multiple leaders. Like they say, if you have two team leaders or two starting quarterbacks, you really don’t have any.

Honchar has not shown that he can climb this year, and as the last week is much more difficult than last year’s course, when he finished on the podium, he is likely to do not better than top 10. Di Luca will likely get some more stage wins but is unlikely to be able to stay with the true climbers in the high mountains. Teammates Cunego and Simioni appear to be cooperating but who knows how long that will last.

Savoldelli and Basso both have teams that have been built for the sole purpose of helping them win. This, along with their all around skills, gives them the edge as they have team directors that know what it takes to win a grand tour and have proven their ability to put men on the podium.