Friday, May 27, 2005
un Gran Bel Giro, indeed!
May is my favorite month. The end of a long school year is finally in sight. With long hours of sunlight and mild morning temperatures that allow one to leave the wind vest--and maybe even the arm and knee warmers--at home, the bike riding is rarely better in Southern California. And here in the states, the baseball and major-league soccer seasons are in full swing, while the various European soccer championships are reaching their climax. (And what a dramatic final this year in the Champions League!)
But best of all is the Giro d'Italia. Three weeks set aside for sheer celebration of cycling and all the wonderful local and regional colors of the Italian landscape and its peoples, all of which is still remarkably free from the big-money commercialism that has overwhelmed the Tour de France. And with the inclusion of a star-studded ProTour field this year, including a stellar list of Italian greats both young and old, the racing has been absolutely riveting from day one. While il Falco, Paolo Salvodelli, just may have sewn up today his second Giro win with an appropriately screaming descent on the TT into Torino, he has several challengers still lingering in the shadows. And the truly epic route through the Alps that the Giro organizers have saved for Saturday's penulimate stage promises to make this one truly for the ages. Can a resurgent Ivan Basso win a third straight stage, punctuating his recovery from last week's stomach problems? Can Cunego spring Simoni to GC victory on the dirt "road" up the Finestre? Will the young Venezuelan Rujano provide an upset to this all-Italian party no less shocking than the rossoneri's mid-week, second-half choke against Liverpool? Will DiLuca claw his way back to what would be a remarkable podium finish in Milan, perhaps permanently affixing the first ProTour's white jersey to his back for good? Or will Salvodelli's two-minute cushion be just enough for him to hold on, with little support from his Discovery Channel teammates, to the maglia rosa. If ever there was reason to stay home in front of the TV (thank you, RAI International) on a Saturday morning, this is it. And I'll still have the rest of the holiday weekend to ride, grade papers, and have fun with the family. Yes, May is the sweetest month of all.
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Saturday's climactic stage certainly lived up to the hype, and then some. After a warm-up climb to Sestriere, followed by a long descent down the back side, the gruppo shed riders left and right behind several teams' vicious pace-making on the lower slopes of the Finestre. The early casualties answered at least two of my pre-stage questions: No, Ivan Basso would not win his third straight stage and thus leave no doubt as to who the Giro's strongest rider really was; and No, defending-champ Damiano Cunego would not be there to set up a race-winning attack for his teammate, Gilberto Simoni.
Very quickly, the front runners were reduced to three, with DiLuca, Simoni, and the Venezuelan Rujano setting a ferocious pace. They dropped the maglia rosa, Paolo Salvodelli, well before the pavement ended, and they steadily opened up a large enough gap to make Simoni the virtual GC leader at the summit. But Il Falco lived up to his nickname and shaved more than 30 seconds off the leader's advantage on the descent, clawing his way back into maglia rosa for good. Simoni still was in position to jump back ahead for good, on the final climb to Sestriere, but he cracked halfway up; race over.
Losing the Giro by just 28 seconds will certainly be a bitter pill to swallow, even for a two-time former champion like Simoni. No doubt he'll be asking himself a long list of "what if?"s. What if DiLuca hadn't cramped between the Finestre and Sestriere and been able to pace them on the flats between, where Salvodelli made up another half-minute of time? What if Rujano had put in more work at the front both up and down the Finestre, leaving Simoni perhaps a little fresher for Sestriere? What if Cunego had been there to pace them down the Finestre and deliver Simoni all the way to the foot of the final climb? In retrospect, one certainly must wonder why the Lampre team didn't send Cunego up the road with the early break, so that he could have been waiting there to pace Simoni up and over the Finestre.
While Salvodelli isn't an easy racer to love, given his complete lack of public emotion and his inability to launch classic attacks on the big climbs, his strong, relaxed, poised, consistent efforts make him a very deserving champion. And there most certainly should be a place in pro cycling where the skill of descending gets rewarded no less than the ability to climb or time-trial like the wind. More than on the descent down the Finestre, this Giro was won, I think, on the descent that initiated the second half of the final, pivotal time trial into Torino.
A great, great, "gran bel" bike race. I'm already anxious for May 2006--although we do have the small matter of the Tour de France now just a month away.
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