Giro d’Italia Finale – Three Outta Four Ain’t Bad

This has been the most memorable and exciting three weeks of cycling in recent memory.  Seeing Cadel win a stage and battle it out for GC.  Richie Porte surprising the cycling world by winning the white jersey, coming in 7th overall, and spending three days in Pink.  Matty Lloyd getting a stage victory and fighting like a little bulldog to get that green jersey back.  Mick Rogers across winning the ATOC the pond, and the pre-Tour scandal that's gonna bring the Lance Armstrong corporation to it's knees.   I'm actually looking forward to this month before the TdF to have a bit of a breath from all the drama!

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This has been the most memorable and exciting three weeks of cycling in recent memory.  Seeing Cadel win a stage and battle it out for GC.  Richie Porte surprising the cycling world by winning the white jersey, coming in 7th overall, and spending three days in Pink.  Matty Lloyd getting a stage victory and fighting like a little bulldog to get that green jersey back.  Mick Rogers across winning the ATOC the pond, and the pre-Tour scandal that’s gonna bring the Lance Armstrong corporation to it’s knees.   I’m actually looking forward to this month before the TdF to have a bit of a breath from all the drama!

Even though we all had high hopes for Cadel winning his first Grand Tour, he still got the points jersey and showed some panache by fighting so desperately hard to meet the expectations of Australia.  He also revealed that he’s been sick since stage 11 but continued to slug it out through the mud, snow, rain and mountains.  I couldn’t imagine…

It’s been a lot of fun posting updates and photos of the Giro on this blog.  I have to thank Stefano Sirotti for his spectacular photos every day and Matt Conn for being at the Giro, sending through updates and making us feel like we were there with him, and “Sam”, our trivia master, for sending through the awesome Giro quizzes every day.

I also can’t go without thanking this month’s sponsors of this site.  BikeForce, Cycling Edge, Wattbike, Ride Magazine and Milani Bicycles.  Without their support there’s no way on Earth any of any of this could be possible.

Even though covering races doesn’t really align with the theme of this site, when the Aussies are doing so incredibly well there’s no way I can ignore it and write about anything else.   Don’t start expecting cyclingnews level of coverage, though.  I’m starting to receive comments from people wondering why I’m not posting Tour of Cali photos,  no club racing coverage, no mentions of Tour of Japan, etc.   I’m very flattered that this expectation is falling on me, but remember I’m just a guy in his living room who has a wife, job,  and a love for riding his bike and I can only do so much  😉

Don’t forget, Cadel’s Rainbow shoes auction ends tonight.  Click here to bid!

Three out of four jerseys for the Aussies is an amazing feat (Photo RCS)

The finish in Verona
I can't think of a more spectacular place to celebrate the end of the Giro than the Verona Roman arena
Cadel blazes the TT to finish in 4th spot. It wasn't fast enough to get him on the podium however.
Sastre finishes 60th on the stage, but 8th overall.
Gustav Larsson gets his first big win in the final TT in front of the favorites
Basso comes in 15th on the stage but takes the overall win by 1:51
Basso's with his two children with a third one is on its way. Back to changing nappies after this Grand Tour nonsense is over...
If you ever wondered how they get the team sponsor on the jerseys so quickly... (RCS Sport)
Liquigas did an outstanding job at getting Basso his well deserved win (RCS Sport)
Photo RCS Sport
Nibali was instrumental in helping Basso with his Giro win
Photo RCS Sport
Australia proud of you fellas! (RCS Sport)

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