2008 Giro d’Italia, stage 2: Live Coverage
- 01:47 PM: Good day and welcome
to VeloNews.com's Live Updates from the second stage of the 2008 Giro d'Italia, a 207km race from Cefalu to Agrigente. This stage features two climbs, the Category 2 Gatteri, at 26km and then the Cat. 3 Polizzello at 112km. This is not a simple and easy flat sprinters' stage typical of the early days in the grand tours. This is the sort of stage that may favor a strong all-arounder, like Paolo Bettini ...
Vande Velde’s day in pink
Christian Vande Velde stepped off the Slipstream-Chipotle team bus Sunday morning along the beach at Cerfalù with a big smile on his face. Proudly decked out in the maglia rosa, Vande Velde was clearly enjoying his moment as the first American since Andy Hampsten won the 1988 Giro to wear the Giro’s leader’s jersey. “We hope today goes just like yesterday, but we know it’s a complicated stage,” Vande Velde said. “To win yesterday’s stage was our big goal, everything else is just icing on the cake at this point.”
Blue Cycles’ Ryan Barnett is recovering from a serious accident in Atlanta.
Category 1 racer Ryan Barnett is recovering in an Atlanta hospital from a collision with a car on May 3. Barnett, who is the marketing manager for Blue Competition Cycles, was out for a quick spin prior to Sunday's Sandy Springs Classic criterium when the accident occurred, said Blue's Brady Rogers. Barnett fractured his skull, broke ribs and his pelvis and fractured his back in the T3 and T4 vertebrae area, Rogers said. He said Barnett has some paralysis from the waist down.
Zabriskie crashes out of Giro
VeloNews staff and wire reports David Zabriskie’s 2008 Giro d’Italia ended Sunday when he was caught at a pileup with about 55km to go in the 207km second stage from Cerfalù to Agrigento. Zabriskie, 29, went down with several other riders as the peloton approached a railroad crossing. Zabriskie, who started the day second overall, was knocked off his bike and was unable to rejoin the pack. Doctors immediately attended to the reigning U.S. time trial champion and transported him to a local hospital.
Zajicek, Abbott win Colorado series kickoff
Phil Zajicek (Health Net-Maxxis) and Mara Abbott (Team High Road) won the kickoff to the 2008 Tour of Colorado race series on Saturday in Boulder. The 9.14-mile Excel Sports Sunshine Hill Climb up Sunshine Canyon served up 3226 feet in elevation gain with a maximum grade of 23 percent. Conditions didn’t make the climb any easier, with temperatures in the low 40s under cloudy skies at the start and mid-30s with snow at the finish.
Stephane Auge wins the Four Days of Dunkirk, as Hushovd wins the final stage.
Cofidis rider Stephane Auge of France claimed overall victory in the Four Days of Dunkirk cycling race on Sunday. Norwegian Thor Hushovd, riding for the Credit Agricole team, won Sunday's sixth and final 128.4km stage between Coudekerque and Dunkirk in a sprint finish. Please check back soon for results.
2008 Giro d’Italia: Pellizotti in pink after Ricco wins stage 2
Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) uncorked a tremendous sprint in the final 100 meters to win Sunday’s exciting 207km second stage, but Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) snuck into fourth to short circuit Christian Vande Velde’s run in the maglia rosa by just one second.
Lees-McRae riders snap up wins in the Div. 1 men’s and women’s road races.
Carla Swart clung to the back of the elite seven-woman breakaway in the waning minutes of the 2008 Division I women’s road championship, held Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado. Outnumbered and without teammates, the Lees-McRae sophomore didn’t appear to have the numbers or legs to win. Looks, however, can be deceiving.
Cuban Missile and Two Calebs
Cuban Missile and Two Calebs
‘Baby’ Haedo takes Joe Martin stage — An Action Images Gallery
Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home) took the stage 2 sprint win at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas. Action Images photographer Kurt Jambretz was there to catch all the action.
Joe Martin stage 2 podium
The Podium (left to right) Rory Sutherland (Heath Net-Maxxis), Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home), and Kyle Gritters (Health Net)
Inside Slipstream’s team time trial preparation
Slipstream-Chipotle’s victory in Saturday’s team time trial began weeks ago. The building blocks of the team’s historic victory that put Christian Vande Velde as the first American in the pink jersey in 20 years started with the team’s meticulous planning and execution. Just days after the Ardennes classics, the team gathered in its European base in Girona, Spain, to work on the time trial rotations and technique.
Unteachable skills
Jill Taylor, the fiancée of Slipstream-Chipotle soigneur Johnny Coln (affectionately known as Soigny Johnny – pronounced Swanny Johnny) brings on gasps and giggles by balancing two forks on the tips of two toothpicks.
Removing the “Nader Hooks”
Shanks filing the “Nader hooks,” a.k.a. “wheel retention tabs,” off of a new Oval Jetstream fork destined for Magnus Bäckstedt’s Felt team bike.