Sonora - Clovis 209.6 km
Totally un-saganesque territory with hardish climbs all day. Aaah, who am I kidding?
PdC bald bold prediction: Peter Sagan
Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo
Live video: 23:00 CEST (14:00 US PDT, 07:00 AUS EST)
Video: Tourtracker , steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.
Every day of the Giro offers at least an hour of joy, much more if you catch both ends of the RAI broadcast, and that's not counting the race. There is so much to love about the Processo alla Tappa, mostly having to do with 
the fun, wacky and charming nature of Italian TV. Cycling itself brings out its share of stars and characters, and with a good chunk of time to work with, the result is magic.
Why can't we have our own Processo at the Amgen Tour of California? Yes, American sports TV has its positive attributes, especially if you like the facts, but it's California, forgodsakes! If you can't have fun in the west coast sun, where can you? A real Processo would have so many possibilities. So many possibilities...
<dream sequence, alla flippa>
Who didn't think there would be a crash in that final corner? Nobody, right? That thing was crazy tight. And the Giro d'Italia sprint field seems not to be especially adept with tight corners at 500 meters to go.
Thomas Vaitkus of Orica-GreenEdge, who does not usually show up in the sprints, was the first rider through that final corner, and he nailed that thing perfectly. He took a fast, smooth line and came out well ahead. Beautiful line, right there. Maybe he was hoping Matt Goss was on his wheel. Instead, Roberto Ferrari of Androni, the eventual winner and a faster sprinter than Vaitkus, goes through right behind the Orica-GreenEdge rider.
Roberto Ferrari won the sprint in today's Giro, nailing the final corner with 500m to go and leaving Mark Cavendish in his wake on the rise 300m from the line. A crash in the final corner 500m from the line took out some sprinters, but in reality they were all too far back to win anyway.
At 255km, today was the longest stage of the Giro. The day's obligatory break was never given much leash to play with. At 95km to go, the gap was just over a minute. 20 kilometers later, it was 2:30, and then with 40km to go it was back down to a minute. The peleton - definitely playing with the break today. So eeeeevil.
With 30km to go and the catch imminent, Manuele Boaro - oft hailed as an up-and-coming Fabian Cancellara - decided to ditch his breakaway companions and fly solo. Adrian Saez tried to follow but could not match the Italian's burst of speed. Within a short period of time, Boaro had a minute again on the chasing peleton and 36 seconds on Saez. This escapade, however, was to be brief.
As the race hit the final climb - a category 4 lump summiting with 12 kilometers to go - Liquigas upped the pace. In predictable fashion, Giovanni Visconti attacked, bringing three riders with him. The chase behind was spirited, though, led first by Liquigas and then by a number of riders trying to jump across the gap. Off the descent and with 8km to go, it was gruppo compatto and Sky had six riders lined up on the front, Cavendish sitting pretty at the back of the line of black and white jerseys. From then on, the outcome seemed certain.
But the Sky leadout, it failed to nail the final turn. But a few people did, notably Thomas Vaitkus, who was second wheel going into the turn and first coming out with a healthy gap. Nice riding by Vaitkus, who is most certainly not a sprinter but apparently studied the road book closely. Unfortunately, Ferrari went through the turn almost equally well and was able to jump by the Lithuanian and win the long long loooong sprint easily. Cavendish, who was gapped in the corner, seemed to struggle with the uphill drag to the line and finished fourth. Francesco Chicci of Omega Pharma - Quickstep was the fastest in the final 150m, but coming from a long way back he had no hope of challenging Ferrari.
Top Five:
Overall standings remain the same with Joaquim Rodriguez in the maglia rosa.
Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirrotti
Assisi - Montecatini Terme 255 km
Long, long stage stage with an opportunity for sprinters.
Podicci's Pazzo Pick: Arnaud Demare
Official site , Startlist , GC , Stageinfo
Live video: 14:30 CEST (08:30 US EDT, 22:30 AUS EST)
Video: RAI , GazzettaTV , RAI World , steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.
Sagan Jose - Livermore 185.5 km
More saganesque territory with hardish climb near the finish.
PdC bald bold prediction: Peter Sagan
Official Sagan site , Sagan-Startlist , Sagan-Stageinfo , Saganinfo
Live Sagan video: 23:00 CEST (14:00 US PDT, 07:00 AUS EST)
Sagan Video: Tourtracker , steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.
Results:
I've been looking a
t some of the difficult decisions countries will have to make when they pick their women's teams for the Olympic road race, and it most cases there will be polemica ahoy! But then we come to Italy, where it's going to be easy - the four-woman team writes itself. The selectors must be rubbing their hands with glee, because not only does this have to be the easiest decision out there, it's also one of the teams that will start as a joint favourite, along with Germany and the Netherlands.
The Italian national teams are something very special. Although their riders are spread around the peloton, when they come together, they can work together like no one else. A win for any of them is seen as a win for all, and they use the most perfect opportunistic tactics, combining solo attacks with beautiful team-work, all of which is why they have won the Road World Championships for the last three years. And it's the current and 2010 World Champion we'll start with. As always, if you have ideas for how else the team can look, let me know in the comments!
Che bello, this Giro! I'm still feeling swoony after today's finish in Assisi. Oh Italia, I die for your walled cities! The bike race wasn't especially suspenseful, though that was a nice piece of riding from Slagter. Too bad he only succeeded in leading out Joaquín Rodríguez, right? Oopsy. Rodríguez now leads the overall followed by Hesjedal and Tiralongo.
Tomorrow, the Giro continues its northward journey. We all know what happens in the north. Mountains! Yes, the Giro is racing inexorably toward the mountains, where the real Giro begins. Those stages will decide the race. But first, we must allow the sprinters more time to play.
