Good luck in the Giro

Awesome preview, I'm very excited...

Nice presentation. Looking forward for the results, although Dominik isn`t participating.

Really liked the Giro presentation. And you've chosen a great variant, it's one of my favourites.

Nice preview, indeed.. this 20th stage to Stelvio (?) will be epic.. I hope for a battle between Basso and Nibali there And, from Dark Dog's point of view, I "secretly" hope for Duarte to miss (!) the podium in Final GC (I want to be the first, to let him achieve that podium in a GT...)

Very good presentation! It's a very tough Giro, only the man with the best legs can win it, and I'm sure that one will be Nibali. Or Basso, but I hope not.

Nice preview of the Giro, hope your results will be very good now that you have gone through all this effort

Good Luck

.
May 9, 2012 – Giro d'Italia





The first stage is good terrain for a break and it looked very well for the group of the day until Syvester Szmyd took over the lead in the pack and totally ripped it apart. No sprinter could keep up over the last hill and the break got caught. Therefore, the puncheurs sprinted for the first pink jersey with the best end for Colnago's Marco Frapporti. Nibali opened the race with a strong fifth place.

1	Marco Frapporti	Colnago – CSF Inox	4h09'38
2	Michel Kreder	Skil – Shimano	s.t.
3	Davide Rebellin	Katusha Team	s.t.

Stage 2

Cameron Wurf opened a fantastic day for Liquigas with an early best time. It lasted long until Heinrich Haussler bested it by about half a minute. Daniel Oss surprised with a provisional second best time, he'll eventually finishes 15th. A first serious bid for the stage win was made by Michael Rogers (Sky), but again, Liquigas stroke: First, Janez Brajkovic was a whole 26 seconds faster, and then Vincenzo Nibali even made it a second better. He overtakes the pink jersey very early.

1	Vincenzo Nibali	Liquigas – Cannondale	41'12
2	Janez Brajkovic	Liquigas – Cannondale	+ 1
3	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 27
4	Michele Scarponi	Lampre – ISD	+ 41
…
22	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'27
32	Ezequiel Mosquera	Movistar Team	+ 1'54
36	Ivan Basso	Katusha Team	+ 1'59
44	Fabio Duarte	Geox – TMC	+ 2'10
109	Jose Rujano	Androni Giocattoli	+ 3'07

Stage 3

One of the very few flat stages. Therefore, it was even more surprising that a very large break of 14 riders could get away. With some hilly, 223 kms and heavy winds, the stage was very hard and no team really wanted to make the pace in the pack. Consequentally, the break made it to the line. Leopard's Davide Vigano outsprinted Luca Paolini making it 3/3 wins for Italians on home soil. Paolini also advances to fourth in the GC.

1	Davide Viganò	Leopard – Trek	5h22'01
2	Luca Paolini	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Jeremy Hunt	Sky ProCycling	s.t.

-----


General Classification after Stage 3:

1	Vincenzo Nibali	Liquigas – Cannondale	10h15'11
2	Janez Brajkovic	Liquigas – Cannondale	+ 1
3	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 27
4	Luca Paolini	Katusha Team	+ 31
5	Michele Scarponi	Lampre – ISD	+ 41
6	Carlos Barredo	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 52
7	Kanstantin Siutsou	Team T-Mobile	s.t.
8	Stefano Garzelli	Katusha Team	+ 56
9	Daniel Martin	Team Garmin – Cervélo	+ 1'00
10	Marco Pinotti	Acqua & Sapone	+ 1'05

Perfect start! Dominating ITT for your team and Nibali.. well done!

Vincenzo in pink already, Nice start

Good start of the Giro. I have to play the same variant in my career with Monster in the 2nd year, so I can look how to do it
keep it up!

Great start for liquigas, and awesome ITT pic

Great start for both Nibali and Brajkovic. This looks promising.

Nice start, I think this will be a boring Giro ^^

.
May 12, 2012 – Giro d'Italia





With two heavy mountains and 256 kms, this stage was a tough one at this early moment of the race. A break got the enormous advance of almost 21 minutes but was caught on the last ascent. Vincenzo Nibali tried a late attack using his descending skills but was swept by the chasing group of favorites and finished fourth. Leonardo Bertagnolli was by far the fastest, secures Katusha's first stage win.

Unfortunatly for us, Janez Brajkovic crashed on the last climb just as the favorites started the attacks. He eventually lost 3'41. Another important time loss today: José Rujano finished in the same group as Brajkovic. Also, Tejay Van Garderen finished almost 8 minutes behind the leaders and lost pretty much all of his ambitions for the young riders jersey.

1	Leonardo Bertagnolli	Katusha Team	6h22'31
2	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli	s.t.
3	Dario Cataldo	Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.

Stage 5 provides one of the very few possibilities for a mass sprint. Consequentally, the pack seems keen on bringing the 12 men group of the day back. With 20 kms to go and the break only 1'30 in front, it all looked pretty well. But all of a sudden, the pack slowed down. No one wanted to do the final work and so the escapees increased their advance. Only on the final 15 kms, they again gained 3 minutes and fought for today's win. Daniel Oss was in there but didn't have the legs. He finished sixth. Instead, it was Davide Viganò who already celebrates his second breakaway win after stage 1! Incredible! Stage 1 runner-up Luca Paolini again is up in front, this time finishing third.

1	Davide Viganò	Leopard – Trek	4h16'03
2	Yohan Offredo	FDJ	s.t.
3	Luca Paolini	Katusha Team	s.t.

Another stage, another possibility for a bunch sprint. But again, it took a surprising outcome. Eros Capecchi was in the break for us today, and the pack acted just as yesterday: Until the last 15 kms, everything looked perfectly fine but then, it slowed down and the break succeeded. Tom Leezer won the sprint, Cappecchi finished eigth.

But that wasn't the most spectacular thing: On the last small ascent, Vincenzo Nibali attacked and totally caught the pack off-guarded. He reached the breakaway and sprinted to fifth place. With this amazing attack, he could gain another 46 seconds on his opponents.

Also, on the descent from today's biggest climb, several crashes happened. Some of the top contenders were involved and lost quite some time. Cadel Evans, Ivan Basso and Levi Leipheimer all finished 3'14 behind the winner and lost valuable time. In addition, Sky's Davide Appollonio is the first rider to abandon.

1	Tom Leezer	Rabobank Cycling Team	3h53'51
2	Vladimir Gusev	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

General Classification after Stage 6:

1	Vincenzo Nibali	Liquigas - Cannondale	24h52'33
2	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'13
3	Michele Scarponi	Lampre – ISD	+ 1'27
4	Carlos Barredo	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 1'38
5	Daniel Martin	Team Garmin – Cervélo	+ 1'46
6	Dario Cataldo	Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 2'00
7	Matthew Lloyd	GreenEdge Cycling	+ 2'06
8	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli	+ 2'40
9	Ezequiel Mosquera	Movistar Team	s.t.
10	Mikel Nieve	Euskaltel – Euskadi	+ 2'42
…
12	Fabio Duarte	Geox – TMC	+ 2'56
…
22	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	+ 4'41
…
27	Ivan Basso	Katusha Team	+ 5'13
…
35	José Rujano	Androni Giocattoli	+ 7'34

Points Classification after Stage 6:

1	Vincenzo Nibali	Liquigas - Cannondale	63
2	Davide Viganò	Leopard – Trek	56
3	Luca Paolini	Katusha Team	54

Mountain Classification after Stage 6:

1	Vladimir Gusev	Katusha Team	8
2	Luca Paolini	Katusha Team	7
3	Simon Clarke	GreenEdge Cycling	6

Young Riders Classification after Stage 6:

1	Andrew Talanksy	Team Garmin – Cervélo	24h58'33
2	Alexandre Geniez	Skil – Shimano	+ 1'07
3	Michel Kreder	Skil – Shimano	+ 2'34

Team Classification after Stage 6:

1	Liquigas – Cannondale		74h38'32
2	Katusha Team		+ 2'05
3	Sky ProCycling		+ 2'32

Bad luck for Basso, Rujano, Brajkovic and Leipheimer to lose that much minutes in first 6 stages.. even though it's good news for Nibali, who deserves this race-lead with such a great ITT and of course that late attack on 6th stage! Peloton doesn't seem to be interested in sprints Hope for less crashes in next stages..

Brajkovic had such a great start... now this accures

Too early to say, but: pink

Great start in Italy....Nibali has already some good gaps there....will be interesting to see Basso vs Nibali battle....

@tsmoha
mate,don´t worry about Basso....he will be back.