Without a doubt the main focus of this week's racing has been in Italy, at the start of the Giro D'Italia. Which, after Stage 6, is led by Italian Marco Pinotti of T-Mobile.
Di Luca the Mad
Danilo Di Luca has hit the headlines this week, and not just because he wore the Maglia Rosa for a few days. On stage 1, he was visibly angry with teammate Gasparatto, who crossed the line first to becoem the first leaders jersey. "I was not upset, it is important that we as a team win, It was great test for the team. ... I am not upset." Di Luca then took the lead the nextday as Gasparatto was held up in a crash, "It was too bad about the crash" Im sure we all belive him! Gasparatoo then took it back the next day before Di Luca took command in the first testing stage of the Giro. He then announced he planned to get rid of the jersey, which he has now done. Mad!
Tinkoff Away!
Tinkoff have been by far the most aggressive team so far, with Pavel Brutt and Mikhael Ignatiev both having been in 2 breakaways each, and Daniele Contrini was in the successful break of Stage 6, finishing 5th. It would take a brave man to bet against them winning a stage some time before the end of the Giro.
Mathieu Ladagnous won Stage 5 and took the overall classification in the 4 Days of Dunkrik. On Stage 6 Mark Cavendish took the last laugh, beating German Erik Zabel in the sprint and wrapping up the points jersey.
Italian Luca Celli leads the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt following victory in Stage 3 ahead of upcoming German sprinter Gerald Ciolek, who is 2nd Overall. Stage 2 was won by Steffen Radochla and Stage 1 by Uzbek rider Sergey Lagutin.
In the Olympia's Tour the Rabobank Continental team have dominated winning 6 of the 7 stages so far. Lars Boom is the current leader following 3 stage wins.
The UCI Womens World Cup continued in Berne, Switzerland as Lithuanian Edita Pucinskaite made a late attack and hung on to win. World champion Marianne Vos took 2nd with Oenone Wood 3rd. 4th placed Nicole Cooke continues to lead the standings ahead of Vos. Christiane Soeder a teammate of Cooke's won the prologue of the Tour de L'Aude today in the next installment of the World Cup. The tour has 11 stages altogether.
