I'm sure you are all well aware about the precedings in the Giro over the past couple of weeks, so I see no need in writing much about it. But just in case youve missed the whole of the Giro here's a brief summary:
Di Luca will win by 2 minutes over the surprise of the Giro Luxembourg Andy Schleck. Saunier Duval controlled the mountains with Piepoli, Simoni, Ricco and Mayo all winning stages. Petacchi is one of the few sprinters remaining and should take an easy victory in the Sprints competition.
Now, onto the other events.
In the ProTour event Volta a Catalunya, Spaniard Vladimir Karpets took overall victory ahead of Michael Rogers and Denis Menchov. Caisse D'epargne won the opening TTT before Mark Cavendish and Allan Davis won mass sprints on Stages 2 and 3. Oscar Sevilla won Stage 4, with Denis Menchov winning the Stage 5 Mountain TT. Stage 6 saw a second win for mark Cavendish and the final stage was won by Samuel Sanchez.
In the FBD Insurance Rás German Tony Martin won despite not winning a stage. Nico Graf won one, Brian Kenneally and Mart Ovajee bagged 2, with Canadian champion Dominique Rollin winning 3.
The Tour of Japan was won by Italian Francesco Masciarelli ahead of 3 Kazakh riders who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
In Germany, the Bayern Rundfahrt is taking place, André Schulze of Wiesenhof took a surprise win in Stage 1 but could not repeat the feat as Stages 2 + 3 were won by Erik Zabel. Stage 4 was an Individual Time Trial won by Stefan Schumacher, while Frank Schleck reminded us that there are 2 Schleck talents in the peleton, by taking 4th, leaving him 4th Overall.
Vladimir Gusev currently leads this year's Tour of Belgium following victory in yesterday's time trial. He has a 39 second lead over last year's winner - Martin Tjalingii. Today's stage was won by Birthday boy, Robert Gesink. There's nothing like taking your first Professional win on your birthday! Earlier in the week, Walter Weylandt had won Stage 1 and Gorik Gardeyn had taken Stage 2.
Over in USA, officials completely messed up on Stage 1 of the Mount Hodod Classic as they awarded a relatively unknown amateur Devon Vigus, the stage victory for the Time Trial. The real winner was infact Aussie Nathan O'Neill, who currently leads the standings ahead of Phil Zajicek after Stage 4.
Finally, in South Africa David George has won the National Time Trial Championships.
