The Giro de Italia has now completed 14 stages and Menchov is still in the lead after a few mountain stages. As stated last week Mark Cavendish took his revenge and won three stages in the current Giro but both he and Pozzato retired before the stage yesterday and are now out of the running for more stage victories. Cavendish retired as his team wants a full recovery before the Tour De France when the Pocket Rocket will be looking for stage victories and perhaps the Green Jersey for points winner. Pozzato was feeling pain in his knee as a result of a fall.
The general classification is still open though after the victory of an Australian, Simon Guerrans, yesterday in a semi mountainous stage. Menchov, Di Luca and Leipheimer are serarated by just 43 seconds so there is still a lot to play for in the Giro this year. Lance Armstrong is putting up a good show but not threatening to take the honours at the moment. Unusually it would seem that the presence of Armstrong does have an effect though as nobody else seems to be takng the race by the scruff of its neck due to the respect for the 6 times Tour De France winner.
There are three big tours in the cycling calendar and the first of the year is the Giro de Italia. Unusually it started with a Team Time Trial and this has given us an unusual early leader in Mark Cavendish. The Isle of Man rider, generally acknowledged to be the best sprinter in the World was helped by his team obviously and his storming finish crossing the line first meant he took the Maglia Rosa. Surprisingly enough he then lost to Petacchi in the next stage sprint and is now looking for revenge in one of the later sprint stages but Petacchi repeated the stage victory today and has taken the Pink Jersey. Why wasn’t Cavendish involved in the sprint today, a little matter of some smallish mountains near the finish line meant he finished down the field.
The Giro is a three week tour and like all tours each day has something different for various types of riders. Pettachi will lose the jersey as soon as a minor mountain stage comes along and total times are taken into account. The time trialers will come into their own on a couple of stages and the mountain goats will get their way in the mountains although Van De Velde won’t be one of them this year after falling and breaking two ribs today. As for Lance Armstrong, he twittered that he is feeling good yesterday after the first time trial but would it be too much to expect him to come back and start winning at his age?
Saturdays are a rest day in general for the Spanish so they spend all of the day racing around dressed in Lycra, helmets on, in a colourful display of resistance designed to get the legs pumping and the countryside seen.
I took a few videos yesterday and placed them into a longer video about Torres Torres, a small town outside Valencia. You can see the video at the link. It has more stuff about living in Spain and buying property but you get an idea about what a Saturday ride means for the average Spanish person there.
Road bikes are the main use in this type of cycling although there are many who go off road with mountain bikes or hybrids as the area around lends itself to some spectacular scenery and varied terrain
A friend of mine has done two cross country trips in Spain on his bike, the picture above is not his bike of course. The first on the Ruta de la Plata from Gijón to Cadiz is close on 1000km. The second was on the Camino de Santiago to Santiago de Compostela. I have asked him to post some of his experiences, tips and suggestions in here so hopefully in a few days you will have more news about cycling in Spain.
First tips that come to mind is to acclimatise first because if you turn up in the middle of a sweltering summer with no training and expect to be able to knock off a quick 1000km on a touring bike with paniers in one of the most mountainous countries in Europe then you will suffer the consequences
Meanwhile I have populated the page with some great eBay auctions so if you do not have an eBay account but want to get some of these bikes and related products sign up for an eBay account and bid
First real day of summer so time to get out and show some places where we have ridden our bikes before. Get your equipment from our cycling bikes store and get yourself over to Spain for the best cycling in the World, (Lance Armstrong has a place here near Girona)
How do you think Spain produces some of the greatest riders in the World from Delgado, Indurain, Contador, Sastre et al? Well they get to practice in places like this in beautiful weather.
