Giro: Ale-Jet Finally Gets One

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | May 14th, 2007 | Trackback

peta Alessandro Petacchi finally shook the demon from his back and got a stage win at the Giro d’Italia - his first since 2005 - and he almost couldn’t stop weeping at the finish long enough to be interviewed. It’s great to see someone realize how much something like a Giro stage win means, especially after he had such a tough season last year. I cheered for him as he crossed the line in first.

There was a crash near the finish which kept Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd from even racing for the win, although he doesn’t appear to be on good form yet anyway. He’s another rider who needs a stage win after too long a hiatus. And since the husband and I met him last year, I’m now a fan - he’s a nice guy, so he deserves a win. If only it actually worked that way…

The full race report is here.

The top 4 finishers were:
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Milram
2 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
3 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor-Lotto

With his win today, Petacchi also gets to pull on the sprinters jersey which McEwen had been wearing. And because Enrico Gasparotto crossed the line before race leader Danilo Di Luca but both of them still have the same time, the pink jersey passed back to Gasparotto:

1 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Liquigas
2 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas
3 Andrea Noè (Ita) Liquigas

I love team time trials, but having them be the first stage of a grand tour makes the GC just silly looking for days, until you get an individual time trial or a mountain stage to really separate the wheat from the chaff. Until then, it’s almost not even worth looking at.

Tomorrow’s a rest day (do they really need a rest this early?!?), so we pick up the action again on Wednesday on the Italian mainland.