Milano-Sanremo 2008 Photos

By Jessica | Permalink |

1 comment | May 19th, 2008 | Trackback

sign Hi, remember me?

No, I haven’t forgotten about the Cycling Logue. I’ve just been very, very, very busy. One of those “verys” involves what I keep calling “Project Italy,” wherein I and the husband are working on relocating to Italy. We’ve got visa paperwork in progress, but there’s no telling how long that could take. In the meantime, we did spend six weeks in Italy earlier in the Spring - we based ourselves in a Milan apartment, and I made a few research trips to other Italian cities for the Italy travel guide that I write. At any rate, during that trip, we were fortunate enough to catch the start of Milano-Sanremo - and I was fortunate enough to have a massive memory card in my camera.

We got lucky with a great spot right next to the stage where the riders were signing in, so I got lots (and I do mean lots) of photos - I think it was somewhere in the 550 range after just a couple of hours of standing there - and I got even more lucky that some of them were even in focus! Here are a few of my favorites.

Paolo Bettini’s a little blurry, but he’s the world champion. It just means he’s going really fast.
bettini

Fabio Baldato was all smiles at the start, chatting with reporters.
baldato

Big Maggie Backstedt is wearing, I kid you not, some kind of cut-off leg warmer on his head. And the arms on his jersey also appear to have gotten the scissor treatment. No wonder his Slipstream teammate is giggling at him.

Yes, ladies, Tom Boonen is absolutely as cute in person as he is on TV.
boonen

This is the Boonen-Hoste trilogy here - countryman Leif Hoste came up behind Tom at the start to give him a friendly shoulder rub…
boonen

…which freaked Tom out a little bit (whether it’s because he’s just not in touch with his feminine side or it startled him is unclear)…
boonen

…but then they both had a good laugh about it.
boonen

I call this the “number dance” - the guys had to sign in on the stage by finding their number, not their name, on a list. And many of them didn’t know their numbers. This is Tom Boonen helping out a teammate. Or checking his ass, one can never be too sure.
number

Paolo Savoldelli, with his hair at (perhaps) maximum length and curliness factor. So - without shades…

…or with? Which do you prefer?
savoldelli

The fan taking this picture of Danilo Di Luca requested that he remove his sunglasses. He’s so compliant, isn’t he?
diluca

2007 Milano-Sanremo winner Oscar Freire gives an interview.
freire

Davide Rebellin was the last guy to sign in, with only a few minutes to spare before the grand roll-out. And even though he was nearly late, he still stopped to give one last interview. Whatta guy!

Finally, here’s a picture the husband took of me taking a picture of Rebellin. This is how I appeared to the world for a couple hours that morning, camera firmly attached to face.