Friday, April 19, 2024

Tag: Giro d'Italia 2007

Danilo di Luca, to the victor, the spoils…

When Sci'Con set out to celebrate the victory of Danilo di Luca in the 2007 Giro d'Italia, what better way than with an all-pink Aerotech Evolution Art. 70 rigid bicycle case, produced as a single specimen colored to match the Giro d'Italia winner's jersey.

Giro d’Italia – Day 7: Stage 6, Tivoli – Spoleto

It's our last stage today, it's Friday morning and we're in Tivoli, headed for Spoleto. Yesterday was an up and down sort of day, although by the sixth grappa last night it seemed fine. We left our hotel (as featured in George A Romero's movie - Zombies, Dawn of the Dead) and headed for the stage start at Teano, we would never have found it if we hadn't tagged-on to the Mavic neutral service cars.

Giro d’Italia – Day 6: Stage 5, Teano – Frascati

Thursday 08.30, Caserta, Frascati. We're in Italy's answer to that hotel where Jack Nicholson lost the plot in 'The Shining'. Huge, empty corridors, plumbing and electrics that have a mind of their own, plus the world's most disinterested and rude staff - maybe they are zombies? Still, we were glad to lay our heads down here late last night: it was a long day.

Giro d’Italia – Day 5: Stage 4, Salerno – Montevergine Di Mercogliano

"Rest day", that's a misnomer right away. The ferry was late into Civitavecchia; we had to do a death march with our bags across town to get our Hertz car; then there was a 300 K drive south; the Permanence in Montevergine Di Mercogliano wasn't set-up (there were mountains of rubbish in the streets, so maybe it wasn't surprising) and to finish-off we had to pad the streets of Salerno until we found an internet cafe.

Liquigas in pink: First Gasparotto, then Di Luca, then Gasparotto again

The "Green Machine" took first place in last Saturday's team time trial that opened the 90th edition of the pink race. The first to cross the finish line in La Maddalena was the ex-Italian National Champion Enrico Gasparotto who took an unexpected pink jersey.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 4: Rest Day

Giro d'Italia 2007, It's 05.00 hours, Tuesday, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, somewhere west of Civitavecchia - that's the sea port for Rome. "An ugly and forgettable port that's best avoided" according to the 'Rough Guide to Italy', so we won't be lingering here!

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 3: Stage 2, Tempio Pausania – Bosa

It's 06.30 on Monday morning and we're in Macomer, Tempio Pausania, Sardinia. It's going to be another beautiful day; there's not a cloud in the sky and the sun has begun its climb. Yesterday was one of those days that makes you realise, you only think you know about pro bike racing.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 2: Stage 1, Caprera – La Maddalena (Team TT)

It's now 19.45 on Saturday evening, and we're sat in the car en route La Maddalena listening to The Pioneers, 'Let your yeah be yeah' - crucial, John. The ferry port at Maddalena is grid-locked, but we've got our reggae and a cold Dreher beer, so waiting for the ferry isn't so bad. We shared the ferry out with CSC and Saunier, but they are long-gone on the first ferry out. It's been a cracking day, weather and gig-wise.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 1: Getting there

Giro d'Italia 2007. Sardinia is hot, damn hot, real hot, but our Peugeot 107 has air-con and a CD which plays John Hardie's 70's compilations just fine. It's 09.10 and we're north-bound to catch the ferry from Palau out to the island of Maddalena, where tomorrow's TTT takes place.

At Random

“Rising Westerly” 100 Mile Time Trial 2006

The results of the "Rising Westerly" 100 Mile Time Trial held on the Aberdeen/Stonehaven/Deeside course, and organised by GS Corsa. Carlos Riise (Shetland Wheelers) made another successful "air"“raid" on mainland cycling by comfortably winning the "Rising Westerly" by over 14 minutes from Granite City RT's Norman Skene. Sadly, Scottish 12hr Champion, Joe Wilson (Sandy Wallace Cycles) crashed at Aboyne and was forced to retire. Carlos reported that Joe was probably just over a minute up on him at the time.

John Lelangue joins the BMC Racing Team USA as Directeur Sportif Belgian

John Lelangue officially announced today from the Tour of Missouri that he will join the BMC Racing Team in 2008 as Directeur Sportif. The BMC program is currently applying for Professional Continental team registration with the UCI, and will be seeking invitations to numerous prominent events in Europe and America during the 2008 season.

Dean Downing – Still Living His Dream

This is the first in a series of articles in which we explore racing in Belgium, and chat to a few guys that "have done it the hard way", outside of "The Plan", and on their own. To kick us off, we caught up with Rapha Condor star Dean Downing between Tour Series criteriums.

Lauren Bell – Looking forward to the Sprint Events at the Games

With the release of the list of Scottish squad selections for the Commonwealth Games cycling events we thought it would be good to catch up with a few of the riders; some ‘old friends’ and some new names to us. Lauren Bell burst on to the GB track scene by winning the 500 metre Time Trial and Keirin at the 2020 British track championships, as well as taking Sprint bronze.

‘Young and exciting’ Team Sky squad with Kristoffer Halvorsen set for Tour Down Under

Team Sky will line up with a ‘young and exciting’ squad as the 2018 season gets under way at the Tour Down Under. Neo-pros Kristoffer Halvorsen and Chris Lawless make their first appearances as Team Sky riders alongside Egan Bernal, who will target the general classification across the six-day WorldTour event.

From the Tour Down Under Massage Table

From the massage table hereat the Tour Down Under in Australia, I've finally found time to write this first blog for the year...