If Simoni had won the stage the giro would have been his. In the end Simoni did'nt deserve it, the overall winner should win at least on stage which Il Falco did.

Dave in VA

It is tradition not to attack the jersey on the final day of a grand tour. Doesn't mean it is against the rules, just considered bad form.

Things can change tomorrow if Simoni solos in for the win, or Savodelli gets dropped. Either way, not very likely. Flat stage, lots of sprinters, crazy finale, Pettachi or some other sprinter wins the stage, Savodelli keeps the jersey. That is not to say shit doesn't happen, but it would be bad luck, not panache, that wins the race for Simoni at this point. As for today's stage, Simoni didn't pull it off, but that was one hell of a ride. He did die trying to get the win. No lack of courage there. Savodelli did what had to be done, and the others tried to do what they had to do. Simoni had no choice but to attack if he wanted to win. He rode brilliantly. Savodelli had no choice but to keep things in check, and limit the damage. He rode brilliantly too. In the end it worked out for Savodelli. Actually the stage winner was the wild card in this epic. He could have taken the whole thing if he could have gotten another 46 seconds. I love this kind of race, can the tour be this cool?

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From Velonews:

"We went hard today with Di Luca, but Savoldelli was able to come back, so he deserves to win," Simoni said. "I won't win this Giro, but I am satisfied after demonstrating that I am worthy to come back and fight to the finish."

good read: http://velonews.com/...articles/8110.0.html

Not possible unless Salvodelli crashes out and can't continue the race. Discovery will do everything in their power to make sure he doesn't crash, so very unlikely.

What's with the crazy lotto driver? That guy need his license revoked.

What happened to Basso? Losing big time again can't be good for the psyche.

Didn't see the stage but maybe Basso thought it better to ride it then race it?

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If you ride a road bike with clip-ons and regular spoked wheels in a pro TT like Simoni did, and sacrifice a full minute, then you deserve to lose. What a stupid putz.



-- Jens

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I dunno, looked like early in the race CSC was trying to set something up. Why else would they set tempo?

I'll second that.

I wonder though, at what point does tradition go out the door. Say for instance, Simoni or Rujano, or both!, were only down 1 second to Savoldeli. Does he/they not go for it, because of tradition?

I think Simoni made a fairly reasonable choice - fast wheels and shorty bars on a road bike in a TT where you are very concerned about the climb and the descent.

Maybe not the BEST choice, but it didn't make him lose that time; he was 10th for chrissakes! That's actually pretty darn good for him.

He's not a great TT rider - that's what cost him. And he still almost won the whole damn thing today...







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I'd simply say that a better TT postion over 45k and 34k of racing would have won him the Giro. Every pics I saw of Simoni had him higher on the aerobars than in the drops - which is ridiculous.

In any case, it's been a great race - wish the TdF had the guts to arrange a route like that. Like who really watches the first 7,8,9 .. TdF road stages most years?

I think the Pro-tour version of the Giro has been super this year.

rmur