The winners and losers from the Giro
Saturday, 31 May 2008 22:11
The Giro d'Italia is all done and dusted for another year and it has been quite the eventful circus that we have come to expect from such a flamboyant race. But there are the inevitable winners and losers to come out of any Grand Tour and we thought we might highlight one or two. We have been following the race throughout the journey and have seen many things unfold which took our fancy. But now the Giro is done we all turn our attention to the big one in the Tour de France.
We have identified three winners and three losers to come out of this edition of the Italy's great race:
Winners
- Alberto Contador and the Astana team - Astana was denied a start in the Tour de France so instead of crying they went out and won the next bigest grand tour of the year. Contador was in the box seat for the last stage given his time trial strength but he outlasted some pretty hard attacks to win his first pink jersey.
- Riccardo Ricco - The little man from the Saunier Duval team talked a lot of smack during the latter part of the race and then walked the walk to finish second. He showed some great fight throughout to signal himself as a future winner.
- Mark Cavendish - The young flier made the Hit List a couple of times during the Giro for his great sprint victories. He is the future dominant sprinter of this sport.
Losers
- Denis Menchov - Surely this is a sign that he is never meant to win another Grand Tour. 'Deni' is a tireless worker and always seems to be mentioned in the favourites but form and age might be beyond Rabobank's great hope.
- Robbie McEwen - We love Robbie but it is rare for him to come Italy and not get a win. The Queenslander must be very disappointed but now has extra motivation for the Tour de France.
- Team Milram - With Erik Zabel not firing a shot and recent sackings of other stars this outfit might be rethinking their roster.... and their schedule.
So now it is all to do for the Pro Tour as they go through some fine tuning and some warm up races for the Tour de France. Stay tuned for this as we take a very good look at one the biggest spectacles in the world.
