Giro TTT - The fallout
 

Wow, Popo really got unlucky there. Despite the fact that Discovery limited the time loss, they need to hope he's not badly hurt.

Question: Is the Giro doing what the TDF does now? Where you don't get your team's actual time but instead there's the time of the winning team and then everyone else gets time penalties from that? Or are they going with actual time?

If it is actual time, Simoni's now got to make up 2+ minutes on Di Luca and what looks like a strong team (of course we're not in the mountains yet) that could prove pretty tough. Still, I think Simoni's feeling pretty motivated to kick butt this year.

Ricco will be Saunier Duval's GC rider, not Simoni.

Yeah Simoni hinted as much. It's on cyclingnews.

We'll see though. It'll come down to the Zoncolan, IMO. You can win or lose 10 minutes on that climb.

What's really caught my attention after today's stage is just how far off Petacchi is. The Eurosport guys were going on and on about how the finish did not suit Petacchi, but he was perfectly set-up, and was in perfect position. It was essentially a "Petacchi" finish but McEwen went right over him (as did Bettini).

I guess he never fully recovered from that injury.
Or hasn't yet. Time will tell.

I was thinking the same thing. Then today they say the finish suits McEwen, and what happens? And with no train at the end. It's a funny sport.

I like the idea of having the TTT on a more "technical" route, but I think it's kind of silly to make it the prologue (witness the maglia rosa changing hands based not on time difference, but on placing). Anyone else have opinions about this?

Woah, kind of crazy. Reading Ricco's comments though, he says Simoni's the GC rider. I think Simoni's just downplaying everything and keeping his opponents in the dark. I still think when the mountains come into play that he'll be a force.

Also, they state that he hasn't won the Giro in 3 years but last year not only was he third, but the two guys ahead of him were doping.

Which all sounds very tidy unless of course Simoni just wasn't doping as effectively as the two guys in front of him.