"The soul of the sprinter is to always think he is the best in the world and that he can win every race"

Mario Cipollini

the legacy of shakespeare, keats, dickens, and eliot is safe with "cav."

“I’ve never seen Leipheimer attack,” Di Luca said on RAI television. “He’s going to have to now if he wants to win this Giro.”

Even Danny boy thinks Levee is boring.

i'll bet he wasn't thinking that yesterday !

ed rader

Considering Danny boy set his whole season for this one race he must really be excited to have this boring American be 6 seconds behind him.

I'm going to miss tomorrow's stage. Suxor.

So does he just show up and ride some of the giro with "the guys"?

today's stage was less than stone's throw away from where he lives.

What bike is Mr. GQ riding?

His own.

Cannondale - might be Liquigas team issue.

Not this one, but ...

I stand corrected. Looks pretty sweet.

I don't care what you think about the guy but he brought cool to the peloton. Armstrong brought science and technology.

Not necessarily. If Diluca gets shelled on any of the climbs by the lead group it's his problem. That might not require an attack, just a ballistic rate of climb that he can't answer. DiLuca also has to worry about the 15km flat TT at the end of the Giro that will really play into Levi's favor.

Very interesting race. Three top guys within 40 seconds, and of those three, I like Levi's chances. If everything remains the same until the final TT, Levi might well be in the driver's seat.

Correct.

Ouch, that hurts coming from you, thee of the no capitalization posts. I bet neither Shakespeare, Keats, Dickens nor Eliot could hang with Cav in a Sprint. Just sayin'.

More interesting part of Mr. Cavendish's quote was his reason for leaving the Giro.

"I'm 24, I want to have a long career."

What does that infer?

The race is too dangerous for the Manx TT man?

Or he is preserving his knees for the duration?

That was the headline. Here's what he actually said:

“If I feel good enough, I will attack, I promise you that...We have to take it day-by-day. It’s a long, hard race. Tomorrow is a day for Di Luca. I will try not to lose time to him because the stage is tailor-made for Di Luca.”

That it's utterly pointless for the best sprinter on the planet to drag his ass over one Cat 1 climb after another for two weeks just to make the time cut so he can contend one or two more sprint finishes, that's what.

Maybe someday Cavendish will do that in an attempt to secure a TdF Green Jersey. I wonder if he can develop the climbing chops that would require.

must suck going through life having only experienced a rote based education.

You have some nerve. YOU talk of education, yet your affectation for not capitalizing continues unabated.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks you appear foolish due to this. Look in the mirror. Just sayin'.

Mostly science fiction IMO.

What new science and technology did LA bring to cycling, pray tell?

Power-based training, from what I've read and heard. While there were other cyclists training with power, Armstrong was the one who obsessed over it. And since he was good, others started obsessing over it too. And now look at where we are.

Also, nutritional science.

Bollocks.

They've been riding around with power meters for over 15 years. Ferrari trained riders before he had Armstrong on the roster.

Nutritional science LOL.