The top 10 racers in the Giro d'Italia bike race are mostly cyclists from Team CSC, T-Mobile, and Discovery after those three teams finished 1, 2, 3 in Thursday's team time trial.
The biggest benefactor of Team CSC's 1-second win over T-Mobile and 39-second margin over Discovery was Ivan Basso, who moved up to fifth place (from 17th), 11 seconds behind current race leader Serguei Honchar of T-Mobile. Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher, bike race leader for the past two days, dropped to 8th place, 31 seconds back.
While the 28-mile team time trial over flat roads south of Milan was expected to be a contest between CSC and Discovery, T-Mobile broke up the party with its performance. Discovery never found its top speeds as it lagged at the beginning, in spite of Lance Armstrong's riding in the team car behind the racers.
On Discovery, last year's winner Paolo Savoldelli sits in 5th place, 20 seconds behind, and American Tom Danielson is in 11th, 44 seconds behind. Another American, Bobby Julich of Team CSC, is in 9th place overall, 33 seconds behind.
Friday's 140-mile stage from Busseto to Forli is another flat sprinter's stage. The peloton enters the mountains on Saturday, tackling Monte Catria and Monte delle Cesane in the 7th stage.
Most news and race results at CyclingNews and VeloNews. OLN offers live Giro video streaming.
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