German cyclist Jan Ullrich used the Giro d'Italia on Thursday to tell us he's ready for the Tour de France.
Ullrich won the 31-mile individual time trial from Pontedera to Pisa and back again, beating the closest finisher, current Giro leader Ivan Basso, by 28 seconds, and everyone else by more than a minute.
While Ullrich's win does little for his overall Giro standings (he's still not in the top 10), it helps to set the stage for the two leading contenders in July's Tour de France, the first in eight years without Lance Armstrong. Basso finished second and Ullrich third in the 2005 Tour.
Some factors from the Giro to consider for the Tour: Ullrich beats Basso in the ITT by 28 seconds; Basso's Team CSC beats Ullrich's T-Mobile team by just one second in the team time trial; Basso finishes strong in the mountains.
Ullrich, who Armstrong touted as the likely winner of this year's Tour de France, ran into some trouble with a strained knee early in the season and is using the Giro to get back into form. Armstrong changed his mind recently and said Basso was his Tour favorite. I wonder what he's thinking now?
Overall, the ITT worked to Basso's advantage. His closest challenger, Jose Gutierrez dropped more than a minute to 2:48 behind; Damiano Cunego dropped from third to eighth, nearly 7 minutes behind, and Gilberto Simoni is now 8th at 7:13 behind.
Although they lost time to Basso, Discovery's Paolo Savoldelli moved up to fourth place and Tom Danielson moved up to fifth.
See CyclingNews or VeloNews for more results and news from Thursday's stage. Also, OLN offers live video streaming of the Giro at its website.
The Giro cyclists enter some hills along the west coast of Italy on Friday, biking up two steep climbs in the 106 miles from Livorno to Sestri Levante.
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