You can follow the 89th Giro d'Italia bicycle race, which begins Saturday, by watching live video streaming on the Internet on most days over the next three weeks.
A couple of cycling websites offer up-to-the-minute updates, as well as race summaries and results. Video reports are also available — in Italian — at the Gazzetta dello Sport's Giro official website. You can use Babelfish to translate the rest. (Update: Click here for an English version of the Giro website.)
OLN is offering a live Giro video feed, which can be played back later, from its website with English-speaking commentary. It's not available on Sundays, however, when OLN's Cyclysm TV show is aired.
The cost for streaming video is $19.99. It covers Monday through Saturday Giro cycling with live, as well as archived, video. Sign up here.
The Cyclysm Sundays offers Giro d'Italia coverage from 5 to 7 p.m. (ET) on May 7, 14, 21, and 28, according to the OLN website. Also, OLN is broadcasting the Giro from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on May 8 and 15 and 3 to 5 p.m. on May 22 and 29 (those may be replays of previous day's action).
It's smart to check the daily schedule for changes to broadcast times.
To follow the Giro d'Italia in text, both CyclingNews and VeloNews offer frequent updates on their websites. I like to follow the races with their updates, because I can get some work done on the side while I check back on the progress of breakaways and battles on mountains.
During the Tour of Georgia, VeloNews used Google maps to chart the progress of the race along with its text box that automatically refreshes. I don't know if they'll be able to offer that level of mapping in Italy.
The official Giro d'Italia website is a little difficult to follow, even translated in Babelfish. There's this news item, for instance:
“Withdrawals of money of blood for the participants to the race rose: outcome negative for all.”
I'm assuming all the cyclists passed their tests for blood doping.
Checking through the official websites pages, I didn't find anything like the Tour de France site, where the race progress is charted or the location of the race leader and attackers are displayed. However, under RadioCorsa, there's the description: “From 6 May you follow the tiny stage for minute.” This might be race updates.
There's also video at the website from Gazzetta dello Sport.
Recent Comments