Think pink this May when the 2007 Giro d'Italia bicycle race begins its three-week contest for the winner's pink jersey.
Ivan Basso, now a cyclist on the Discovery Channel pro cycling team, is looking to repeat his championship from last year when he was a member of Team CSC. Once again, the bike race is touted as one that favors the climbing specialists.
As last year's Giro d'Italia started in Belgium to commemorate Italians killed in a mine disaster in that country, the first three days of the 2007 Giro will be raced on the island of Sardenia to honor the 200th birthday of Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi.
2007 marks the 90th time the Giro d'Italia has been raced. The bicycling begins May 12 and runs through June 3, covering 2,134 miles on the way to Milan.
Some highlights:
— The Giro opens with a 15-mile team time-trial on May 12;
— There are two individual time trials, May 25 and June 2. The first is a so-called mountain time trial because it climbs 5.5% — with slopes up to 13% — over its 8-mile run;
— There are four mountain-top finishes in 2007 and a total eight mountain stages;
— Some mountains to be climbed — Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Montevergine di Mercogliano, Monte Zoncolan (there's a 22% gradient section), and Passo San Marco;
— The Giro races into Austria.
While the Discovery Channel cycling team hopes to win with Basso, 29, in 2007, they can look back on 2005 when Disco cyclist Paolo Savoldelli won the Giro. This year, however, Savoldelli is riding with the Khazakh team, Astana.
The 2007 Giro d'Italia website has a large-scale map, route elevations, and description of stages. CyclingNews has a good preview of the tour, as does VeloNews.
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