To probably no one's surprise, Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca, left, officially won the Giro d'Italia on Sunday after he and his Liquigas team dominated the race from the opening stage.
Over the 21-stage race, you can count only four days when a member of the Liquigas team was not in the leader's pink jersey; Di Luca was in the pink for a lucky 13 stages.
Meanwhile, supersprinter Alessandro “Ale-Jet” Petacchi, above right, took the final stage win in Milan.
It marked his 5th win at this Giro, and the 24th in his career. The Milram rider still has a ways to go before matching fellow countryman Mario Cipolini for Giro stage wins. The “Lion King” boasts 42.
The 114-mile final stage from Vestone to Milan was the first for Petacchi in two years. He had to sit out last year's final due to a severe knee injury from which he had to recover.
In addition to winning the final stage, Petacchi won the points jersey. The Best Young Rider jersey went to Andy Schleck (Team CSC), the 21-year-old cyclist from Luxemburg who finished second overall. The climber's jersey when to Leonardo Piepoli of Saunier Duval; he should also get graditude from early favorite and team leader Gilberto Simoni for helping him rise to third place overall through his work on the mountain stages.
Although no one could have suspected it at the time, the race belonged to Liquigas from the beginning.
Liquigas won the opening day team-time trial on the windy island of Sardenia just two seconds ahead of Astana. It was enough to put Enrico Gasparotto in the pink jersey (he crossed the finish ahead of Di Luca), and it passed between Gasparotto and Di Luca over the next few stages.
Marco Pinotti captured the pink jersey on the 6th stage, and the T-Mobile cyclist turned out to be the only non-Liquigas rider to hold the jersey when he gave it up after four days to Andrea Noe, who held for two days before Di Luca took it back.
By the way, the organizers are touting this as the most popular Giro in a while, which is a surprise with all the dire predictions about doping impacting cycling's popularity.
If you're interested in Giro minutiae, OLN commentator Bob Roll points out in his blog, Bobke Strut, that Di Luca is the first Giro winner to hail from southern Italy. He also raises the issue that Andy Hampsten might not have been the first American to win the Giro.
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