The Giro d'Italia is a great warm-up for the Tour de France; if not for the cyclists, then for the cycling fans.
The first of the three-week-long, real-life soap operas on wheels in Europe — the other two are the Tour and the Vuelta d'Espana — features heart-stopping pack sprints through historic Italian cities and gut-wrenching climbs in the Appenines, Dolomites, and Italian Alps.
This year's Giro d'Italia runs from May 7 – 29 and covers more than 2,100 miles from the tip of the boot to the mountains at the Swiss and French borders.
The Outdoor Life Network, in conjunction with Mediazone, has firmed up its registration plans for the live webcasts of the Giro d'Italia. The website is offering live, weekday feeds from the Giro for $5.95; OLN is broadcasting its own commentary on the race from 5-7 p.m. (ET) on Saturdays and Sundays. CyclingNews and VeloNews are offering realtime race updates at their websites.
Aiming to attain peak fitness for the Tour de France, which starts July 2, few of the expected Tour hopefuls ride in the Giro anymore. Tour podium hopefuls from the US — Lance Armstrong (Discovery), Floyd Landis (Phonak), Bobby Julich (CSC) and Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) all raced in the Tour de Georgia and are all absent from the Giro roster. (Also missing, Armstrong rival Jan Ullrich of T-Mobil, even though CSC's Ivan Basso, also eyed as a possible 2005 Tour winner, is racing in the Giro.)
Americans will be racing in the Giro, however. Most notable is Discovery's climbing specialist Tom Danielson, who won the Tour de Georgia. If he's still in the race at Stage 19, he can be a major contender if he can duplicate his Brasstown Bald efforts on the 9.5% average Colle della Finestre climb.
The 2002 Giro winner, Paolo Savoldelli, also is racing for Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team as the team leader. Others include US-riders Antonio Cruz, Jason McCarthy. CSC has two Americans in the Giro, David Zabriskie and Christian Vandevelde.
Other former Giro winners in the race include last year's champion, Damiano Cunego, and two-time winner Gilberto Simoni, both riding for Lampre-Caffita.
Also returning is sprint specialist Alessandro Petacchi for Fassa Bortolo; he who won 9 stages in last year's tour. Another sprinter coming back is Erik Zabel from T-Mobile; absent is Super Mario Cipollini, who retired.
A list of all 22 teams, comprising 9 riders each, is available at CyclingNews.
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