Barring something freaky happening tonight or tomorrow, Basso will win the Giro tomorrow with the biggest margin in many years. Has he compromised his preparation for the Tour in doing so?
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
whither now Basso?
I'm thinking he's got a good chance at doing the double. Other than Jan nobody comes to mind that's going to be able to stay with him but who knows with the Kaiser. Valverde could be one to which as well.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture"
I would have said Vinoukourov but now with the upheavals of this week, who knows.
Valverde has the balance of abilities for stage racing, not sure that those have matured enough yet to sustain consistency over a 3 week race, and the team isn't there yet.
I think it will be Basso and Ullrich duking it out. Should be a close battle, Ullrich should be peaked just right for July, and he and his team have vast experience. Basso may have compromised his Tour prep by racing 3 weeks this month, but his confidence is sky high and his team are too now that they have their first grand tour win in the bag. Ullrich is the TT master, but Basso is much improved. Ullrich is very steady and unshakeable in the mtns, Basso has an explosive attack on tap and recovers well. Too tough to call?
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
There's a podcast over at BikeBiz that has Phil Liggett discussing the Giro, the Tour, and a few other things. I didn't listen to the entire thing but there's some interesting comments about Ullrich, Basso, and the Spanish doping arrests.
"It's, like, so much fun."
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