Il Falco for the prologue win! Discover Channel rider Paolo Savoldelli made it clear today that he was competing for one thing, defence of his Giro title in what many have called is the toughest Giro d’Italia course in years. Just week’s ago Savoldelli showed the world he was not only ready but prepared to win when he took the opening prologue time trial at the Tour de Romandie. On that opening day Savoldelli beat out prologue specialist Bradley McGee and all others in the race of truth, just as he did today beating McGee by 11 seconds.
Basso finished today’s time trial a mere 23 seconds of the pace of Savoldelli, the Italian favorite who will captain team CSC was sporting one fancy skin suit that had virtually no seams. Basso had been working on his time trailing skills in 2004 and 2005 and improved the discipline tremendously. However over the last 6 months Basso has been working on his climbing skills, saying the tour (take your pick of any of the grand tours) will be won in the mountain stages which come on the second week and get fearsome on the third.
Ullrich might be in “preparation” for the Tour de France however the German was able to post a fairly decent time just 49 seconds behind the lead. Italian title favourite Ivan Basso finished 23 seconds off Savoldelli’s pace with Jan Ullrich, who is recovering from a knee injury, 49 seconds behind.
Other notable news, Tom Danielson looked dam good as he smoked a top twenty finish in todays race. The American who is known for his climbing ability must have been working on his time trialing skills recently as he appeared much stronger in the race against the clock. Gilberto Simoni also rode well today for a man that prefers mountains to the time trials, with a new team to support him he also seams like a likely contender.
2006 Giro d’ Italia Prologue Results
1. Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel 7min 50sec
2. Bradley McGee (Aus) @ 11secs
3. Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) @ 13secs
4. Stefan Schumacher (Ger) same time
5. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr) @ 15secs
6. Francisco Perez (Spa) @ 16secs
7. Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Spa) same time
8. Michael Rogers (Aus) @ 17secs
9. Davide Rebellin (Ita) @ 18secs
10. Danilo di Luca (Ita) @ 19secs
Related:
