Well, I guess the Eurosport channel's English language commentators deserve some cheers after covering thebig races for so long without much British glory to bark about. Yes, several years ago there was David Millar at the top of his game (before he got busted), but now Mark Cavendish is up there in the history books with his first ever Giro d'Italia stage win.
So much for my predictions. Well, the bunch sprints are unpredictable, as much as you would like to think you know who the main guys are gonna be. Its good for the High Road team to have a Grand Tour stage win in the bag. But I'd thought about anybody but Cavendish all along. Come to think of it, who'd have had this 21-year old on his GT debut on their list of possibilities. Just two years ago, if I remember correctly, he was in Le Tour de Langkawi with the British national team.
This proves something though. If you want to win a stage in the Giro, you've got to prepare by winning a stage in the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland two weeks earlier. Cavendish won the opening prologue stage of that race, while the Giro's Stage Three winner Daniele Bennati had won the final stage.
Tonight, Cavendish beat Gerolsteiner's Robert Forster and Bennati in his smart final move. I saw Astana's Assan Basayev up there and was gunning for him to get it. Always nice when an Asian rider bags a GT stage. But the Kazakh only got fourth.
Also, we saw a bit of Robbie McEwen in there tonight, but he only managed seventh. For Silence-Lotto's Australian, a stage win in May is always a bonus. Just watch him go in July.
Still three stages before the GC comes under attack in the first of the real mountains and Franco Pellizotti still in the maglia rosa, albeit by a second from Christian Van de Velde. that makes two jerseys on Liquigas shoulders with Bennati in the cilamino (points jersey). Can't predict Stage Five. Just let it happen.
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