One nice Giro happening right now

One rider I really like, Daniele Bennati, won Stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia on yesterday night.

I was on the edge of my seat as the final 10 kilometres of the stage from Catania to Milazzo, the last of three opening stages on the Mafia island of Sicily, unfolded before my eyes on Eurosport. The Giro always offers a different stage set-up for a different sort of rider and a different kind of sprinter took the win on that tricky stage, right when the SmSes were flowing in - "Zabel! Zabel! Zabel!" or "Hondo! Hondo!" .. You see, nobody, including me, thought of Bennati, especially when Zabel was the only seriously big sprinter in the picture in the final dash. But if you remember, Bennati is hot. Just two weeks ago, he closed the Tour de Romandie with a big bunch sprint win. Zabel was stuck on his wheel, but it wasn't truly flat, and Bennati had an edge, including much more power!

Honestly, I'd thought the finish of the stage with so many undulations, even some little tricky climbs in the last 70km or so, was made for a juicy Paolo Bettini-Danilo Hondo-Davide Rebellin showdown. But it seemed, as the final 10km unfolded, that the Serramenti Diquigiovanni team had left Hondo to fend for himself, Rebellin was just nowhere. But probably it was also just my imagination an faulty judgement. The finish looked a bit more flat than I'd expected.

I'd even thought the attack of Antonio Colom from Astana was going to succeed at one point, but he sort of turned off when Lilian Jegou (FdJ) took off in pursuit. It is rather hard for a Frenchman to win stages in Italy as history will show, but not so hard for an Italian to win in the Tour de France, as the late Marco Pantani and world champion Bettini showed.

But at least, after the opening team time trial that had Slipstream win and Christian van de Velde in the maglia rosa, the second stage onwards gave some credibility to my sort of preview of the Giro posted earlier.

Of my ranked dark horses: Ricardo Ricco, the Cobra, struck early with a stage win on day 2, which gave Liquigas' Franco Pellizotti in the maglia rosa quite early. So, not too bad for this Malaysian so called cycling journalist huh?

Tonight's fourth stage, covering 183km from Pizzo Calabro, through Catanzaro and ending in Lungomare, sees the first moderate climb (Passo di Pietra Spada) but still ends in tricky sort of terrain like last night. I think Bettini looks like he needs a couple or more stages to really get going, but I guess he might go for the mountains points tonight. Then the stage win? Probably, the first big bunch sprint battle should happen now. Let's see the Milram, Liquigas, Lampre, Gerolsteiner battle royale!

WADA Heck!!! (1)

Now, here's the first take on the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA, more so about their biggest failure - curbing doping practices in sport.

Most blatantly visible of all, if you check out the World Anti-Doping code available in their website http://www.wada-ama.org/ , is the failure of it to effectively catch and punish the cheats.

A significant amount of WADA's budget is spent on fighting legal battles. So, how effective can you say the World Anti-Doping Code is? WADA is good at coming up with lists of banned substances. Their former president Richard William Duncan Pound, or just plain Dick Pound, was famous as a crusader, catching those alleged to be dopers. But what use is there if the Code leaves so many grey areas which those with the clout and finances can exploit, challenge or manipulate? They catch and ban the athlete, but then find themselves running out of cash when the athlete decides to take it all the way in court.

WADA appoints Government Ministers from third world countries to sit in their council. But for what? It isn't like these Ministers, who themselves are ignorant, are going to help in any way. All they do is self-promote, about being part of the crusade. Of course, they can catch the small fries, the athletes from third world countries without the financial muscle to challenge the Code. They sure can't effectively nail the big boys. Or are the big boys innocent in the first place? Let's review the bloody CODE!!!

Here's cyclingnews.com's latest take on the Floyd Landis case:

Landis case costing WADA $1.3 million
The appeal by Floyd Landis to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has so far cost the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) nearly $1.3 million dollars (840,000 euros). Chairman of the WADA Finance Committee, Sir Craig Readie, told AFP that WADA had asked the UCI for financial assistance but none was forthcoming. "WADA could not help but get involved with the Landis case by default," said Readie.
WADA's legal director Oliver Niggli explained that the sheer complexity of the Landis case was the reason for such exorbitant legal costs. "The Landis case involves 400 pages of testimony, 6000 documents and five days of hearing," he said.
Niggli said that of WADA's $25 million annual budget, $1.7 million had been spent in the past 18 months on cycling-related doping cases. In contrast, the average cost of litigation for each WADA case is around $10,000.
Suspended for two years in September 2007, Landis presented his appeal to CAS in late March at a hearing in New York. The CAS ruling is expected to be known in June. According to AFP, Landis is expected to have spent approximately two million dollars on his own defence.
The Operación Puerto case has also cost WADA a lot of money, but Niggli said there was little hope of bringing the case to a close in the near future. "In the Puerto case, the Spanish judge has refused to give us access to the blood bags," he said. "We have spent a lot of money without much progress."
At a meeting of its Executive Committee on Saturday, WADA decided to establish a reserve fund of $1.5 million to finance proceedings against athletes convicted of doping.
Cyclingnews' coverage of the Floyd Landis case
March 12, 2007 - Landis' judgment day nearsOctober 21, 2007 - Landis files appeal with CASOctober 18, 2007 - AFLD takes another look at Landis caseThursday, October 11 - Landis continues fight, appeals to CASSaturday, September 22 - UCI officially names Pereiro 2006 Tour champion, Landis case raises issuesFriday, September 21 - Landis' appeal denied, two year suspension levied Sunday, September 16 - Arbitrators close Landis case Sunday, September 2 - Landis decision expected this monthFriday, August 31 - Landis decision due? Thursday, July 12 - Easy money for Landis? Tuesday, July 10 - Landis on book tour Thursday, July 5 - Landis will know verdict Friday Thursday, May 24 - It's science versus as Landis' fate hangs in the balance.

Sad record for humanity

New York Times carries this, one of the saddest stories I've ever read, on the state of Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis.
I can't even bring myself to explain. Click the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/asia/11scene.html?em&ex=1210651200&en=657b7cec0bfddb7f&ei=5087%0A

Sweet, sweet, SWEEEEEEET 17!

This is the crest of the greatest football club on earth.

Just minutes ago the 17th English League title was in the bag after a 2-0 triumph at Wigan. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a 33rd minute penalty and the great Ryan Giggs had the final word in the 80th minute.

To top it all, Santa Claus came dressed in blue tonight as the Chelsissies were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Bolton, so much for their hopes of stealing the title through the backdoor. The posers Manchester Shitty were hammered 8-1 at Middlesborough.

Power on to Moscow, United. Champions League final next. Business is far from over. The double is on. Bring on the Chelsissies in Moscow now!

Divorce of convenience?

A piece by The Scribbler in Sports Pro kind of hints of a game played by McLaren boss Ron Dennis, who in February divorced his wife Lisa, who in turn is said to have packed off to the US leaving Ron and their kids in England.

Apparently, Dennis anticipates lawsuits to follow the USD$100 million fine on McLaren by the FIA after the team were found guilty in the Spygate issue, of possession of classified Ferrari technical data.

The 61-year old Dennis is said to have transferred assets of about USD$300 million to Lisa last year, prior to the divorce. Scribbler says his sources reveal this might be due to impending lawsuits by Ferrari and his own shareholders following the Spygate scandal and this was done to save the money from legal predators.

I wonder if ex-Ferrari boss Datuk Seri Jean Todt can be expected to be among the suitors. The money could do well to boost the economy of Terengganu.