My favorite story out of the Giro this year was that of Emanuelle Sella winner of the King of the Mountain competition, 6th overall, and 3 stages - 14, 15, & 20.,
He may have won stage 7 as well, but a flat late in the race put him out of contention.
In Stage 14 he went out in a breakaway and eventually solo-ed to the finish 4 min 38 seconds ahead of his nearest rival on the day.
The day after he won stage 15 by just over 2 minutes.
Then came a mountain time trial (pictured above) which he lost by a mere 6 seconds.
On the penultimate day of the race, stage 20, he once again pulled away from a breakaway on a climb and won by over a minute.
One of the things I love about following stage races is that there are many races inside the race. In this case the story of overall winner, Alberto Contador, wasn't all that interesting in that he slowly pulled into the lead and then narrowly held onto it for the remainder of the race. Contador didn't win a single stage - in fact he didn't even finish in the top three on any of the stages. Meanwhile Sella so dominated in the KOM competition that his nearest rival had fewer than half as many points. Below is how he looked at the end of the race on his first wins.
Kelly, Lindsay and I headed out to Long Green Valley today to do one of my favorite rides starting near Boordy Vineyards and making a big loop around Belair past Jerusalem Mills & Rocks State Park.
50 miles on the day
This week the City of Baltimore made me very happy by re-paving what was the roughest section of my commute - the first block of White Avenue west of Belair Road. This morning on my way to work I was greeted by a beautiful, buttery smooth stretch of asphalt. It was even more exciting on the ride home when it came into view and I realized for once I wouldn't have to fear that the potholes would send me bouncing into Belair Road. Hopefully it won't take too many weeks for them to repaint the centerline...
The kind folks at Race Pace straightened out the derailluer hanger on my poprad - the worst lingering side effect of my crash. I got up early this morning to try it out and see if the repair undid the chain noise... I headed down to the lake for a few laps just after the sun came up. Unfortunately it didn't seem to do the trick, but it is definitely better... afterwards I put it back in the workstand and seemed to have eliminated it - I'll find out for sure out on the road this weekend.
11 miles on the day
photo - AFP found at VeloNews
And will eventually look like this:
They still have a long way to go...
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