GIRO D'ITALIA

This year's Giro is turning out to be the most interesting Grand Tour stage race in years.

It started 10 days ago in Holland. Strong winds and narrow roads produced an array of crashes, which appeared to scupper the chances of Britain's Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins, who had won the opening time trial in Amsterdam. When the race moved to Italy, torrential rain turned the gravel roads south of Siena on stage 7 into a mudbath. A crash and the heavy conditions made life difficult for former Tour de France winner and pre-race favourite Carlos Sastre, who lost a lot of time. After a mountain-top finish the following day, where his bruises were still troubling him, the little Spaniard found himself 10 minutes adrift and seemingly out of the overall picture.

Until yesterday. On the Giro's longest stage for a decade, 262km to the earthquake hit town of L'Aquila, held in pouring rain, a group of riders got away after 20km. Normally the favourites' teams would have kept the group in check or chased it down. But the group had more than 50 riders in it, including both Sastre and Wiggins, and they covered the first hour at an incredible average speed of 56kmh! With some steep hills en route, it was not surprising that the breakaway group finished with more riders than the favourites' group, who eventually rolled in more than twelve and a half minutes adrift. Sastre and Wiggins had made up all of the lost time of the first week, and then some.

Starting on Sunday with the mountain-top finish on the Zoncolan, perhaps the toughest climb in Europe (10km at an average 11.5%), the last week in the Dolomites is widely regarded as one of the most difficult ever. That should suit Sastre, who is notorious for being strong in the last week of Grand Tours, and who is a natural climber. Furthermore, he is in the unusual position of starting the real climbing 3-6 minutes ahead of his rivals (Vinokourov, Evans, Basso, Nibali, Cunego and Scarponi) instead of having to attack from behind. If he has recovered from his earlier crashes and has any sort of form, then the Giro is his for the taking. True, he is still only in eighth place, seven minutes down on the surprising leader, rookie Australian Richie Porte; and he still has Wiggins lurking only a minute behind him. But I suspect that the men in front of him will wilt, once the roads start going seriously uphill; and Wiggins, although strong, is not as good a climber. Sastre is my tip.

Yesterday's rather freakish stage reconfirmed two things about cycling. First, it is one of the ultimate team sports; a team can't help you when you are alone on the way up to the summit, but you can't win a 3-week stage race without a good team. Secondly, a bike race is never over until it's over. A crash, a tactical mistake (like yesterday), a puncture, all things can happen. I was musing on this late yesterday afternoon as I went for a cycle ride on the first truly warm day of the year. The Giro riders did 262km in 8 degrees and pouring rain; I did about 30km in a dry and pleasant 20 degrees. But boy, was I strong, taking the final Soebo Loekker climb before the run down to my house in sixth gear on the little ring instead of the usual fifth. Perhaps I could give Sastre a run for his money?

Walter Blotscher