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FEATURES: BEING THERE: 2011 GIRO D'ITALIA
Tim Maloney
May 8, 2011
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On a sweet May Saturday, the 2011 Giro d'Italia commenced with a 19.6km TTT from Veneria Reale to Torino, the first capital of Italy. Starting from the courtyard of Veneria Reale palace,the Versailles of Italy, the 23 Giro teams blasted into the city center at over 55km/hr in a spectacular race won by Yankee squad HTC-Highroad, with the first Maglia Rosa rightly going tovan Italian rider, Marco "The Engineer" Pinotti, a 35 year old TT specialist from Bergamo. In Venaria Reale, Liquigas set up a huge motorsports style compound in the start area with team bus, product display and a mobile kitchen.
Liquigas team guy Enrico Zanardo plays host to his amici from Treviso Rosella Ghelfi and Mauro Grespan, while le chef prepares some tasty pasta asciutta in the upstairs galley.
He's Back! Johan Bruyneel's Radio Shack team has had a strong spring campaign and is looking
for a solid Giro from solid Yaro Popovych and emerging Tiago Machado. JB told us before the TTT to watch out for his team and he was right; the Shack came second, close behind HTC. Bruyneel told RoadBikeAction.Com that he was optimistic about the team continuing in the years to come. "We are not ready to say anything officially but things are looking good." RoadBikeAction.Com says watch out for The Shack's Tour de France dark horse Andreas Kloden in July.
Radio Shack's three amigos (l-r); Team Doctor Nino Daniele, head soigneur Ryzard Kieplinski and press chief Philippe Maertens hangin' loose at the Giro start in Venaria.
What would the Giro d'Italia be without Colnago? The Colnago Brothers, Ernesto (right) and his younger brother Paolino, accompanied by their long-time collaborator "Forest" Foresti stop to say "ciao" to RoadBikeAction.Com.
Among others, Colnago sponsors Team Colnago-CSF, formerly known as Panaria and run by the father and son team Bruno and Roberto Reverberi. Look for their pocket climber Domenico Pozzovivo and sprinter Manuel Beletti to score at the 2011 Giro. Here the ragazzi of Colnago-CSF warm up on their pristine Colnagos.
In contrast to Milano-Sanremo, where the unfriendly Rabobank guys wouldn't let RoadBikeAction.Com. shoot the team's Giant TCR Advanced SL bikes, the Giro crew was decidedly more friendly. Rabokank's Giant Trinity SL time trial bikes sport this unique anodized brake set, dubbed Rabobrakes, created by a Giant engineer who wanted to make creative use of color anodizing.
Garmin-Cervelo mechanic Geoff Brown is starting his 29th Grand Tour and we shared old memories of him fixing my poorly maintained bike before a ride at the Motorola team training camp almost 20 years ago in Santa Rosa, CA. Thanks Again Geoff!
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