Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Savoldelli Serves Notice
Forget the Race to Replace. Forget Popovych. Discovery Channel needs to recognize the other winner of a major tour in their ranks, Il Falco, Paolo Savoldelli. Riding an impressive prologue, he barely edged out Alejandro Valverde – who had arguably the more impressive ride, given his relative abilities in the race against the clock.
While the difference between Savoldelli and Valverde was measured in the hundredths of a second, both put an impressive 4 seconds into Brad McGee, usually a man for the prologues. And McGee had earlier put four seconds between himself and the rest of the peloton... Impressive, indeed.
Savoldelli’s win underscores his ambitions to defend his Giro title, and Valverde’s effort will severely undermine team management’s efforts to quell expectations in Spain of an attempt at the overall in Spain. Salvodelli’s real test, of course, will come when he defends the maglia rosa, and sees whether or not Discovery Channel has enough confidence in him to support him fully in this year's attempt. Valverde for his part will not only need to confirm his abilities against the clock in a longer time trial, but he’ll also need to demonstrate an improvement in his climbing on Friday and Saturday’s stages. While he had a good Basque Tour, he was notably absent from the head of affairs on the tougher stages.
The prologue was also too short for the celebrated (at least by the throngs of German fans), if long-delayed, return to competitive cycling of Jan Ullrich. The once Tour favorite rolled through with a middling time, but like the others the real indication of his form will come later in the week. Unlike Savoldelli and Valverde, he won’t be testing his mettle against the best, hoping to be able to dictate the pace from the front. Instead, the challenge with Jan will be to roll with the group over the flat stages – and not humiliate himself by being beaten by the sprinters over the mountain passes.
While the difference between Savoldelli and Valverde was measured in the hundredths of a second, both put an impressive 4 seconds into Brad McGee, usually a man for the prologues. And McGee had earlier put four seconds between himself and the rest of the peloton... Impressive, indeed.
Savoldelli’s win underscores his ambitions to defend his Giro title, and Valverde’s effort will severely undermine team management’s efforts to quell expectations in Spain of an attempt at the overall in Spain. Salvodelli’s real test, of course, will come when he defends the maglia rosa, and sees whether or not Discovery Channel has enough confidence in him to support him fully in this year's attempt. Valverde for his part will not only need to confirm his abilities against the clock in a longer time trial, but he’ll also need to demonstrate an improvement in his climbing on Friday and Saturday’s stages. While he had a good Basque Tour, he was notably absent from the head of affairs on the tougher stages.
The prologue was also too short for the celebrated (at least by the throngs of German fans), if long-delayed, return to competitive cycling of Jan Ullrich. The once Tour favorite rolled through with a middling time, but like the others the real indication of his form will come later in the week. Unlike Savoldelli and Valverde, he won’t be testing his mettle against the best, hoping to be able to dictate the pace from the front. Instead, the challenge with Jan will be to roll with the group over the flat stages – and not humiliate himself by being beaten by the sprinters over the mountain passes.
