The Discovery guys are all assembled for the Giro, which starts Saturday, the 7th, for three weeks. Start list: Tom, Paolo, Michael, Pavel, Tony, Benoit, Jason, Volodymyr and Ryder. We’ve got some guys who are new to the Giro and new to three-week stage racing. I got a note from Michael Barry yesterday, and he says the team is looking good and strong. Tom is fresh off the Georgia win, and he needs to use the confidence and lose the pressure to do well at the Giro. His job there is to ride for Paolo - Johan expects Paolo to do well, even tho Paolo hasn’t done much racing since recovering from his crash collar-bone thrash.

Johan has put together a strong, experienced support team - if you’ve noticed, Volodymyr has been right up there in the top ten of several finishes. Ryder and Jason need to hang tough, ride hard, ride smart and do what is expected of them: suffer for Paolo (il Falco) the team leader for the Giro.

Speaking of Michael Barry, I’ve been trying to grab a few free minutes to read Inside the Postal Bus, and am rather annoyed to see incorrect names in the captions of some of my shots. Makes me look like I don’t know who the Postal team guys were. I take great pains to double-check and triple-check for accuracy. I don’t quite understand how folks somewhere along the publishing line, whether it’s a proof-reader, copy editor, technical editor, or project editor, can arbitrarily change a caption or change the spelling of a rider’s name or team name, without checking it out with the photographer or author for accuracy. Similar stuff happened with the Tour de France for Dummies book, but as a co-author, I did get a chance to try to catch several incorrect revisions, particularly changes in spelling of names, which I had done accurately, and someone had changed to the wrong spelling. With Michael’s book, I didn’t see the final captions before they went to print. And, BTW, I am told that The Tour de France for Dummies now will be released on May 23rd.