What a great TTT in Stage Five of the Giro d’Italia this morning. Loved the coverage on OLN/Cycling.tv. There were some great team rides, but CSC really kicked A over Discovery, and barely squeezed by T-Mobil by one second. The TV cameras had a great close-up of Ivan Basso, grinning from ear-to-ear right after the finish line. Ivan now leads Paolo Savoldelli by nine seconds in the GC - Ivan is 5th and Paolo is now 6th. T-Mobil’s great ride put Serguei Gonchar in the maglia rosa, with Jens Voigt of CSC in second and Michael Rogers of T-Mobile in third.

I was a little confused with seeing T-Mobile going thru the finish line with only four riders (I thought). Anthony of cycling.tv said there were only four... Kessler blew up, lost the wheel and got left behind. I thought that would DQ their result, but I guess it is only the TTT result, not the GC result. I bet Kessler feels like crap right now - he came in two seconds behind his team. However, I don't think they even knew he had dropped back... But, there's no way his team could have backed off at that time - they were charging full speed ahead, with victory in their blood...

The pic above is Velogal and Ivan Basso at the 2005 SF Barclays International. That’s where Ivan told me when he won the Tour this year, that I had to tattoo “Go Ivan” on my right leg... And I think he’s gonna do it, too....

Those guys really give it their all in the TTT - Charlie Wegelius was riding at 95% heart rate - really red-lining it.

I see that Leif Hoste may be leaving Discovery Channel team at the end of the year, for a higher paying team. There are several teams bidding sky-high, I guess. Discovery doesn’t usually get into the bidding game, so not likely that they will meet the offers... Look at the top riders who used to be with Johan....