Giro D'Italia : Stage 8 - Saturday, May 17: Rivisondoli - Tivoli, 208km

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Stage 8

Rebellin, Pellizotti or Siutsou.

Who is Siutsou? :confused:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanstantsin_Siutsou

I'll tip Di Luca to win this stage, he seems on very good form, Ricco to come second.

Good win for Ricco.
Pipped Bettini in the finish.

Ricco seems on good form, Bettini appears to slowly be getting there. Hopefully that means he'll be up for some stage wins later on (although how many oppurtunities he has left I really don't know).

Di Luca's positioning coming into that last climb was crap, anyone know if he had a mechanical? Given how many people he flew past to take the lead coming into the last hundred he must have been feeling pretty strong, probably would have won if he hadn't been in such a bad place to start with.

Ricco seems on good form, Bettini appears to slowly be getting there. Hopefully that means he'll be up for some stage wins later on (although how many oppurtunities he has left I really don't know).

Di Luca's positioning coming into that last climb was crap, anyone know if he had a mechanical? Given how many people he flew past to take the lead coming into the last hundred he must have been feeling pretty strong, probably would have won if he hadn't been in such a bad place to start with.I saw comments to the effect that he'd been near the back of the peloton (with some team-mates) and was gapped on the descent leading in, so he had to work hard to get up to the leaders, and when he got there, had a dig.

I get the impression that he was feeling ordinary today but still had enough in the tank to vie for the win, even if he wasn't comfortable.

Ricco is by turns annoying and marvellous. He talks himself up in a big way, but it's hard to argue if he delivers the goods.

There's also this snippet from the CN live coverage (http://www.cyclingnews.com.au/road/2008/giro08/?id=live/giro088):
Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) noted at the start of the stage this morning, "I think that someone is at the beach, I was at the beach for ten minutes," he laughed. He was referring to his post-stage comments on Alberto Contador (Astana) yesterday.

He said after the stage, "I am not upset, but Contador was crafty. Was he at the beach before coming her to the Giro? Yes, the Madrid beach! You are not able to go so strong with such short number of days of training." It was unclear if Riccò was making an Operación Puerto reference, but surely the comments gained him yet another enemy in the peloton.

This morning he continued, trying to ease the strong words, "If he is at the sea... I don't know." Wiser and older Leonardo Piepoli was at Riccò's side, looking rather nervous with the comments.

Who is Siutsou? :confused:
ex world u23 champ, circa 2004. Belarussian.

Barloworld last year, rode about 30th on GC at the Tour de France, would have been 5-10 better if he did not have a jour sans.

Potentially a great GC prospect in the GTs.

High Road have some good support for Rogers.

Kirchen, Lovqvist, Gerdemann, Siutsou, Barry. I don't think they will take Konstantin Siutsou though.

Thanks for the info.