Pozzato: now there's a real man.

"Who?" you say.

Filippo Pozzato, or "Pippo" as he's known: rides for Farnese Vini, the well-know British cycling team (no honestly, they're registered in the UK, I have no idea why and I can't imagine any benefit), goes in for weird hairstyles, lots of body art and is a bit of a big-mouth: I seem to remember he's been accused of wheel-sucking and bad tactics. He's been around a bit, having ridden for Quickstep, then Liquigas, then he rode for Katusha but didn't fit in with the Dark Lords, so he's dropped down to pro-continental this year. If you don't know what he looks like, just google him.

In yesterday's Giro, he caused a pretty big pile-up in the final sprint corner - oops. But he has immediately apologised to the riders most affected, ie Matt Goss and Cav, and to all the others as well.

"It was my fault, I admit that I'm the first to criticise those who risk too much,” he said. “I knew the bend was dangerous, but when the I saw that the road was narrowing I saw Goss in front of me and I was not able to stop."

There you go, Ferrari - that's all you have to do. Just put your hand up, take responsibility, and apologise like a man.

Yay, Pippo!

Meanwhile, Ventoso won the sprint: I'm not sure how I'd feel about that, if I were him. I mean, you won the stage, yay, and all that: but knowing that the two best sprinters in the world just fell off their bikes, everyone for ever more will always say "ah, but you only won it because Cav and Goss fell off". I'm not sure how much of a joy that sort of victory would be.

And yes, I can hear you all shouting that cycling is sometimes a little bit about the luck: as Shane Stokes said in the Velonation piece, "He’s not as fast as Cavendish or Goss, but proved that sprinting is unpredictable and that luck and good positioning are of high importance." Which is very true.

So what of today's stage? The weather is nice: sun, not too hot, no rain forecast but there is a warning in place for Tropical Storm Aletta, which could be slightly alarming. Let's hope it stays out to sea, eh? The stage is fairly short, fairly hilly, and with a narrow uphill finish. Not a sprint day, then, but maybe Frankie will have a good day. Let's hope there aren't any more protesters along the way!

Talking of which, other cycling news for today, of particular relevance to us in the UK: anti-Olympic protesters have announced that they are going to demonstrate against the commercialism of the games on July 28th. I have  no idea why they have picked that particular day, but it's damned bad timing for us, as there are only a small number of events taking place outside of the various stadiums (stadia? plural of stadium, anyone? Pfff, Latin is dead, long live English, I'll go with stadiums, thank you) one of which is the Men's Road Race.

Oh great.

Why are they protesting:

1) We taxpayers have had to fork out £11bn - that's eleven BILLION pounds - at a time when we are being told that services have to be cut in the name of austerity.
2) McD and Coke are sponsoring it, so no-one is allowed to bring their own food and drink into the stadiums (defiantly not the stadia, you notice) which is just outrageous on so many levels.
3) Tickets: yeah, usual problems with the bulk of them going to corporate sponsors
4) Some of the sponsors are themselves somewhat tarnished: chemical companies, etc
5) Apparently if you tried to buy tickets online, as the finance company VISA are one of the sponsors, they would only accept payment by VISA card.  If true, this is again outrageous!
6) London taxis aren't allowed - apparently - to drop people off close to the event. Only the approved sponsor transportation company will be allowed to do so. Huh? The whole point of London taxis is to move people around London....
7) They've put in special traffic lanes for competitors and corporate visitors -so the rest of us, including all the people who normally use these roads, added to all the tourists wishing to see the games - will be squeezed into less than the normal amount of road space. Can you imagine the chaos and traffic jams?
8) No host city has ever made money from the olympics.

Anyway, enough of the list, let's just say that there are a lot of grudges associated with the games, and there are plenty of genuine reasons to complain about it, but these protesters have picked the day of the one free-to-view event, and they are going to disrupt it.

Aaaaaargh!. *tears hair*

Well, I suppose we can only hope that apathy wins, on the day, and that no-one much turns up: or that it's as peaceful/pathetic as the one in yesterday's stage.