Stage 11: Basso Runs Out of Bubble Gum

"I'm hear to chew some bubble gum and kick some ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum." -- They Live

The first 10 stages were cute. Petacchi's inability to win a stage until yesterday, some nice sprint finals, McEwen running away with the points competition, and DiLuca and Bettini's early domination of the race. Well, all of that preliminary stuff is over.

At 4:18 local time, Ivan Basso put his foot down and began his ruthless domination of the Giro. That's when Garzelli and Cunego showed the slightest bit of weakness climbing the Passo Duran, giving Basso the opportunity to attack. And attack again. And for good measure, attack again.

In 10 minutes, the lead group was down to four: Basso, Salvodelli, Simoni, and DiLuca. Less than three minutes later, it was just Basso and Simoni. And just like that, Basso showed himself to be the cutthroat leader we knew he could be. I mean, he ripped the guts out of the lead group, full of all of the top riders, and he did it in a remarkably short time period during the toughest climb of the day.

OK, Salvodelli showed Lance isn't the only stud on the Discovery Channel team, reunited the lead group, while at the same time upping the pace on the descent, absolutely burying Cunego. He can't climb like Basso, but no one can descend like he can, a pretty underrated skill. Going into the final climb, Salvodelli held a slight lead.

Salvodelli actually managed to hold onto the lead, holding off Basso's charge. But it was Basso who blew apart the stage and dictated the pace. Salvodelli gets the stage win, Basso gets the maglio rosa. Seems fair. Simoni and DiLuca at least stayed in the picture, but Cunego finished 6 full minutes back.

And now there are only six riders within five minutes of the lead. Boys and girls, its over. These are the only riders with a snowball's chance:

1. Ivan Basso, CSC, --
2. Paolo Savoldelli, Discovery Channel, at 0:18
3. Danilo Di Luca, Liquigas-Bianchi, at 1:04
4. Gilberto Simoni, Lampre, at 2:27
5. Serhiy Honchar, Domina Vacanze, at 3:45
6. Marzio Bruseghin, Fassa Bortolo, at 4:34
7. Michele Scarponi, Liberty Seguros, at 4:48

And really, only the top four, yes, the same top four of this stage, have a good shot. But it looks like this is Ivan Basso's coming out party.

First order of separation

CSC had a nice day at the individual time trial (not the first time, huh). David Zabriskie (American) takes the stage win, and Ivan Basso is second. Paolo Savoldelli was almost half a minute behind Basso, but he did better than Cunego, Garzelli, and Simoni. Here is the GC after 8 stages.

1 Danilo DI LUCA
2 Ivan BASSO 0:09
3 Paolo SAVOLDELLI 0:35
4 Damiano CUNEGO 1:15
5 Dario CIONI 1:27
6 Stefano GARZELLI 1:35
7 Marzio BRUSEGHIN1:38
8 Serhiy HONCHAR 1:39
9 Markus FOTHEN 2:10
10 Gilberto SIMONI 2:11
11Vladimir KARPETS 2:24
12 Michele SCARPONI2:28
13 Paolo BETTINI 2:37

No one else is within 3 minutes. Di Luca did a great job in the time trial to hang on to the pink jersey, and Bettini is hanging around because he was everywhere in week one. We're going to see huge reassortment at the end of next week when they hit the big mountains, but for now, the early advantage belongs to Basso & Savoldelli.

In Stage 7 Cunego had his first "I'm an Italian cyclist primadonna" moment as he celebrated victory upon crossing the line. The only problem was that he was 20 seconds behind the stage winner, Koldo Gil Perez. Yeah, don't forget about those guys who go on 179 km breakaways. And kick your team manager in the pants for not realizing you weren't in the lead. Doh!