Giro stage 15: Ooh baby

The italian tour hit the mountains and the majority of the peleton hit the wall. Coming into the last climb there was no-one but the best in the leaders group, all eyeing each other off for a sign of weakness. This is what grand tour riding is all about, and against all my earlier predictions the boys dishing the pain were (once again) Ricco and DiLuca - but mostly Ricco.

Boy can that boy ride, eh? He took on the final climb knowing full well that sitting in the wheels were past winners of this race, tour champs and vuelta heroes. Still he took it to them with an arrogance not seen in cycling since Cungeo waltzed off on his older, wiser team-mate leaving him mateless (and eventually teamless) three years ago. Rockin ricco was looking pained as the early slopes hit, leaning heavily on his bars as he tried to dictate the pace in what looked at the time like a last ditch effort. But the boys behind had nothin. Nothin. Ricco danced away to a few free seconds but the others limited their losses and live to fight another day.

Alby wasn't looking SO good today, but really, he's in pink now, has a few more of his favourite hills to come and hasn't had to break a sweat so far. Smart money is on him now, but the question of the week?

What happened to Kloden and Levi??
I know Astana were a late inclusion, but people (and you know who you are) were seriously talking up the chances of the skinny German pre Sicily. In a classic case of 'where are they now' the boys in turquiose have thrown all their chips in with the tanned spaniard, and who can blame 'em?