The 2008 Giro d’Italia

Because of so many quality local road races in the past two weeks, the 2008 Giro d’Italia almost slipped through my radar. By the time you read this, the 2008 champ would have been crowned. As I was writing this, there are 3 riders within 21sec of each other- overall leader Alberto Contador (ASTANA), Ricardo Ricco (SAUNIER DUVAL) and Danilo di Luca  (LPR BRAKES)- and just 2 stages remaining consisting of a mountain stage and a 28km flat individual time trial.

Contador is the 26yo reigning Tour de France champion who won’t be defending his crown after the TdF organizer excluded his team due to past doping violation of which the current riders and management had no part. Initially excluded form this years’ Giro, ASTANA got a call from the organizers just a week before the race which caught them unprepared for the race. However, the cycling gods must be mending the injustice as Contador is still hanging on with a 4sec lead over Ricco.

Ricco is a brash 23yo Italian who can back his talk up with great rides. I picked Ricco to win the Giro this year but I think his inexperience, the withdrawal of his strong teammates and the final TT will test his skills.

Di Luca is the defending champion but a doping suspension after his win made everybody thought that he was finished. Reinstated just a few weeks before the Giro, he finally made ground yesterday after showing distress in the early mountain stages.

If Contador was given time to prepare, everybody knows that his lead at this point would be 4 minutes, not 4 seconds. I like Contaor because he is an attacking rider but his poor form coming into the Giro has made him a defensive rider. If he can minimize his losses in the mountains today by less than a minute, then I think his TT skills will win him the Giro. For Ricco and Di Luca, they need to put as much time as possible today to have a cushion in the TT otherwise they’ll kiss their chances goodbye.

NBA FINALS

When Boston traded for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen this season, sports fans in Bean Town were salivating that for the first time in US sports history, a major sports city would own three major sports championships in a year.

The Red Sox had already owned the World Series (last October) after sweeping the Colorado Rockies. One down, two to go.

Boston’s NFL team, the Patriots, were also in a tear. They would go on to have a perfect regular season but in Super Bowl LXII last February 3, the perfect season became the perfect nightmare when the underrated New York Giants shocked the world by ending the streak in a huge upset. And so, Boston, was 1-1 instead of two-0.

Although the historic dream was now history, the third part of the trilogy is now upon us and it features the NBA’s best this year, the LA Lakers taking on the Boston Celtics. I’ll leave it to the more knowledgeable writers of this paper to dissect the NBA Finals.

If it were San Antonio going against Celtics, I’d be rooting for the Celtics. I want to see Kevin Garnett rewarded for all the toils he did in Minnesota for almost a decade. But since the Celtics are going against the Lakers, then my loyalty goes to the purple and gold. I’ve been watching the NBA when TV was still black and white and the stars then were Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich (a neighbor of mine used to tell me that Goodrich was so good with clothes that his shorts wouldn’t get creased after a game!). I also remember Dave Cowen’s dive since it was repeated a million times.

Anyway, I think this will be a great Finals. A lot of peoples blood pressure will fluctuate in the second week of June but in the end, the city of Boston will be 1-2, since its going to be the Lakers in six.

RACE RESULTS MANDAUE

May 31, 2008 RESULT: 1-NONOY ABASOLA 2- CELING VILLAROSA 3-LOLOY QUIJANO 4-JOHN ERMITANIO 5- NANIE QUIJANO CRIT RIDER OF THE MONTH FOR MAY 1- CELING VILLAROSA-78PTS 2- NONOY ABASOLA-57 3- NANIE QUIJANO 48