The Giro begins in pink for the Canadian Svein Tuft who celebrates his 37th birthday in the best possible way by crossing the finish line at the head of the formidable Orica Green Edge train which – as happened at the last Tour on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice – crumbled , traveling at almost 53 km per hour, all other teams. The debut for Rigoberto Uran and Cadel Evans went well, if not very well, as they leave today for the second stage on Irish soil, respectively, with a 50" and 48" lead over Nairo Quintana, the Colombian. the final victory.
It's an uphill start instead for the other favorite of the eve, the Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez who already has a gap of 38” from the South American climber leader of Movistar, who – according to forecasts – should be his main rival on the big mountains. The first stage of the Giro, a team time trial of just 21,7 km, has already hinted, with gaps higher than expected, that this edition of the pink race, orphaned by the three biggest big names in stage races – i.e. Froome, Contador and Nibali - will not lack that load of pitfalls that can break the bank at any moment.
And if the rain – which then stopped – contributed to worsening the performance of Rodriguez's Katusha, who hates time races even when the sun is out, a small bump in the asphalt was enough to put an end to the Lap by Daniel Martin, dramatically catapulted to the ground, he Irish from Eire who dreamed of a different start right on the roads close to home. Already knocked off the saddle in the last Liège-Bastogne-Liège when he was about to launch the final sprint, Martin was involved in an impressive carom, in a tangle of wheels and torn overalls, with half of his team thrown and battered.
A disaster for Garmin-Sharp: even the few remaining in the saddle practically stopped waiting to see who could restart, the time being calculated on the fifth finisher of each team: Hesjedal and Tyler Farrar with three other companions, after long moments of fear and disorientation, they gave it their all but at the finish line they were last with an inevitably heavy gap, 3'26” from the Australian Orica Green Edge. For Martin a painful farewell, for Hesjedal, the first Canadian to win the Giro in 2012, a delay that is difficult to remedy on the day when another Canadian rejoices by wearing the pink jersey for the first time.
Joys and dramas: in this hodgepodge of feelings and sensations, a stone's throw from the Titanic center in Belfast where the shipyards of the famous transatlantic once stood, the Italians with some aims on the general classification defended themselves in no particular order: Michele Scarponi, with the 'Astana finished sixth at 38” from Orica but 17” before Quintana's Movistar; Ivan Basso with his Cannondale finished seventh ahead of Movistar by two seconds; Domenico Pozzovivo, leader of the French Agr La Mondiale, finished tenth, losing something from Quintana but putting a 35-second advantage over Rodriguez's Katusha.
If the best placed of ours is the tricolor champion. Ivan Santaromita, the only Italian at the Orica Green Edge, Alessandro Petacchi deserves a special mention, a forty-year-old who never gives up and who yesterday on the joyfully crowded streets of Belfast with lots of transparent pink raincoats, gave his best riding the Omega Pharma Quick Step and its captain, the Colombian Uran, in second place just 5 seconds behind Orica but ahead of all the other teams of the pretenders to the final pink jersey in Trieste.
