Who Cares About Italy...

The start of the 2006 Giro D'Italia begins tomorrow and although the competition doesn't draw all the big names that the Tour (de France) typically receives, the Grio should be an exciting race. Some big contenders are Tour focused and will skip the Giro to work on final training regimes or to just simply resting their legs for July. It would be interesting to see Floyd Landis or Alejandro Valverde, both of whom are currently "on form" and have been wining some of the bigger races of the early season, challenge for the top spot in Italy. But alas the Italiens will put on a good show. Some of the General Classification contenders will include Ivan Basso, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego, and Danilo Di Luca.

I can't see how anyone could beat a focused Ivan Basso so that's why I'm picking him as the winner of the 2006 Giro. Second place is a toss up between the youthful Cunego and the veteran Simoni but somehow I think Gilberto Simoni will outlast Cunego for the second spot. And finally the sleeper of sleepers, the American Tom Danielson will come up big with last minute heroics on stage 17 to take enough time grab a podium spot.

1. Basso 2. Simoni 3. Danielson

And still nobody cares...