Comments and Tidbits on the Eve of the Giro

• The Giro d'Italia doesn't even begin in Italy. It begins in Liege, Belgium, on Saturday with a 6.2K time trial. In fact, the first four days of the Giro are in Belgium. When I returned to the Tour de France in 2004, the prologue was in Liege.
• Marco Pantani, who died two years ago from a cocaine overdose, was the last of only 12 riders to have won the Giro and Tour de France in the same year. That was in 1998.
• Bjarne Riis, Ivan Basso's manager with the CSC team, believes Basso can win both races this year: "A lot more riders — not only my team — are able to do more big tours in one year. It's just a question of mentality: putting your head in the right place, wanting to do it and making the right plan. In my team, we have more riders doing the Giro and the Tour. Of course, we have one rider to do the general classification, and that's Ivan, but we have more riders doing both."
• Defending and two-time Giro champion Paolo Savoldelli of the Discovery Channel team, is geared up for a third: "I'm definitely targeting the podium, although on paper it looks a very hard race. I don't feel any pressure — I've won the last two Giros I've ridden."
• The 2004 winner, Damiano Cunego of Lampre, didn't have much of a 2005 season because of a glandular fever. He hopes 2006 will be different, according to team manager Giuseppe Martinelli: "Everyone knows that we're going to the Giro with one aim — to get Cunego into the pink jersey."
• My favorite domestique in the Giro: Jan Ullrich.