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Cycling Sat May 09 2009
The Giro and Universal Sports
The first of the triumvirate of annual classic stage races, the Giro d'Italia, started-up today in Venice with a team time-trial won by Columbia High-Road. Columbia's Manxian Mark "Cannonball" Cavendish is in the pink jersey, as he was the first across the line on the winning team. He'll likely keep it 'til the roads head toward the craggy climbs of the Alps, as he's so much more a sprinter than climber. Garmin, headed by local boy Christian Vande Velde came in second, a heartbreakingly-close 6 seconds behind.
In years past, coverage of the Giro here in the states was often available on Versus as a recap or via Internet feed. But with the return of Big Tex, NBC Universal Sports is now showing same-day coverage of the Giro, every day of the tour. If you have your digital converter box all hooked-up, you can catch all the action three times daily on your TV instead of squinting at a grainy feed from someone's TV in the Netherlands. Not only that, but Universal's also showing reruns of the 2008 CX World's from Hoogerheide, in addition to other sports events beyond the Big Four of basketball, baseball, football and hockey.
