In advance of this Saturday’s start of the 2012 Giro d’Italia, here is the second part of VeloVoices’ overview of the 22 teams and their title sponsors, which reveals an eclectic mix of bike manufacturers, financial services providers, explosive manufacturers and even countries! Only in cycling …
The final list of participants is subject to change in the last few days before the race, but these are accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing. Continue reading
27-year old Czech rider Jan Barta (NetApp) triumphed in the final individual time trial – his team having already won the earlier team time trail – to take the overall win in this year’s edition of Coppi e Bartali. Various members of the team had graced the leader’s jersey since the second day’s team time trial. This overall performance rather confirms RCS’s decision to award the team a Giro wild card and silences the doubters.
The team rode a canny race. Apart from winning the two time trials outright, they kept their riders well positioned throughout and, as a consequence, placed not one, but two riders on the podium. Second overall was Barta’s Polish teammate Bartosz Huzarski, while double stage winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre-ISD) was third.