Oh For Goodness’ Sake! I had just hit send on an e-mail mentioning my optimism about Joao Almeida doing well in the time-trial on Sunday, and moments later learned than he has abandoned before the start of Stage 18! (That’s knocked one more off six of our fantasy teams.) Then when a small break had been established, I thought it would be safe to strim the front garden and go to B & Queue (light fittings, since you asked) and then be back catch Mark Cavendish having a tilt at one more bunch sprint. But no! When we finally came home with fancy bulbs and paint and bathroom catalogues, the breakaway had stayed away AGAIN!
The fastest of the escapees, Magnus Cort, had been outsmarted by stage winner Dries de Bondt and Edoardo Affini. None of us one had picked de Bondt, but Hormonal Teenager bagged 2nd place with the Italian rider. Both Team Ciclominaccia and Cashing the Giro included Magus the Great Dane in 3rd and Mark the Manx Missile in 8th, but Stephen’s team scored the max velopoints AGAIN and now leads the mini-league. Chapeau! (There were no other changes in the rankings today.)
Flag of the Day
Wow! I mean – what a flag! Today’s finish stage was in Treviso which is in the Veneto Region. The winged lion with the book represents not one of the sprinters but St. Mark (obviously) after meeting an angel on a stop-over on an island in Venice (ahhh, those holiday romances…) The story goes that the angel said he’d be buried in Venice (an unconventional chat-up line) but he inconveniently died and was interred in Muslim Alexandria. But the belligerent Venetians, determined not to be deprived of lucrative relic income, stole his body away hidden under a cargo of pork. [With apologies to vegetarian historians.]