It was a good day for the Calabrian Tourist Board, for there was not a lot to look for much of the day except stunningly beautiful scenery. I now know that Calabria has a famous sheep’s cheese, Caclocavallo which is now on my wish list, and that Calabria – the toe of the “boot” of Italy – used to be known as Enotria, from the ancient Greek Οἰνωτρία meaning “Land of Wine”, which sounds promising.
Billy-No-Mates
(Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Stage 6 was about 170 km of café ride followed by 20 km of jostling sprint trains. There was a lot of chatting and stretching in the peloton until eventually one lone rider, Diego Rosa, was shoved out the front for a token breakaway. Robbie McEwen’s theory is that the race was trundling along so slowly that the Race Director called up the manager of Eolo-Kometa, one of the invited UCI Pro teams, and “asked” them to send someone up the road to speed it up a bit. Poor old Diego Rosa drew the short straw and had the thankless task being the hare down the road to be chased down by the hounds, headed by Thomas 500 W De Gendt. But even with the furious finish they arrived 35 minutes later than the slowest expected time.
Millimetres
11 out of 13 of our fantasy teams included either Ewan (2nd) or Cavendish (3rd) but on the day it was Philippa’s It’s All Downhill From Here who bested the rest with 2 riders in the top 10 with Edward Theuns sneaking in at 10th. The result for the minileague is hardly any change in the standings (Dr James gained one place at the expense of Martin: another crushing disappointment so soon after his Birthday!) So no-one gained a stage win for the last two days, but the count of jerseys and prizes has a clear leader now with David’s ThinFatBoys racing ahead through GC leader Juan Pedro “the other” Lopez:
Flag of the Day
Really there wasn’t much to grab the attention before the finale on Stage 6. I scoured the crowds for flags, but even the flag of Calabria, waved with all their regional and civic pride in the headwind of the home straight, is not terribly exciting. There appears to be a lego pine tree and two varieties of cross (a Byzantine one on the left) and what appears to be a symbol for a cold shower below, but further research reveals is a truncated Doric column. I preferred the cold shower interpretation.