So Far, So Good for Astana at Giro

The Astana team is sitting pretty after three though days at the Giro, having placed their three team leaders within less than a minute of the overall, as Kloden (28 sec), Contador (30 sec) and Liepheiner (40 sec) all remain in contention in the Italian grand tour. More importantly is that fact that the teal and yellow team has avoided injuries and mental lapses, while other riders are suffering from crash-related wounds or bigger time deficits.

On the injury front, two teams have suffered big losses, as the Slipstream team lost time trialing extradonaire David Zabriskie, and the CSC juggernaut bid farewell to the Aussie Bradley McGee, who went down with a collar bone break in stage three. Both riders were riding well, and each respective team will ride the remainder of the Giro one man down.

Among the GC riders with big time deficits, Vlad Karpets is the worst off of the GC guys, lying at over 2 minutes behind, while mountain goats 'Gibo' Simoni,' Dennis Menchov, and Jose Rujano are all at over a minute. Everyone else is under a minute, as the Giro inches closer to the big mountains. The next few stages are hilly, but not hard enough to create huge time gaps. Still, riders will have plenty of opportunities to take away time from their rivals if they are vigilant and aggressive. Expect to see many more stages similar to stage 2, when Riccardo Ricco won a five up sprint over fellow GC hopefuls Di Luca, Pellizotti, and Andreas Kloden.