With a rest day behind them and legs full of energy the cyclists of the 2012 Giro d'Italia were back on the road again and back on the roads of Italy with the team-time-trial. It was also the day Taylor Phinney lost the pink jersey and the first day (not including the prologue) that he didn't fall off. What does that tell you? Taking his crown was Garmin's Ramunas Navardauskas, the man with the longest name to ever lead the Giro -- I assume -- and the man with the most beautiful name to ever lead the Giro -- fact.
I didn't see the stage but by all accounts I have painted a picture whereby the Garmin-Barracuda team took a huge foot and stamped their authority all over the race. What damage this done aside from putting Navardauskas into Pink isn't known as of yet.
Phinney himself claims he had a bad day, probably resulting from his crashes on previous days and at one point his team had to slow down to wait on him ... strange for such a good rider against the clock. Speaking after the race he said: "The team had to wait for me a couple of times. I have to thank them. Fortunately I didn't fall today as well, but from my third pull on the front, I could see that something wasn't right. I'm very disappointed." Perhaps given what it did for him in the first two stages to stay in pink, he maybe should have fallen.
The result will be huge for Canadian Ryder Hesjedal who made up a little time on all his rivals and moved into forth overall 11 seconds back in a top four made up entirely by Garmin riders. Phinney drops to fifth and the nearest 'big-name' from the pre-race, Joaquim Rodriguez, is 10th at 19 seconds on Hesjedal.
Basso is 36sec down on the Canadian, Schleck at 58sec, and Scarponi already 1min 11sec down. It just highlights how important the team-time-trial and prologue can be in a grand tour.
