\n\t<\/a>[dc]T[\/dc]he first (and perhaps most beautiful) grand tour of the year arrived and has wound it's way around Italy for a week now. As always, the Giro has been surprise after surprise, with rain and slippery roads playing almost as big a part as the racers themselves. How has the first week developed and what might we see in the coming two weeks?\n<\/p>\n \n\tAs for the protagonists (or antagonists depending upon which side of the fence you're on), Katusha is here thanks to the CAS ruling<\/a> that placed them into the World Tour, although without the defending second place Joachim Rodriguez. Ryder Hesjedal (defending champion) lined up next to Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, Michele Scarponi, Robert Gesink and the odds on favorite, Bradley Wiggins. It was anyone's guess who could challenge Wiggins for the overall honors of the 2013 Giro, especially after his and Sky's dominating performance in the Tour de France last year. But as has been shown through the first week, the Giro is an unpredictable and fickle mistress, causing a number of the GC contenders to come to grief and leaving us all to wonder who will take home the coveted Maglia Rosa.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn the past few years, the Giro has been criticized as being too intense. Too demanding. Flat out too hard. Michele Acquarone has done a fantastic job in balancing the act in order to ensure star quality participation and exciting racing from beginning to end. Balancing time trial kilometers with mountaintop finishes, flat sprint stages and stages suitable to allow a break to go clear and somehow managing to not tip the balance towards one specialist or another is a difficult task indeed. Let's see how the stages developed.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\n<\/p>\n \n\tStage 1<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tA short 130km circuit race type stage around Naples showed off how Italy is rebuilding the former industrial miscreant of the Italian coastline. A relatively flat par-cours was tailor made for a bunch gallop, and despite some issues with his leadout train, Mark Cavendish was able to freelance his way to the pink jersey with the stage win. \n<\/p>\n \n\tStage 2<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe short (17.4km), hilly, technical TTT on the island of Ischia was supposed to be relatively benign. It put a couple of teams on the back foot, however: Garmin and BMC conceded 25 and 37 seconds to Wiggins and Team Sky, who put Salvatore Puccio in pink. Nibali lost only 14 seconds to Wiggins, keeping things close. \n<\/p>\n\n\tStages
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