The Giro d’Italia to date has been an exceptional race, with excitment and drama supplied by …

– The American team Columbia High-Road with five stage wins: the opening stage team time trial,  two by sprinter Mark Cavendish, and one each by Edvald Boasson Hagen and Konstantin Sivtsov. Cavs also wore the leader’s maglia rosa for two days, and Thomas Lovkvist had it for another. Lovkvist also is in the best young rider’s jersey.

– Italian Danilo DiLuca of LPR brakes, with two stage wins and seven days in the maglia rosa.

– Denis Menchov of Rabobank, with two stage wins, including a big victory Thursday in the grueling 60.6 kilometer time trial by 20 seconds over Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and 1:54 ahead of DiLuca to take over the leader’s jersey.

– Leipheimer of Astana, my pre-race favourite who has steadily stayed close to the leaders in preparation for his last week assault on the G.C. He’s third at the moment, 40 seconds behind Menchov. Leipheimer seems primed to become the first American to finish on the podium at all three grand tours.

– Astana, with its downplayed sponsor logos because the sponsors have been late in paying the team and with Lance Armstrong reportedly giving the assembled media the Silent Sam treatment in recent days and publishing his comments instead on Twitter.

(My take on Armstrong’s Twittering: Dude’s smart. Celebs don’t need the middle-man media to reach the public in the current age. On the downside, tho, he accidentally released his personal e-mail address a few weeks back. D’oh!)

It has been pretty cool to see Universal Sports’ live daily coverage of the Giro, tho I do miss the seemingly endless replays we see in July during the Tour de France coverage on Versus.

I also miss the excitement renowned commentators Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin bring to cycling on Versus. Universal’s coverage is a one-man show and the one commentator has no one to play off, but then again Liggett and Sherwin are the best in the biz and probably could make drying paint sound exciting.

(Random thought: Versus should let Phil and Paul commentate on one of the other sports the network broadcasts, say mixed martial arts, professional bull riding or the NHL. Oh, dear me, what on earth is he doing??!!)

Still, thumbs up to Universal for the live coverage of cycling.

–30–