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Froome's to lose
He may deny it but Team Sky's Chris Froome is the almost unbackable favourite heading into the Tour de France.
Barring injury or illness we now have a better idea of what the 100th Tour de France will look like come 29 June, and the race is Team Sky's to lose.
Froome's 2013 season has followed the same arc as Bradley Wiggins's in 2012, successfully completing all of his objectives before a likely metronomic victory in Paris.
One step forward...
So here we are again, another Giro d'Italia positive, another Italian, and another from the same Pro Continental team, Vini Fantini-Selle Italia.
A couple of weeks ago it was Danilo Di Luca who fell foul to the drug testers, this week it's the turn of team mate Mauro Santambrogio, who won the 14th stage of the first Grand Tour of the season.
There was the usual opprobrium from all quarters, as there was with Di Luca. It's a rising chorus when you add the immediate responses published to social media.
Giro by the numbers
There is no question the Giro d'Italia has gone from strength to strength under the directon of Michele Aquarone, making it a hot global sporting property.
Though often mentioned in the same breath as the Tour de France the Giro has always been considered the lesser of the two events, but substantive changes by organisers over the past two years has led to increased interest.
During the 21 days and 3341.8km of racing, the Giro crossed 17 regions and more than 500 municipalities, making it the perfect showcase for a country that is already the top tourism destination in Europe.
The Killer, gone
It may seem like an odd thing to say right now but there is only good news and good news coming out of the doping positive of Danilo "The Killer" Di Luca.
For those who missed the headlines, Di Luca was suspended on Friday (AEST) after testing positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test taken a week before the start of the Giro d'Italia. We now await its confirmation, usually a formality.
This is Di Luca's third serious career brush with the anti-doping authorities so clearly he is a hard core recidivist.
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Thirteen years is a long time between drinks for fans of Australian
cross country (XCO) mountain biking but on Monday the community awoke to
a pair of victories and blossoming hope for the future, writes Phil Gomes.
On Saturday night (AEST) Rebecca Henderson was the first to break the long running Australian drought by winning the opening race of the under 23 category at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt, Germany.
Her victory was the first recorded at that level by any Australian rider since Cadel Evans and Mary Grigson at the turn of the millennium in 2000.
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