Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stage 2: Ischia – Forio (TTT), 17.4km. Sky Win.

Sky’s Italian rider Salvatore Pucccio pulled on the pink jersey at the end of the second stage of the Giro d’Italia, a Team Time Trial as specialists Garmin never got to grips with the tricky parcours and Sir Brad got his Giro campaign off to a great start.

Pucci is 23 and doesn’t have much of a pro palmares – but he’s a worker for Sky, not a winner.

But if you check back his amateur palmares you’ll find an U23 Ronde Van Vlaanderen in there – so there’s little doubt about his quality.

According to Wikipedia, Ischia is German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fave holiday spot – we knew it wouldn’t be Greece – Truman Capote and Henrik Ibsen spent time on the island and parts of the movie, ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ were shot here.

It measures approximately 10 km east to west and 7 km north to south and has about 34 kilometres (21 miles) of coastline and a surface area of 46.3 square kilometres (17.9 sq. miles) and the TTT uses just about all of the main road on the island.

It’s almost entirely mountainous; the highest peak being Mount Epomeo at 788 m and the population is around 60,000 people.

The island may be beautiful but some of the hardware the teams were riding wasn’t.

It was Stephen Roche who said that the advent of the ‘velo plongeant’ – low profile bike – in the late 70’s spelled the end of beautiful, sleek, slim time trial bikes.

Wiggin’s Pinarello Bolide may come up with all the correct coefficients in the wind tunnel – but it’s anything but bonnie.

The Graal was not a thing of beauty and the Bolide is even uglier – but ends justify means in the world of ‘marginal gains.’

On the subject of which, the Sky ribbed skinsuits would be interesting things to handle and chat to their designer about – but they’ll be ‘top secret’ no doubt.

But is that the best their designers could come up with for Cataldo’s Italian TT champion skinsuit; ‘come on, we’ll stick an Italian flag on the front!’

Mega aero bikes, futuristic skinsuits – so why have Uran’s locks flowing in the breeze?

Back when Fignon lost the 1989 Tour to Lemond in the final time test, one of the US aero gurus of the time worked out that it was his hair which cost him the race – if his ponytail had been tucked neatly inside an aero helmet the reduction of drag and watts saved would have been enough to give him the seconds he needed.

I must mention that to Sir David, next time I bump into him…

Watching riders drop off the string reminded me of how spectacular it is when a rider blows in a TTT.

Dave and I followed CSC – with Cancellara and Zabriskie – in the Giro TTT in Sardinia back in 2007; when riders cracked they went backwards past us so fast that it was difficult to get a picture of them.

In a TTT at the highest level, some of the riders will be right on the edge of their capabilities – when the grade kicks up, there’s no more heart rate left and once you’re out in the wind, it’s over.

It was a surprise to see Sky finish with just five riders and also a surprise to see Lampre just one second off the Sky pace at the time check – a fact which the commentary team at Eurosport missed.

But they didn’t miss that Movistar went through two seconds faster than Sky – remember that the Spaniards won the Vuelta TTT in fine style, last year.

Spain’s other Pro Tour squad, Euskaltel messed it up badly, with their fifth man way off the back – Sanchez’s slim chances of a podium now even slimmer.

Lampre lost time on the second half of the course, having to sit up and wait for their fifth man on one of the drags – a one second deficit at the time check became 22 by the line.

Movistar – despite the screamed exhortations of their DS – also let it slip in the second half, finishing seven seconds down on Sky.

And despite us hearing about all the time Nibali was going to lose to Sir Brad in the time trials, the man from Messina will not be too disappointed that his Astana boys dropped just 14 seconds.

Adam Blythe ‘popped’ out of BMC – but with Phinney driving, that’s no shame.

The Shack didn’t trouble the time keeper as QuickStep’s time at the check meant that Cav would be just one (short) day in the pink.

Garmin’s ride was a surprise, seventh when they crossed the line – they won it last year and the TTT is their specialty. JV won’t be fun at dinner, tonight.

And as with Sanchez, Evan’s slim chances of a podium received a body blow when the watch stopped for BMC at 37 seconds down on Sky.

GreenEDGE disappointed too, 28 seconds back for another squad with a name as TTT experts – that’ll be another quiet dinner table.

And as the intermediate time check indicated, the maglia rosa slipped from Cav’s shoulders – with QuickStep way off the pace.

Not a good day to be asking Cav for quotes, I’m thinking.

As we said, a great start for Brad and Sky, but by the time we get to the Dolomites it’ll all seem so long ago…

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Result - Giro d'Italia 2013 - Stage 2: Ischia - Forio (TTT), 17.4km