Cycling update: Giro d'Italia

Basso twists the knife.

Today's stage 17 is the one I want to see: "more than 3,000 meters of ascent before a summit finish on the Plan de Corones, a new site in the Giro. The final 17-kilometer climb has a grade averaging 5.25 percent, with the last 5.2 kilometers including a section that mounts 24 percent. To make it more difficult, those last 5.2 kilometers were to have been on a dirt road. As of last week, it was being paved after complaints by the riders." (Samuel Abt in the IHT)