The last time we spoke to Dario he had been suffering in the rain behind stage-winner Leonardo Piepoli, whilst Ivan Basso put even more time into his rivals. We spoke to him again after Tuesday's stage where Basso 'did an Eddy' on the Giro field winning with the maglia rosa on his back. Stay tuned to PEZ this evening for a second installment: Dario's take on yesterday's shortened stage to Plan de Corones.

It’s the second day of Dolomite destruction as we chase il Giro, and as the weather turned rotten, the mighty PEZ-Crew’s improvisational skills were put to test as we devised the best plans B, C, and finally D to stay on track and report the last couple of day’s action…

Oh, brother …… not a good day to be a bike rider! If our puntastic headline wasn’t hellish enough, the weather was worse. What should have been the shortest and nastiest climbing stage in recent Grand Tour memory shrunk even more after the organisers had to cut the vicious final five kilometres out of the equation.

The Giro may be offering its own kind of writing on the wall in the form of Ivan Basso and his apparent deathgrip on the maglia rosa, but there are plenty of fireworks left for the tifosi as the race heads into the vaunted Dolomite mountains. Legends have been made in these here hills, and the final week of the 2006 Giro might put forth a legend or two of her own.

The PEZ is in the Building! Well, ‘at the Giro’ is more accurate, but I’m still happy to be here and a successful day 1 of the final Giro week is underway. Here’s a snapshot scrapbook of how today went down, from our ride on Lake Garda to catching the finishline action in Brescia…

The route from Mergozzo to Brescia was made for the sprinters, trouble is they have all gone home, there are still some here to contest the pan flat 189 kilometers, but could a small group breakaway stay away? Nup.

We spoke to Dario as the Liquigas bus picked its way down the mountain from La Thuile after a wet finale which saw little Leonardo Piepoli pull a stage-win-rabbit out of the hat for a no-doubt delighted Saunier Duval management. Ivan Basso meanwhile strengthened his grip on the maglia rosa with second on the stage; and for our boy?

Today was the textbook breakaway stage at way over 200kms long, with two sizeable climbs spaced about 140kms apart. Anyone lucky enough to get into an escape would know that if the breakaway would work together and get over the last mountain, it was a long downhill to the finish. The Giro’s heads of state took the day off as a long-suffering domestique got a day in the sun.

It’s the start of the much-feared last week, this is when the action is going to get really hot, and this time next week we should know what’s what. The race is not over till….. and the large boned woman is going to be on song this week!