The jetlag is slowly lifting after a full 24 hour travel day to bring me back to the reality of home, and I’m still sorting through the days, events, and adventures that were my life for the past two weeks at the Giro. I didn’t have time to write about everything, but here are a few final Grappa-worthy moments…

Saturday’s Giro Stage 20 to Sestriere was epic – as you should already know. But I experienced it first hand as we rode the final 100km of the stage – starting with the 20km climb of Sestriere and then onto the feared 2174m Colle delle Finestre. It was the ride of a lifetime, and a day like none other.

As PEZ has done in the two Rest Days before, we'll take a look back at the final five stages of the 2005 Giro d'Italia, as we begin the long rest until next year's Giro. If next year's Giro can amount to half of the drama of the 2005 edition, we can consider ourselves lucky.

After a miserable 2 Ѕ years of injuries, illnesses and bad luck that not even the most hard-bitten pulp fiction writer could dream up, ‘Il Falco’ has once more swooped down on his prey – the Maglia Rosa.

The day we’ve all been waiting for, the day with two ascensions of the Sestriere and the famous half off-road climb of the Finestre has finally arrived!

It’s 4:23PM at the Stage 18 TT in Torino, the heat is melting the pavement, and Simoni just left the start house. The past few days have been action-packed as ever, but today was extra-special as we followed Alessandro Petacchi through his entire TT ride – and got the pics to prove it!

Can he make it three in a row tomorrow? It's all Basso all the time now. It appears that Basso gave the top 4 on GC most likely the biggest gift of their careers when he fell ill (albeit unintentionally) - there's no doubt as to who the strongest rider in this year's Giro is. Savoldelli, though under a pressure a bit in the last few days, rode excellently and put decent time into his nearest rivals - Simoni, Rujano, and Di Luca.

Rejoice! Normal service appears to have been resumed in the Basso digestive system, allowing CSC’s leader to get back on the road at full speed. Things are now looking distinctly prettier for cycling’s most debonair man.

The riders in the Giro can do more than just race their bikes, turns out they can talk too. True, the commentary is often guarded and overly modest, but sometimes it's candid, and every once in awhile, heartfelt. PEZ has a nice selection of the real story straight from the riders - from both today's Stage 16 and the second Rest Day.