GIRO D'ITALIA (4)

Ryder Hesjedal was the surprise winner of this year's Giro d'Italia, winning the pink jersey by 16 seconds from Joaquim Rodriguez (in a race of more than 3,000 km, that gap is not much more than 200 metres!). The lanky Canadian was in prime position after his Garmin-Barracuda team decisively won stage 4's team trial. And although Rodriguez is undoubtedly the better climber, Hesjedal was able to cling to his wheel throughout the mountain stages and go into the final stage time trial only 31 seconds down. A gap he easily made up and more, despite Rodriguez' riding the time trial of his life.

The result showed again how important teams are in cycling. I had bet on Ivan Basso because of his strong Liquigas team. But although they controlled many of the uphill stages, their Polish super domestique Silwester Szmyd didn't function, presumably because of illness. The Liquigas tactics were for Szmyd to set a gruelling pace up the last mountain, with Basso in tow; after burning off the other favourites, Basso would be left on his own to finish the job. However, without Szmyd, all the half dozen or so favourites came to the finale together, and Hejsedal could hang in there.

When I announced Basso as my pick, my younger son suggested Hejsedal, until now a relative unknown in the top ranks of world cycling (he is the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour, for instance). I thought Hejsedal would do well, but I didn't think he could win it. Hats off to my son's judgement.

Walter Blotscher