Starting this thread for obvious reasons. Don't click in here if you haven't seen the stage yet and want to be surprised. I personally won't post anything about a stage on the same day it first aired, but better safe than sorry.

Just saw Stage 2's sprint finish. A couple of observations.

1. Farrar's Garmin leadout team losing control in the last kilometer. Damn, a good field controlling leadout is hard, huh?
2. Petacchi getting the stage win. I don't think I would have relegated him for his initial swinging left, shutting the door, as Cavendish's progress wasn't impeded, but then swinging back right again, that was wrong.
3. Podium girl on the left, keeping her lips hovering off the cheek of Petacchi during the traditional, two girl at the same time smooching the cheek picture was weird.
4. Moving interview backdrop made my stomach feel sick as I was trying to listen to the post-race Cavendish interview.

From CyclingNews:

• 15:26:37 BST
Weylandt who rides for Leopard was on the deck and RAI's coverage showed the medics doing CPR on Weylandts.

Ugh, fingers crossed for Weylandt, family & teammates.

Italian media: Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt was intubated and taken to the hospital, they also report that he still had a pulse.

Cyclingnews: 16:06:52 BST The latest we have is that Weylandt has been airlifted to hospital.

Vicioso outsprints Millar for the W on stage 3

ugh

wouter weylandt dead

this is very sad

Terrible news.

awful

it goes without saying that this is incredibly sad. be safe out there, folks.

awful. really awful.

Just watched the "Petacchi totally sat up in that sprint" stage of the Giro. Something very "pesce-y" there.

Begin Foil Hat Time:

putting two random pieces of information from the news in the past 2 days: Petacchi sits up 10M from the finish, and doesn't get the win. From the 2010 TdF the classified UCI rider ranking of suspicious blood values, Petacchi comes up a 6.

You think he's avoiding a drug test by not finishing first, and keeping just enough points to stay in the red points jersey and the prizes associated with that?

End Foil Hat Time.

I went to the start of stage 5 (Piombino to Orvieto) my observations are:

Protour cyclists are just like real people only smaller.
The new red jersey for points is super bright and a lot nicer than the older violet jersey they used to award.
Robbie McEwan sports a serious 'don't f***king come near me face' before a race.
Millar had his kid on stage with him for the sign-in (he was in pink that day)
Cavendish didn't sign-in (so I assume he'd have been fined for that infraction)
Paulo Bettini came up onto the stage and on behalf of the organisation of the Giro signed out on behalf of WW
According to my clap-o-meter the top 4 favorite GC riders are (in reverse order, as per tradition): Di Luca, Nibali, Contador, Scarponi.
Other notable crowd faves: Pettachi, Pozzivivo and Visconti. Oh yeah and Danilo Honda !

@Ian: Top-10 favorite comment on these boards. Jealous!

I fell asleep during the closing kilometers of today's climbing stage. I'm starting to think that maybe I agree with the folks that say this Giro was "too hard." Only in that, because of the early stages where Contador put in serious time to his rivals, these latter stages have been kind of a snore. Of course, maybe I was just tired from my day in the sun.

Bumping and Renaming this thread to straight "Giro d'Italia"

looks like "beIN Sport" are showing most stages of the giro (they seem to have scheduled 90 minutes most days).

i had no idea this station existed until the other day.  it's on fios, not sure about the others.

I did notice FIOS vans in Park Slope, so hopefully they are rolling that out, unfortunately probably not in time for the start of the Giro.
I'm looking forward to David & Sean on Eurosport for the first week and then I'll be in Italy for the final 2 weeks so RAI sport in all it's glory for me !

Not sure if anyone saw this at the end... Cav's face is great... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjSWOm5EU3s

big crash in the last 1k of today's stage.  wet roads would seem to have played a big role.

Giro on TWC in brooklyn channel 429 beIN sport 

jfogden said:

Giro on TWC in brooklyn channel 429 beIN sport 

I think you have to have the same sports pack that VS network was on, and its quatar $$

for you manhattanites/queens residents, I have no idea what channel - check your own zipcode

Link: http://www.timewarnercable.com/content/twc/en/residential-home/tv/channels/channel-lineup.html

Uh, negatory. At least for me. I have "VS" or NBC Universal Sports as it is now known, and when I clicked on that channel, it gives me a "you can buy this channel" message.

However, I have noticed that the streaming quality of the RAI feed, through the link provided on cyclingfans.com is a step or two above the typical Eurosport feeds. Although, you don't get English commentary...

Jesus this Eurosport commentator is awful! 

yeah, he is absolutely shocking. I thought Carlton Kirby was bad, but this new Irish fellow is an abomination. David Harmon is (unfortunately) taking a few months out but promises to be back for TdF.

I like Sean though and it is still better than listening to Paul and Phil sickening fawn over anything that Lance (or any other amercian rider) does.

"Phil, you know who descends well?  That Lance Armstrong, he's one of the best descenders in the peloton."--Paul Sherwen, 2009 Tour de France.

count yourself lucky that you have voice / video.  i am stuck with live text updates on cyclingnews.  though i guess i am at least using my imagination. 

www.liveupdateguy.com

Anyone know a good live video feed to open on iphone? All the steephill ones dont seem to work.

i've had the same problem aly - everything requires a flash player, so nothing works on iPhone or iPad....wankers.

if it were possible on ipads / iphones i'd be a happy man at work, wasting countless hours watching races.  as it is, steve jobs' dislike of flash has forced me towards text updates.  like stearns said, wankers. 

sounds like it's a crash-fest today.