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May 9th, 2009 by Ron Callahan View Comments

Photo (c) Bettini

Columbia Highroad won the opening time trial.
Mark Cavendish crossed the line first and becomes the first ever British rider to wear the pink leader’s jersey at the Giro.
Cav definitely thinks that he can wear the jersey for at least the next two days. “It’s me who’s wearing the leader’s jersey, but it’s the team’s victory. They all participated in it and they all gave it 100 percent”
Astana’s Chris Horner will be blogging about the race at: http://blog.oregonlive.com/horner/
82 doping tests from last year’s Giro are being sent the the infamous Chatenay-Malabry lab in France.

Boonen:

Second big news item of the day is, of course, Tom Boonen’s out of competition positive for cocaine.
This is sad in so many ways, not the least of which is that he told his fans that he had beaten the problem. He told tuttobiciweb.it that the cocaine usage came after a drinking binge, and that, “For 364 days it goes perfectly, but the one day that I drink too much I change … Now I want to seek help. Someone must teach me to understand what happens when I drink too much.”
At least he’s not saying that someone slipped something into his drink, but I have a hard time believing that that was the first time in a year he’d done coke. At least he recognizes that he has a problem. As with last year’s incident, it was out of competition and he won’t be suspended by the UCI, but he’s surely looking at a suspension from Quick Step that will cost him his chance for the green jersey at the Tour de France.
He’ll likely have a hard time escaping criminal prosecution this time around (possession of cocaine is punishable in Belgium with imprisonment from three months to five years and a fine of a thousand to ten thousand euros).
Unilin (the parent company of Quick Step) seems to indicate that the team will not attend the Tour de France this year, but as far as we know, they didn’t pull out of the Giro.

Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouyges Telecom – BBox) won the fifth stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk and bumped Sebastien Rosseler (Quick Step) out of the leader’s jersey. Portugal’s Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa moves into the lead with one stage remaining.

U.S. Collegiate National Champs:

Former US National Collegiate Cyclocross Champion Jamey Driscoll and current Collegiate National Cyclocross Champion Carla Swart each added another national title to their extensive trophy display on Friday at the US Collegiate National Championships in Fort Collins, Colorado. For Swart, it’s another addition to her endless list of National Titles she has won on the Collegiate scene, showing off her mastery of just about everything from ‘cross to track in her career at Lees-McRae College. Driscoll took home a road title to go with his 2007 Collegiate Cyclocross title. (from Cyclocross Magazine)
On the road side, The University of Vermont took the top two spots at the division I men’s Collegiate National championship road race on Friday, while Carla Swart (Lees-McRae College) repeated in the D1 women’s road race title. In Division 2, Princeton’s Nick Frey solo’d for the men’s title, while Emma Bast (Mount Holyoke College) took the sprint in the women’s race. (Courtesy Velo News)