And we're going to follow suit, mainly because the only other topical thing we could write about is the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque and we haven't heard of either of the two stage winners so far. Obviously we've got some big plans for our coverage of the three weeks of the Giro, so you should definitely stay tuned. In the meantime, we've decided to succumb to the uniform trends of the global cycling media and offer you a space-filling overview of the exact same riders that are being discussed in every cycling magazine in Europe.

Jose Rujano
We love Jose. In fact, if Jose released a press release telling everyone to stab themselves in the stomach with a fountain pen, we'd definitely be the first people on the planet to do so. But even we're cynical when we hear him being touted as a serious contender this year. Derailed remains unconvinced that spending nine months stamping your feet just because you're earning less in a year than a part-time dustbin man earns in a month is better preparation for a Grand Tour than, say, actually riding a bike and doing some training. Regardless, we wish you the best of luck, Jose. (Note how we avoided making a crude joke about his height (or lack of). At one point we really did consider using a pun about how he and his directeur sportif don't see eye to eye.)

Alessandro Petacchi
We'll be honest: we've not taken the slightest bit of interest in Petacchi in the run up to the Giro. Now Boonen and Valverde are winning everything, what need have we to cling to Ale-Jet? We'll probably change our minds when his seven stage wins are the only things we've been able to write about in the first week of the race, but for now we remain indifferent.

Gilberto Simoni
Here at Derailed we like our cyclists flawed, aggressive and stupidly named, and Gibo manages to cover all three of those bases. So hopefully Simoni will win again this year, even if it means putting up with David Duffield telling us every twenty minutes that he's going to be joining the greats, "He'll be up there with three wins alongside Eddy Merckx and... errr... so many brilliant riders... oh look Sean, we saw that tree when we drove in last night!"

Paolo Savoldelli
"The Falcon!" "The Falcon is really good at descending, you know." "They call him The Falcon because he can descend." He won the Giro last year without actually doing anything, least of all attacking, which is the most boring possible way to win something. Yes, in the most exciting stage race of last year, the least interesting rider won. Apparently there are some people who like Savoldelli, but we are not them.

Danilo Di Luca
We never actually liked Di Luca much until last season, then he went and won everything before sacrificing a chance of a podium spot in the Giro so he could help ex-teammate Simoni try to beat Savoldelli. A serious contender this year? Perhaps. He's certainly got an added incentive in that even the disgusting pink leader's jersey is nicer than the Liquigas one he'd have to wear otherwise. If that's not an edge over his rivals then we don't know what is.

Some Others
A catch-all category, included because we were already scraping the barrell in writing this preview as it was, and trying to think of something remotely interesting to write about a rider as dull as Ivan Basso is too great a task at this hour of the night.

Phew, we almost sort of kind of sounded like proper cycling journalists for a minute there. Dry, desolate humour? What's that?