Stage 19 took the guys back into the mountains for nearly seven hours of wet, hard riding. While the favorites battled each other for position and critical seconds, the dwindling Argyle Armada held tough and finished with the grupetto again.

Still suffering from his injuries earlier in the race, Julian Dean didn’t take the start this morning in Legano.

Slipstream Results Stage 19
1. Vasil Kiryienka 6:37′32″

92. Christian Vande Velde +36′53″
109. David Millar +36′53″
136. Ryder Hesjedal +36′53″
141. Danny Pate +36′53″ (pictured right)
DNS Julian Dean

Slipstream GC
1. Alberto Contador Velasco 82:29′10″

47. Christian Vande Velde +1:10′26″
72. Ryder Hesjedal +1:50′44″
95. David Millar +2:22′57″
141. Danny Pate +3:31′45″

“Loved your team since its Argyle inception. This year I experience my first thrill of watching a race. I went to stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California. Upon arriving at the finish line area, my first bike-related sight was the team bus. I was in such awe of it, I forgot to take a picture!”

“The next sight I took in was watching the argyle fly by during the crit-like 3 passages through Sacramento. Finally, I came upon the team car with the bikes on top. Those bikes are truly spectacular, especially the matching argyle Zipp wheels.”

“It was an end to a great day of experiencing Slipstream Powered by Chipotle without actually meeting anyone. Next year I will be on the hills to watch and cheer on the riders and to write a message in chalk. Maybe, I’ll be lucky enough to get a musette!”

- Curtis

Do you have a fan story to tell?
We have a growing army of loyal, loving fans out there and we want to hear from you! Let us know what lengths you have gone to just to have the chance to cheer on your favorite riders.

Send your very short essays of 150-200 words to Fanmail. And if you have photos, all the better! Each month we will review the stories and the winning tale will be featured on the Slipstream/Chipotle H30 home page.

We’ve been quiet regarding blog entries because this race allows us no time for such activities. I’m so tired now. I was not mentally prepared for this, the hardest bike race in the world. Unofficially. I’ll take a vote in Milan and make it official if that is the consensus amongst my experienced peers.

Christian showed signs of weakness for the first time in my many years of knowing him. He said, ‘I’m dying’ as I finally moved up to him at the front to avoid the whiplash of the Varese world’s circuit today. Wiggins is showing quite awe-inspiring amounts of CBF. I love him.

When we’ve finished this race, we will have done 40,000 m climbing, only half of which is classified! That’s like riding into orbit. Or an 800 km climb at 5%. Or 40 days straight of climbing a 10 km climb with a one in ten gradient. Or riding up to Christian’s house 400 times. That’s how we spent our bus ride home today… The self pity was over bearing.

The Giro is hard. It is relentless. It will no doubt prove to be the best way to prepare for the Tour de France. But it is NOT the best training camp in the world as Whitey sold it to me. Bastard.

I’d write more. But I can’t…

Directors Matt White and Lionel Marie (right) test drive a couple of sweet Felt cruisers before the start of stage 14 in Verona. Felt Bicycles was at the start in Verona with a fleet of their finest for everyone to check out.

Christian Vande Velde (below) looks especially at home on his red low rider.

The Washington Post takes a hard look at cycling and its struggle with doping controversies. The story talks to a number of the sport’s top personalities and interviews David Millar on his past mistakes and current hopes.

From the article:

This year, Millar is racing on Vaughters’s new Slipstream team, of which he is part owner. The American team, which keeps a base in Girona, Spain, about 50 miles northeast of Barcelona, has had difficulty finding a big-name sponsor willing to accept the risks of being associated with cycling, Vaughters said, and that is willing to contribute the roughly $8 million a year it would cost to sponsor the team.

Under Slipstream’s $500,000-a-year testing program, Vaughters said, every rider is tested about every two weeks for doping violations; unlike the secrecy that surrounds other doping tests in cycling, Slipstream offers to make all its test results public.

Prudhomme, the Tour de France director, said the organizers offered a surprise invitation for Slipstream to race in this year’s Tour “because we like their philosophy, particularly in terms of their ethics and anti-doping measures.” The team also will compete on Sunday at the CSC Invitational, a 62-mile race held at the Clarendon Metro stop in Arlington.

“I’m very representative of my sport. I cheated, and that’s it,” Millar said. “For the last decade, it’s been affair after affair, story after story, admission after admission, and the fans are finally giving up. But the doping culture is turning into an anti-doping culture, and in five years, we are going to be at the vanguard of anti-doping and ethical sponsorship. It will no longer be — just take our $5 million, put our name here, and we don’t care what happens. We could be an example for all sports.”

As the last relatively flat stage of the 2008 Giro, stage 18 featured a long breakaway that resulted in a solo victory. Most of the five Slipstream/Chipotle H3O riders finished the day with the main grupetto. With two mountain stages tomorrow and Saturday, and a final time trial on Sunday, there is still much to endure before the finish in Milan.

Thanks to all of you who provided your predictions - and hopes - for today’s stage finale!

Slipstream Results Stage 18
1. Jens Voigt 3:22′46″

90. Christian Vande Velde +7′51″
101. Ryder Hesjedal +7′51″
109. Julian Dean +10′16″
112. David Millar +10′54″
138. Danny Pate +12′35″

Slipstream GC
1. Alberto Contador Velasco 75:45′17″

40. Christian Vande Velde +39′54″
70. Ryder Hesjedal +1:20′12″
95. David Millar +1:52′25″
136. Julian Dean +2:44′01″
144. Danny Pate +3:01′13″

The New Zealand Herald profiles national road champion Julian Dean on his heroic efforts at the 2008 Giro d’Italia.

From the article: New Zealand cyclist Julian Dean looks like completing cycling’s Giro d’Italia despite battling pain for nearly the duration.The three-week tour finishes in Milan on Sunday and Dean admitted he was looking forward to it after suffering rib and shoulder injuries in a second stage fall on May 11.

“This year’s giro has been a roller coaster, to say the least,” Dean wrote on his website.

David Millar, Danny Pate and Christian Vande Velde cruising Italy.

As the shortest non-time trial stage, today’s 146 km course was relatively uneventful and predictable. A breakaway went early and was eventually caught before the finish. A dozen riders participated in the bunch sprint with most of the peloton finishing just a few seconds behind.

Tomorrow is the last relatively flat stage of the Giro. A good day for a solid breakaway…or maybe just another mass sprint.

What do YOU predict will happen??
Please post your comments before the stage start at 13:35 (7:35 EST).

Slipstream Results Stage 17
1. Andre Greipel 3:27′05″

35. Julian Dean +4″
68. Ryder Hesjedal +4″
99. Christian Vande Velde +4″
130. Danny Pate +4″
134. David Millar +51″

Slipstream GC
1. Alberto Contador Velasco 72:14′40″

40. Christian Vande Velde +39′54″
68. Ryder Hesjedal +1:20′12″
93. David Millar +1:49′22″
136. Julian Dean +2:41′36″
144. Danny Pate +2:56′29″