Looking Back: Cadel Evans Wins A Giro Mudfest Across The Strada Bianche

The organises of the Giro d'Italia must be very satisfied with the way the 2010 edition went.  Italy's grand tour was rightly hailed as being a great one, arguably even more entertaining than this year's Tour de France.

Of the many great Giro stages that took place last May, the 220km 7th stage from Cararra to Montalcino must surely go down as being one of, if not, the most entertaining and iconic stage of the race.  Passing through the rain soaked Tuscan region usually reserved for the Monte Paschi Eroica the Giro raced over sections of  usually white roads or Strada Bianche, which consists of sand, mud and gravel.  Because of the rain though those sections were more Strada Marrone than Bianche making the stage look like something out of a northern classic rather than a grand tour race.

Australia's Cadel Evans clinched an historic victory that day in a hard fought battle against the likes of Damiano Cunego, Alexander Vinokourov and Marco Pinotti who all finished within a handful of seconds behind the brave Aussie.

I've been wanting to post a look back on this stage for a while but didn't want to until I'd found some footage I could post with it.  I'd been searching high and low and surprisingly found nothing until today that is.  Below is the Eurosport coverage (albeit in Polish, I think) of the last 30km, or so, broken down into five parts in all it's mud soaked glory.  This is must see racing, truly epic!