Baby watch 4&5: Improvement

The Naturgas youngsters has started to put their mark on the Baby Giro at last. On yesterday's fourth stage, a 154 kilometre drag up to the Gallio, Mikel Bizkarra showed strong climbing form by taking 22nd place, just 2:07 down on Colombian whiz-kid Betancur, who some of you might remember finished second to Romain in last year's worlds. Pello also seems to be on the up with a 35th place at 3:13, while Aitor Ocampos, who isn't really at his best in the mountains, came in with the gruppetto, 29:31 down. Mikel Filgueirea joined him in that group, while Ugaitz Artola and Igor Romero finished 10:49 and 11:21 down respectively.

Today's eagerly-anticipated stage to the top of the Monte Grappa, recently used in the Giro, saw the guys climb even better. Pello grabbed an encouraging 21st place, at 8:41, while Mikel Bizkarra finished five places further back at 12:11. Great stuff! After all these guys aren't more than 19 and 20, so they're doing quite well in an under-27 race. By the way, what's up with the 'under-27' category? Beats me... Anyway, on a less positive note, Aitor Ocampos struggled and eventually decided enough was enough and abandoned along with 12 others. For all I know he might be suffering from something or being injured, but I'll let you all know if I find that's the case. Igor Romero was 32nd, Ugaitz Artola 52nd and Mikel Filgueirea 70th. With half the race done with, the guys aren't that way off on GC. Mikel is 32nd and Pello 35th, so this is all of a sudden starting to look quite promising.