Sicily Guide

Italian cyclist Daniele Bennati won the third stage of the Tour of Italy here on Monday to record his first ever success in the race.

His Liquigas team-mate Franco Pellizotti retained the overall leader’s pink jersey.

Bennati - winner of two stages in the Tour de France and three in the Tour of Spain last year - edged out German veteran Erik Zabel in a sprint finish at the end of the 221 kilometres ride - Zabel’s compatriot Danilo Hondo was third.

However, the stage saw the end of Australian rider Bradley McGee’s challenge as the 32-year-old - who wore the pink jersey for two days in the 2004 Giro - took a crashing fall around 20 kilometres from the finish.

McGee looked to have injured his collarbone.

Another group crash involved Sunday’s stage winner Riccardo Ricco, but the Italian was able to resume the race, though, he suffered a suspected fracture of the index finger of his left hand.

The Giro moves from Sicily to the Italian mainland on Tuesday with the fourth stage, a 183km ride from Pizzo Calabro to Catanzaro lungomare.

Source AFP
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Coincidences happen. It is just a few days ago that I talked badly about the industrial area of Giammoro and praised Aicon for its successes. Just yesterday I came across an article published on Il Corriere della Sera, the major Italian newspaper, where the journalist highlights the environmental disasters of the area concerning the city of Milazzo and its surroundings, basically the area I was talking about in my previous post. Milazzo is the city where I mostly spent my teenegar years. For five years, I woke up at 6AM to take the bus and go to school in Milazzo. Classes started at 8:30AM. The bus was taking me with several other kids through those polluted and filthy areas every morning. When I bought my first scooter, a Peugeot Metropolis, I remember riding it through those dumps to go to Milazzo. One day after school, I was riding it back home while there was a big explosion at the close refinery. Eight people died. It was in 1993 during my senior year of high school. A big cloud of smoke came up in the sky. It was a big accident, but nothing changed for Milazzo and its surrounding areas. Still people know that the area is unhealthy, still people suffer deadly diseases from it, still politicians know and promise, BUT nothing EVER EVER changes.

Check the article and the videos on Corriere.it (unfortunately, it is all in Italian. I have not had the time to translate)

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