Andy Schleck appears in the Giro!

Well, only for a moment... it was during an interview with Frankie. After coming in third in Stage 7, suddenly the whole tone of the conversation regarding Frankie has changed, and the commentators are now saying how well he is doing, and what a jolly good fellow he is.

Humph.

Well, we all  knew this, but it's nice to have it acknowledged.

Frankie gave a fairly subdued interview, hunched over himself and wrapped up in several layers of warm clothing: he said that he was missing his brother, and that they were Skypeing every night, and talking by phone every morning, but it wasn't the same as having him there. We were shown some nice pics of Andy winning various things, and it was quite strange to be hearing "Andy Schleck, Andy Schleck" during coverage of the Giro! Frankie also said that together, he and his brother were "more" than they were apart, and David Harmon was mean enough to say after the interview that he thought Frankie was wrong on that point. Actually, 2nd and 3rd on podium, David.... that would be called a fantastic result by just about anyone, don't you think?

So, what happened in the Giro Stage 8 on Sunday? Well, it started with a minor miracle - the tennis finished early, and we got an extra 35mins of coverage. That is pretty much un-heard of, for the UK: generally the cycling has to give way to cricket, tennis, golf, motor racing, snooker, darts (no, really) bowls, you name it. But for once we got some extra pedalling, yay! Well done to whoever it was that did the "pik! pok!" super fast.

Lovely scenery, very green and lush, lovely trees, coast, little hills, ah, nice.

There's a four-man break about 6 minutes up the road, and David Harmon is explaining repeatedly that this break won't be allowed to get away any further - and he's a bit surprised they've been allowed to get this far - as it contains one guy who is a GC contender. Eventually the breakaway seem to realise this, and the unpronounceable Marczynski pushes strongly on, dropping two of his breakaway companions.  They sit up, even though they have a good long lead, and allow themselves to drop slowly back.

If I were them, I wouldn't just sit up and pedal more slowly to wait for the peloton to catch up: I'd nip into a pub and have a beer, maybe a pastie or two, like they used to in the old days. I'd give a few signatures, ruffle the hair of the local kiddies, make a short speech about how if they work hard and practise hard, they might one day be competing at the top level, etc etc: then hop back on my bike and get warmed up in time to catch on to the peloton as it arrives. Nice.

We get a lot of close-ups of Scarponi, and it's a bit odd to see that his jersey has Farnese as a sponsor name on one shoulder.  Why are Farnese a small sponsor for one team, yet they have their own entire team as well? Maybe it's a reflection of how much less it costs to put together a pro-continental team - they can afford half a team at pro-continental level (with Vini, that is) yet can only afford one shoulder at Pro level. Or maybe they already had a contract to be a small sponsor of Lampre, and have honoured their contract despite taking on the Farnese-Vini sponsorship. Who knows. Wait, a sponsor honouring a contract? Could that be? (*sniggers*)

At 50k to go,  we are treated to the sight of protesters at the road-side. There is a lot of arm-waving, and a heavy police presence. Our commentators remind us that this often happens in Italy, and it's nothing to do with cycling, they are just taking advantage of there being cameras etc around, to make a point about something or other.  Having stood at the road-side of a cycle race now (yes, I'm still proud of being a Proper Cycling Fan: definition being "one who has stood at roadside of stage race, crit, and time trial and has stood there right until the end even though it was raining".) and having a much better appreciation of the sheer power of a peloton thundering towards us, I can't help but feel that these protesters are going to leap off the road like little girlies when the time comes, in approximately 4 mins 31 seconds. Pity Barredo isn't here, we could send him up front with a spare wheel.

Four minutes later, the peloton sweep by with no problem at all, and it is noticeable that the protesters have indeed moved back significantly. It's funny how the tone of their shouts is quite different from the shouts of supporters along the route.. oh well, let's hope they achieved their aim and went home happy.

Ah, a close-up of Cav. Yes, good, he's looking bored, bored, bored again. This is a very good sign.  Likewise, we haven't seen much of Frankie all day - another good sign.

At 19k to go, things are starting to speed up, and one of the camera-bikes cuts in very close to Ferrari. Both LLB and I make "poke" motions at the screen, then look at each other and laugh.  As Gadret comes into shot, I make pinging, flicking motions with finger and thumb, as though to flick him off his bike. "Don't do that," says LLB warningly, "you know what happens: next thing we'll be hearing that Frankie has got a bug in his ear or something." Chastened, I sit back on the sofa and behave myself.

At 11k to go, we are the bottom of the final hill, and we see 174 Ben Hermans - he's at the back of the bunch, but at least he's with the bunch and not in a groupetto somewhere, so well done him.

At 7k to go they are dropping off the back like flies, but Frankie is looking steady, sitting 8th or 9th back, out of trouble and comfortable. He doesn't have any lieutenants with him, but that's ok. There's one a little way back, he appears to be riding in turns with two Sky riders. Hmm, now there's an interesting thought for next season, perhaps Frandy could go to Sky. (I believe I have voted in favour of this before, with no luck.) Just think what fun that would be - they'd have to come over to the UK for some of the time, surely?

Er hem, sorry, back to the race: at 3.7k to go, Frankie almost attacks! He's going faster than the guys in front, then he sneakily drafts behind the camera bike, so we a good close-up shot up his nose. He's looking very calm and collected, as opposed to Ryder How-do-you-spell-it-Hejerdahl, who appears to be melting. There's a bit of shoulder-barging, which is always fun to watch - go on Frankie, shove him back! Well done.

So, as we all know now, a midget from Colnago won the stage - what were those strange hand-signals all about? No, don't bother telling me, I'm not that interested - after a tremendously strong surge up the last few kms. He deserved to win, and he did it handsomely, with no-one even close to him.

The podium was hilarious - previously, Taylor Phinney and Ryder How-do-you-spell-it have had to bend their knees in order to accommodate the podium girls in the obligatory Double Kiss.

(By the way, anyone know why one of them uses non-sealed lipstick and seems determined to leave lip-marks on all the winners?)

Anyway, this time, the podium girlies had to crouch awkwardly in order to get themselves to the correct level. Very funny! They could almost have stepped off the podium and just leaned forward from the level of the platform... but I suppose there are courtesies to be observed.

Frankie came home in the front group, didn't lose any time, and has now risen up to 9th in the GC which is a great result - close enough to be well in contention, but spared all the interviews and press furore. Nice one, Frankie!

Today, all will change: rain is forecast, in fact it's currently raining at the start, with one hour or so to go  before they set off: and there is an advisory thunderstorm warning.

Lovely. Be careful out there, lads!