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Aside from the weather, today was a day the team could use: a relatively flat day, no big changes in GC to be expected, and no huge drama on the agenda. Yaroslav "Popo" Popovych is still in white, you-know-who's in yellow, and so I got to thinking about the coloured items the two guys are wearing, and that lead me to Toshi Corbett with Giro helmets.
Toshi's usually seen walking about the Tour with a huge black bag under his arm, and inside that bag is some seriously good shwag: coloured Giro Atmos helmets for those riders 1] lucky enough to be awarded a coloured jersey and 2] on a team sponsored by Giro. "Every year we want to do something special for any of our athletes fortunate enough to be in a coloured jersey," he said as the buses made their way into the team area. "Giro makes special helmets to go along with the GC jerseys and to also commemorate their day in the leader's jersey."
What's cool about this is that Giro doesn't just give one to each of the overall champions. They realize that even one day in a leader's jersey is a huge accomplishment, and any Giro athlete will get a coloured lid sooner or later. "We've found that the guys will usually have their jersey framed and hanging over their mantelpiece, so we make sure that we send them the corresponding Atmos helmet as well."
Toshi also offers up one of the helmets for the riders to wear during the stage, but that's one aspect the guys don't always jump on. "Lance's kind of superstitious that way. He'll only wear the yellow helmet on the last stage. And I guess if the boss leads that way, the others will usually follow."
All for now from Troyes, France, thanks for checking in.
Cheers,
Chris
