Napolitano reigns

Pizzeria in the works and Cipollini weighs-in.

A stage win in the Giro d'Italia is one thing but a Pizza Margarita is another. Danilo Napolitano, winner of stage nine of the Giro d'Italia, thinks that his adopted hometown of Iseo could use a Pizzeria, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

His parents live in the south, in Vittoria, Sicily, but Danilo and his brother, Massimiliano, live in Italy's northern region of Lombardy. The 26 year-old followed his brother, who is now a soigneur with Lampre-Fondital, to Lago d'Iseo (near Brescia) where he lives in a new two-story home near Gelateria Amalfi.

The gelateria's manager Mario Esposito is from Naples and he has given the Lampre sprinter the idea of opening up a pizzeria near Iseo. When he was young, Napolitano worked hard as a mason with his father while training as a track rider and, thus, knows the value of hard work.

"Who will win today? Alessandro Petacchi should do well, he knows the roads. I also like Napolitano for today," said retired sprint king Mario Cipollini during yesterday's stage.

Petacchi was racing on home roads and he gave consideration to the sea breeze while Napolitano shows sprint strength. "There was a headwind that impeded Petacchi, who had to remount. But there was also a side-wind that gives merit to Napolitano, who did the sprint on the left side, in other words, the side in which the wind arrives off the sea," noted the 42-time Giro stage winner.

Napolitano also had to ride a longer sprint due to Robbie McEwen's drift to the left. "This did not stop Danilo from winning with valour, making the most of his qualities as a sprinter.