I'm off from school today and will only write an evaluation of my year today. I don't exactly know what to write so I may take a few seconds here. I'm still immensely proud of Gustav Erik Larsson's beautiful victory. He really is amazing when it comes to time trials, one of the world's greatest, yet his victory was a surprise for me. I can't really explain why, but no matter what I am proud of him and very happy that he has taken his biggest victory so far.

A few days ago I commented that the Netherlands is no longer the cycling nation they once was. Rabobank's Bauke Mollema finished 12th overall at the Giro d'Italia, and was the country's (and Rabobank's) highest ranked rider. Last year Rabobank's rider Denis Menchov won the race, but he decided not to defend his victory this year.

It was Mollema's first Grand Tour, and he didn't know what to expect. The young rider won the 2007 Tour de l'Avenir (a major stage races for espoirs), but the Giro d'Italia is clearly a bigger race.

"I'm very satisfied", said Mollema. "In every mountain I was in the top 10 or top 15. I feel I'm going to be even better next year."

Rabobank's neo-pro Steven Kruijswijk finished 18th in the general classification, so there was really no poor performance of the young riders. Mollema and Kruijswijk finished third and fourth in the young rider competition behind Richie Porte and Robert Kiserlovski.