June 21, 2006

Olson: Staying Tough

www.bicirace.com

Stage 12, Livorno - Sestri Levante, 171K

BiciRace.com salutes the hard work of Aaron Olson. Today was a very demanding day for him. The peloton covers some very tight and technical parcours over the Cinque Terra zone, including two GPMs. Olson, like the rest of the peloton, never had time to enjoy the view, but instead was forced to focus on the job at hand.

Olson's job was to keep everything secure for team leader, Gilberto Simoni. You know he is doing his job when in the following day's press they print photos of Simoni and in the photo, glued right to the Italian's side, is l'Americano. It is an amazing amount of work on Olson's behalf.

We talked with Olson's teammate, Piotr Mazur, before the start of the stage to get his thoughts on Aaron. "It is amazing," explained Mazur. "He just arrived from the USA and he is doing all of these kilometers. He was called to ride in the Giro team in the last moments before the start."

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