This year’s edition was a complete wild card from the start nearly to the finish. Day after day unforeseen circumstances, from wind and crashes in the anticipated placid flats of the opening Netherlands stages to the rain-soaked breakaway that nearly won the race for unheralded Spaniard David Arroyo, conspired to make this one of the most thrilling Grand Tours in history.

The Giro raised the bar the season’s coming races, most of all the 2010 Tour de France. We can only hope this year’s Tour avoids the mind-numbing predictability and one-team dominance that plagued last year’s race and was blessedly absent from this Giro. And indeed, all signs point toward a more wide-open Tour.

So many Giro memories will stick with us:

So many jersey changes day in and day out, completely uncharacteristic of a Grand Tour.

Basso and Aussie Cadel Evans duking it out in the mountains.

Arroyo’s daring descent down the backside of Passo del Mortirolo, showing how riding down can be nearly as strategic as going up.

The emergence of 25-year-old Vincenzo Nibali to the elite ranks of pro cycling.

The elegance and drama of the Italian Alps, capped by Gavia Pass.

Basso’s and Nibali’s Team Liquigas as a potential superpower, especially in the upcoming Tour de France.

Perhaps the biggest legacy of the 2010 Giro, though, could be its benchmark as the beginning of the post-doping era in pro cycling. Starting with Basso, riders emphasized in this year’s Giro that they were riding clean, and wanted to use their example to help erase the past, move cycling forward and restore the glory of one of humankind’s great competitive pursuits.

The verdict is still not in on this as a clean Giro. No on-course suspensions were made — a significant first step given the Giro’s drug-soaked past — but testing will continue in coming months and even years as the biological passport screening procedures do their work.

And we don’t mean to overstate the Giro’s impact even if it does prove to be dope-free. Substance abuse unfortunately has made its way down into the amateur ranks, permeating not only cycling but all sports almost from the time a youngster shows promise while still pursuing an education. The institutionalized heritage of doping has to stop not just in cycling but throughout sports culture.

In all respects, the Giro will be a tough act to follow. But if a post-doping era is emerging, it could not have chosen a better place to begin its campaign than the 2010 Giro.

As today’s riveting Giro d’Italia Stage 19 proved, downhilling can be just as thrilling as ascending.

In the mountain biking world, of course, downhilling is a whole separate World Cup event and series. As we watched the world’s top pro road riders take wide turns, brake at the wrong time and fail to leverage banking, we wondered if they shouldn’t hire someone like world champion Steve Peat or former rainbow jersey holder Sam Hill to advise on descending ability.

One rider did stand out: Race leader David Arroyo of Caisse d’Épargne, who made up a stunning minute on the stage leader, Ivan Basso, during the descent down from the vicious climb up legendary Passo del Mortirolo, averaging 10 percent grade over eight miles. On rain-slickened pavement, Arroyo was a velo zephyr, gliding through turns and bulleting down straights like he was riding aloft.

It looked like Arroyo might have saved his pink jersey as race leader with his alacritous descent. It was not to be — Ivan Basso rode into the lead with power and grace up Mortirolo and the final climb to Aprica — but for us, Arroyo’s flight down was as memorable a ride as Stage 19 had to offer. If anything, the stage showed why ascending skills are so much more crucial on the road, and why descending gets little attention. Basso not only made up gaps he lost on descent, he improved on his margins.

Tomorrow's brutal stage, and snow may fall!

Other favorites, Cadel Evans (BMC), Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Carlos Sastre (Cervelo), were bunched with Arroyo across the finish line three minutes behind Basso’s break.

Unless Arroyo can pull off a miracle, or something untoward happens to Basso, the 2010 Giro d’Italia belongs to the Italian, who won the Giro in 2006. Tomorrow’s mountain stage, even more brutal than today’s (plus snow may fall), could provide an opportunity for Arroyo — if it went further downhill than up. As it is, the stage will peak over hallowed Gavia Pass, the highest point of this year’s Giro and the fourth of five withering climbs in the stage.

Full VeloNews report.

Leader Vincenzo Nibali held onto the pink jersey, but you have to love the twists and turns and panache that racers are showing so early on in the Giro.