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Today will be his last day in pink, but Alessandro 'Out of Breath' Petacchi suits the leader's jersey far better than its previous occupant, Mark 'Bingo' Cavendish.

It may be something to do with the Italian's tan and his, well, being Italian, but pink goes far better when covering the strapping frame of Ale-Jet rather than the short and rather portly package that is Cav (now named 'Bingo' after a supporter emailed the Eurosport commentary team during stage three to highlight the Manxman's likening to the Banana Splits character).

And with classic Brit-abroad Cav sporting a rather sun-burned face, it was the old fashioned faux-pas of pink on pink working against his favour.

Sartorial comments aside, Petacchi actually deserves his stint in pink more than anything else. Yes, Cavendish's Columbia outfit put in a stellar performance in the opening team time trial, but the 23-year-old shared about as much right as eight other riders to don the leader's jersey at the end of the day.

By beating Cavendish so convincingly in stage two, Petacchi not only took the wind out of his young rival's sails, he posted one for the old generation after last year's combined failures of Robbie McEwen, Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd.

If this was a film, it would have been 'The Empire Strikes Back', with Alessandro 'Darth Vadar' Petacchi putting Mark 'Luke Skywalker' Cavendish (a man young enough to be his son) in his place.

It's a fitting analogy, for with all those chronic breathing problems, BS is sure Lord Vadar was in need of a bit of Salbutamol up on the old Death Star every now and then.

Petacchi did it again in stage three - albeit admittedly without Cavendish, who had been slowed by a pile-up - to record back-to-back wins at 35 years of age, a feat no-one thought possible with someone as explosive as Cav riding in the peloton.

In his defence, a sporting Cavendish did his own PR a whole lot of good with the claim: "With an ego like mine, to lose to Alessandro isn't such a bad thing."

With the Dolomites looming, it looks like Petacchi's seventh career day in pink will be - fittingly for a sprinting god - a day of rest. "Let's not exaggerate, I'm not going to keep the pink jersey tomorrow," said the Italian ahead of the summit finish.

BS just hopes his asthma doesn't prove a problem again this year.

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN: BS is sure even Tom Boonen did not expect to escape the attention of "one of the best reads in cycling" (see last week's readers' comments).

Like most people, BS thought he was suffering from déjà-vu when reading of The Boon King's second out-of-competition ensnarement for cocaine use in less than two years.

Now it turns out that Boonen returned traces of cocaine and ecstasy in a third test carried out back in November 2007, but the testing lab in Gent reported it as a negative test as neither substance was prohibited out-of-competition.

According to a Belgian news agency, Boonen was informed of this in December 2008 so he certainly knew he would be skating on very thin ice were he to dabble again in these so-called "party drugs".

How long before revelations break of Boonen razzing it up with French tennis maestro Richard Gasquet with (according to former footballing great Pele) Brazilian soccer star Robinho also getting a sniff of the action?

Anyway, a contrite Boonen has since come out and admitted that his problem is one with alcohol, not cocaine, which he only takes "when I drink too much".

"When I go out," he said, "I clearly cross a line." Crossing those lines is clearly only half the story, but at least Tommeke is being honest in admitting he has a problem.

It seems that Quick Step are standing by their man - which would rule out the seemingly natural move to team Columbia.

"It is not exactly an addiction," a spokesman said. "He is not a 'slave' to the substance but he uses it sporadically in specific circumstances."

BS is sure that Floyd Landis was not exactly a slave to synthetic testosterone but merely (allegedly) sought comfort in its masculating abilities in specific circumstances - such as clawing back a 10-minute deficit in the mountains after bonking at altitude. But he will let this one drop.

Boonen was clearly victim of his own stupidity - and nothing more sinister. There are bankers, lawyers and doctors who probably dabble more in recreational drugs than Boonen, and they can still put in a good day at the office (albeit while bankrupting entire nations, in the case of many bankers).

But it's not as if the All Belgian Boy could have actually won three Paris-Roubaix titles while leading a double life as a massive coke-head is it? The cases are clearly isolated and Boonen obviously has issues - primarily with common sense.

So, Tom: check yourself into a rehabilitation programme (or maybe prison) in July and think of another excuse not to turn up at the Tour de France in 2010, because this one is wearing a bit thin.

TALKING POINT: When reading about Christian Vande Velde's unfortunate crash that ruled him out of the Giro with a couple of broken ribs, BS came across this comment from reader 'iancampbell11': "get yourself ready for the veulta (sic) miss out on the¬ druggy TDf".

Reading such a pathetic offering at least helps us understand the number behind Ian's name (it clearly marks his age) but it does show how blinkered people are when it comes to cycling.

Yes, the Tour does seem to coincide with cycling's most comprehensive annual outing of doping cheats, but that is surely because the French authorities are more stringent than their Spanish counterparts (who still stand by someone like Alejandro Valverde even after this week's CONI hearing).

And don't forget that previous winners of the Vuelta include Roberto Heras and Alexandre Vinokourov.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK: "The resolution of CONI is unjust, obsolete and made by an obviously incompetent organisation, after an irregular procedure." Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team react to the Spaniard's two-year ban on Italian soil, which will rule the rider out of this year's Tour.

"As long as we beat Columbia we'll be alright." Well, in hindsight, you can't really find fault in this comment by Garmin-Slipstream's Bradley Wiggins ahead of the Giro team time trial.

Felix Lowe / Eurosport