If ol’ 10 Speed were among the men who run the Tour de France, he’d be pretty sour right about now at the Italian operators of the Giro d’Italia.

Double-crossers.

You’ll recall that Giro owner RCS was the first grand tour operator to give team Astana an un-vitation to its event, ostensibly because of the team’s shady doping past under previous management.

Amaury Sports Organization, which runs the Tour de France, followed suit, going a step further and barring Astana from all of its events.

By doing so, ASO deepened the rift between itself and the international cycling body, Union Cycliste Internationale, touched off the UCI’s lawsuit against the French Cycling Federation for sanctioning the ASO’s Paris-Nice race outside of the UCI’s auspices, and pitted the UCI Pro Tour teams and riders against their governing body, the UCI, which threatened sanctions for teams and riders who took part in Paris-Nice.

So, almost overnight, with two of the three grand tour organizers — RCS and ASO — allied against the UCI, it looked like a major power play/grab was in the works in cycling, with the two big promoters in the cat-bird seat.

Until RCS reversed field and invited Astana to the Giro one week before the event.

And until Astana’s Alberto Contador won the whole three-week shooting match on Sunday.

Contador’s Giro win amounts to a doomsday scenario for ASO, the problem being that Contador is the defending Tour de France champ. Now with the Giro’s maglia rosa added to the Tour’s maillot jaune in Contador’s wardrobe closet, his exclusion from this year’s TdF is even more egregious than it was before.

Before, it was bad enough that cycling’s premier event had made its defending champ persona non grata by not inviting his team. Whoever would win in July would have a big fat asterisk by his name, a champion forever questioned because neither he nor the Tour de France could definitively say he beat the best, what with Contador’s and Astana’s absence.

Before, it didn’t really matter that the Vuelta a Espana organizers broke ranks with their French and Italian grand-tour compatriots by opening its doors to Astana. The Spanish Vuelta is a distant third in the grand tour hierarchy, and so from the Tour’s perspective, a Contador victory in the Vuelta wouldn’t have amounted to a hill of beans, as Bogie would say.

But a Contador victory in the Giro? Oh, my. That’s a totally different animal.

Only a few of the Tour de France favourites were missing — Silence-Lotto’s Cadel Evans and Damiano Cunego of Lampre, primary among them — and the racing at the Giro was outstanding, with dramatic battles in the high mountains among all the favourites in the race for the maglia rosa.

Contador’s second-place in the Stage 10 individual time trial put him in solid position relative the other favourites, but he appeared vulnerable in the high-mountain stages — never once dominating a climb as he did dancing uphill at the TdF last year.

In fact, Contador was outshined in the high mountains by Emanuele Sella of Italian continental team CSF Group Navigare. Sella won three high mountain stages, two with long breakaways but the third with an attack from the grouppo Contador.

Saunier Duval-Scott’s Riccardo Ricco won two early stages and kept shaving minutes off Contador’s lead in the high mountains, beating Contador to the finishing line in all but the final high mountain stage. Thanks to some big improvements in his time trialing, Contador was able to overcome his deficit to Ricco in the mountains and beat the Giro runner-up by 1:57 in the overall classification.

Two-time Vuelta champ Denis Menchov (Rabobank), two-time Giro winner Gilberto Simoni, 2007 Giro winner Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes), Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) and Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre) all put time into Contador in the high mountains.

Plus, because of the last-minute and unexpected invite, neither Contador nor Astana was on form, as they say in cycling. Contador had had recent dental work and was vacationing in Spain when he got the call. Neither of Astana’s past TdF podium finishers –Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden — was prepared mentally or physically for a three-week tour. Kloden, in fact, abandoned the race before the finish. At top form with the proper preparation, either or both could have challenged for a podium spot. But with the late invite, neither could keep up with the big favourites in the high mountains.

Yet Contador and Astana overcame top-flight competitors despite having far less than optimal preparation, and if I’m a member of Amaury Sports Organization, I am more than a little ticked at the Italians.

By letting Astana into their party, RCS has put the ASO in a difficult spot, with a huge dilemma. ASO’s showcase event has been upstaged by the Giro, and the strongest grand tour racer in the world — Contador — is looking at July on the beach and then a likely victory at the Vuelta in September for a sweep of the two grand tours in which he was invited to participate.

If it’d be me, I would not be happy at all about my marquee event being upstaged by the Giro AND the Vuelta in the same year. I could not … would not let that happen, not to the most important cycling event in the world.

It wouldn’t be fair to the cycling fans around the world who love and value the Tour de France, and it wouldn’t be fair for the sponsors who are footing the bill for the annual spectacle. Sponsors too want to be associated with the best cycling has to offer, and this year, it ain’t the Tour de France.

It’s time for the ASO to man-up and relent, put past differences aside, and invite Astana and Contador to its party in July.

It not only would be the sporting thing to do. It’s the only thing to do.

Tomorrow: WWJD (What would Johan do?)

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