Finally, the mountains arrive! Today is the first real chance we get to see who will be out-climbing the others and the GC competition will start to really take shape. Todays stage is only 100.4km, but in that time the riders have to negotiate two very long climbs. The first is the Monte Taburno and the second one is Montevergine di Mercogliano. They are 20.4km and 16.8km respectively. Neither is particularly steep, averaging about 5%, but their length means that it is a great chance to weed out the lesser climbers. There are a huge list of favourites, but basically every GC threat is listed at some point. It will be a good chance to see how the crashes of the previous days have affected some of these men, such as Machado and Amador.
To start off proceedings, Diego Montoya puts in a dig. The chances of the breakaway today are probably quite low given that the GC guys will want to fire their first salvoes, but there are always people willing to give it a try.
The young Colombian talent Winner Anacona decides to try next. He is joined by the Canadian time trial champion Christian Meier, as well as his teammate Adam Semple. Wikipedia don’t really have a big GC name here, so this sort of aggressive riding is what they really need.
These three men bridge up to the front where they are joined by another trio of riders. First Ben Curfs and Richie Porte bridge up, and hot on their tail is César Rojas Villegas. Rojas is someone who can really climb very well and could be a threat for either the mountain jersey or even the stage win today.
These seven riders start to work really well together just before the base of the climb, keeping a steady tempo. Seeing that this has all the makings of a good break of the day, 5 more riders try to bridge up to them. They are: Sagan Kadri Malori Donald Lang
At the base of the Monte Taburno the situation is this:
43”
58”
1’41”
7 Leaders
--->
5 chasers
--->
Peleton
The pure climbers up front set the pace for the breakaway. They don’t push too hard, but regardless, Porte finds himself in trouble and he loses touch with the front group.
Porte isn’t the only one struggling to hold the pace of the climbers in the lead group. The chasers aren’t pulling the leaders back at all, and in fact the gap starts to widen slightly. This causes a complete fracturing of the chase group, with Kadri leaving the others behind, but still not getting very far on his own.
Right near the top of the climb, Rojas Villegas signals his intentions for the day. He attacks out of the group and shows his superiority, taking the 16 points at the top. This puts him in the provisional lead.
Semple can’t hold the pace and he drops back off the lead group, meaning that there are only 5 riders at the very front of the race. Meier comes over the top second, followed by Anacona, Montoya and then Curfs. The situation over the top is:
5 Leaders
+48” – Semple
+25” – Porte
+49” – Kadri
+16” – Donald
+24” – Lang
+44” – Sagan/Malori
+1’05” – Peleton (4’11” to leaders)
Bacardi leads the peleton over the top, now reduced to a still-substantial 138 riders.
Webeffect and Vesuvio do most of the pace setting on the way down. They take it fairly carefully, but nonetheless Bernaudeau falls. He had already fallen in stage 4, and this is just yet more luck for Festina. Up ahead, by the base of the descent, Kadri has caught Porte and Semple, so they work together about 2 minutes behind the lead group.
There is a rolling section between the two mountains, and it is here that Vesuvio and Webeffect really decide to up the pace. They succeed in pulling in all but the front five riders. With 30km to go, the rolling sections peaks out. It is 2’38” to the lead 5. Seeing potential for in an attacking ride, Costagli and Pauwels decide to head off together. Costagli in particular is a real threat for the stage if he is allowed to get a big gap.
This causes a general increase in the pace that is being set by the teams of the favourites. The peleton is almost instantly cut down to 73 men, with the only particularly noteworthy name being Cataldo, but he is well out of the GC running now.
The very base of the second mountain of the day is marked by an intermediate sprint. Unsurprisingly, none of the riders up front are particularly interested in it, with Anacona being the best placed rider, at +21’57”. Curfs leads the others over, with Montoya in second and Anacona in third. The 2 chasers come through 1’35” later, and the Peleton is only 22” behind them. That means that the overall gap is less than 2 minutes, with a 16.8km climb ahead.
On the early slopes of the climb, the gap continues to fall. With 10km remaining in the stage, the 5 leaders hold only a minute to the chasers, and another 20 seconds to the peleton. Up front the pacing is still being shared fairly well, but a couple of them are starting to show fatigue. With 7.5km remaining, Montoya sees his chance to go it alone.
Rojas Villegas knows that this is probably the best chance he has for a stage victory in this Giro, and so he pulls Montoya back, taking the rest of the break up with him. The five riders are still together, but their gap continues to drop. It is at this point that Ricco launches an attack.
He comes straight past the two chasers, who seem to be somewhat regretting their move. Both of them try to follow Ricco, as does Ardila, but none of them can match his turn of speed. Ricco gets up to the breakaway and, not seeing his opportunity for a big stage win, Rojas Villegas launches himself off the front of the breakaway group.
Ricco can’t afford to let this happen, as he clearly wants the bonus seconds on offer at the top of the climb. He pulls Meier up to Rojas, making a lead group of 3. The other breakaway riders couldn’t hold his pace and are swallowed up by the peleton in short order. Vesuvio and Webeffect are pulling on the front, trying to bring Ricco back.
With 3km to go, Ricco has just under 30” on the peleton, which have him in their sights. It is at this point that Sella launches his big attack. All the big favourites realise that this is the key moment today and rush to get onto his wheel. He is followed by: Schleck Machado Arroyo Denifl Henao Montoya Amador
There had been questions about the fitness of Machado and Amador after their crash yesterday, but their ability to react today should clearly answer those questions.
Sella’s attack is absolutely blistering, however, and so no one is able to hold onto his wheel. Schleck seems to struggle fairly early in the chase, and Machado comes around him. More importantly, however, Sella fights his way up to Ricco, who is forced to react with only 1500m left in the climb. They have a 20” lead over Machado.
The climb to the very peak is a two-up sprint, and Ricco has already shown his turn of speed a couple of times this race.
But he clearly doesn’t have enough left in the tank as Emanuele Sella takes the first mountaintop finish of this year’s Giro d’Italia and shows everyone why he is one of the top favourites.
Henao Montoya climbs through 17” later to take third place, ahead of Andrei Amador and Tiago Machado. These three riders have an 8” gap back to Stefan Denifl in 6th place. He is joined by Domenico Pozzovivo, who had to fight his way up to this group, having missed the initial attack. Frank Schleck and David Arroyo are also in this group of four riders. Another 26” back, 51” behind Sella, is a group lead by Mauricio Ardila, which also contains Kohl, Menchov and Devolder. They are 17” ahead of the peleton, containing most of the other climbers. These aren’t huge time gaps, but they may give some indication of how things are going.
In the battle for the overall honours, Ricco once again gets time on almost everyone. There is now a 1’07” gap back to Schleck, who remains in 2nd place. Sella moves into third, 2’07” back. Sella unsurprisingly takes the mountain jersey, which he may well have a decent chance to hold onto throughout most of the race if no one is willing to challenge for it specifically. Ricco once again solidifies the points jersey and it is hard to imagine many situations that would see him lose that. The young rider’s classification certainly looks like it will be an interesting contest with today’s third place Henao Montoya taking over that classification. His main competition will no doubt be Denifl, which is a very evenly-matched battle.
