There are four hilly stages in this years Tirrano and anyone of them could be decisive. This one looks really tasty with five categorised climbs before a short wall to the finish in Santa Caterina. It’s a stage which is end loaded also which usually makes the racing decisive, expect all the punchaers to be at the front end for the last 60km of up and down action.
Arguably this could well be the type of hill cum mountain stage that could suit Cunego who will be keen to stamp his authority on this high quality field.
Sam Bewley leads though is likely to lose it today, the Kiwi sprinter stunning Bennati who found the wind slowed him down slightly (or was it age) in the finale. There could possibly be an early sprint hotspot for the big sprinters we’ll have to see if an early break can establish itself.
We join things as we are on the small rise approaching the sprint. There is a break of four riders under a minute clear of a pack mainly being led by Pearl Adidas.
The four lead riders are:
Sprint blocker Kvist, young Australian Meyer, Italian raider Mancuso and northern classics merchant Steurs.
There is three riders in between the break and the bunch.
Rouler Reckweg, Classics veteran Ballan and the obligatory project raider Fahnert.
Tolleson joins the middle group.
But the guys up front are sprinting so keep a decent lead with Mancuso winning the sprint over Steurs and Kvist.
The middle group the are caught, but this cannot be no 1t4i man in the break. Bearded tramp lookalike Ten Dam decides to stomp on the pedals.
Locatelli pulls back Ten Dam and the gap to the lead four nudges up again. Facci tries a move to see if he’s allowed out to play.
He manages to bridge to the break and after a brief chase from Pearl Adidas and Vesuvio the pack decide to allow this move.
It’s a welcome relief for several riders who got dropped in those early minor hills.
Riber-Sellebjerg, Vinter, Jorgenson, Sobota, Flaksis, Colbrelli, De Vocht, Mohs and Nechita are those dropped are early and could be in for a long day.
Our leaders approach the first categorised climb a cat 3 with a now building lead.
The target here is Sinkeldam’s 15 points as competition leader. These early 6-4-2 prizes a little bit powderpuff compared to the selection of cat2’s to come.
Mancuso proves the king of the early primes here narrowly besting Meyer and Steurs.
Milka are leading the pack here taking the GC leaders team job seriously.
Bewley riding high in his blue leaders jersey. Not the worst climber, but surely likely to lose the lead today you’d have thought. Should be interesting to see how long he can last.
The break continue to push on, now over strade Bianchi.
The second 3rd cat is slightly tougher than the first, the two Italians Facci and Mancuso manage to put some distance between themselves and the others here.
Facci nipping past Mancuso to take the six, Steurs just tough enough to nab third. Mancuso gets to ten points then just five behind classification leader Sinkeldam.
Stybar and Franzoi show real style as they use their descending skills to keep the breaks lead to under five minutes.
The Mohs- B and O gruppeto has not been able to rejoin, which could be worrying news for their respected teams. Losing riders at this early stage would be disappointing to say the least.
This is interesting the pack are continuing to push the pace at this early stage. The break’s lead is down to two minutes with 85km left. More riders are getting distanced from the pack.
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There are five Red Bulls, three Puma’s, two Milka’s and a couple of Pokerstars boys in this group though none of the big names. Also there is Lotto sprinter Vanderaerden.
Off camera the break went through the sprint Mancuso’s prime grabbing ability clearly on the wane as he only gets second again this time to Meyer, Facci is third. By sprinting though their gap is beginning to build again, which may mean they can fight for the next mountain prime.
It is Milka causing the damage, perhaps a bit overenthusiastic with the chasing?
The gap to the break is beginning to grow and the last dropped rider can begin to pull themselves back.
Nope I speak too soon as now big names drop. Boonen, Guarnieri, Reynes and Van Heerden with Corioni just ahead.
Looks like the Autobus is forming. Bewley though is managing a different bus at the head of things with some help from Heineken.
The other sprinters peel off the back including Grillo and Bennati.
3.5km from the top of the summit the breaks lead is hovering around a minute.
Still a fair chance for Mancuso to snatch that mountains jersey, he just needs third place on this climb.
1km from the top and Kvist has to let go as the others attack for the points.
Meyer impressively manages to drop the two Italians taking the prime, with Facci second and Mancuso third. It means Meyer and Mancuso are joint KoM leaders.
The pace has dropped again in the pack allowing this break to continue to dangle in front. The break though have reduced in size.
With 50km to go Facci, Meyer and Mancuso have 1.40 on the pack with Steurs and Kvist in between. The Boonen - Bennati Autobus is at 9.00 and the Mohs - B and O group is at 17 minutes.
The pack led by Kratochvila and Stybar reach possibly the toughest climb of the day, the second of the cat 2’s. We are 40kms out and two riders launch long range moves.
Stung by missing out on the break 1t4i send another in Vanendert, along with Slovakian star Sagan. Wiggle surge to the front it’s too early for this they say.
Kvist has long since been reeled in and now the rest of the early break look sure to succumb to the pace and attacks.
As they are caught Albasini goes, Wiggle send new recruit Rabottini after him.
Sagan and Vanendert follow Rabottini as Cunego’s super-domestique Claeys comes to the front. Vesuvio decide to add to the pressure as Paterski looks to bridge also.
Alas he only makes it to the fading Rabottini’s wheel as the other three power on to the summit.
Vanendert takes it over Sagan and Albasini. Pearl and Aker lead the pack over about a minute back from the three leaders.
It’s a fairly lengthy descent now down to the final double climb to finish the stage.
Rabottini and Paterski do well to join with the three leaders a minute ahead of a dwindling pack.
Claeys is getting some a lot of help from Aker domestiques Topchanyuk and Bugge.
Though this union doesn’t last long as Cunego and Hagen call off their boys. As Bewley makes his way forward, the wiggle hill squadron arm their forces.
The break reach the final categorised climb of the day with just a minutes advantage for this final 17 klicks.
You sense some shadow boxing here as Aker, Wiggle and Claeys keep the gap pegged at just around a minute.
We are 15km from the finish let’s check on the favourites.
We can see race leader Bewley riding high in the bunch, he is pretty much alone with Stybar dropped and Kratochvila toward the back. Schleck is closest to him with Ponzi, Cunego, Bakelants, Gilbert and Ginnani reasonably high. Hagen is a little way back here as is Nibali.
The gap remains at around a minute all the way up this climb. The front five clearly have great climbing legs because the pack is constantly reducing down to now 50 rider.
Rabottini leads the attack for the points.
It proves enough to take the prize, the Italian looked like he had blown on the previous climb so this is a nice effort.
Vanendert secures the mountains jersey by finishing second barring some surprising points at the end of the stage (it’s rated 4th category the climb to the finish).
The five leaders now have 1.24 as we head down the descent to this last rise and we are inside of 10km to go.
Wiggle are still helping the pacing with Aker and Claeys. Obviously they still are backing Ponzi despite having Rabottini up in the break.
Bewley is still in this front group, right behind the domestiques.
Inside of 5km to go and despite Wiggle super descenders Grippo and Caruso in front of the pack the five leaders are holding a 40 second lead. As the descent runs outbound Vanendert attacks.
3km out and the Belgian is on the steeper part of the climb, he has a 20 second gap on the rest of the breakaways who have a 30 second gap on the Wiggle led pack.
The pack slows down.
Sagan hauls his companions up to Vanendert.
They have a minutes lead and Sagan looks to sprint straight last Vanendert, Rabottini and Albasini look keen Paterski less so.
Rabottini follows Sagan as Albasini struggles to hold the Wiggle mans wheel. Vanendert is looking for speed as Paterski flounders.
Schleck makes a late late move from the pack, he has gained a few yards on Van de Hugenhaben and Cunego.
Up front Sagan and Rabottini battle for stage honours.
’The Rabbit’ is gaining with every turn of the pedal stroke.
The pack are keeping pretty well formed behind Schleck, though their will be a gap to those ahead.
Which Italian team will make it?
It’s Sagan.
He’ll be the new leader as well.
Vanendert finishes third, he instigated the late move and at least gets the mountains jersey, though his card is surely marked.
Schleck leads the pack home in front of Cunego. The little Prince did little today, perhaps his lack of high class teammates hurt him? Bakelants was well down, though today clearly was not his best day.
Here comes to Autobus over twenty minutes down.
The last rider home is Vinter but he is less than 40 minutes back so survives comfortably.
The late sprint by the favourites did reduce the gap to 26 seconds, but still in a tight race a lot will be left to tomorrow's circuit style hilly stage and the long hilly stage five to decide things. Bewley is down to only 4th, great ride by him.
Stage results
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Peter Sagan
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
4h36'46
2
Matteo Rabottini
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Jelle Vanendert
Project 1t4i
+ 8
4
Michael Albasini
UBS - BMC
s.t.
5
Maciej Paterski
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
6
Frank Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 26
7
Damiano Cunego
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
8
Dimitri Claeys
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
9
Robin van der Hugenhaben
Koenigsegg
s.t.
10
Artem Topchanyuk
Aker - MOT
s.t.
11
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
12
Marcello Pavarin
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
13
Alexandre Shushemoin
Aker - MOT
s.t.
14
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
15
Tanel Kangert
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
16
Damiano Caruso
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
17
Vegard Robinson Bugge
Aker - MOT
s.t.
18
Jan Bakelants
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
19
Domenico Pozzovivo
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
20
Philippe Gilbert
Pendleton's
s.t.
21
Sam Bewley
Milka - AVG
s.t.
22
Branislav Samoilev
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
23
Francesco Ginanni
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
24
David Claerebout
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
25
Tejay Van Garderen
Wikipedia
s.t.
26
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
27
Joseph Biziyaremye
Aker - MOT
s.t.
28
Vincenzo Nibali
UBS - BMC
s.t.
29
Jackson RodrÃguez
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
30
Cesare Di Maggio
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
31
Toms Skujins
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
32
Jay McCarthy
Wikipedia
s.t.
33
Rasmus Guldhammer
Team B&O
s.t.
34
Matteo Montaguti
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
35
Gabriele Bosisio
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
36
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
