Final decisive day of the Tirreno and whilst not as difficult as yesterday long hard day, the accumulative effect of these stages will be hurting the riders. The two long climbs in the second half of the stage are tough with the long descent to an up hill kick into Torricella Sicura.
Cunego and Bakelants managed to just outsprint old man Schleck yesterday. But Schleck’s stage 3 solo win still has him out of bonification range leading Bakelants by 21 seconds and Cunego by 37 seconds.
Early on we have two 3rd cat climbs followed by an intermediate sprint. We have an eight man group clear as we approach the first KoM prime.
Veloso has infiltrated the break and with 19 KoM points already he’ll be favoured to grab a load of points today. The others here are Riblon, Topchanyuk, Ten Dam, Jovanovic,
Ghyllebert, Vangheel, Campero.
Bosisio is chasing across alone.
Veloso gets a free run at the first KoM prime.
Bosisio gets across to make a very healthy nine man lead group, today could be a good chance for the break with Vesuvio perhaps unwilling to chase hard eliminating bonifications from any possible GC scenario.They ride calmly at the front.
Having picked up a few more KoM points at the first climb Ghyllebert challenges and beats Veloso at the second prime.
It means Veloso needs to collect a few more points at the next climb to overhaul Facci.
The best placed rider in the break is Jovanovic. But he is over twelve minutes back. The break roll through the sprint nearly nine minutes ahead with 120km left.
As the break approach the top of this long 3rd category climb, their lead has ballooned to a massive twelve minutes. Veloso steadies himself to take the four points he needs for the provisional KoM lead.
This time Ghyllebert cannot deny him as he takes the full six points.
The Spaniard will have a great chance to add to his now four point lead at the next climb a cat 2.
The lead remains at a massive 12 minutes with Jovanovic and Bososio set to really move up GC, however Bosisio’s fortunes take a turn for the worse.
He manages to scamper back onto the break by the bottom of the descent. Veloso leads Jovanovic through the sprint point with the gap now a massive thirteen minutes.
Jovanovic is the virtual leader of the race. Vesuvio realise this and quicken the pace.
Mind you they are only doing enough to keep the gap steady at twelve minutes.
At the top of this second category Ghyllebert again denies Veloso maximum points.
It nudges Ghyllebert into second on that competition with 32 points. Veloso’s day out getting him up to 42 points a nice ten point cushion with tomorrow's HC climb early on set to decide things.
It’s still a massive pack, Vesuvio have had things very easy at the front.
They are however playing a dangerous game with Jovanovic and the break still hoovering between 12 and 13 minutes clear. There is still a chance that the Pendletons rider could shockingly snatch the race lead away from Schleck.
The break are on the long descent planning their strategies for this finish.
Jovanovic, Topchanyuk, Ghyllebert, Veloso and Bososio are probably the better climbs from this group. Though it may come from which riders have saved energy the best.
15km to go and Campero attacks first followed by Jovanovic.
Bosisio reacts a bit late and struggles between the lead two and the six behind. With 10 to go we have:
Jovanovic and Campero leading
Bosisio at 17 seconds
Vangheel, Veloso, Ghyllebert, Topchanyuk, Riblon, Ten Dam at 28 seconds.
The pack is at 11 minutes.
Bosisio gets caught by the chasers. Under 5 to go.
The gap remains at just above 20 seconds as we begin this tricky uphill finish. Jovanovic and Bosisio will likely not go quite as high on GC as the pack is racing toward the finish as well. Looks like we will have two races to the finish here.
As Topchunyuk makes the catch with 3.5km to go, Jovanovic goes again!
Campero looks to respond but the other seven just look on, all obviously pretty much on the limit.
Jovanovic gets the the kilometre marker with 15 seconds.
Meanwhile Bosisio possibly injured drops off the others.
Jovanovic celebrates a moral boosting win for Pendletons.
Topchunyuk leads the others sprinting past Campero who played the fool guy today.
Ten Dam is third, Ghyllebert fourth, Veloso fifth, Riblon sixth and Vangheel seventh.
In the pack it’s into the last 3km for the pack and still it is all Vesuvio.
Schleck leads them home in front of Hagen, TvG and Cunego.
A nothing day from the GC favourites.
Stage results
A day for the breakaway then and a fine win from Jovanovic. A decent day for 'relegation threatened' teams Aker and Heineken.
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Nebojsa Jovanovic
Pendleton's
5h06'09
2
Artem Topchanyuk
Aker - MOT
s.t.
3
Pieter Ghyllebert
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
4
Laurens Ten Dam
Project 1t4i
s.t.
5
Gustavo Veloso
Santander
s.t.
6
Christophe Riblon
UBS - BMC
s.t.
7
Timothy Vangheel
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
8
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
9
Gabriele Bosisio
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 1'19
10
Frank Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 9'24
11
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
12
Tejay Van Garderen
Wikipedia
s.t.
13
Damiano Cunego
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
14
Maciej Paterski
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
15
Matteo Rabottini
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
16
Toms Skujins
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
17
Alexandre Shushemoin
Aker - MOT
s.t.
18
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
19
Tanel Kangert
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
20
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
21
Jan Bakelants
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
22
Mikel Landa
Wikipedia
s.t.
23
Daniel Oss
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
24
Ethan Weiss
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
GC:
Jovanovic in the end only moved up to 23rd and Bososio 26th. The GC men obviously didn't think they could break the Vesuvio control today.
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Frank Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
31h21'02
2
Jan Bakelants
Pearl Adidas
+ 21
3
Damiano Cunego
Lotto - Cervelo
+ 37
4
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 55
5
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
+ 1'07
6
Tejay Van Garderen
Wikipedia
s.t.
7
Dimitri Claeys
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
8
Francesco Ginanni
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
9
Cesare Di Maggio
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
10
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
+ 1'30
11
Philippe Gilbert
Pendleton's
+ 1'38
12
Robin van der Hugenhaben
Koenigsegg
s.t.
13
Diego Ulissi
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
14
Tanel Kangert
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
15
Peter Sagan
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 1'52
16
Damiano Caruso
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 2'00
17
Jelle Vanendert
Project 1t4i
+ 2'01
18
Matteo Rabottini
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 2'22
19
Vincenzo Nibali
UBS - BMC
+ 2'27
20
Michael Albasini
UBS - BMC
+ 2'36
21
Marcello Pavarin
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 2'38
22
Rasmus Guldhammer
Team B&O
s.t.
23
Nebojsa Jovanovic
Pendleton's
+ 2'40
24
Maciej Paterski
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 2'46
25
Jack Bobridge
Simply Red Bull
+ 2'49
26
Gabriele Bosisio
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 5'29
27
Frantisek Rabon
Milka - AVG
+ 6'57
28
Marcus Burghardt
Team Bacardi
+ 7'10
29
Daniel Oss
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 8'01
30
Toms Skujins
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 8'42
31
Domenico Pozzovivo
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 8'53
32
Christophe Riblon
UBS - BMC
+ 9'25
33
Alexandre Shushemoin
Aker - MOT
+ 9'46
34
Gustavo Veloso
Santander
+ 10'13
35
Jay McCarthy
Wikipedia
+ 11'12
36
Dario Cataldo
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 11'50
37
Sam Bewley
Milka - AVG
+ 11'52
38
Jelle Wallays
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
39
Nathan Haas
Aker - MOT
+ 12'24
40
Vegard Robinson Bugge
Aker - MOT
+ 12'30
41
Ioannis Tamouridis
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
42
Branislav Samoilev
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
43
Matthias Krizek
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
44
Arnold Jeannesson
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
45
Matteo Montaguti
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 13'16
46
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 16'21
47
Artem Topchanyuk
Aker - MOT
+ 16'52
48
Salvatore Mancuso
Team Bacardi
+ 17'19
49
Mauro Facci
Simply Red Bull
+ 18'23
50
Nick Kinney
Wikipedia
+ 21'34
Points
Schleck tops up his tally, but doesn't usually score highly on flat out sprints. A good day really for Bewley and Boonen who could snatch this points jersey tomorrow.
Rank
Name
Team
Points
General
1
Jan Bakelants
Pearl Adidas
0
63
2
Frank Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
6
57
3
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
0
56
4
Sam Bewley
Milka - AVG
0
51
5
Tom Boonen
Pokerstars.com
0
47
6
Damiano Cunego
Lotto - Cervelo
3
46
7
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
5
39
8
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
0
36
9
Artem Topchanyuk
Aker - MOT
26
32
10
Nebojsa Jovanovic
Pendleton's
31
31
11
Peter Sagan
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
0
30
12
Tejay Van Garderen
Wikipedia
4
26
13
Gustavo Veloso
Santander
24
26
14
Dimitri Claeys
Lotto - Cervelo
0
24
15
Mickaël Delage
Team Puma - SAP
0
23
16
Cesare Di Maggio
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
0
22
17
Pieter Ghyllebert
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
16
22
18
Matteo Rabottini
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
1
21
19
Michael Albasini
UBS - BMC
0
20
20
Daniele Bennati
Team Puma - SAP
0
20
KoM
Santander may have only sent a small team but former Red Bull rider Veloso has ridden well to take control of the KoM. Ghyllebert also moves up into 2nd. Is anyone brave enough to go for the HC climb tomorrow?
Rank
Name
Team
Mountain
General
1
Gustavo Veloso
Santander
24
43
2
Pieter Ghyllebert
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
Youth
TvG got himself high up on the sprint in the countback battle between him and Di Maggio. Topchunyuk and Campero moved up but just outside points scoring positions. Still it will have heartened their managers to see them try.
Name
Team
General Time
Tejay Van Garderen
Wikipedia
31h22'09 (1)
Cesare Di Maggio
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 0 (2)
Diego Ulissi
Festina-Canal+
+ 31 (3)
Peter Sagan
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 45 (4)
Rasmus Guldhammer
Team B&O
+ 1'31 (5)
Jack Bobridge
Simply Red Bull
+ 1'42 (6)
Toms Skujins
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 7'35 (7)
Jay McCarthy
Wikipedia
+ 10'05 (8)
Jelle Wallays
Pokerstars.com
+ 10'45 (9)
Nathan Haas
Aker - MOT
+ 11'17 (10)
Vegard Robinson Bugge
Aker - MOT
+ 11'23 (11)
Matthias Krizek
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 11'23 (12)
Artem Topchanyuk
Aker - MOT
+ 15'45 (13)
Jonathan McEvoy
Pendleton's
+ 21'53 (14)
Ramon Sinkeldam
Project 1t4i
+ 23'41 (15)
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
+ 24'03 (16)
Andrea Palini
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 25'27 (17)
Alberigo Passalacqua
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 25'32 (18)
Ethan Weiss
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
+ 26'04 (19)
Mikel Landa
Wikipedia
+ 26'22 (20)
Teams
Vespa had a slight resurrection here with Bososio, though he seemed to cross the line injured from his fall. They looked set to move back up to second on the team rankiong at one stage. Aker and UBS also move up just behind, who knows another break tomorrow could change things further?
Team
General Time
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
94h08'25 (1)
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 6'01 (2)
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 6'37 (3)
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 8'26 (4)
Aker - MOT
+ 8'40 (5)
UBS - BMC
+ 9'23 (6)
Pearl Adidas
+ 9'38 (7)
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
