The Tour de Romandie finishes today with an 18 kilometers time trial which starts and finishes in Neuchatel. Most of the stage is flat but the riders will also have to tackle a 2.3 kilometers climb to Le Maley which will mean that the best time trialists will not make that much difference. In terms of the favorites, most of them are among the top 10 in the GC and the differences are very small. It will all be down to today's performance to solve the winner of Romandie.
Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) was really the only rider outside the top 10 who seemed to have options to win today's time trial. The Australian did not start very early though, as he was 40th in the GC before the stage. As expected, he took the best provisional time of the day, leaving Michael Matthews 12 seconds behind. Meyer has still been unable to win a time trial this year, as he was beaten by David Lopez in Pais Vasco and Alexander Kristoff in the prologue of Romandie.
Rui Costa (Tinkoff) started the day 9th in the GC but with a hope to improve on his position. The mixed time trial is one that suits very well his abilities. His performance was outstanding and the Portuguese managed to take the best provisional time from Cameron Meyer. He put 8 seconds between him and the Australian. Costa had already had top 10s in Paris - Nice and Pais Vasco but is going to improve on that in Romandie. This is going to be another disappointment for Meyer, who does not seem able to win any time trials this year.
Andrew Talansky (HTC) was the next rider to complete his time trial. HTC is in dire need of good results this season, given that they are 16th in the World Tour classification. However, it seems that Andrew Talansky is a man they can rely on as he got the second provisional time so far, only 3 seconds behind Rui Costa. The American seems to like the stage races with time trials, where he can get his best results.
Garmin had two alternatives for the Tour de Romandie, as Jerome Coppel is a better time trialist than Matthias Frank. Therefore, as the French survived the mountain stage in the front group he was the hope of the team for a good result. However, it was not Coppel's best day and he only managed to take the 6th provisional time, 18 seconds behind Rui Costa and 4 seconds behind Matthias Frank, which will leave the two Garmin riders tied in the GC.
Cadel Evans (Movistar) has had a quite good spring, considering that he is not the best suited riders for the hills. The Tour de Romandie should fit him much better that the Pais Vasco and Fleche Wallonne, where he got 5th places. He started the day 6th in the GC and managed to get the 4th provisional time, losing 13 seconds to Rui Costa. In the end the time trial did not work that well for Evans, as both Costa and Andrew Talansky will finish the GC ahead of him.
It had seemed for a long time that Levi Leipheimer (HTC) could have good results in stage races but for one reason or another he could never materialize those opportunities into results. However, this looks ready to turn around as he recorded the provisional best time, a massive 12 seconds ahead of Rui Costa (that is more than 0.5 seconds per kilometer). The American will therefore get his best result for a long time and has a guaranteed place in the final top 5.
If Rui Costa had a great stage for Tinkoff - Saxo, Tiago Machado was the opposite. The Portuguese was meant to be among the top riders in the time trial and, even if he got the 8th best time so far, he lost 30 seconds compared to Levi Leipheimer. Nevertheless, even if he will lose a few places in the GC, including his teammate overtaking him, he will still record a top 10 finish in the Swiss race.
The third in the GC before the time trial was Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery), who has proven his improvements from last year. The French was again very solid today and he managed to get the provisional 3rd time, 13 seconds behind Levi Leipheimer. Even though his performance was really good he has not been able to keep Leipheimer behind in the GC and most probably his opportunity to get a podium in Switzerland is also gone.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) was next. The Dutch tried a late attack yesterday in the stage finishing in Fribourg but, even though he managed to finish in front of the sprinters he was not awarded any time difference. He did not suffer today from yesterday's late effort and took the best time from Levi Leipheimer with a difference of 5 seconds in his favor.
The leader before the stage was Tejay van Garderen (Trek) and the American proved to be lethal in the time trials of stage races last year, what served him to win the Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour de France. However, he failed today in Neuchatel. Van Garderen only managed to record the 6th best time of the day 20 seconds behind Bauke Mollema and he dropped to the third place in the final podium of the race.
Bauke Mollema has taken his first stage race win since he got the Tirreno - Adriatico early last year. The Dutch was starting to lose a bit of confidence in himself but this will be a great injection of morale ahead of the upcoming Giro d'Italia. The second place in the podium went to HTCs Levi Leipheimer, what is an amazing achievement for the American.
There are races marked in every cycling fan and the Giro is one of those. The Italian race is the most characteristic of the Grand Tours and, even though the importance of the Tour de France is bigger, this is a race that is well loved by both the cyclists and the fans. This year's route will be the same that saw Rob Ruijgh win two years ago, starting in Denmark before travelling back to Verona for a team time trial in the fourth day of racing. The most iconic stages will include a finish in Cortina d'Ampezzo after climbing the Passo Giau, a double climb to Alpe di Pampeago and a grand finale on the last Saturday with the Mortirolo and the Passo dello Stelvio, where the stage will finish.
The best Grand Tour riders are going to meet in Italy, with only a few skipping the Italian race to focus on the Tour de France. The most notable absences are Tejay van Garderen, Matthias Frank and David Lopez. The Italian race, with so few kilometers against the clock is the opposite of what Van Garderen, the current winner of the Tour looks for in a Grand Tour. This means that Rob Ruijgh will be in Italy to defend his crown but the two riders that were in the podium with him 2 years ago have skipped the Giro. The other Giro champion, Pieter Weening will also be in the race but it would take a major surprise to see him winning again the race.
Favorites:
- Robert Gesink (Ag2r - La Mondiale): Ag2r might be a French team but they also recon that they are not ready to fight for the Tour de France yet and have therefore built Robert Gesink's season around the Giro d'Italia. Considering that, his third place in the Volta a Catalunya and the fourth in Nice, one has to consider Gesink one of the top favorites to take the overall win in the Giro. It seems like the Dutch has found breathing space outside the Belkin team and his confidence has increased.
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): Bauke Mollema seemed to be slowly fading from the top positions of the stage races lately but he came back to life after winning the Tour de Romandie, and with two stage wins along the way. The Dutch will be missing some more time trial kilometers but the route is not too bad for him nevertheless, as he seems to favor harder routes for the Grand Tours. If Mollema wins the Giro he will be the first rider to win all three Grand Tours.
- Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team): Peter Stetina is the last rider to have won a Grand Tour, so he has to be among the favorites to win this Giro d'Italia. Additionally, his start of the season has been outstanding and has included second places in the Volta a Catalunya and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. In Romandie he could not get to the top 10, but he will not find nearly as many kilometers against the clock in the Giro compared to the amount of mountain stages the riders will have to face.
- Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale): As Ten Dam is racing both the Giro and the Tour, he skipped the Tour de Romandie not to overload his season. Therefore, he has only raced the Liege - Bastogne - Liege and the Fleche Wallonne since the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. Nevertheless, his rest was well deserved after winning the Volta a Catalunya and taking a podium in the Pais Vasco.
Other important riders that have a chance to get into the podium of the Giro are Juan Jose Cobo (HTC - Highroad), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Belisol), Mikel Nieve (Discovery Channel), Frank Schleck (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Rob Ruijgh (Belkin Pro Cycling) and Denis Menchov (Team Katusha).
There are barely any sprinters that have skipped the Giro. Among the best that are in Italy are Andre Greipel (Trek Factory Racing), Ben Swift (Team Sky), Kenny van Hummel (Belkin Pro Cycling), Marcel Kittel (Astana Pro Team), Tyler Farrar (Tinkoff - Saxo) and Jose Joaquin Rojas (HTC - Highroad).
The Giro d'Italia starts in Denmark with an individual time trial that will help order the general classification a little bit since the first day. The route is all inside the town of Herning and, as expected in Denmark, is totally flat. Among the Danish riders it will be difficult that any of them make an impact and the first leader's jersey will surely go to one of the specialists against the clock.
Trek is full of good riders for this kind of stage and the first of the riders to attract our focus is Michael Rogers. The Australian is normally a domestique for Simon Gerrans and Tejay van Garderen but has a good record against the clock. However, not being present in the Tour de Romandie has seemly hurt his preparation for the Giro and he could not improve on Anthony Roux's best time so far. Rogers took the 2nd place so far, 10 seconds behind the surprising French.
The next rider among the favorites to take the stage win is also from Trek, Giacomo Nizzolo. The Italian has come to the Giro d'Italia to be the last lead out man for Andre Greipel but he will also have the chance to shine in the prologue. Nizzolo got a stage and the points jersey in the Volta a Catalunya earlier in the year but he would not collect another win today. Anthony Roux was still at the top of the standings and Nizzolo was 3 seconds slower, taking the provisional 2nd place.
The superb second placed rider in the Tour de Romandie, Levi Leipheimer (HTC), was the next of the favorites. Leipheimer continued his top form that saw him gain places in the last time trial in Neuchatel and took the provisional best time, beating Anthony Roux by 3 seconds. Leipheimer will probably have the role of helping Juanjo Cobo in the mountains but he will surely have the chance to shine and will probably be among the favorites to take the last time trial in Milano.
Jerome Coppel (Garmin) was a bit disappointing in the Tour de Romandie and was ready to correct that feeling in the first stage of the Giro. The team had given him the leading role in Switzerland ahead of Matthias Frank only to both finish in the same time in the GC. This first stage of the Giro was much better for the French, who narrowly missed on the first place in the time trial after being only 1 second slower than Levi Leipheimer. With Frank absent from the Giro we could well hope to see something good from Coppel.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) started his time trial around halfway through the day. The Dutch was outstanding in Romandie but did not quite manage to repeat his performance in this first stage of the Giro. Mollema was also very close to Leipheimer's time and took the third provisional time, only 2 seconds behind the American. Mollema is the only serious favorite for the overall win in the Giro that is a very good time trialist and he has already started putting time on the rest of the favorites, something he aims to repeat in the team time trial with the help of David Millar.
Vacansoleil also had another rider that might be a potential winner of the prologue, David Millar. Actually, the British was outstanding and managed to beat Levi Leipheimer's time by a good 3 seconds. It will be very hard for the riders remaining to beat the British. Millar was already 5th in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie but today he is going to improve on that performance for sure.
The penultimate of the favorites to take the stage win was Fabian Cancellara (Trek). The Swiss has been improving his abilities quite a lot in the last years, both in the cobbles and in the time trial. However, it had started raining again when he raced and it did not help him at all. Cancellara recorded the provisional 9th best time, 13 seconds behind David Millar. The day was a bit of a disappointment for Trek as they had some of the best time trialists but could not quite make it work.
Marcel Kittel (Astana) also aimed for the stage win and, if he could not managed it, to be within shot of the leader's jersey if he takes a few bonus seconds in the few upcoming stages. His time was not that good to give him the win but he managed a 6th place, 6 seconds behind Millar that could potentially give him the pink jersey in one of the next stages.
The first pink jersey of the race went to David Millar, who will enjoy himself probably for at least a couple of days. This is the first win for the British since he won the two time trials in the Criterium du Dauphine in 2012. Among the favorites that did not make it to the top 10 these were the results: Robert Gesink and Laurens Ten Dam +16'', Peter Stetina +19'', Juanjo Cobo +28'', Jelle Vanendert +29'' and Mikel Nieve +30''.
The second stage in Denmark will also start and finish in the town of Herning. Even though the route is completely flat the riders will have to be very careful with the wind, as the route runs beside the Western coast of Denmark and along the North Sea for many kilometers. The weather is also predicted to be quite bad. Nevertheless, a mass sprint should be the most likely outcome of the stage no matter the wind.
Not many teams were keen to join the break of the day and it was formed in the first few kilometers of the stage. It is probably one of the most difficult days for the breaks in the Giro, so it makes sense. The 4 riders that joined are Sebastian Langeveld (Movistar), Julien Simon (FDJ), Martin Elmiger (Orica) and Warren Barguil (Garmin). The reached the intermediate sprint of the day, in Sondervig, with a gap of 3' 15'' over the bunch. The sprint of the group was won by Marcel Kittel ahead of Ben Swift and Andre Greipel.
The first categorized climb of the Giro was no more than a less flat part of Osterbjerg, which served to give the first KoM jersey at the end of the day. It will go to Sebastian Langeveld. The break got there with 6' 15'' but with 82 kilometers still remaining the stage is still in the legs of the bunch. Astana, Trek and HTC seem to be the teams that are most interested in a mass sprint but the stage has been very quiet so far.
The way back to Herning was more interesting than anticipated. The wind made a late appearance and the bunch was very close to breaking apart a few times. Nevertheless, the peloton got the gap of the break down to 40 seconds with 9 kilometers remaining, which almost guaranteed that we were going to witness a mass sprint. Trek is the team making the chase with Astana also collaborating.
The break was finally reeled back in with only 2 kilometers to go but many of the sprinters were badly positioned and no team was building a sprint train. There seems to be a void of control in the bunch and many riders seem to be quite tired after fighting against the wind for many kilometers. Although their teams were chasing there is no hint of Andre Greipel or Marcel Kittel at the front.
Greg van Avermaet was the first to take the lead at the sprint and quickly opened a bit of a gap. Two of the break riders are still behind him, Martin Elmiger and Julien Simon. Among the riders behind are David Millar and Luca Paolini. It looks like an unlikely rider is going to win the first long stage of the Giro.
Greg van Avermaet wins in Herning! The Belgian takes advantage of the lack of control at the front of the pack and takes his first win of the season. Van Avermaet already took a stage in the last Tour de Pologne. Vacansoleil completed his great start of the Giro and David Millar took the second place in the stage. The British will keep the pink jersey and extends his lead a bit more.
Marco Marcato, Peter Stetina and Michael van Staeyen completed the top 5 of the stage in a very weird finale. The stage was probably harder than expected due to the wind in the late part of the stage. Besides, the teams of the sprinters don't seem to be very strong in this Giro and the breaks might have a higher chance of succeeding in the flatter stages.
Simone Ponzi is a name that should be quite familiar to those following the Cycling World in the recent years. However, the Italian has been around since this all started, back in 2009. Ponzi made an impact in the first year of racing, when he took the 10th place in the opening Tour de France but then disappeared from the spotlight to spend the next 4 years working as a domestique and with no big appearances. It seems like his problems adapting to his teams were the cause of the problem, as he changed from Liquigas to Quickstep and then to Katusha in three seasons.
However, it seems that Katusha gave him the stability he needed and with time Ponzi started growing as a rider. 2013 was the first year when he started producing results, especially the win in a stage in the Tirreno - Adriatico early in the season. Even though he was starting to specialize in the sprints, Ponzi can handle the hills and that gave him the chance to take the 6th stage after being the strongest in the break.
If 2013 was a good year for him, 2014 was the one were he started to become a superstar. Katusha had lost quite a few good riders after a bad season and their future was unclear. Their only chance was to give the leadership of the team to Simone Ponzi along with Rinaldo Nocentini. Ponzi answered to the trust they put on him straight away and took the win in the Milano - Sanremo, the first monument in his career. His start of the year was fantastic, as he added stages in the Paris - Nice and the Volta a Catalunya. He finished the season with these 3 wins. However, Ponzi is a rider that has a rare combination of good skills in the sprints and in the hills, as proven by the fact that he was able to take top 10s in the Liege - Bastogne - Liege two years in a row.
If his performances continue to be as good as they have been the last couple of years the future of Simone Ponzi can only be bright. He is the rider that might bring Katusha to the front of the World Tour and they have already been able to lure Denis Menchov back to the Russian team thanks to his good results.
The last day of racing in Denmark will be quite similar to yesterday. This time the start and finish of the stage will be Horsens, a bit south from Herning. The riders will do two loops around the town before entering a circuit of 14 kilometers around Horsens that will be raced 3 times. The route is again very flat and the weather is expected to be considerably better than in the first couple of stages.
Unlike yesterday, the fight for joining the break was very hard. A lot of teams wanted to join and the teams of the sprinters did not want the break to be too big. In the end, 5 riders made it: Juan Antonio Flecha (Euskaltel), Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Thor Hushovd (FDJ), Maxim Iglinskiy (Tinkoff) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre). At the intermediate sprint in Hovedgard they had a gap of 2 minutes over the main bunch. The sprint in the main group was won by Jose Joaquin Rojas ahead of Marcel Kittel and Tyler Farrar.
The main bunch was not in a rush to bring the break back and the gap at the only categorized climb of the day had risen to 4 minutes. However, with 85 kilometers of flat roads they still had it very difficult. Diego Ulissi was the first at the Ejer Bavnehoj and tied at the top of the KoM classification with Sebastian Langeveld. Meanwhile, Ruben Plaza is already suffering to keep contact with the break. In the bunch, it is Vacansoleil doing most of the job with the odd appearance of a Lotto rider at the front.
Maxim Iglinskiy and Juan Antonio Flecha tried a late desperate attack but by the time they did the last passage through the finish line the bunch was about to catch them. Astana did not want any surprises today and put Anthony Roux at the front to set a higher pace, what meant that they now had 14 kilometers ahead of them before the final sprint. Marcel Kittel is very close to the front of the pack today, unlike yesterday.
Astana and Trek were the two teams with the strongest trains with 3 kilometers to go. The Kazakh team was setting up Robbie McEwen to lead Marcel Kittel out, while Yauheni Hutarovich had taken the wheel of the German. On their left, Trek had Giacomo Nizzolo as the last man for Andre Greipel. Kenny van Hummel was right behind. A bit further back was the HTC train, where Borut Bozic would lead Jose Joaquin Rojas and the British Ben Swift was chasing. Other sprinters that seemed to be well positioned are Lloyd Mondory and Chris Sutton.
The fight between Trek and Astana was taken to the last kilometer. Giacomo Nizzolo seemed to be doing a marginally better job today than Robbie McEwen. Yauheni Hutarovich had not lost track with the best and remained right behind Andre Greipel. Meanwhile, HTC's train had fallen apart and Jose Joaquin Rojas was looking for another wheel to follow. That also had put Ben Swift's position in jeopardy and he was effectively out of the fight for the stage.
Giacomo Nizzolo finished his job and delivered Andre Greipel to the first place with only 500 meters remaining in the stage. However, Kenny van Hummel and Jose Joaquin Rojas were making good progress on the left hand side of the road. The fifth place on the road was for Marcel Kittel but the German seemed to be fading away from the top places. It is somewhat strange that Kittel is not managing to progress after the good lead out that his team provided today.
Andre Greipel wins in Horsens! The German converts a great job from the whole Trek team into a stage win, his second of the year after the one he got in the Tour Down Under. At one point it seemed like Jose Joaquin Rojas might be a threat for the stage but the Spaniard had to settle for the second place in the stage. The third place went to Kenny van Hummel. The top 5 of the stage was completed by Ben Swift and Lloyd Mondory. The British did a very good sprint in the end, only his bad positioning ahead of the last kilometers took him out of the fight for the stage.
The disappointment of the day was Marcel Kittel. The German finished 13th after a great work from his team to reel back the break and then leave him among the best ahead of the last kilometer. Also, there was a gap behind the riders who joined the sprint and many riders lost 1 minute at the finish line, including Robert Gesink, Laurens Ten Dam and Juan Jose Cobo. This is a hit to their chances of winning the Giro and we are still in the third stage.
The riders are back in Italy after the first rest day of the Giro. However, the day was not much of a rest as they had to do the transfer from Denmark. To make things a bit easier the organization put a team time trial of 30 kilometers on the first day in Italy to lengthen the rest of the riders. However, this also means that this is an important day in terms of the general classification. The favorites in strong teams will most likely be in a better position after today's stage.
Ag2r was only the second team to start the time trial today, behind FDJ. They have one of the biggest favorites, Robert Gesink, but the rest of the team is quite weak in time trial terms. They will probably be happy if they limit the losses today. However, the day was not great for them. The Pro Continental team beat them, leaving them 7 seconds behind. This is probably going to hurt the chances of an overall win for Robert Gesink given that the loss with the top teams will be much bigger.
Laurens Ten Dam is also in one of the weaker team of the field but he has much better support in a team time trial, especially considering that he has Kanstantsin Siutsou with him. The Italian team was also among the first to start the day but their performance was not that bad, recording the second best time at the finish line, 7 seconds behind Team Sky. Most important, they put 33 seconds between them and Ag2r.
Omega Pharma - Quickstep was one of the favorite teams to take the stage win today but it did not turn out very well for them. They were best in the second intermediate point but lost to Team Sky at the finish line with a difference of 5 seconds. It seems like a combination of increased wind in the way back and the fact that they could not leave their leader, Frank Schleck, behind made them not perform to their best. Nevertheless, the most important result is that Frank Schleck will put time on almost all his rivals today.
Lotto was another of the teams that needed to focus on limiting the losses with the best teams. The Belgian team did not bring his best time trialist, Michael Matthews, and they don't have any other good riders against the clock. Nevertheless, their performance was much better than Ag2r's as they took the 6th provisional time at the finish line, 21 seconds behind Tinkoff - Saxo. The Russian team had set a time that would be very difficult to beat.
Discovery Channel was a bit best suited to the team time trial, considering they had Luis Leon Sanchez and Beñat Intxausti. However, they were not massively better than Lotto. They displaced the Belgian team from the 6th place, 14 seconds behind Tinkoff. This will leave Mikel Nieve not too far behind the best placed of the favorites.
BMC has in their squad one of the biggest favorites to take the overall win in the Giro, Peter Stetina. The American team won the World Tour last year and, therefore, have lots of quality riders (although since the departure of Tejay van Garderen they don't have anyone focused in the time trials). Nevertheless, they did a solid enough time trial to take the 6th provisional time 14 seconds behind the Tinkoff - Saxo team. That is exactly the same time that Discovery Channel got.
HTC was among the favorites to take the win of the stage but it did not quite work for them today. They were 6th best when they crossed the finish line, 8 seconds behind Tinkoff. The likes of Levi Leipheimer and Juanjo Cobo were not enough to get close enough to the top of the sheets. Cobo missed the cut yesterday and will be ending the stage around 1' 30'' behind the leader unless Vacansoleil does something special.
The favorite team to take the stage win today was the last to start, Vacansoleil. Their main two riders for today were David Millar and Bauke Mollema, who are first and second in the general classification. However, their performance was quite far below the expectations, leaving them 8th, 13 seconds behind the stage winners Tinkoff - Saxo. Nevertheless, their time was enough for David Millar to keep the pink jersey for one more day. It will also give the chance to Tyler Farrar of taking the jersey tomorrow on the bonus seconds.
A quick look at the favorites after this stage gives us the following picture (only those outside the top 10): Peter Stetina, + 24''; Mikel Nieve, + 37''; Jelle Vanendert, + 41''; Laurens Ten Dam, + 1' 22''; Denis Menchov, + 1' 28''; Juanjo Cobo, + 1' 33''; Frank Schleck, + 1' 35''; Robert Gesink, + 1' 55''.
If it wasn't for the small 4th category climb close to the end of the stage it would be difficult to find a flatter stage in the whole Italy. The route is also almost a straight line towards the Adriatic Sea following the old Roman road: the Via Emilia. Any stage that runs through the valley of the Po River is normally one for the sprinters and this time it should be no different.
The teams of teh sprinters did not allow a big break and only 4 riders formed the break of the day: Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Richie Porte (Orica), Warren Barguil (Garmin) and Jan Barta (Lampre). They reached the intermediate sprint, in Forli, with a gap of 5' 30'' over the main bunch. However, they still had 97 kilometers to go and Lotto, Vacansoleil and Cannondale did not want the difference to grow too much. In the sprint of the bunch Marcel Kittel was the quickest ahead of Andre Greipel and Jose Joaquin Rojas.
The peloton had the race completely under control and they just waited for the suitable time to bring them back. With 20 kilometers to go, they had to climb the only difficulty of the day, the climb to La Siligatta, although it was nothing else than a slight ramp. Richie Porte was first at the top and he tied at the top of the KoM classification. The bunch was only 1' 35'' behind. Astana, Trek and HTC were chasing and riders like Fabian Cancellara and Anthony Roux are taking big chunks of time out of the difference.
The route took the riders along the Adriatic coast for the last 12 kilometers. With about 8 to go the difference of the break was around 10 seconds and their hopes were already gone. The mass sprint seems unavoidable by now. Some big names like Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Tyler Farrar are already close to the front of the bunch. Remember that should Farrar win he would be the leader of the race.
HTC was quicker to react when forming the sprint trains today as they put Borut Bozic ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas, while Euskaltel's Sacha Modolo was keen to take the wheel of the Spaniard. Astana was next as Robbie McEwen was going to lead Marcel Kittel out, while Ben Swift was on the German's wheel. Trek was a bit late to react and they were a bit behind with 3 kilometers to go. As usual, Giacomo Nizzolo would be working for Andre Greipel, while the other Euskaltel sprinter, Lloyd Mondory, was behind.
Giacomo Nizzolo has done a fantastic job in the approach to the last kilometer of the stage and put Andre Greipel on par with Marcel Kittel. The Italian is a luxury lead out man for Andre Greipel. Tyler Farrar has been very skilled to take Greipel's wheel away from Lloyd Mondory. Meanwhile, HTC's train fell apart again and Jose Joaquin Rojas is desperately trying to find other wheels to follow ahead of the final rush.
Andre Greipel took the lead of the sprint as soon as the strongest men started the final push and was leaving Marcel Kittel considerably behind with 500 meters to go. The third man in the road is his teammate Giacomo Nizzolo so it looks unlikely that any other rider is strong enough to fight for the win with the two Germans. However, Matthew Goss and Ben Swift are fighting to gain places and at least get a good final placing in the stage.
Andre Greipel wins in Fano! The German took his second win in the Giro after a commanding win next to the Adriatic Sea. Greipel completely destroyed his fellow German Marcel Kittel and had 2 bike lengths over Ben Swift, who managed to get the second place ahead of Marcel Kittel. Kittel has been quite disappointing so far in the sprints of the Giro and today's third place is his best result so far.
Jose Joaquin Rojas and Yauheni Hutarovich completed the top 5 in a stage that was uneventful and where the only focus was in the final sprint. Tomorrow's stage will be much more interesting and the GC should change considerably, given that the riders that don't go well through the hills will have lots of trouble keeping up with the bunch.
, Bet Van Garderen was rather upset though 
