Today's stage is very different to anything we had in the Giro so far. The stage finishes at the top of Montecassino, an 8 kilometers climb that is not very demanding and the stage is not even classified as mountainous. However, the total length of the stage is 247 kilometers, most of them flat. The change from being one week racing at high speeds might hurt some of the riders in the climb. It will be interesting to see if anyone is hurt by the many flat kilometers ahead of the climb.
A group of 5 riders managed to form the break of the day: Peter Sagan (Trek), Johan Vansummeren (HTC, Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lotto), Jakob Fuglsang (Vacansoleil) and Michael Morkov (Tinkoff). It was a quality break and Vansummeren would be very valuable in the flat and might even have a shot at the stage. The first categorized climb of the day was the Cava de' Tirreni, 144 kilometers from the finish line and close to Salerno. Vansummeren was first at the top. They had 9 minutes on a main bunch where no team was in a rush to chase.
Lloyd Mondory was the quickest in the main bunch at the intermediate sprint in Maddaloni, 89 kilometers to go. The French was quicker than Giacomo Nizzolo and Andre Greipel for the line but it was unlikely that any of them would be able to take the points' jersey from Ben Swift today. The gap to the break had decreased to 6 minutes thanks to the work done by Cannondale and Movistar. They put riders as good as Fabian Cancellara to work at the front of the pack. However, they still had work to do before catching the break.
The early break still had 2 minutes on the main bunch with 19 kilometers to go. The presence of Johan Vansummeren and Peter Sagan surely helped them keep a high pace in the flat. However, Michael Morkov and Jakob Fuglsang decided to attack from the break and, although they did not go anywhere, that might break their pace. On the peloton, Euskaltel had to join Cannondale and Movistar. It was probably going to be an interesting climb to Montecassino among the favorites and those looking for a stage win.
Michael Matthews surprisingly attacked still inside the streets of Cassino and easily got to the break, where his teammate Przemyslaw Niemiec helped him a little. With 7 kilometers to go they had 35 seconds on the main bunch. It was Mathias Frank leading the chase ahead of his teammate Michael Albasini. The pace by the Swiss from the bottom of the climb might make it a bit more dangerous than what it would be otherwise.
Mathias Frank and Philippe Gilbert jumped to chase Michael Matthews with 4 kilometers to go because the peloton was unable to but the lead of the Australian, who was already alone at the front. The duo was 15 seconds behind and the peloton was losing 30 seconds. Rinaldo Nocentini took the role of chasing in the bunch but there was a moment of uncertainty as no team took the responsibility. That might have given a chance to the riders at the front on the fight for the stage.
The peloton was losing time instead of cutting back the lead of those ahead and Bauke Mollema decided to attack with 2 kilometers to go. Michael Matthews was surprisingly holding on to the lead of the race and kept the 15 seconds lead over Mathias Frank and Philippe Gilbert. Michael Rogers relieved Rinaldo Nocentini at the front of the pack but it might have been a strategy by Trek to let Gilbert gain time. Mikel Nieve, Hubert Dupont and Robert Gesink were the favorites closer to the lead of the bunch, while David Lopez clearly did not have the same legs that gave him the win yesterday.
Philippe Gilbert attacked Mathias Frank within the last kilometer of the stage and caught up to Michael Matthews to fight for the stage win. They had 15 seconds over their chasers. Hubert Dupont was leading them, followed by Francesco Gavazzi and Robert Gesink. The rush for the line meant that Bauke Mollema and Mathias Frank were swallowed by the bunch but the stage win seemed to be either for Matthews or Gilbert as they are both very quick in this kind of situations.
Philippe Gilbert wins in Montecassino! The Belgian got around Michael Matthews in the last meters of the stage and took the win next to the abbey. This is the first win of the season for Gilbert, who took advantage of the favorites for the GC not being very active when fighting for the stage win today. On the other hand, Matthews will be disappointed after losing the stage. He managed to stay in front for most of the climb but had no response once Gilbert got past him. The good news for him is that the 11 seconds that they got over the rest of the favorites are enough for him to be the new leader of the race.
On the group of the leader, Francesco Gavazzi took the third place, making it clear that today was a stage for the hills riders rather than the climbers. Robert Gesink and Hubert Dupont completed the top 5. The only rider that lost considerable time was Tejay van Garderen. The winner of the Tour de France 2014 crossed the finish line 1 minute behind Gilbert, hurting his chances of having a good GC. Nevertheless, the Giro has barely started and he will have time to make up for that loss.
The 7th stage of the Giro is another long day in the office for the riders. 212 kilometers separate Frosinone from Foligno, where a mass sprint is the most likely outcome but it is not for granted. The stage is not too difficult but the succession of small climbs from 75 to 40 kilometers from the finish line will give a break a chance of survival. The last of those is the Valico della Somma, a 5 kilometers climb averaging 6% which is tough enough to cause some problems to a few sprinters.
The break of the day was a bit stronger than what the teams of the sprinters wanted but the fact that the Valico di Arcinazzo was early in the stage meant that they could not control the break easily. 6 riders formed the front group, including Oscar Freire (Lampre), Philippe Gilbert (Trek), Tom van Asbroeck (Vacansoleil), Marco Marcato (BMC) and Enrico Gasparotto (Quickstep). Gilbert was the leader of the KoM and 2nd in the GC after winning yesterday in Montecassino. They got to the intermediate sprint in Rieti with a gap of 4 minutes on the bunch bt still 87 kilometers to go.
The Valico della Somma was only 39 kilometers from the finish line and the gap of the break was still 2' 50'', so the peloton would need to chase hard in the flat section towards Foligno to catch them back. Przemyslaw Niemiec and Alexandre Vinokourov were the riders making most of the work in the last of the climbs. Philippe Gilbert easily was the first at the top of the climb ahead of Enrico Gasparotto and added to his lead in the KoM classification. Some of the sprinters seemed to be suffering a bit to get through the climb.
Mauro Santambrogio and Oscar Freire tried to make the early break last a bit longer but they were eventually caught back by the peloton with 9 kilometers to go. The teams were preparing for a mass sprint that might be a bit different given the length and the hills of today's stage. Rafal Majka, Pieter Weening and George Hincapie had to work hard in the last kilometers to ensure that Michael Matthews kept the lead and that a sprint took place in Foligno.
Only 2 teams formed a aprint train today, given that Lotto is working more towards saving Michael Matthews pink jersey than taking the stage. Tinkoff would have Michael Morkov leading Tyler Farrar out, while Andre Greipel took the wheel of the American. Astana had as usual Luce Paolini to work for Marcel Kittel. Mark Cavendish was right behind. Among the other sprinters that had a good positioning with 3 kilometers to go were Alexander Kristoff, Jure Kocjan and Ben Swift.
It is now not a surprise that Tinkoff's train collapsed again but Tyler Farrar managed to take Marcel Kittel's wheel away from Mark Cavendish. It also seemed like Kittel had launched himself way too early for the final rush as he still had more than 1 kilometer to go and the stage had been quite tough. Alexander Kristoff, Matthew Goss and Andre Greipel were still in the mix but other riders like Ben Swift, Lloyd Mondory and Elia Viviani were out of the picture for the stage win.
Marcel Kittel did start his sprint too early and with 500 meters to go both Tyler Farrar and Alexander Kristoff had already gotten past the German. The two of them seemed fairly matched in speed but the Norwegian has been much better lately converting this opportunities into stage wins. The rest of the field seemed to be far behind to be contender for the win but Andre Greipel and Matthew Goss were trying to close the gap between the three aand them to have a good finishing position. The points' competition is a good incentive even if they cannot take the stage.
Tyler Farrar wins in Foligno! This is the first win of the season both for Tyler Farrar and for Tinkoff - Saxo. The Russian team had had a rather poor start of the season and this win will be very welcome by the management of the team as well as the riders. In the end Alexander Kristoff seemed not to have the legs today to fight for the stage and had to settle for the second place in the stage. A bit behind, Ben Swift had a very good sprint again to take third. However, the bad positioning of the British ahead of the final kilometer prevented him from fighting for the win.
The top 5 was completed by Marcel Kittel, who completely faded in the last part of the sprint, and Andre Greipel. The lack of punch that Kittel is showing this year must be worrying for him as he has not been able to convert a single win this season. This was the last stage for the sprinters for a while as the stage tomorrow in Montecopiolo marks the first mountain stage of the 2016 Giro. It will be interesting to see how the favorites for the win respond to the first encounter with the mountains.
The long wait for the mountains is over in the Giro d'Italia. The eight stage from Foligno to Montecopiolo features the impressive Cippo di Carpegna, a 6 kilometers climb averaging 10% gradient, which means that the steepest part are well above, a few as steep as 16%. The top of the Cippo is 35 kilometers from the finish line and the riders will still have to tackle the Villaggio del Lago and the irregular climb to Montecopiolo, where the finish is placed. The first contact with the mountains will be very serious this year and the GC should be much clearer after today's stage as a few riders in the top 10 should drop out.
There was a big fight to take the break of the day and it was a group of 8 that was successful, including Philippe Gilbert (Trek), Igor Anton (Cofidis), Geraint Thomas (Tinkoff), Mauro Santambrogio (Sky) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Discovery). The fact that Gilbert was 2nd in the GC before the start of the stage would not be good for them as their chances of succeeding were a tad worse. However, there was a fight of at least 50 kilometers to take the break of the day, which suggests that they may have a chance. Their gap had grown to 4' 45'' with 100 kilometers to go.
The sprinters only cared about the intermediate sprint today and Alexander Kristoff managed to get the few points available beating Lloyd Mondory and Tyler Farrar. The points' competition is going to be so close this year that any point is worth an effort. Meanwhile, Philippe Gilbert got 1 bonus second and was only 3" behind in the GC at that stage. At Urbania, 74 kilometers to the finish line, the gap to the break was at 5 minutes but with Cannondale and Movistar both working to chase it looked unlikely that they got to the end.
The approach to Carpegna before the start of the Cippo di Carpegna were quite tough and could have been marked as a climb. That was the terrain where Katusha decided to send Rein Taaramae and Denis Menchov ahead. They were joined by Jose Serpa and Vincenzo Nibali. They started the Cippo less than 2 minutes behind the early break as the pace had picked up considerably after their attack. Cannondale put Francesco Gavazzi and Damiano Caruso to work and the gap was coming down quick. Laurens Ten Dam seems ready to hit a blow to his rivals today.
Francesco Gavazzi led the main bunch at the top of the Cippo di Carpegna, 35 kilometers from the finish line. The Cannondale rider was followed by a couple of Lotto riders but the Belgian team did not have an incentive to increase the pace if they wanted to save Michael Matthews pink jersey. The peloton only had 55 riders at the top, making it clear that the climb was really tough on the riders. Miguel Rubiano was the most important rider to have lost contact. Meanwhile, Vincenzo Nibali was first at the top of the climb as Philippe Gilbert could not take too many points for the KoM competition.
The penultimate climb of the day was the Villaggio del Lago. It was gentler than the Cippo but still quite hard. Denis Menchov attacked from the front group and had a 10 seconds gap over the chasers, led by Vincenzo Nibali, with 5 kilometers to the top of the climb. The group of favorites was 1' 50'' behind but Mathias Frank had already made a serious attacked. He was followed by Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema among others so he decided to stop but the size of the group was ever decreasing and Michael Matthews was starting to suffer considerably.
Tejay van Garderen was the next to attack but the one that was stronger was Michele Scarponi. The Italian from Movistar attacked 2 kilometers from the top and only Peter Stetina and David Lopez were able to follow. Vincenzo Nibali was alone at the front of the race at the KoM sprint. It was only 10 kilometers from the finish in Montecopiolo. He had 30 seconds on Scarponi's group, where the two Katushas (Rein Taaramae and Denis Menchov) were. Another group including Laurens Ten Dam, Andrew Talansky and Mathias Frank was 1 minute behind Nibali. Meanwhile, Michael Matthews had definitely dropped from the favorites.
The descent towards the start of the climb to Montecopiolo was really short, only about 4 kilometers. Vincenzo Nibali crossed the 5 kilometers to the finish mark still with a 25 seconds gap over Peter Stetina, David Lopez and Michele Scarponi. The Italian was holding on much more than expected as he had not had this kind of performance ever before. A group of 5 including Laurens Ten Dam was 50 seconds back, while a bigger group of 17 including Bauke Mollema, Chris Froome, Tejay van Garderen and Robert Gesink was 1' 10'' behind. The GC was set to change considerably after today's stage.
Laurens Ten Dam took the responsibility to set the pace in the second chasing group and Cannondale was right to work for him through the stage. The Dutch quickly cut the lead back. David Lopez, who had dropped from Peter Stetina and Michele Scarponi, was swallowed by Ten Dam's group. The gaps were a bit smaller with 2 kilometers to go as Vincenzo Nibali had 15 seconds on Scarponi and Stetina and 25 seconds on the second chasing group. A further chasing group including Jean-Christophe Peraud, Andrew Talansky and Rob Ruijgh was 45 seconds behind.
It was not enough for Laurens Ten Dam to set the pace in the chasing group but he attacked within the last 2 kilometers of the stage, once they had caught up to Peter Stetina and Michele Scarponi. With 700 meters to go he had caught up to Vincenzo Nibali, who was already dreaming of a stage win in the Giro d'Italia. The two of them would probably fight for the stage in the last few meters of the stage. Meanwhile, the chasers were 10 seconds behind led by David Lopez, Michele Scarponi and Robert Kiserlovski.
Laurens Ten Dam wins in Montecopiolo! Vincenzo Nibali had given it all in the almost 50 kilometers that he was in a break and Laurens Ten Dam took the stage win at the top of Montecopiolo. The Cannondale team will be happy that their hard work paid off today. This is Ten Dam's 2nd win this year, following the one he got at the top of Prati di Tivo. The fight for the third place was taken by David Lopez and they managed to close the gap to the front and no time differences were awarded. Also in the same time were Peter Stetina, Robert Kiserlovski and Michele Scarponi.
Among those who lost a big chunk of time today were Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema, Tejay van Garderen and Chris Froome, who crossed the line 1' 28'' behind. David Lopez will take the leader's jersey again with very small gaps behind him but Van Garderen will already be 2' 35'' behind and Bauke Mollema and Robert Gesink almost 2 minutes behind. The Giro has barely seriously started and there are some riders that face an uphill challenge from now on. Tomorrow there will be another mountain-top finish and the first chance to cut Lopez's lead.
I see that not all of you are supporting the same riders I have the feeling that "team NoneoftheFavorites" will become "team Stetina" at some point. I think he is the outsider with a better chance and he already won the Giro last year.
We already talked about Jose Joaquin Rojas in here
Much has happened for Jose Joaquin Rojas since 2013. The Spaniard always had good performances in the Grand Tours but by the end of 2014 he had taken a total of 12 stages between the Tour, Giro and Vuelta. That is something that not many riders can claim. In that year alone, Rojas managed to get 2 wins in the Tour de France and 5 in the Vuelta a España, where he was the absolute reference when it came to any type of sprint. Earlier in his career he had always needed a stage that was a bit difficult but he seemed to have overcome that issue and his raw speed had no comparison.
However, 2015 was completely different for the Spaniard. He only managed to take the win in the European Championships in Lannilis and otherwise he got a lot of good positions but no other wins. In terms of classics, where he sporadically has shined he got a 4th place in Quebec as his best result of the season. At the end of the year HTC decided that they did not want to spend the kind of money that Rojas was asking for and replaced him with Yauheni Hutarovich. The Spaniard had to leave to his home country squad of Movistar.
This year the challenge for Rojas will be to take the leading role in the sprints in the Spanish outfit, given that Matthew Goss and Sacha Modolo are also in the team. Both of them can be as fast as Rojas on a good day but none of them is able to go through the hills as good as the Spaniard. This far in the season, Rojas has not been able to take a win and Goss took the 3rd stage in the Tour de Romandie against very good rivals. The future does not look good for Rojas if he does not improve but he signed a 3 years contract with Movistar worth 800,000 euros per season so the team managers might think that he better starts to deliver soon.
Rojas will not get any younger but being 31 years old he has already been among the elite for a very long time. It is really difficult to get the service sheet that he has accumulated through the years, never finishing below the 30th position in the World Tour rankings, which means that he has produced results every year in his career. It would be a shame to witness the start of the decline of Rojas but 7 years among the best could start to weigh on him.
The second consecutive mountain stage is considerably easier than yesterday's finish in Motecopiolo. The riders will have to tackle a couple of minor climbs before the final climb to Sestola. The last climb is really long though at more than 19 kilometers averaging 5.4%. The toughest part finishes 3 kilometers from the finish line so any attacks will need to happen earlier than that to be successful. Nevertheless, the differences among the favorites should not be as big as yesterday unless someone has a bad day.
The initial part of the stage was really flat and there were many kilometers of fight to get the break of the day. In the end it was a group of 7 that got permission from the bunch to go, including Sylvain Chavanel (Giant), Jose Rujano (Quickstep), Michael Albasini (IAM), Daniel Martin (Ag2r) and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lotto). Euskaltel was the only team setting the pace and controlling the race in the quite strong head winds that the riders were suffering. With 90 kilometers to go the gap of the break had grown to 6 minutes.
The first climb of the day was the gentle climb to Sant'Antonio, which top was 49 kilometers from the finish line. Euskaltel was still setting the pace in the main bunch but did not seem interested in chasing as the gap had grown to 6' 45'', giving the riders in the break hopes in the fight for the stage. Daniel Martin was the first at the top but there was no fight for the KoM points among those in the break. None of the riders ahead is a great climber but if they kept increasing their gap they might have a chance at Sestola.
Euskaltel completely stopped chasing as Hubert Dupont attacked in the descent of Sant'Antonio. He was quickly joined by Tejay van Garderen, who needed to cut back time after losing time a couple of days. The gap of the break was still 6' 45'' at the top of the Rocchetta Sandri, the 4th category climb before Sestola, but the bad news for them were that the favorites had started to attack from very far out. Euskaltel was showing how useful is having a couple of candidates for the win in the GC. Vincenzo Nibali and Rob Ruijgh also attacked in the climbed and were trying to join Dupont and Tejay.
Once in the climb to Sestola the harmony in the break got broken by an attack by Thomas de Gendt. The Belgian dragged Sylvain Chavanel with him and opened a gap of around 20 seconds with the rest of the break at the 12 kilometers mark. Their gap to the main bunch had decreased to 4' 25'' as there had been other attacks by Robert Kiserlovski and Mathias Frank. However, Vacansoleil and Cannondale joined forces at the front and managed to reel them back. The wind seems to be against the riders in the climb so any attackers will be hampered by it.
Mathias Frank, Vincenzo Nibali and Tejay van Garderen were very active in trying to open a gap but none of them was successful. David Lopez was hidden in the middle of the pack today and the riders that seemed to be in trouble were Michele Scarponi and Robert Gesink. Meanwhile, Thomas de Gendt was alone at the front of the race but the gap to the group of the favorites had decreased to 3 minutes before the toughest part of the climb. It was decreasing too fast for the interests of the early breakers.
The favorites for the GC were not allowed to go but Michael Rogers was not deemed to be dangerous and managed to open a considerable gap to the group of the favorites in the tougher part of the climb. With 5 kilometers to go he was 1' 10'' behind the early break, where they were all together again, and the peloton was 2' 40'' behind the leaders. The Australian might have a chance if the favorites keep looking at each other. Michele Scarponi lost contact with the group of the favorites but is trying to recover.
The pace picked up again among the favorites and the early break, including Michael Rogers was caught back with 3 kilometers to go. Sylvain Chavanel tried to make another move but it was impossible in the gentler slopes towards the finish line and a headwind. There were 30 riders in the front group that was going to fight for the stage, probably many more than what was expected in a climb like this. Peter Stetina, Jean-Christophe Peraud and Bauke Mollema were well positioned and probably keen to go for the stage. Michele Scarponi was losing 1' 20''.
Hubert Dupont attacked a bit more than 1 kilometer from the finish line and only Andrew Talansky came behind. The rest were looking at each other deciding who had to chase as they were not too dangerous in the GC. Inside the last kilometer Dupont launched the final sprint and Talansky quickly took his wheel to take advantage of the tow. They had opened a gap of 15 seconds over the rest as Jose Serpa started the sprint in the chasing group followed by Bauke Mollema and Peter Stetina.
Andrew Talansky wins in Sestola! The American easily went past Hubert Dupont on the outside of the last turn of the stage but had to push hard as Laurens Ten Dam almost caught up with him before he crossed the line. This is the first win of the season for Talansky. The second place went to Ten Dam, who cut David Lopez's lead in the GC to only 1 second as he took bonus seconds in the finish line. Peter Stetina also managed to get past Hubert Dupont over the finish line to take third, while the French took 4th and Chris Froome was 5th.
The last climb was a bit disappointing today as the riders had an incentive to hide behind their teammates due to the strong wind in the last kilometers. Nevertheless, there are plenty of mountains in this Giro so it was unlikely that a few of them will not be disregarded by the favorites. The GC is still really tight and it does not seem like it will change tomorrow as a very easy stage for the sprinters is scheduled.
and Kiserlovski high in the GC as well 
