A short stage will lead us to the serious mountains over the weekend. The stage will begin today in the coastal town of Savona, in the region of Liguria. The route will take the riders north through hills in the first part of the stage. However, most of the short stage is very flat after that so a mass sprint is the most likely outcome today.
Janez Brajkovic (Discovery) was alone in the front halfway through the stage. However, the group of 11 that was chasing him was about to catch him with 55 kilometers remaining. In that group there are riders like Taylor Phinney (HTC), Cameron Meyer (Quickstep), Maarten Tjallingii (Ag2r), Jos van Emden (Rabobank) and Chris Sutton (Garmin). The bunch is chasing but is still losing 5' 45''.
Three riders attacked from the break and have a good gap 8 kilometers from the finish line. Pavel Brutt, Maarten Tjallingii and Vasili Kiryenka are 45 seconds ahead of the rest of the break and 1' 40'' ahead of the main bunch. The teams of the sprinters left the responsibility to Lampre, given that Hutarovich is the sprinter in top shape at the moment, but the Italian team didn't bring many flat riders to the Giro. They made a mistake and it is going to be difficult to catch the leaders now.
Quickstep and Vacansoleil are working hard in the front of the pack and the gap is reducing very fast. With a bit less than 4 kilometers to go only 3 riders remaining ahead but their gap is still 35''. There is no hint of sprinting trains in the bunch, as everything they are looking at is chasing the break.
Vasili Kiryenka leads the sprint in the break ahead of Maarten Tjallingii and Pavel Brutt as they enter the last kilometer of the stage. Meanwhile, Quickstep's John Degenkolb is launching his teammate Tony Gallopin early in a bid to close the 15 seconds gap in the last kilometer of the stage.
Vasili Kiryenka wins in Cervere! The Belarusian settles the sprint narrowly as Tony Gallopin progressed to the second place of the stage ahead of the other riders in the break. This is the first win for Liquigas since Alessandro Ballan won the Tour of Beijing in 2011. Hopefully this will be a turning point for a team that has not been competitive enough lately in the World Tour.
The teams of the sprinters missed the chance again of a mass sprint and that is going to hurt, as we head to the mountains now. The weekend will be very interesting as there are mountain-top finishes awaiting in Cervinia and in Piani dei Resinelli.
The high mountains finally arrive in the Giro and they do it with to long but gentle mountains, the Col de Joux and Cervinia. They follow each other perfectly in the last 70 kilometers of the stage. The race reaches the mountains with a surprising leader that will probably have trouble keeping up with the climbers. It will be interesting to see how long he can hold on to the pink.
In a rather strange development of the events the wasn't one break group, but several riders riding on their own. This is not a very smart move by them. Carlos Barredo (Vacansoleil) was leading the stage with 88 kilometers to go 20 seconds ahead of Alberto Contador (Movistar). Behind them, Andreas Kloden (HTC), Pavel Brutt (Katusha) and Chris Horner (Saxo Bank) were losing 1 minute to Barredo. Meanwhile, the peloton was taking things easy led by a rather quite pace by Quickstep. They were 12' 15'' behind Barredo.
Thomas de Gendt (Sky) attacked in the base of the Col de Joux and the bunch didn't care too much. 4 kilometers to the finish he was only 4 minutes behind Carlos Barredo. Meanwhile, the peloton was not too concerned. Radioshack was setting the pace and reduced the gap to 9' 40'' but that was not enough to leave many riders behind.
Peter Stetina (BMC) jumped from the bunch to take the KoM points in the Col de Joux. The bunch was still losing 4 minutes to De Gendt. They would have to increase their pace in the last climb if they want to catch the Belgian.
Thomas de Gendt couldn't keep up with the increased in the bunch and was caught along with Carlos Barredo 17 kilometers from the finish line. The pace in the first 10 kilometers of the climb to Cervinia was quite harder by the peloton, which means that only 50 riders remain in the main group. At the same time that the last men from the break were caught Jelle Vanendert attacked. The favorites will have to start showing their faces.
Vanendert opened a nice gap but the rest of the favorites waited until the 10 kilometers banner to attack. Two Dutch, Robert Gesink and Rob Ruijgh, were the first to follow. They were losing 1 minute, while the main group is 1' 25'' behind. Johan van Summeren starting to suffer in the group.
Rob Ruijgh was climbing very well today, as he cut the lead that Vanendert had in 4 kilometers. The two of them are 6 kilometers to the finish line. The closest chasers are Tejay van Garderen and David Lopez, 1' 15'' behind, while Robert Gesink (who couldn't keep up with Ruijgh is alongside Frank Schleck 1' 40'' behind the leaders. The group of the leader is already losing 2' 30''. Van Summeren can only lose 3' 48'' to Ruijgh if he means to keep the pink jersey.
Frank Schleck left Robert Gesink behind and is trying to chase down Van Garderen and Lopez. The Luxembourgish was maybe too slow to react when the main riders started attacking and is working now to reduce the gap. In the front Rob Ruijgh has left behind Jelle Vanendert and the difference to Van Summeren has widened to 3' 45'', very close to his loss in the GC.
Rob Ruijgh reaches the last kilometer of the stage with the stage win on his hand, as Jelle Vanendert is now 40 seconds behind the Dutch. He is also the virtual leader of the stage at this point.
Rob Ruijgh wins in Cervinia! A magnificent climb by the Rabobank rider, who attacked with 10 kilometers to go along with Robert Gesink and destroyed all his chasers with an amazing pace. The gap to Jelle Vanendert was 57 seconds, while Tejay van Garderen and David Lopez arrived 1' 37'' behind. The top 5 of the stage was completed by Frank Schleck, 2' 33'' behind the winner.
Meanwhile, the first big group, where Johan van Summeren arrived lost 4 minutes, what gives Rob Ruijgh the pink jersey. It was expected that Johan van Summeren would suffer in the big mountains and this is only the beginning of a very tough end of the Giro. The GC leaves the Belgian 2nd, 26 second behind Ruijgh with Tejay van Garderen is 50 seconds behind.
Stage 15: Busto Arsizio - Lecco / Piani dei Resinelli
The second straight mountain top finish will be tackled before the second rest day of the Giro. Piani dei Resinelli is a shorted but harder climb compared to Cervinia and along with the Valico di Valcava, the Forcella di Bura and the Culmine di San Pietro will make for a very tough day. Valcava is a colossus more than 15 kilometers long and averaging 7.7%, what gives it the potential to break the peloton into pieces soon in the stage.
The beginning of the stage was very hard on the riders as many break attempts were very large and the bunch wouldn't allow it. It meant that the break didn't reach Valcava more than 2 minutes ahead of the peloton. Pierre Rolland (Quickstep) and Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) took the chance and attacked form the bunch in the first slopes, as they had lots of time lost in the GC. Both of them caught the early break and the French eventually left everyone else behind in the final kilometers of the climb.
Mollema joined Rein Taaramae (Radioshack) to chase Rolland and they were losing 50 seconds at the top. 2 minutes behind Rolland another group of 9 riders from the early break crossed the KoM banner. In it were riders like Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Julien Simon (Ag2r) and Stedan van Dijk (Vacansoleil). The main bunch was not too worried, losing 7 minutes at the top.
Rabobank took the main responsibility to set the pace in the main group. However, they seem to be saving Igor Anton and Hubert Dupont for the last climbs, as they haven't released on the way up the Forcella di Bura (50km to go). The bunch was losing 6' 40'' at the top of the second climb of the day to Pierre Rolland, who was still alone in the lead. Bauke Mollema is now chasing him as the Dutch left Rein Taaramae behind.
Pierre Rolland maintained a gap of 1 minute on Bauke Mollema entering the last kilometer of the third climb of the day, the Culmine di San Pietro (28 kilometers to go). However, the bunch started to react as Hubert Dupont took the lead of the pack. They were losing 4' 35'' on the French, which could be a gap big enough for him to win in Piani dei Resinelli.
Pierre Rolland started the climb to Piani dei Resinelli (8.5 km, 7.7%) completely exhausted. His gap to Mollema decreased to only 45 seconds in the flat towards the last climb of the day. In the bunch the work by Rabobank paid off and only 30 riders kept the pace at the end of the Culmine di San Pietro. The most notable absences in the group are Peter Stetina and Roman Kreuziger.
Rolland just couldn't keep up with the pace and Bauke Mollema easily got past him in the opening kilometers of the climb. The Dutch already has 40 seconds on him with 5 kilometers remaining and is looking very good for the win. Dupont kept pacing the favorites group and reduced its size to only 12 riders. Johan van Summeren, the second in the GC, didn't make it into this group.
Ruijgh took the lead of the favorites group after Hubert Dupont had released Dupont at the front of the group and left the French behind. The Dutch pace is increasing a lot and everyone that was suffering in the group is being dropped. Lopez and Van Garderen seem like the only ones that are able to follow easily. At the front Bauke Mollema is already past the 3 kilometers mark and with a gap of 1' 45'' his win seems assured.
While Mollema entered the last kilometer, Johan van Summeren completely lost track of the favorites and his loss is over 1' 30'' now. Weening and Menchov stayed with him to make him lose as little time as possible but it would probably be better for Quickstep if they started fully supporting Devenyns.
Bauke Mollema wins in Piani dei Resinelli! But it was very close with a charging Rob Ruijgh. Mollema suffered a lot in the last kilometer, where he lost more than 30 seconds to the main favorites. Ruijgh and David Lopez were even awarded the same time as the last Tour champion. Tejay van Garderen, who had kept up with Ruijgh and Lopez ended up losing 15 seconds at the finish line. Not enough for Lopez to overtake him in the GC, as they are now 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Dries Devenyns finished in the 5th place of the stage, 40 seconds behind. The Belgian was ahead of Frank Schleck and Hubert Dupont, who lost 47 seconds. Schleck was supposed to be very strong in the tough mountain days but he disappointed a little today. This leaves him 4th in the GC 2' 25'' behind and there are already question marks on whether the Giro is already among the top 3 in the GC.
The riders enjoyed a rest day yesterday and will face a rather easy stage today. However, today's route doesn't fit the sprinters too much as there are two small climb in the last kilometers that will eliminate most of them. It could probably be a good day for a break if the bunch isn't too interested in chasing.
The break of the day had 8 men in it, including Janez Brajkovic (Discovery), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Thor Hushovd (Garmin) and Luca Paolini (Quickstep). Halfway through the stage (80 kilometers to go) the bunch is taking things easy and the gap is 7' 20''. Let's see if they allow this break to reach the finish line ahead.
The bunch decided to chase but maybe a bit late. Lampre, Euskaltel and Vacansoleil seem to be the teams most keen to bring the break back. However, as they go past the first of the two climbs that lead to Falzes they still lose 2 minutes. They will have to work hard if they want to catch, as they only have 23 kilometers remaining.
The break was eventually caught within the last 5 kilometers, just in time to start the hard but short climb that will probably decide the stage. The work by Bauke Mollema and Jakob Fuglsang paid off and now Peter Sagan has the responsibility to deliver for Vacansoleil. However, it is possible that some rider could surprise with an attack in this climb. To avoid that Jure Kocjan is setting a good pace in the pack because HTC has Jose Joaquin Rojas to work for.
Jose Joaquin Rojas comes first from the last hill and the riders are already sprinting for the line. Behind him, Bart de Clerq, Rob Ruijgh and Peter Sagan follow the Spaniard closely. Jure Kocjan did a great last climb to take Rojas behind him and leave him well positioned for the final sprint.
Jose Joaquin Rojas wins in Falzes! The Spaniard takes his second stage win in the Giro in a very productive year for himself. The rest of the riders never had a chance of overtaking him, not even Peter Sagan, who was third in the end. Bart de Clerq managed to take the second place, but this doesn't hide the fact that he should be doing a lot more in this race.
Behind the leading three Rob Ruijgh couldn't keep up with their sprinting speed but the bunch was so spread out after the last climb that he managed to hold to the second place. Jelle Vanendert completed the top 5. Most classifications are unchanged after this uneventful stage with the only exception of Yauheni Hutarovich reclaiming the red jersey.
The seventeenth stage is again a very tough mountain stage, as the route has the climbs to the Passo Duran, the Forcella Staullanza and the Passo Giau in the last 75 kilometers of the stage before the descent to Cortina d'Ampezzo. It will be the first of the three huge test that the riders will have in the stages remaining. Anyone who doesn't perform today will have it really difficult to make a good GC.
The stage was very fast to begin with as many break attempts were reeled back in. A group of 9 finally was allowed to go away shortly before the start of the Passo Valparola. Alberto Contador (Movistar) was the only rider interested in the KoM points at the top. Along him in the break were riders like Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), Andreas Kloden (HTC), Alessandro Ballan (BMC) and Carlos Barredo (Vacansoleil).
An attack by Pierre Rolland at the base of the Passo Duran was followed by some climbers who had lost time in the GC, notably Bauke Mollema and Juanjo Cobo. By the time they reached the top of the first colossus of the day (63 kilometers to go) these two were only 20 seconds behind the break of the day. Pierre Rolland was also chasing hard, but losing 1' 20'' to the break, while a group of 4 riders including Pieter Weening and Mikel Nieve was 3 minutes behind. The pace of the bunch was increasing due to Rabobank's work, but they still were 5 minutes behind.
The final part of the Passo Duran made the bunch break to pieces due to the pace by Hubert Dupont. The race was so broken that halfway through the climb to the Forcella Staullanza a group of 7 had the favorites for the final win in Milano (Rob Ruijgh, Frank Schleck, David Lopez and Tejay van Garderen). Peter Stetina had shown good legs by leaving behind this group, where everyone was looking at each other. The situation of the race was:
Cobo, Mollema
+ 10'' Contador
+ 2' 00'' Rest of the break + Peter Stetina
+ 2' 50'' Group of favorites
+ 3' 35'' Group of 4, Dries Devenyns
+ 5' 10'' Main group (Van Summeren, Vanendert, Gesink, Kruijswijk)
Mollema can't get rid of Cobo as they go past the KoM sprint of the Forcella Staullanza. Meanwhile, the group of the leader took a rest and even lost a bit of time with the leaders in the last kilometers of the climb. Current gaps are:
Mollema, Cobo
+ 30'' Contador
+ 1' 20'' Rolland
+ 1' 45'' Stetina
+ 3' 00'' Group of the leader
+ 4' 00'' Group Devenyns
+ 5' 50'' Main group
Halfway through the climb of the Passo Giau another twist of events takes place as David Lopez attacks in the group of the leader. Rob Ruijgh seems to have trouble as he doesn't even keep the pace of Frank Schleck and Tejay van Garderen. Hubert Dupont's pace has maybe been too much for his leader. However, he is lucky to have the French pace him so that he doesn't lose much time.
3 kilometers to the top of the Passo Giau and Peter Stetina reaches Cobo and Mollema in the lead of the race. Meanwhile, David Lopez keeps progressing and his rivals are having a hard time chasing. Ruijgh keeps losing ground. The current gaps are:
Cobo, Mollema, Stetina
+ 1' 00'' David Lopez
+ 1' 50'' Frank Schleck
+ 2' 20'' Van Garderen, Rolland
+ 3' 15'' Group of the leader
+ 4' 20'' Vanendert, Weening
The lead group grew in the final kilometers of the Giau as David Lopez and Frank Schleck joined the leaders to form a group of 5 riders. David Lopez wasted too much on the first kilometers of the climb and even Tejay van Garderen is closing the gap. The leader is suffering a lot and even Andy Schleck attacked from his group and is now 30 seconds ahead. Only 18 kilometers of descent are left in this hard stage.
Bauke Mollema attacked in the descent and has 20 seconds on the group of chasers 4 kilometers from the finish. The second win of Mollema in the Giro looks very close. The favorites for the GC were looking at each other and the Dutch seems ready to take advantage.
Bauke Mollema wins in Cortina d'Ampezzo! A great stage from the Vacansoleil rider who attacked at the start of the Passo Duran following Pierre Rolland 75 kilometers from the finish line. This is the second stage win for the Dutch in the Giro. Frank Schleck and David Lopez were second and third in the finish line, 10 seconds behind. Peter Stetina was fourth 21 seconds behind and Cobo was fifth losing 36 seconds.
The leader arrives 2' 37'' behind the winner of the stage along with Jelle Vanendert, Tiago Machado and Hubert Dupont. The French has been a great support for Ruijgh in order for him not to completely lose his chances in the Giro.
David Lopez is the new leader of the race, but the race is very open with the top 4 in less than 1 minute. Tomorrow's stage will be the last chance for the sprinters before the final three days of the race when the GC contenders have to show their skills.
The last easy stage of the Giro d'Italia will take the riders south towards the town of Vedelago. This will be the last chance that the sprinters will have to take stage win, so a break is not expected to be allowed to take an easy win.
A big break of 15 riders managed to get away after a big fight to get into it. In the group were riders like Cameron Meyer (Quickstep), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Taylor Phinney (HTC), Carlos Barredo (Vacansoleil), Anthony Roux (Astana) and Thor Hushovd (Garmin). The intermediate sprint was located in the only difficulty of the day, the climb to Cessiomaggiore. The break had 5' 40'' at that point, 67 kilometers from the finish line.
The group of 15 reaches the last 8 kilometers 1 minute ahead of the peloton and surprisingly no attacks were successful so far. In the bunch, Discovery, Lampre and Sky seem the teams most interested in chasing and forcing the mass sprint.
The group was finally caught at the 4 kilometers mark. The break did have a chance today but the riders are really tired after more than 2 weeks and they couldn't keep up with the pace. No trains seem to appear in the front of the pack yet, so it will probably be a very messy sprint.
Discovery was the only team that seemed to build a proper sprint train and Marcel Kittel profited from that as he leads into the last kilometer of the stage. The German narrowly leads Ben Swift, Heinrich Haussler and Simon Gerrans. However, other sprinters are also closing in the first positions.
Tyler Farrar wins in Vedelago! The American finally wins in the Giro after coming second 3 times in the first week. In truth the sprint was really close between Farrar, Swift and Kittel, who topped the 3 first places in the stage.
Other than the stage win Farrar also took the points jersey, 2 points ahead of Tejay van Garderen and Yauheni Hutarovich. This makes Van Garderen the main favorite to win the red jersey as he can get a lot of points in the mountain stages and in the final time trial.
Stage 19: Treviso - Alpe di Pampeago / Val di Fiemme
The nineteenth stage is a massive mountain stage that will most surely open the small gaps between the top 4 in the GC. The riders will have to climb the Sella di Roa, Passo Manghen, Passo Pampeago, Passo Lavaze and the final climb to Alpe di Pampeago in a day with more than 5,000 meter in accumulated climbing.
The break of the day had only 3 riders: Sylvain Chavanel (Ag2r), Vasili Kiryenka (Liquigas) and Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana). As they start climbing the endless (23.3 kilometers) Passo Manghen they have a gap of 10' 45'' on the bunch. However, their chances for a stage win are slim at best in this route. Euskaltel is setting a steady but for now slow pace in the back.
The bunch didn't really push in the climb of the Manghen, as only Euskaltel pushed a bit in the middle part of the climb. However, Jelle Vanendert accelerated in the last 2 kilometers and a lot of riders started to lose contact on the back of the peloton. The gap to the break was steadily reducing but it was still at 8' 15'' as they went past the KoM sprint.
If the Manghen had not been too interesting, the riders didn't lose a minute in the Passo Pampeago. Rob Ruijgh and Tejay van Garderen surprised their rivals at a time when the team were taking advantage to take some food and opened a gap straight away. Frank Schleck tried to follow at first, but 5 kilometers to the top of the Pampeago he is already losing 1 minute. Meanwhile, David Lopez seems confident enough and is letting his teammates chase. They are 1' 50'' behind.
David Lopez took the responsibility to chase by himself in the last couple of kilometers of the Passo Pampeago. However, he let go a lot of time, as he is already 3' 45'' behind Rob Ruijgh. The Dutch cracked Tejay van Garderen and heads alone for the stage win and maybe to retake the pink jersey. The riders of the break were completely exhausted and disappeared from the front in this climb. Gaps:
Rob Ruijgh
+ 25'' Tejay van Garderen
+ 2' 15'' Frank Schleck
+ 3' 00'' Peter Stetina
+ 3' 45'' David Lopez
+ 4' 25'' Group with the rest of favorites
Tejay van Garderen is managing the gap with Rob Ruijgh very well and at the top of the Passo Lavaze (24 kilometers to go) he only loses 35 seconds. Such a gap would leave him in a great position for the time trial in Milano two days from now. Peter Stetina completely cracked in this climb and was swallowed by the group of favorites. Meanwhile, David Lopez keeps losing time. He was joined by Andy Schleck and Dries Devenyns but they are already 4' 45'' behind Ruijgh.
Rob Ruijgh starts alone in the first position the last 7 kilometers of the stage, the final climb to Alpe di Pampeago. He is the virtual pink jersey and could leave everyone far behind with the exception of Van Garderen, who is still not far behind. Among the riders in the top 10 in the GC Peter Stetina didn't have the best of his days. He cracked after his attack in the Passo Pampeago and is now losing almost 10 minutes to Ruijgh.
David Lopez is slowly recovering a bit of time in the last climb, but he is still losing 4' 30'' to Rob Ruijgh. He will lose the pink but he wants to keep his podium chances alive. The race is now completely broken and it is every man for himself now. Hubert Dupont left behind the group of favorites when he was sure no one would be following and is closing in Lopez's group.
Frank Schleck is suffering a lot in the last kilometers of the stage. As Rob Ruijgh enters the last kilometer widening the gaps to almost everyone Frank is already 4 minutes behind. The Luxembourgish was maybe too optimistic in trying to follow Ruijgh in the Passo Pampeago and is paying it in the second climb to Alpe di Pampeago. Tejay van Garderen is also losing more than expected at 1' 20''.
Rob Ruijgh wins in Alpe di Pampeago! What a great stage by the Dutch! The gaps in the finish line are massive after an attack almost 50 kilometers from the finish line by Van Garderen and him. Ruijgh will retake the leaders jersey with a nice gap. The second in the stage was Tejay van Garderen, 2' 22'' behind Ruijgh after losing 1 minute in the last kilometer of the climb.
Further back, Frank Schleck was neutralized by the group of the leader. Dries Devenyns took the third place in the stage in that group ahead of David Lopez and Frank Schleck. The gaps in the GC are now huge, as the 5th in the GC, Jelle Vanendert, is now more than 13 minutes behind. Tomorrow's stage features the climb to the Passo dello Stelvio after the Mortirolo, so the GC is not settled yet as many of the top riders reached the finish line completely destroyed.
