Stage 9
A few hills in the first half of the stage, but the sprinters will aim to win this one.
A lot of different riders try to get away, but the peloton are having none of it. In the end Bøchman manage to pull a break away on Passo di Bocca Trabaria.
In response Farnese Vini and Liquigas rip the peloton in pieces on the descent leaving among others Ivan Basso in the rear group.
The group slow down to reunite the peloton and the break widens the gap to more than five minutes.
100 km to go and the break have 7 minutes. Looks like the sprinters got it covered.
50 km and 4 minutes to Farnese Vini and Garmin – Sharp in front of the peloton.
With 20 km to go the break have less than a minute, but a few riders won’t accept that it is over and keep on trying.
Huge crash in the peloton Julian Dean and one of the Farnese Vini guys went down first and took a lot of riders with them.
Farnese Vini continue like nothing happened and going under the 10 km mark the front group consist of 51 riders. Bak and Ludvigsson try to surprise the sprinters, but with no luck.
A hilly day with a fairly flat finish. Could be a good day for a breakaway.
As usual the break isn’t just allowed to ride away and again today a Falcon is the main force in establishing the break – apparently Lars Bak is not ready to give up his jersey quite yet…
On the top of Monte Fumaiolo the break has a gap of 14’30’’. This looks like the big day for the break, so let’s have a closer look at the eight riders: Lampre has to riders in the break Kostyuk and the big favourite in a sprint Grega Bole. The other riders are Quinzato (BMC), Tsatsevich (Katusha), Mori (Colnago), Rollin (FDJ) and Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone). A very strong group of riders!
The gap just continue growing and with 60 km to go the break has more than 18 minutes!
40 km to go, 21 minutes and Bak has picked up the maximum 17 mountain pts on the way.
With 10 km to go the rain starts pouring down. Everyone but Bole should start thinking of some way to get rid of the Slovenian.
On the 5 km mark the Dane can’t wait anymore and goes on the attack. Noone follows right away.
The rest of the break ends up losing the sprint to Bole as predicted. The peloton still has 18,5 km to go!
Results:
1. Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon – STARK
2. Grega Bole, Lampre - ISD
3. Dominique Rollin, FDJ – BigMat
What a strong ride by Lars. Being the main rider in establishing the break, leading over all the summits and then beating everyone for the stage win and climbing to a 6th place in the GC. No matter what happens in the last half of the race the Giro is a definitive success for us!
- Allan Grønborg
Provisional Standing:
Mountain: Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon - STARK Points: Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale Youth: Wilco Kelderman, Rabobank
We want to do good in this race, but a lot of teams have brought great riders like Kroon (Saxo – Tinkoff), Ardila (Blue Water), De Maar (Joker), Valls (Joker), Valjavec (CWO), Kohler (GM-LRØ), Cattaneo (LKT)
Stage 1
Looks to flat to be anything but a bunch sprint.
A classic scenario. Break gets away early and the peloton keep them within reach. Lindau is in the break along with Nikola Aistrup and 4 others. With 50 km to go they have a lead of just over 5 minutes.
With 25 km to go Lindau try to get away from the others but can’t find the right punch and with 8 km to go everything is brought back together. Bäckstedt does his best to place Ole Haavardsholm for the sprint, but the Norwegian isn’t able to reward the good work.
Results:
1. Troels Rønning Vinther, Saxo-Tinkoff
2. Michael Reihs, Christina Watches - Onfone
3. Krzysztof Jezowski, Bank BGZ 12. Ole Haavardsholm, Falcon – STARK
Mountains: Philip Lindau
Stage 2
Another one for the sprinters. A small hill in the early part of the stage puts the mountain jersey in the competition. Gunnar Grönlund get away with nine other riders. Gunnar wins the KOM-sprint, but the break never looks to make it as NSP, Bank BGZ and Saxo-Tinkoff chase for a sprint.
With 20 km to go the peloton get within a minute of the break and Grönlund decides to give it one last go alone and with 10 km to go he still has a minute to the peloton as a lot of riders crash on the wet roads. Gunna'rs attempt last till 6 km from goals. The bunch sprint is now inevitable. Haavardsholm does ok delivering Bäckstedt, but the Swede doesn’t have the speed of his youth anymore.
Results:
1. Krzysztof Jezowski, Bank BGZ
2. Krzysztof Szczawinski, Whirlpool - Author
3. Marko Kump, Adria Mobil 12. Magnus Bäckstedt, Falcon – STARK
Mountains: Philip Lindau
Stage 3
It doesn’t get much flatter than this, so it should be another one for the sprinters…
As always a break gets away and Juul-Jensen is showing the Falcon – STARK jersey. The break never stand a chance and the only thing worth mentioning before the sprint is a big crash, that ends up taking Tadej Valjavec (Christina Watches – Onfone), Tino Thömel (NSP – Ghost) and Karsten Kroon (Saxo-Tinkoff) out of the race.
It’s an extremely close sprint but CWO get the victory right on the line.
Results:
1. Ariel Maximiliano Richeze, Christina Watches - Onfone
2. Krzysztof Jezowski, Bank BGZ
3. Marko Kump, Adria Mobil 12. Magnus Bäckstedt, Falcon – STARK
Mountains: Philip Lindau
This is a day for the big names. Most of the Falcon – STARK riders will try and save as much energy as the terrain allows while Nielsen and Hansen will see how far the mountain legs go today.
With 100 km to go the 14 riders in the break start the first climb with a gap of 8’30’’ to the peloton, but not much chance of success.
As soon as the road started riding Euskaltel – Euskadi came to the front and took over from Liquigas. They clearly have something planned for today.
On the Monte Cimone Basso is pulling Nibali away from everyone else with Karpets from the break fighting to keep up with them.
Near the top the Liquigas duo is accompanied by Quintana, Cunego, Antón, Urán and Scarponi while Evans is leading the second group counting 10 riders – among those Jesper Hansen.
Nothing much changes in the front group until 3 km from the finish line, but Hesjedal and Evans attack madly behind realizing that they are losing the Giro and Kelderman is just as desperately attacking to keep the white jersey, but none of them have much success.
Igor Antón wins the sprint in the front group.
Results:
1. Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi
2. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
3. Michele Scarponi, Lampre - ISD 20. Jesper Hansen, Falcon – STARK
Mountains: Lars Bak
Stage 12
A long and boring stage until the peloton hits Monte Zoncolan. This will either go to the favourites or to a decent climber from the early break. Falcon – STARK will go for the latter…
The break isn’t easily established but after 60 km a group including Bøchman get away.
Right at the foot of Zoncolan the break is caught by Quintana, Scarponi and Urán who have gone in an early attack but the gap to the peloton is less than a minute.
Pozzovivo attack as the reunited peloton starts the climb and for a long time he keeps a slender lead to the favourites.
With 5 km to go Scarponi, Urán, Cunego and Quintana start attacking but Antón pull them in with Nibali sitting on his wheel.
Even though he never got a gap of much more than a minute Pozzovivo ride to a beautiful victory. Behind Hansen is having an off day fighting his way up the mountain.
Results:
1. Domenico Pozzovivo, Colnago – CSF Inox
2. Michele Scarponi, Lampre - ISD
3. Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi 34. Jesper Hansen, Falcon – STARK
Mountains: Lars Bak
Stage 13
A rainy day with a lot of mountains: Today is all about survival!
Plenty of rider attack right from the start, but Falcon – STARK know what’s ahead and keep their calm.
As Euskaltel and Liquigas lead the peloton over Passo Giau the snow starts slowly falling.
Up the final climb of the day Nibali takes things in to his own hands attacking from the 22 rider front group. Jesper Hansen has more than enough to do just hanging on to the rear of the group.
Antón counterattacks and has a small gap on the top, but with Nibali chasing on the descent it’s going to be tough, but he actually manage to expand his lead slightly!
As expected it was a tough day for a lot of riders and 27 riders missed the time limit.
I am thrilled over our performance this far in our first ever Grand Tour. A stage win, a lot of days in the Mountain jersey and some decent climbing efforts by Jesper.
We know that Lars won’t be able to keep the mountain jersey throughout the race, so we won’t be too disappointed when he loses it. In terms of the GC we really hope that Jesper can maintain his spot in the top 20 for the rest of the race.
- Allan Grønborg
What database do you use? The final screenshot of stage 11 is looking weird, like they're riding on dirt or something?
The team's doing very well, better than expected
King stage of the race. The winner of this stage might very well be the winner of the race. Brink gets in the early break. At first it’s looking good but then Ardila and Cattaneo starts attacking for the mountain jersey…
Several riders try to make a difference on the final climb. None of the Falcons could follow the attacks, so instead the team wheeled in the attempts.
With 5 km to go Sterebo tries his luck, but he is not strong enough today.
In the end NetApp dominates the sprint completely
Results:
1. Marcel Wyss, NetApp
2. Leopold König, NetApp
3. Michael Reihs, Christina Watches - Onfone 13. Rasmus Sterebo, Falcon – STARK
Stage 5
Since not much happened in terms of the GC yesterday Brink and Bäckstedt are the only Falcon – STARK riders without a chance of victory. Let the fireworks begin… Juul-Jensen get in the break and even though their gap never gets very big it force Cristina Watches – Onfone to the front of the peloton doing all the hard work.
With 30 km to go Juul-Jensen attack reducing it to a three-man group. Somehow they manage to hold on to (part of) their lead and with 15 km to go they still have 1’40’’ on the peloton.
As Juul-Jensen is the only of the three, who still is in the GC battle he puts in a big effort trying to maintain the lead, but as the others save energy for the sprint Christopher ends up too tired to keep up with them in the final part and the Norwegians get the win they have been waiting for with Reihs sprinting to 3rd and GC win.
Mountains: Mattia Cattaneo, LKT Team Brandenburg Points: Michael Reihs, Christina Watches - Onfone Young rider: Marko Kump, Adria Mobil Team: Nutrixxion Abus
Obviously not the race we had hoped for, but the guys tried their best. In the end Christina Watches - Onfone proved strong enough to control the race. Well done!
- Allan Grønborg
Giro d’Italia 
Tyler Farrar, Garmin - Sharp
Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon – STARK
Kostyuk and the big favourite in a sprint 
Grega Bole. The other riders are 
Tsatsevich (Katusha), 
Rollin (FDJ) and 
Wilco Kelderman, Rabobank
Glava Tour of Norway 
Krzysztof Jezowski, Bank BGZ
Philip Lindau
Ariel Maximiliano Richeze, Christina Watches - Onfone
Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi
Rigoberto Urán
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Cadel Evans
Marcel Wyss, NetApp
Leopold König, NetApp
Nutrixxion Abus
