Simon Gerrans is the most recent signing of the Team Radioshack team. The Australian arrived in the Luxembourgish team with a hard task to perform: replace Jakob Fuglsang, who won Milano - Sanremo, San Sebastian and Plouay last year. The Australian will share the leading role of the team with Frank Schleck. While Frank will focus in the mountains Gerrans will have to take care of the classics and the hilly stages.
Things couldn't start better this year for Gerrans. He won the second stage of the Tour Down Under at home and recorded the 6th place in the final GC. In Romandie he also took a stage win in Romont. However, other than that we haven't seen Gerrans around much. He will be needing to do much better in the GTs, given the lack of hilly classics this year.
Before arriving in Radioshack, Gerrans spent three years seen how the Quickstep team grew from nothing to the most successful team in the international peloton. He arrived there in 2010 only to be quickly overshadowed by Dries Devenyns and Sylvain Chavanel. His podium in the Paris - Roubaix in 2009 riding for Sky and a stage in the Dauphine were still his best results before 2012.
However, 2012 was equally good for Simon Gerrans as it was for Quickstep as a whole. Even with Pieter Weening and Dries Devenyns in the team he got podiums in the Amstel Gold Race and the Fleche Wallonne before taking one stage and the 5th overall in Romandie. All that before taking the best result in his career so far: the Silver Medal in the Limburg World Championships.
Another flat stage for the sprinters will take us from Modena to Fano, in the Adriatic coast of Italy. The 210 kilometers will be really easy, so anything that is not a mass sprint finish will be a massive surprise.
The break today was quite big at 13 riders. This is probably the only way that they have to make it to the finish line. Among those in front were Taylor Phinney (HTC), David Millar (Sky), Sylvain Chavanel (Ag2r), Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Chris Sutton (Garmin) and Nick Nuyens (Liquigas). With 97 kilometers to go they had 6' 30'' on the bunch but HTC was already starting to increase the pace of the peloton.
When the bunch was already flying to get to the break another crash hit the bunch. This time it was Bauke Mollema who crashed along with Luis Leon Sanchez. Several Vacansoleil riders waited for him, but they would need to work hard to bring him back to the peloton.
Vacansoleil saved the crash thanks to the work of Fuglsang, Barredo and Van Dijk and rejoined the bunch in the small climb. However, luck was not on the side of Mollema today as he crashed again in the hilly terrain before the finish line. This time he had a crash with Simone Ponzi and considering the time he took to get up again he could well lose the Giro today.
Sylvain Chavanel, Taylor Phinney and Nick Nuyens attacked from the break and still had a nice gap at the start of the downhill section (16 kilometers to go). They had 15 seconds on Luca Paolini and David Millar ang 1 minute on the bunch. Meanwhile, Bauke Mollema was already losing 4' 30'' on the leaders.
The work of the teams of the sprinters paid off as they caught the break with 6 kilometers to go. There was quite a fight to get the best sprint train today with Discovery (Haussler and Kittel), Lotto (Roelandts and Greipel) and Quickstep (Degenkolb and Gallopin) all well positioned in the front of the bunch.
Tony Gallopin leads the way as the riders enter the last kilometer. The French started sprinting early and Tom Boonen seems to be progressing on his right. Yauheni Hutarovich and Marcel Kittel are also well positioned behind the two of them.
Tony Gallopin win in Fano! The French held the charge of the two Saxo Bank sprinters. Quickstep are getting the feeling for the Giro once they arrived in Italy, as they have won the last two stages. Tom Boonen seemed to lose gas halfway through the sprint and Tyler Farrar passed his teammate for the second place of the stage. This is the third sprint in a row that where Farrar ends up second. Yauheni Hutarovich and Daniele Bennati completed the top 5 of the stage.
However, the news of the day is that Bauke Mollema lost most of his chances to win the Giro as he crossed the finish line more than 5 minutes behind the bunch. Worse than that, he seems to have some bad bruises in his right arm and will be heading to the hospital for some checks. It is still doubtful whether he will be on the road tomorrow. That leaves the race more open than ever, as the Dutch was the main favorite for the pink jersey in Milano.
The hardest stage so far in the Giro takes place today. The 210 kilometers from Urbino to Porto Sant'Elpidio feature 2 hard climb in the middle of the stage: Cingoli and the Passo della Capella. The second of them with most of the climb in sterrato. The final part of the stage is plagued with hard hills like Montelupone, Montegranaro or Morrovalle, so anyone with a bad day could lose the Giro today.
The break reached the sterrato part of the Passo della Capella 6' 30'' ahead of the bunch. In the group of 8 there were some dangerous riders like Johan van Summeren (Quickstep), Carlos Barredo (Vacansoleil), Anthony Roux (Astana) and Simone Ponzi (Katusha). The Passo della Cappella top is still more than 90 kilometers from the finish and HTC is already increasing the pace in the bunch.
David Lopez attacks along with Peter Stetina in the climb to Morrovalle (50 km to go), where the intermediate sprint is located. The bunch broke in two parts in the climb to the Passo della Capella and only 70 riders are in the group of the favorites. Some surprising riders were left behind, but most are either injured (Cobo, Mollema) or aren't chasing a good GC in this Giro (Evans, Menchov, Tondo). The break has now 5 minutes on the favorites group and 8 minutes on the group of Mollema.
The attack by David Lopez was short lived and he was soon back in the group. In the break Johan Van Summeren easily left behind the rest of the riders in the break just before the last KoM of the day in Montegranaro. As he enters the last 25 kilometers of the stage he already has 2 minutes on them. The group of the favorites again broke in two in one of the climb and several important riders like Van Garderen, Ruijgh and Weening were left behind.
The grouop of Van Garderen, Ruijgh and Weening rejoined the group of the favorites as they went up the last hill of the stage. This group had decided to let the break take a lot of time, as no one was really pushing and the difference of Van Summeren at front was getting close to 8 minutes. The Quickstep rider is going to get the leader's jersey along with the stage win.
The 5 chasers of Van Summeren are going to fight for the second place in the stage, as the Belgian has 4 minutes on them as they enter the last 10 kilometers of the stage. Simone Ponzi is the fastest among them but after such a hard stage it will probably be the one who has the best legs who prevails.
Johan van Summeren wins in Porto Sant'Elpidio! The Belgian solos to the stage win and the leader's jersey. The Belgian will probably stick to the jersey for quite long, as the gap he opened is close to 8 minutes. With only the next two stages difficult for him (Rocca di Cambio and Lago Laceno) he could well get into the beginning of the last week still wearing the pink.
Igor Anton led the group of chasers 4' 12'' ahead of Ryder Hesjedal and Carlos Barredo. Simone Ponzi might be the fastest among them, but he reached the finish completely destroyed today. The result of the stage allowed Anthony Roux to get the second place in the GC and Ryder Hesjedal to take the third. If Liquigas plays for Hesjedal he could well stick for a while among the top riders of the Giro.
Mikel Nieve led the bunch home more than 8 minutes behind. The riders seemed satisfied that none of the riders in the break looked too dangerous and just cruised to the finish line in the last 25 kilometers. This didn't avoid the group of Mollema losing more than 11 minutes in the finish line. Clearly the injuries that he sustained in yesterday's crashes are making him suffer. However, he stated that he would be willing to recover for the last week and be able to win a stage in the Dolomites.
Along with Mollema arrived other riders like Denis Menchov, Juanjo Cobo, Xavi Tondo or Cadel Evans. Menchov had already stated that he intended to leave the GC for Pieter Weening and that he would be supporting him, so it is understandable that he didn't fight too much today to stay in front.
The weekend will give us two difficult stages that may shed some light on how the favorites have arrived in the Giro. We have the gentle climb to Rocca di Cambio tomorrow and the arrival in Lago Laceno on Sunday. However, the gap that Van Summeren is holding will probably keep him as leader after the stages.
The first mountain top finish of the Giro d'Italia will see the riders climb to Rocca di Cambio. The stage is long, at more than 200 kilometers and has a quite difficult middle part with 4 climbs. Only one of those is categorized, the Colle Galluccio. An easier part of the stage will lead the riders to the gentle climb to Rocca di Cambio. The climb is 19 kilometers long, always with ramps of around 5-6%.
The bunch was not too interested in chasing down the break today as the group of 6 that was leading got 11 minutes at the top of the Colle Galluccio. Among the riders in the break were Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank), David Millar (Sky), Peter Kennaugh (Garmin) and Maxime Monfort (Ag2r). The bunch was crossing the middle part of the stage quite relaxed.
The work in front of the peloton from Rabobank and Euskaltel reduced the gap of the break to 3' 15'' as they go past the intermediate sprint in L'Aquila (27 kilometers to go). One of the surprises in the GC, Anthony Roux, lost the contact with the peloton as they went past the Colle Galluccio along with another 25 riders. The increase in the pace in the second part of the climb meant that the Astana rider paid for yesterday's efforts and will lose the 2nd place in the GC as a result.
Maxime Monfort attacked from the break as soon as the climb to Rocca di Cambio. He immediately opened a gap as David Millar tried to follow but couldn't. With 15 kilometers remaining he has 45 seconds on his break fellows and 2' 35'' on the main bunch.
Peter Stetina is the first man to attack in the bunch, with 9 kilometers remaining. He is not so marked by the favorites as he lost a lot of time in one of the first stages. Marco Pinotti was making the race hard for him before the attack. Meanwhile, Monfort's gap is still 1' 45''.
Frank Schleck and Dries Devenyns joined Stetina with 6 kilometers to go and they are closing in fast into Maxime Monfort. They are 25 seconds ahead of a group of 5, including David Lopez, Tejay van Garderen and Robert Gesink, and 1 minute ahead of the bunch.
Maxime Monfort was very close to winning the stage but he was finally caught with less than 4 kilometers to go. The group of 4 is already in the small descent before the final uphill finish t Rocca di Cambio and it seems clear that the stage win is among them. They have 35 seconds over the chasers and almost 1' 30'' on the main bunch.
Frank Schleck and Dries Devenyns left Stetina and Monfort behind as they go into the last kilometer of the stage. This would be the fourth stage win in a row for Quickstep if Devenyns manages to overtake Schleck.
Frank Schleck wins in Rocca di Cambio! Radioshack gets his first win in the Giro as Schleck was clearly stronger than Devenyns in the final sprint to the line. Peter Stetina managed to recover the time lost in the last meters and crossed right behind Devenyns. Maxime Monfort was dropped but at least he kept the 4th place just in front of the group of chasers, 55 seconds behind the winner. The main group with the rest of the favorites crossed the line 2 minutes behind.
The GC changes quite a bit as Anthony Roux completely disappears after losing 18 minutes today. Hesjedal also lost 4 minutes and drops to the 4th place behind Devenyns and Schleck. Robert Gesink seems to be the man for the GC in Vacansoleil and he showed good legs today. He is now 6th overall. Among the disappointments, Mikel Nieve couldn't do anything today and now loses more than 2 minutes to Devenyns, who is the first of the candidates. However, the decisive stages should be those of the last week and there is a lot of Giro to be raced.
The favorites for the overall win will have to show their strength again today as the stage finishes at Lago Laceno today, 5 kilometers from the top of the Colle Molella. The stage is again quite long at almost 230 kilometers and, even though there are not big climbs, there is plenty of hard terrain before the last climb.
Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre) did quite a strange thing today, as he kept himself ahead of the break for lots of kilometers. In fact, halfway through the stage he was still keeping a gap of 35 seconds on a group of 5 including Mathias Frank (Garmin), Alessandro Ballan (BMC) and Andreas Kloden (HTC). The bunch is 10 minutes behind, but with 100 kilometers remaining and Euskaltel and Radioshack increasing the pace the day could be very long for the break.
The break didn't have the legs and Alessandro Ballan (BMC) was the last riders to be caught by the peloton, when still 35 kilometers were remaining. Radioshack was setting a very high pace on the approach to the Colle Molella, as Roman Kreuziger, Simon Gerrans and Jean-Christophe Peraud were all working in the front of the pack. Today's stage could be too hard for many riders.
Tejay van Garderen was the first to launch an attack in the slopes of the Colle Molella. The American jumped from the pack as they were closing to the hard 4 final kilometers of the climb (11 kilometers to the finish line). Dries Devenyns was the first rider to react to that attack, while other favorites weren't in a rush to chase.
Peter Stetina, Van Garderen's teammate, counterattacked and took advantage of the favorites looking at each other to open up a gap of 1 minute 3 kilometers from the top. A group of 6 was following him: Frank Schleck, Ruijgh, Lopez, Van Garderen, Kruijswijk and Devenyns. The leader of the race tried to follow, but he never had the legs to match the climbers. The peloton is 50 seconds behind this group.
David Lopez, Tejay van Garderen and Dries Devenyns went through the top of the Colle Molella 1' 20'' behind Peter Stetina. The American was already on his way to the stage win. Frank Schleck and Rob Ruijgh lost only 20 seconds to the trio, but the gaps were bigger behind them. Steven Kruijswijk was 2' 30'' behind Stetina; Chris Froome was losing 3 minutes and the leader was 4 minutes back already.
Peter Stetina wins in Lago Laceno! BMC played their cards perfectly, knowing that Tejay van Garderen would be the man to attract the attention from the team and that gave free way to Stetina. The American gets his first win of the season but, even though he got some time back today, he is still out of the picture in the GC.
Dries Devenyns wins the sprint of the chasing trio, which crosses the finish line 1' 42'' behind Stetina. Rob Ruijgh and Frank Schleck lose 24 seconds to those. Further behind it is worrying for Mikel Nieve that he remained with the group of the leader, losing 4' 47'' in the finish line. Mollema, Weening, Menchov, Dupont or Leipheimer were also in that group.
Ryder Hesjedal disappeared from the top 10 after losing almost 6 minutes. That gave Van Garderen the fourth and David Lopez the 5th position in the GC. The first contact with the mountains has opened bigger gaps than expected. Dries Devenyns, the first of the riders that could potentially win the Giro, has more than 5 minutes in a rider like Mikel Nieve.
The mountain top finishes of the weekend give way to another flat stage to begin with the second week of the Giro d'Italia. The arrival in Frosinone has three small hills within few kilometers of the finish, but it shouldn't upset the mass sprint that is widely expected for today.
The break of the day was rather strong as among the 6 riders in the front are Janez Brajkovic (Discovery), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Chris Sutton (Garmin) and Tony Martin (Sky). However, with the sprints teams chasing and 75 kilometers to the finish line their gap of 7' 30'' probably will not be enough.
A massive crash occurred in the bunch with 11 kilometers to go. More than 30 riders were on the floor, including Mikel Nieve, Pieter Weening, Bart de Clerq, Chris Froome, Tyler Farrar and Dries Devenyns, the second in the GC. As the bunch was catching the break at the same time they were not going to be waited for and the GC could suffer major changes.
The preparation for the sprint was really messy, as there were a lot of riders missing from the crash. Sky was the team with the most men in the front, but Ben Swift didn't seem to be especially well positioned as we approached the 3 km mark. It is going to be the weirdest sprint in the Giro so far.
The sprint was very strange as within the last kilometer Jakob Fuglsang leads the way ahead of Stefan Schumacher, David Millar and Juanjo Cobo. However, some sprinters are starting to close in to the head of the pack, such as Peter Sagan, Jose Joaquin Rojas or Yauheni Hutarovich.
Yauheni Hutarovich wins in Frosinone! The Belarusian overtook lots of riders in the last part of the sprint to beat Jose Joaquin Rojas very narrowly. The Lampre team was in dire need of a win after a very difficult start of the season. The stage win also allowed Hutarovich to take the red jersey from Tejay van Garderen. The top 5 of the stage was completed by Sacha Modolo, Peter Sagan and Simone Ponzi.
Sadly, as important as the stage result was the massive crash that happened 11 kilometers from the finish and that meant that more than 30 riders lost 3' 21''. Dries Devenyns was the best placed in the GC at 2nd, now drops to the 7th position. One of the pre-race biggest favorites, Mikel Nieve, dropped to the 50th place in the GC more than 11 minutes behind. If the race was already difficult for him it has turned to be almost impossible.
The Giro turned north and today's stage another rather easy stage will take place. The riders will go from Civitavecchia to Assisi, where the riders will face a double hill to the old town. The stage is perfect for uphill finishers and maybe some of the favorites will try to put a bit of time on their rivals in the last kilometers.
A big group of 16 tried to break from the bunch in the opening kilometers but they were eventually reeled back in. After quite a few kilometers without attacks a group of three found an easy break: Mark Cavendish (Sky), Mark Renshaw (Discovery) and Taylor Phinney (HTC). At the sprint in Amelia (90 kilometers to go) they enjoyed a gap of 6 minutes on a relaxed peloton.
The bunch caught the break with 21 kilometers to go. Vacansoleil was especially keen on working in the bunch, as both Bauke Mollema and Jakob Fuglsang worked in the hope that Peter Sagan would have a chance of winning in Assisi. However, the competition is going to be broad in this unusual finish.
HTC reached the bottom of the first climb (4 km to go) first, as Jure Kocjan was working to put Jose Joaquin Rojas in a good position. Behind them, other riders that wanted to get involved in today's finish were Simon Gerrans, Sacha Modolo and Yauheni Hutarovich. Peter Sagan was being towed by Bauke Mollema, but they seemed to be a bit out of place.
The first part of the climb saw the leader, Johan van Summeren really strong, as he leads the group through the top. However, the bunch is pretty tight with Rein Taaramae, Jure Kocjan and Daniele Bennati all following close behind. We haven't seen any of the GC favorites appearing other than Van Summeren in the pink jersey.
Van Summeren surprisingly opened a small gap in the descent and with less than 1 kilometer to go has 6 seconds on the pack. He has a 10% climb ahead of him, so all might not be settled but he is looking rather strong. Peter Sagan is rather disappointing as he is quite back considering the support that he received from his teammates.
Johan van Summeren wins in Assisi! The leader narrowly holds off the charge of his chasers and surprisingly takes his second win in Italy. The next places in the stage are a mixture of sprinters that can go through the hills and uphill finishers. However, the second place of Yauheni Hutarovich is also quite a surprise, as he wasn't expected to hold onto the first places in the climb. The top 5 of the stage is completed by Simon Gerrans, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Sacha Modolo.
Van Summeren will extend a bit his lead in the GC thanks to the bonus seconds he got in the finish line. However, the news of the day are the 2 minutes lost by Steven Kruijswijk and Robert Gesink. They didn't seem to suffer any mechanical problem, so probably it was down to a bad positioning at the start of the climbing. Yauheni Hutarovich will also extend his lead in the points' classification, but the sprinters will need to accumulate more points if they don't want to be overtaken by the GC men in the last week.
The eleventh stage between Assisi and Montecatini Terme is the longest of the Giro at 255 kilometers. Fortunately for the riders it is also rather flat so the misery of racing such a long stage already in the second week will be lower. A mass sprint is again expected, as only the small climb to Vico, within the last 15 kilometers, has a chance to spoil it.
The break of the day was rather large. The group of 12 riders included some interesting riders like Cameron Meyer (Quickstep), Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Gregory Rast (Sky), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Grega Bole (Movistar) and Alessandro Petacchi (Vacansoleil). They had a huge gap of 11' 40'' halfway through the stage but, even though the bunch was taking things easy for now their chances of making it to the finish are slim.
Oscar Freire and Cameron Meyer left behind everyone else in the break and reach to the last 20 kilometers of the stage with a good chance of winning the stage. The bunch tried to chase but the strong wind and the lack of flat riders in Euskaltel and Lampre soon meant that those teams were unable to chase. Only when Vacansoleil joined the chase they were able to decrease the gap again. However, the two leaders have 30 seconds on Julien Simon and 4 minutes on the bunch. The big news regarding the GC is that Mikel Nieve dropped from the peloton after another crash and seems to be severely injured.
The bunch reached the climb to Vico far behind the leader, Oscar Freire. The Spaniard left behind Cameron Meyer in the last climb and has 3' 40'' on the bunch. The Spaniard is heading for his first win of the season.
Oscar Freire enters the last 3 kilometers of the stage already touching the win with his hands. He looks really tired but the 25 seconds over Cameron Meyer and 2' 30'' on the bunch should be more than enough to seal the win.
Oscar Freire wins in Montecatini Terme! This is the first win for the Spaniard since a stage in the Eneco Tour 2011. That is the longest period he hasn't been without wins. Today's stage was very difficult for all of the riders and the 255 kilometers will probably take a levy on the riders that were on the break. Cameron Meyer narrowly made it to the finish line second ahead of the bunch and 25 seconds behind Freire.
Yauheni Hutarovich won the sprint for the third place in the main bunch. The Belarusian is in great shape and will not be very happy that his team couldn't bring the break back, as he clearly edged the sprint ahead of Modolo and Farrar. He will also extend his lead in the points competetition to 19 points ahead of Farrar. The sprinters will have another chance in two days.
In terms of the GC the stage was a non event. The bad news is the new crash of Mikel Nieve. He lost all chances of a good result in the GC as he is losing 23 minutes. Worse than that, he seems to be suffering from injuries from his 2 recent crashes.
The difficult terrain comes back for a very interesting stage in the west coast of Italy. The route between Seravezza and Sestri Levante has plenty of climbs, including the quite hard Valico Guaitarola halfway through the stage. It is probably a good stage for the break if the favorites take things easy thinking on the very hard last week.
A group of 5 took the lead at the start of the stage but they were never allowed a big margin. The riders in front were Mathias Frank (Garmin), David Millar (Sky), Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Astana), Danilo di Luca (Liquigas) and Julien Simon (Ag2r). Halfway through the climb to the Valico Guaitarola they had a gap of 3' 25'' on the main group, where Vacansoleil, Euskaltel and BMC were increasing the pace.
The bunch felt like riding hard today and the break was caught at the top of the Valico la Mola. Emanuele Sella and David Lopez attacked in the last kilometer but only looking for the KoM points. They came back to the group in the descent. Bauke Mollema also followed his miserable Giro as he crashed in the descent of the Valico Guaitarola and lost contact with the main bunch.
The stage looked like it would be decided in the climb to Villa Tassani or in a small group sprint. Peter Stetina didn't want to wait and went solo in the last climb. He crossed the top, 13 km to go, with a small gap of 30 seconds on the not-so-big main group. The American is wearing the mountain jersey though he is second after the leader Van Summeren.
Jelle Vanendert and David Lopez attack from the group of favorites with 5 kilometers remaining. This group was greatly reduced in the last climb and less than 60 riders stay there. The fatigue of the Giro is starting to hit the riders and many just let go the bunch in the last climb not to waste energies. Meanwhile, Stetina increased his gap in front to 1 minute, probably enough to win the stage.
Frank Schelck, Rob Ruijgh and Tejay van Garderen joined the attackers and opened a small gap of 25 seconds on the favorites group with 2 kilometers to go. Quickstep is trying to close that gap but they don't seem to be particularly successful.
Peter Stetina wins in Sestri Levante! This is the second stage win for the American in the Giro after his win in Lago Laceno. Stetina comfortably covered the flat kilometers towards the finish line after jumping in the climb to Villa Tassani and increasing the gap in the descent. The group of chasers crossed the finish line 52 seconds behind, with Tejay van Garderen doing the double for BMC. Ruijgh, F. Schleck and Lopez completed the top 5 of the stage.
The very reduced peloton arrived 1' 38'' behind the winner. This means that Frank Schleck is now only 2' 37'' behind Johan van Summeren in the GC. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina jumped into the top 10 thanks to the time gap he opened today. To put his performance in perspective, if he hadn't lost a lot of time in Denmark he would already be the leader of the race. However, BMC should probably work for Tejay van Garderen and give the freedom to Stetina to collect more stage wins. The American team is doing a great Giro up to now.
David Lopez may have started his career in Omega Pharma - Lotto, but he has definitely found his home in Euskaltel - Euskadi. The Spaniard rider has been a great domestique for Xavi Tondo in the Basque team before taking over the role of team leader this year. The departure of Tondo for Lampre and the great season that Lopez enjoyed in 2012 have given him the leading role for 2013. Lopez was very consistent last year. Even though he only got 1 stage win in the Tirreno - Adriatico, he got top 10s in Dauphine, Tirreno, Pais Vasco and Poland.
Even though last season was great, the team leadership has brought Lopez performances to a whole new level. He was 4th in the Tirreno this year before heading to one of the most important races for Euskaltel, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. In Spain, David Lopez won the queen stage in Arrate and claimed the 2nd overall, his best result ever in a stage race. More than that, the Spaniard is currently leading the UCI World Tour classification and is fighting for his first podium in a Grand Tour.
However, life has not always been so bright for Lopez. He was always among the best climbers, but had quite a poor season in 2011 with a 5th in the Giro di Lombardia as his best result of the season. In the start of his career David did have some good results, especially in the 2009 Volta a Catalunya, where he got 2 stages, the points jersey and the 3rd place overall. That was his best result in the Lotto team. In 2010, his first in Euskaltel he got his first and only win in a Grand Tour in Vitoria.
Much could change in the life of David Lopez depending on whether his successful campaign continues this season. He finishes his contract with Euskaltel at the end of the year and several top teams have already started asking for the classy Spaniard. A podium in the Giro would probably earn him a very lucrative contract for next season.
