I think this will be between Augustyn, Ricco, and Rohregger
Looks that way. Suppose it is a bit premature to declare this a poor Giro, given we haven't actually hit the mountains yet. Still, I am a bit disappointed by how it is shaping up. Between fitness issues and the early race pile up, which I think lead to some injuries, the favorites haven't done much. Would have helped if Nibali and Di Luca were here, which I expected they would be as their participation in Romandie looked very much like a warm-up.
Catalunya, on the other hand, is shaping up to be very interesting (unless Duarte runs away with it). Extremely competitive.
Mountain ITT today. Unfortunately I failed to export the results and don't recall who finished where. Therefore, just brief summary on this stage:
Duarte, Pardilla and Morca helped their cause by further cementing the top 3 spots. Mariani lost some time but held on to 4th over Martin. Rovny had another bad day and slipped to 12th.
Last mountain stage and therefore last chance to satisfy the sponsors by grabbing a top 3 finish. Rovny is out of it so it will have to be Mariani.
As we hit the final climb, we decide to send Rovny to see how the favorites react.
The reaction is pretty quick and decisive. Pardilla, Gonzalez, Morca, Cuadro, Martin and Duarte all counter.
Mariani goes as well, and as the dust settles he ends up with Morca. They've done better than all but Pardilla and Rovny. Everybody else has been caught by the pack. Mariani and Morca, on the other hand, have a 55 second lead.
They've not done as well as Pardilla and Rovny, however, who are 25 seconds ahead of them.
Morca and Mariani work hard and manage to link up with Pardilla and Rovny.
With Morca and Pardilla both ahead of him in the standings and Duarte with a 3'10" lead over him coming into the day, the current situation isn't helping Mariani much. Rovny goes to the front and pushes the pace to try and help Mariani shed one of these guys.
Neither Morca nor Pardilla is struggling, however. As we get near the last 2 km and the gap over the pack has widened to close to 2 minutes, Pardilla attacks and gets some space.
Mariani is able to come back up on Pardilla, however, as we near the sprint.
With the sprint in full swing, Pardilla and Mariani are side-by-side. With the lead over the pack now somewhere north of 2'30", a win here would be huge for Mariani. With the bonus time, and some luck, he might just pass Duarte.
Mariani does it! He gets a brilliant stage win. Now we just have to wait for the overall standings and see where we sit.
Oh, and it is hearbreak for Mariani and the sponsors. Coming in to the day a full 3'10" behind Duarte and no chance of catching him, Mariani almost does the unthinkable but falls short by 3 measly seconds. A great result by Rovny pushes him up the standings.
Results 1 Jesús Mariani DISCOVERY CHANNEL 4h00'54
2 Sergio Pardilla RABOBANK s.t.
3 Elias Morca CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 13 4 Ivan Rovny DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'05
5 Fabio Duarte SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 2'57
6 Eduardo Gonzalo KARPIN GALICIA + 3'13
7 Cadel Evans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
8 Philip Deignan TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
9 Rubén Plaza LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 Enrique Salgueiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
11 Edwin Orozco TEAM ASTANA s.t.
12 Luca Zanasca SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
13 Luis Cuadrado TEAM CSC s.t.
14 José Antonio Redondo BARLOWORLD + 3'21
15 Jesus Guréndez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
16 Tony Martin PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
17 Javier González TEAM LPR s.t.
18 Matthew Lloyd TEAM CSC + 3'29
19 Vladimir Karpets SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
20 Sergio Domínguez LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
21 Tim Ulbrich TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
22 Eladio Jiménez KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
23 Ángel Vicioso RABOBANK + 3'37
24 Ricardo Mestre BARLOWORLD s.t.
25 David Martín CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
26 Filadelfio Bacchini LIQUIGAS + 3'45
27 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 4'01
28 Ruslan Tatulyan QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 4'09
29 Jaume Rovira QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 4'17
30 Mikel Astarloza CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
31 Enrique Zárraga KARPIN GALICIA + 4'25
32 Manuel Medina TEAM ASTANA + 4'41
33 Dario Cataldo CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
34 Markus Eibegger LIQUIGAS + 4'57
35 Iñigo Landaluze TEAM ASTANA s.t.
36 Ivan Santaromita TEAM ASTANA + 5'05
37 Aritza Montalbán PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 5'21
38 Virgílio Santos PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 5'29
39 Tiago Machado TEAM LPR + 5'37
40 Kai Reus LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 5'45
41 Ángel Vázquez KARPIN GALICIA + 5'53
42 Moisés Dueñas SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'25
43 Rui Pinto TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 6'41
44 Leonard Gloor SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'49
45 Raúl Gurpegi TEAM CSC + 7'05
46 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 7'21
47 Gorka Verdugo CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
48 Eros Capecchi PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 7'29
49 Adelio Ceretta CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 7'37
50 Mathieu Sprick CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 7'45
GC
1 Sergio Pardilla RABOBANK 15h25'25
2 Elias Morca CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 4
3 Fabio Duarte SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'00 4 Jesús Mariani DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'03
5 Ivan Rovny DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 4'12
6 Tony Martin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 4'36
7 Tim Ulbrich TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 4'58
8 Javier González TEAM LPR + 5'24
9 Edwin Orozco TEAM ASTANA + 5'54
10 Jesus Guréndez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 6'18
11 Ricardo Mestre BARLOWORLD + 6'42
12 Luis Cuadrado TEAM CSC + 6'48
13 Luca Zanasca SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'51
14 Rubén Plaza LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 8'19
15 Sergio Domínguez LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 8'27
16 José Antonio Redondo BARLOWORLD + 8'31
17 David Martín CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 9'08
18 Ángel Vicioso RABOBANK + 9'19
19 Eladio Jiménez KARPIN GALICIA + 9'22
20 Mikel Astarloza CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 9'25
21 Jaume Rovira QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 9'41
22 Enrique Salgueiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 9'42
23 Manuel Medina TEAM ASTANA + 10'11
24 Eduardo Gonzalo KARPIN GALICIA + 10'17
25 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 11'20
Last flat stage before we hit the mountains. Last chance for Sui to take a win.
Major event today in the last 15 km of the race. There is a crash (there have been quite a few in this Giro). Amongst the casualties are Boasson Hagen and Rohregger. They will both lose over 3 minutes today.
A Boasson Hagen-less sprint train forms as the remanents of the days break are caught. Sui is on the Gerolsteiner train behind Corioni, but he is very tired as the pace was pushed extremely hard over the last 15km following the crash.
As the sprint starts, Corioni is looking very good while Sui falls back.
Corioni takes the win.
Bit disappointing or Sui that he did not take a stage win. Still, he has had what would be a fairly successful Giro if not for the fact that Boasson Hagen has been so unstoppable. He'll abandon at the start of the next stage and get some rest.
Flat stage. There is a 10-man break today. It includes big names such as Pliuschin and Karpets. With an 11 minute lead with 67km to go, it is looking like their day.
As victory looks more and more likely, the break begins to splinter and a front group of Castroviejo, Karpets and Genovesi forms.
The pack has to be careful here as Karpets comes into the day trailing by 11 minutes. With 4km to go, Castroviejo breaks away on his own.
Castroviejo crosses the finish for an impressive solo win.
The sprinters from the main pack cross the line 6 minutes later. As a result, Karpets leapfrogs into the top 10.
Stage 7: Guardiola de Berguedia - Villafrance del Penedes
Final stage. Barring falls, all honors are already set and just a question of who wins the stage.
There is a break and 7km from the finish, it is looking like remenants of the break will take it today. Two riders: Pauriol and Guido Seinig. They are on their own and trying to hang on.
Seinig crosses the line ahead of Pauriol. All other members of the break were caught.
So, we don't make the sponsors happy as we don't take a top 3. Still, a 4th place for Mariani and a 5th place for Rovny is a pretty good result.
The young Mexican, Elias Morcas, announced himself on the pro tour in this race by taking 2nd. He is still developing and looks like he will be one of the best in cycling. Remember his name as he will no doubt compete for a Grand Tour win in the near future.
We hit the mountains, and now it is a whole new race. What has happened up until now is irrelevant. Today is a tough climb to the finish and we should get a very clear idea of what to expect over the remainder of this race.
Discovery Channel tries to control the early pace, however there are lots and lots of break attempts and the peloton tries to chase them all done. As we get near 100km to go, no breaks have gotten away yet. The pace is crazy and the peloton will never survive up the Passo Duran at this rate.
Finally a break does get away and things calm down a bit. Nothing notable happens until we hit the foot of the Passo Duran. No sooner do we start to cilmb than Tim Dees launches an attack. It seems early so we don't react.
Rodas is next, followed up Boasson Hagen.
The attacks start coming fast and furious. When Ricco goes,it gets our attention.
Augustyn and Casanova go and quickly catch up with Boasson Hagen. We may have waited too long though, as the peloton hauls us in shortly thereafter.
As the attacks calm down, the man at the front and all alone is Campanile.
Tim Dees is 42 seconds in back of Campanile.
26 seconds back of Dees is a group that consists of: Mitodorov, Ricco, Ego Martinez, Tassinari, Agnoli and Rohregger.
Finally, 52 seconds back of them, Casanova and Augustyn have managed to escape the pack and are trying to get back in the race.
Campanile has been simply awesome today and will cross the line first for the stage win.
Dees crosses the line 1'03 later for second place.
Close on his heels is the Ricco group which stayed intact except for Agnoli who was dropped.
Augustyn crosses 2'30" behind Campanile. A very bad day for him. He drops down to 3rd place overall while Campanile takes the maglia rosa.
Should be a greuling stage today with many steep climbs. Augustyn needs to do better after his poor performance yesterday.
The break today is led by Remy Di Gregario, who gets away on his own and is able to establish a 16 minute lead with 145km to go, taking all of the mountain points along the way. He'll take over the KOM lead.
Up the Passo Campolongo we get some pretty ambitious attacks from: Petrov, Pozzovivo, Benatti and Saul Raisin.
The pack is chasing hard and finally catches them. In the process of the multiple climbs, however, the pack has been whittled down to only 21 guys as we hit the Forcella Cibiana.
As soon as we start to climb, we get attacks from Campanile, Mitodorov and Boasson Hagen. Casanova and Augustyn counter as well.
Attacks start coming from everyone now, and Agnoli, Tassinari, Gomez Marchante, Rodas and Rohregger get in the mix.
Ricco has waited a long while, maybe too long. He finally goes though.
As the attacks calm down we get some sense of how things look. At the front, Casanova and Augustyn have managed to get off on their own.
A full 1'05 behind them are Tassinari and Rohregger.
A further 30 seconds back: Rodas and Mitodorov.
Trailing them by 12 seconds and trying to close the gap is Tim Dees.
Finally, what remains of the pack is 51 seconds in back of Dees. There are 11 guys here, including the maglia rosa of Campanile and Ricco.
First group over the peak is Casanova and Augustyn. Casanova is doing great work pulling his teammate along. As they cross, their lead over E2 is 2'30".
Further back, Dees has caught up with Mitodorov and Rodas.
Casanova has done a great job shepharding Augustyn down the descent and is running out of gas now. Time for Augustyn to carry on the rest of the way on his own.
Augustyn has a great chance to win the Giro right here on this stage. Unfortunately, in his excitement he pushes a bit too hard and cracks. He'll still cross the finish line alone for the win, but rather than gaining 3 minutes, he'll gain only half of that.
Tassinari and Rohregger catch Casanova near the finish and will take 2nd and 3rd.
Ricco finishes nearly 6.5 minutes after Augustyn and has probably lost the Giro here today.
Great response by Augustyn after yesterday's tough race. It could have been oh so much better, though.
7km from the peak of Staller Saltel, Campanile is the 1st to attack and is joined by Rohregger.
Mitodorov, Augustyn and Casanova counter.
Then it is Dees and Gomez Marchante's turn.
Finally, Ricco chasing after Rodas. A bit late again.
1km from the peak, the race looks like this: E1 Rohregger and Campanile.
E2: Augustyn, Casanova and Mitodorov. They are 27 seconds back.
E3: Dees, Gomez Marchante, Rodas, Ricco and Tassinari (who also got away). They are 30 seconds back of the Augustyn group.
Nothing happens during the remainder of the race and the positions are pretty well held. Rohregger and Campanile fight it out for the stage win and Rohregger prevails.
Augustyn beats out Mitodorov for 3rd. In a questionable judgement, the race officials award the E3 group the same time as E2.
There is a three man break which is easily caught.
At the foot of Monte Baldo, the Italians attack: Campanile and Tassinari.
Rohregger and Augustyn counter. Casanova can't get away from the pack and Augustyn will be on his own today.
Tassinari was stronger than Campanile and has gotten off on his own.
17 seconds back, Rohregger has gotten away from Augustyn.
Augustyn is pulling along Campanile, trying to close the 16 second gap to Rohregger.
Soler has finally decided to show up for the Giro and manages to get away from the pack. He is 14 seconds ahead of a group that includes Ricco, Casanova and Mitodorov and only 11 seconds behind Augustyn.
Soler has caught up with Augustyn and Campanile. Continuing to lose time to Tassinari, Augustyn launches another attack. It won't work and, in fact, it is Soler who end sup getting away.
Tassinari continues to plow along on his own and crosses the line for a well earned solo victory.
Soler is looking like himself today and manages to actually catch and pass Rohregger for 2nd. Too bad he is more than 50 minutes behind Augustyn at this point.
Augustyn will take 4th, 2'10 behind Tassinari. Everytime it looks like Augustyn has this Giro wrapped up, he comes in with a poor performance and let's someone back in. Tassinari now has a real shot. With 2 mountain stages remaining and an uphill time trial, he still has plenty of hope.
I've noticed from reading other stories that it seems to be a little easier to follow when the text writing is under the picture rather than above it. Therefore, from here on out I am going to switch to the style of under picture text rather than over.
Last really difficult mountain stage of the Giro. Tomorrow is a bit more hilly than mountainous and Stage 20 is an uphill ITT.
There was a break, it was caught.
Discovery Channel has controlled the pace today. Up the Passo Gavia it is Devine and Monfort pushing the pace and dropping riders in large numbers.
As we near the peak of the Passo Gavia, Soler launches an attack. Hard to tell whether he is going for the mountain points or trying to actually get away.
The chase catches Soler easily, but results in even more dropped riders. As we head into the descent, what was left of the pack splits in two. The front group consists of Rohregger, Rodas, Dees, Casanova, Mitodorov, Devine, Augustyn, Parra and Tassinari.
The second group is 2 minutes back and includes Ricco, whose Giro goes from bad to worse.
As we start climbing again, Parra is dropped from the front group as Casanova pushes the pace.
Shortly thereafter, Casanova himself can no longer keep up the pace and is dropped.
As the mountain starts to rise, Mitodorov attacks. We do not follow as he is not a danger to Augustyn at this stage. Tassinari is the guy to worry about.
Nobody else tries to follow Mitodorov either. As the group continues to pedal away, Devine has been dropped and now there are only 5 guys here.
Augustyn decides to attack up the final short hill. It is a bit of a risk: if he cracks, then Tassinari could pass him in the standings. Still, this could be the last chance to increase his lead ahead of the ITT.
Nobody can follow and Augustyn opens up a lead. Now it is all downhill to the finish.
At the finish, Mitodorov concludes his stage win.
Augustyn finishes 2nd and increases his lead over Tassinari.
Only 3 races planned for the month of June. Our Giro racers will try and use their fitness levels to compete at the Dauphine Libere and Tour de Suisse while our Tour de France team starts its warm-up. Results will be nice, but not necessary. At the Eindhoven TTT, where we've alwasy dominated, we'll be going for another win.
June 10-17: Criterium du Dauphine Libere
June 16-24: Tour de Suisse
June 24: Eindhoven TTT
