We stay in Athens for stage 2 with start and finish in the Greek capitol. In the final part of the stage, the riders make 3 laps at the route of the Olympic road race, with 3 times the climb of the Licavitos (1.3km at 6.0%, max 12%).
171km to go
Just as in every GT, the question is how long it will take before the first rider attacks. This Giro, it lasts 5 kilometres, before Jurej Sagan (Liquigas) decides to give it a go. He gets countered by Taborre (Acqua & Sapone), Ventoso (Movistar), Jacques-Maynes (Garmin), Iglinskiy (Astana) and Hoste (Katusha).
116km to go
Next to follow is a nice game of cats catching mice. The peloton catches the breakaway, others attack, peloton catches them, others attack, etcetra...
It takes some time before a group of riders get the blessings from the peloton. Maarten Neyens (Lotto), Wesley Sulzberger (Qantas), Jurej Sagan, Leif Hoste and William Bonnet (FDJ) cross the line of the first KOTM-sprint in that order. 1 minute behind follow Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), Elia Favilli (Farnese Vini) and Ruggero Marzolli (Acqua & Sapone), who will close the gap to the 5 leaders a few kilometres later. The peloton is taking it slowly and follows at 6 minutes.
35km to go
The margin between the leading group and the peloton increases to 8'30. We know that we have to take our responsibility as the team that has the maglia rosa, so we put 2 domestiques in control of the pace and the gap decreases rapidly.
Even before the first of 3 ascends of the Licavitos, the BOTD gets caught. In the first ascend, Radio Shack's Leonardo Duque attacks and het gets countered by young Gavin Mannion (Sony Ericsson). Both arrive at the summit with a margin of only 20 seconds to the peloton.
8km to go
The 2 get caught quickly, and we stay in control of the pace. We set this as high as possible to prevent attacks to occur, but also to let our sprinters Bos & Kittel stay in the first group.
We succeed in doing it, and a group of 84 riders round the summit of the Licavitos for the 3rd time.
3km to go
The pace drops a bit, as we are setting our sprint train on the rails. Leonardo Duque uses this opportunity to attack again. 15 seconds behind him, our train with De Gendt-Bos-Kittel is closing him in, while Farrar, Fernandez, Swift and Goss form an on train, without lead outs.
1500m to go Theo Bos starts to sprint with 2500m to go, and easily overtakes Duque. His fierce acceleration creates a nice gap between Marcel Kittel and Tyler Farrar & Matthew Gos behind him. This is looking good for us!
Finish
With his mighty thighs, Marcel Kittel crushes the opposition and wins the 2nd stage in the Giro. Believe it or not, it's his first ever stage win in a GT!
Farrar manages to overtake Bos, who makes it a great day for the team with a 1st and 3rd!
Results
1
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
4h05'58
2
Tyler Farrar
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
s.t.
3
Theo Bos
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
4
Matthew Goss
Lotto - Belisol
s.t.
5
Giovanni Visconti
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
6
Mirco Lorenzetto
Androni Giocattoli
s.t.
7
Francesco Ginanni
Androni Giocattoli
s.t.
8
Ben Swift
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
9
Koldo Fernández
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
10
Thomas De Gendt
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
GC
Due to the bonus seconds, Kittel becomes the new leader in the GC!
Word from the DS
Great win by Kittel, who was perfectly launched by his team mates. Strange to see that no other team was capable in forming a sprint train... This will possibly be different in stage 3, where there are no climbs in the last part. Nevertheless, a great start, and the pressure is off Kittel!
In the 3rd stage, the riders continue to ride on Greek soil, and continue visiting some historical important locations. Today's finish place, after 245 flat kilometres, is Olympia, the birth place of the ancient Greek Olympics.
119km to go
Just as yesterday, many attacks occur and breakaways are formed. None of them gets permission from the peloton to get out of reach from the peloton. With 130km to go, Radio Shacks Colombian Leonardo Duque attacks, and he gets the blessings from the peloton. In only 13 kilometres, he manages to create a gap of 5'45.
41km to go
When the margin from Duque to the peloton comes close to the magical amount of 10 minutes, we put 3 riders in control of the pace of the peloton. But while they work their asses of with 3, the margin grows to 11 minutes. Then finally, it drops a little bit. With 41km to go, it's still 10 minutes, so the question who will win the stage is already answered.
Finish
With 10km to go, the margin is stil 4 minutes. The performance from Duque is an extraordinary one, as even 3 teams can't close the gap...
So Leonardo Duque wins the 3rd stage of the Giro d'Italia in Greece Olympia, although the peloton gets close in the end.
Given the same time as Duque, Marcel Kittel wins the sprint for the 2nd place, beating Tyler Farrar.
Results
1
Leonardo Duque
Radio Shack - Nissan
5h35'12
2
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
3
Tyler Farrar
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
s.t.
4
Theo Bos
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
5
Matthew Goss
Lotto - Belisol
s.t.
6
Andrea Guardini
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
7
Ben Swift
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
8
Mark Renshaw
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
9
Fabio Sabatini
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
10
Alessandro Petacchi
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
GC
Except Duque entering the top 10, no changes.
1
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
10h38'34
2
Thomas De Gendt
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 32
3
Wilco Kelderman
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
4
Robert Gesink
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
5
Marc De Maar
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
6
Francis De Greef
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 34
7
Jack Bobridge
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 37
8
Romain Zingle
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 38
9
Theo Bos
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'21
10
Leonardo Duque
Radio Shack - Nissan
+ 1'45
Points
1
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
45
2
Tyler Farrar
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
42
3
Leonardo Duque
Radio Shack - Nissan
37
4
Theo Bos
Monster Energy - Subway
30
5
Matthew Goss
Lotto - Belisol
30
Other rankings
No changes.
Today's winner
Word from the DS
We really wonder what Duque had for dinner yesterday, as this performance was extraordinary....
The entire Giro-circus made a nice trip by ferry from Greece to Italy and all the 198 riders start in Lecce for stage 4. The first 130 kilometres are easy, almost flat, but the last 40 kilometres feature 3 climbs, with the last summit only 2 km before the finish. Expect a hilly rider / puncheur to win this one.
103km to go
We see a pretty small BOTD, with only 4 riders in it. Ian Bibby (Qantas), Claudio Corioni (Farnese Vini), Danilo Napolitano (Acqua et Sapone) and Bert De Waele (Omega Pharma) create a maximum gap of 9'30, while having 103 kilometres to go.
43km to go
We have an easy day so far, while the domestiques of Antón (Euskaltel) and RodrÃguez (Katusha) do the pace in the peloton. Arriving at the summit of today's first hill, the Latenza (3.5km at 5.8%), the peloton is still 3'48 behind the 4 leaders.
20km to go
We feel obliged to help Euskaltel and Katusha a little bit, so the distance to the 4 leaders starts to melt as snow for the sun. In the ascend of the Montescaglioso (4.8km at 5.5%), only Napolitano is riding in front of the peloton and about to be caught.
17km to go
Earlier as expected, JoaquÃm RodrÃguez attacks. He does it shortly before the summit of the Montescaglioso and gets joined by BMC's Giovanni Visconti. They take a lead of 30 seconds.
5km to go
Realizing this is a dangerous attack, we immediately send all riders left to the front to chase them down. Because of it, the peloton breaks into a few pieces and arriving at the foot of the last climb of the day, the Matera (4.2km at 5.3%), a group of 57 riders catch RodrÃguez and Visconti.
3km to go
Apparantly, Purito finds a second breath and attacks again in the ascend. This time he gets countered by his countryman Igor Antón, and only 4 others can follow.
1600m to go
Antón easily drops RodrÃguez, as Purito wasted his powers with the earlier attack. He arrives at the summit with a margin of 14 seconds to a group of 5, with De Gendt, Gesink, Kelderman, RodrÃguez and Visconti. The 2012 Giro-winner is riding towards his first stage win this year!
800m to go Thomas De Gendt and Robert Gesink are closing the gap to Antón metre by metre and with 800m to go, only 7 secodns are left.
Finish
But it's not enough to beat Igor Antón, who takes another win, his 7th so far this season. De Gendt finishes in 2nd place in the same time as Antón and so do Gesink (3rd), Kelderman (4th), RodrÃguez and Visconti.
A group of 54 riders finish 49 seconds behind ANtón, including all GC-contenders, except for Simon Spilak. Last year's number 6 looses 3'44 today and can forget his podium-ambitions.
GC Thomas De Gendt becomes the new GC-leader, already the 3rd one in 4 stages.
1
Thomas De Gendt
Monster Energy - Subway
14h52'42
2
Robert Gesink
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 4
3
Wilco Kelderman
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 12
4
Marc De Maar
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'01
5
Francis De Greef
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'03
6
Jack Bobridge
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'06
7
Romain Zingle
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'07
8
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'33
9
Theo Bos
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'50
10
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'58
Points
1
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
45
2
Tyler Farrar
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
42
3
Leonardo Duque
Radio Shack - Nissan
37
4
Theo Bos
Monster Energy - Subway
30
5
Matthew Goss
Lotto - Belisol
30
KOTM
1
Thomas De Gendt
Monster Energy - Subway
7
2
Romain Zingle
Monster Energy - Subway
4
3
JoaquÃm RodrÃguez
Katusha Team
4
4
Leonardo Duque
Radio Shack - Nissan
3
5
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
3
U25
1
Wilco Kelderman
Monster Energy - Subway
14h52'54
2
Jack Bobridge
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 54
3
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 1'46
4
Gavin Mannion
Sony Ericsson
+ 3'00
5
Diego Ulissi
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 3'02
Teams
1
Monster Energy - Subway
42h42'50
2
Katusha Team
+ 3'28
3
Garmin - Barracuda
+ 3'49
4
Radio Shack - Nissan
+ 4'09
5
Pro Team Astana
+ 4'34
Today's winner
Word from the DS
Before the Giro started, we expected to loose some time in a few stages to Antón, and together with the stage to Montepulciano, this was one of them. So we're happy with loosing just a few bonus seconds. Still, with 2 wins and 2 times 2nd, the Giro remains perfect for us!
