Giro d'Italia Stage 3 Report


Favourites: Farrar, Petacchi, Ventoso, Galimzyanov, Davis

Today we succeeded in getting Konig into the breakaway with six other riders. Irizar, Phinney, Barry, Bouhanni, Roberts and Ratto were the other riders in this group. They built up a gap of just six minutes before the peloton had had enough.


At the second mountain sprint of the Giro, Konig was narrowly beaten by Roberts of Saxo Bank, who will wear the jersey tomorrow. Phinney (BMC) picked up the final point.


Again, Lampre left it to Garmin and Katusha to do the chasing, and again, Danielson was taking turns on the front. The pace wasn't particularly high, but they were going quickly enough.


However, with the breakaway in sight, two riders, Van Impe (Vacansoleil) and Oroz (Euskaltel) attacked and went straight past the BotD. Strangely, the pace in the peloton completely slowed and the sprinters' seemed to have given up.


And that was that, Van Impe took the stage win as he easily outsprinted Oroz. Behind, Irizar took third, but Konig was agonisingly close. He was going faster than the Radioshack rider, but the line came too soon and he had to settle for fourth. The peloton came in 40 seconds later led by Oss and Bole.

Stage Winner

Giro d'Italia Stage 4 Report


Favourites: Garmin, Rabobank, Sky Pro Cycling, BMC, Skoda - Orlen

The first of the expected frontrunners on the course were Rabobank with their leader Gesink. Robert still isn't at top level but huge turns from Clement, Mollema and Martens ensured they set the quickest provisional time of 43'44.


Liquigas have one of the weaker teams here but their two big stars, Basso and Nibali spurred the team on and they finished 8th, 43 seconds down. Not too bad.


Lampre's hopes relied squarely on the in form Malori's shoulders but he isn't that good and Lampre ended the day joint 14th, 1'09 down on the winners. A disaster for Scarponi and Cunego.


Garmin set off at a ferocious pace but after dropping Peterson in the first half of the course and causing others to struggle at the back, they had to slow down. Nevertheless, they finished the day in fourth, 25 seconds down.


Next up, we were off with Chuzhda leading us off. The whole team rode superbly, with all nine riders taking their turns on the front. In the background, Rabobank head towards the victory.


Cadel Evans' BMC team have one of the strongest TT teams here including Cadel himself. Because of this, their seventh position can be considered somewhat of a disappointment, with Cadel losing 32 seconds to Gesink and Rabobank.


But when it comes to disappointment, Sky took the biscuit today. Despite having strong riders like Rogers, Froome, Lofkvist and Pate, they ended up way down in joint 14th, 1'09 down.


As Euskaltel, the final team on course, set off, the cameras were focused on the Maglia Rosa, Oroz rather than their leader Anton. As you would expect, the Basque team weren't one of the favourites, but they were riding well as a unit.


As all nine of our riders crossed the line together the team looked back at the time. 43'49!! A stunning ride, just five seconds down on the winners Rabobank. A magnificent result for Konig, in particular, as he will wear the white jersey tomorrow.


Finally Euskaltel rode across the line. Their time was good enough for 10th, 49 seconds down on the winners. That ensured Oroz remained in the lead of the race by 17 seconds from Saxo Bank's Roberts, with Konig a further second back. I mentioned Colnago earlier and they certainly delivered, finishing over two minutes down!

Stage Winners

Giro d'Italia Stage 5 Report


Favourites: Farrar, Petacchi, Ventoso, Galimzyanov, Renshaw

As the stage began, Konig was showing off his new jersey with immense pride, riding alongside Oroz in the pink. The next few days could really launch Leopold's career.


Today's breakway consisted of eleven riders and, oddly, second placed Roberts was allowed away as well as sixth placed Phinney. Those two would of course be the main dangers.


The spotlight now fell on Euskaltel as they needed to show that their team was strong enough to bring back the breaks by themselves. They were, but I doubt they would have wanted to be using their climber-packed squad's legs this early on.


With the gap to the breakaway still being more than two minutes, Van Impe (Vacansoleil) tried his attack from stage 3 again. He quickly rode across to the break. Surely it wouldn't succeed again?


At the mountain sprint, it was Van Impe that took it, whilst Roberts missed out altogether, so it remains extremely tight up at the top of that competition.


But with 11km to go, the final members of the BotD were caught, including Van Impe, and Katusha once again led out the sprint with Lampre. Bozic was yet again caught out by a sharp increase in pace and was way out of position.


On the final corner, Jurgen van den Broeck hit the deck in the middle of the peloton, causing chaos as riders tumbled everywhere. Of course, van den Broeck himself lost time, as well as big names like Evans, Nibali, Gadret, Intxausti and Cataldo. Szmyd was involved as well, but he got back up.


Up ahead, Farrar succeeded where he had failed on stage 2 as he took a comfortable victory from, surprisingly, Bonnet and Petacchi. Bozic sprinted well but from way too far back to pick up 15th place. Just 142 riders finished with the same time.

Stage Winner

Giro d'Italia Stage 6 Report


Favourites: Evans, Cunego, Anton, Nibali, Scarponi

It took a long time for a break to establish itself today, but when it did, it had eleven riders in it, including Chuzhda for us. Oleg's job was simple, to do no work in the break and sit at the back. Some of the other riders were Florencio, Docker, Longo Borghini and Muravyev.


After this group got free, not a lot happened. However, over the first major climb of the Giro, with the pace still slow, a group of around 90 riders lost contact with the bunch. In there were van den Broeck (pictured), Gadret, Garzelli and Cataldo to name a few. They would never make it back, almost certainly marking the end of their chances for a good result this year.


In the front group, the battle was heating up for the green jersey, with the points available for the tougher climbs today meaning that there would definitely be a new leader in that competition. Docker won the first two climbs and looked good for it, but Florencio picked up points on all of the climbs and takes the lead by one point.


With the peloton closing, the inevitable, desperate attacks out of the breakaway. Only one rider's attack succeeded and Muravyev (Astana) ploughed on alone for a while, making sure the peloton got no rest today.


On to the final climb, and with Muravyev looking like he might just hang on, we sent Kiserlovski to the front to make sure he didn't. He lifted the pace considerably and distanced several strong riders, including Froome, Kessiakoff, Hermans and Ten Dam.


And with just 4km to go, it was over for the Kazakh, and the attention switched to the sprint. We were working for Bole today as he felt extremely good and Bozic had nothing left in the tank. Grega was sat on Velits' wheel waiting for the leadout to begin.


Despite being arguably the strongest rider in the group, Bole somehow, agonisingly, got beaten by Marcato by half a bike. There was nobody else in it, but third went to Martens of Rabobank. We were distraught with the result as we genuinely believed a win was on the cards. However, with the way the GC is at the moment, we can't be too disappointed.