Another long and mostly flat stage awaits the riders today. The hilliest part of the stage is at the beginning, a good place for a breakaway to take shape, including the long climb to the Passo del Bracco (more than 16 kilometers). After that, the only difficulty will be the small but tough climb to Castellaccio. However, at 15 kilometers to the finish it will probably upset the mass sprint.
There was quite a lot of fight to bet into the break of the day in the first kilometers of the stage. It wasn’t until the climb to the Passo del Bracco that a group of 10 riders settled in front. Among them were Carlos Barredo (Katusha), Vasili Kiryenka (Liquigas), Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank), Ivan Basso (Radioshack) and Denis Galimzyanov (BMC). They had 5’ 55’’ on the bunch at the top, with 154 km remaining.
Several attacks among the riders in the break meant that the last survivors were Luis Leon Sanchez, Lieuwe Westra and Tom Boonen. However, as they reached the beginning of the climb to the Castellaccio they only had around 25 seconds on a peloton commanded by Lotto and Garmin riders.
Janez Brajkovic and Filippo Pozzato started the fight in the last climb, but it was Marco Marcato who did the hardest attack and crossed the KoM sprint in the first place. He was followed by Pinotti, Brajkovic and Pozzato as the bunch was breaking into pieces.
Denis Menchov (Katusha) attacked in the descent and opened a gap. Some of the other favorites were mostly waiting for teammates to help them in the last kilometers. 25 seconds behind was John Degenkolb, 50’’ behind were Brajkovic, Marcato and Nocentini while the main bunch was 2 minutes behind Menchov.
Degenkolb was caught by the trio behind him, so the four of them were sprinting for second place as Menchov seemed too far ahead and his stage win seemed assured.
Denis Menchov wins in Livorno! The Russian takes the first win in the short history of the Katusha team after attacking from a small group in the descent of the Castellaccio. Behind Menchov, Brajkovic takes the second place in the stage outsprinting Marco Marcato. They lost 26 seconds on Menchov.
Jose Joaquin Rojas wins the bunch sprint ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov. The main group accelerated quite a lot in the last kilometers as they lost only 1’ 10’’ in the finish line. All of the main favorites for the win were in this group, though they would be wise not to let riders like Menchov or Marcato take much time in the GC.
Denis Menchov is the new leader of the race with 7 seconds on Marcato and 13 on Brajkovic. The Russian could well hold into the pink jersey for several stages as long as no breakaway wins. On the other side of the time tables is Frank Schleck, as he lost another 6 minutes today. This ends his chances on the GC but he tries to hang on to the race as he could be a much valuable helper in the last week stages if he recovers.
Today is the first stage where the favorites have to be very concentrated on what’s happening in the road. The route is fairly difficult, with the climbs to Saragiolo and the Croce di Fighine. However, the main point of interest of the race is the sections of strade bianche that start in the last kilometer of the Croce di Fighine.
The break has pretty strong riders today, like Alessandro Ballan (Liquigas), Giovanni Visconti (Lampre), Michelle Scarponi (Radioshack) and Stefan Van Dijk (Rabobank). The group of 8 riders soon opened a big gap, what meant that the bunch had to start the chase soon. At the beginning of the long climb to Saragiolo they still had an advantage of 6’ 20’’.
Discovery was the team that was doing the bigger part of the work to chase the escapees. By the time they reached the top of Saragiolo the gap had reduced to 4’ 10’’. However, that also meant that quiet a lot of riders lost touch with the main group, including Frank Schleck.
Denis Menchov surprises everyone by attacking with 43 kilometers to go. The peloton had just started climbing the Croce di Fighine so this is a very bold (or suicidal) move by the Russian.
The riders start the strade bianche just before the KoM sprint of the Croce di Fighine. They still had 2’ 55’’ on the bunch, so if they can go fast through the descent they stand a good chance. Meanwhile, the attack by Menchov was brief and he was caught a couple of kilometers after attacking.
Ballan attacks from the break with 15 kilometers to go. By that time it’s clear that the win is in the break, as the peloton took things easy through the strade bianche and is now losing more than 3 minutes.
Ballan’s attack wasn’t successful but he eliminated 3 riders from the group. 4 other riders would fight for the stage win in the climb to Orvieto: Van Summeren, Bozic, Van Avermaet and Visconti.
Johan Van Summeren wins in Orvieto! The Quickstep rider left Ballan behind in the tough slopes with 1.5 kilometers to go and held to that advantage in the last meters. Behind them, Giovanni Visconti took the third place in the stage.
Pieter Weening attacked from the peloton in the last few kilometers and was able to take a nice gap on the other favorites of more than 1 minute. He took the 6th spot in today’s stage after overtaking some of the breakaway riders in the last kilometer.
Alessandro Ballan is now the leader of the Giro. Considering the stages that follow he could well hold to the pink jersey until the stage in Sicily, where he will probably struggle to keep up with the best in the climbs to the Etna. Behind him, Johan Van Summeren is only 3 seconds behind.
jt1109 wrote:
Has anyone seen the World Champ from last year yet Van Leijen has been invisible so far!
I have barely seen him myself... and I watch the full stages. It seems like the wearer of the rainbow jersey has some kind of curse in this story. Danielson did nothing last year but a 4th in Plouay and Van Leijen has done nothing.
The arrival to Fiuggi can be quite interesting, as the small climb that leads to the Italian town can be quite interesting. Moreover, there is a small but steep hill with 20 kilometers to go that could allow for a late attack. This is a long stage where the puncheurs should be keen to take.
A group of 7 riders were in today’s break, including: Alberto Contador (Euskaltel), Rigoberto Uran (Sky), Jurgen Roelandts (Quickstep) and Denis Galimzyanov (BMC). The stage was really long again today, so they were going to need a lot of stamina to reach the finish. With 120 kilometers to go they had a gap of 9’ 20’’.
The break was about to be caught in the penultimate hill. Bjorn Leukemans and Lars Ytting Bak were setting the pace in front of the bunch, what made many riders suffer after such a long stage.
Uran attacked in the break just before the rest of the riders in it were caught. As he is already in the climb towards Fiuggi the Colombian still has 40 seconds on the peloton. With 8 kilometers to go, Discovery and Lotto are chasing hard.
Bjorn Leukemans tried to bridge the gap to Uran in the last kilometers. With 3 km to go the Colombian had 15 seconds on the Belgian and 30’’ on the bunch.
Leukemans was reeled back in as Janez Brajkovic started a tremendous sprint followed by Alexandre Vinokourov and Hubert Dupont. However, Uran still holds a small advantage with 1 kilometer to go. It is going to be a close call.
Janez Brajkovic wins in Fiuggi! The Slovenian continues his fantastic season by winning in the Giro, where he is not going to have many opportunities. Behind Brajkovic, Hubert Dupont takes some bonus seconds by finishing seconds and Alexandre Vinokourov was third. Rigoberto Uran cracked in the last kilometer and was overtaken by many riders.
Alessandro Ballan will keep the pink jersey ahead of tomorrow’s mountain top finish in Montevergine di Mercogliano. The Italian will be the first rider to keep the leader’s jersey for two consecutive days. It is difficult to predict the outcome of tomorrow’s stage, but Ballan could well hold with the best in the not too demanding last climb.
The first mountainous test of the season arrives at stage 7. This is a very short stage with the climbs to the Serra de la Strada and Montevergine. The climb to Montevergine is rather long at 17.7 kilometers averaging 5.1%. However, being a very constant climb few gaps are expected to open in the finish.
It was surprising that Giovanni Visconti (Lampre) filtered in the break of the day. The Italian is third overall, but clearly the favorites don't see him as a threat. In the group of 6 were with him riders like the World Champion Joost Van Leijen (Rabobank) and Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack). They had 2' 20'' on the bunch as they started the climb to the Serra della Strada.
The leading group was through the KoM sprint with Visconti leading and defending his mountain jersey. Liquigas is chasing in the peloton to defend Ballan's jersey, they are 1' 50'' behind the leaders in the top of the mountain.
Frank Schleck (RadioShack) suffered another fall in the descent and abandons the Giro. The Luxembourgish was having a miserable Giro after the first crash in the third stage, so he can now concentrate on recovering for the Dauphine. Other riders involved in this crash were the Lotto riders Daniel Martin and Andre Greipel.
The attacks started with 10 kilometers to go, as Marco Marcato, Xavi Tondo and Jelle Vanendert tried to pull away. However, they were not very successful. By that time, the gap of the break was down to only 40 seconds so it looked bad for them.
Giovanni Visconti was the only man ahead of the peloton with 5 kilometer remaining. The pace of the bunch was high due to the work of Chris Froome and some Discovery riders. The Italian still had 30 seconds at that point and was doing a great climb.
Cadel Evans (Discovery) reeled Visconti back in with less than 3 to go. There were gaps starting to open in the peloton, but no attacks had proved successful so far.
Pieter Weening (HTC) attacks with less than 1.5 km to go and is able to leave the bunch. Dries Devenyns, Hubert Dupont and Bauke Mollema try to follow the Dutch, who appears to have good legs in this final part of the climb.
Pieter Weening wins in Montevergine di Mercogliano! The HTC rider wins with an explosive attack in the last couple of kilometers. This is the first win of the season for the Dutch, who presents his candidacy to win the Giro. Weening already won the first mountain top finish in the Vuelta last year, though last year he made much more of an impact by winning with more than 1 minute advantage.
Behind Weening, Hubert Dupont arrived 8 seconds later, while the rest of the bunch made it through the finish 19 seconds behind. Alessandro Ballan will keep the pink jersey one more day but Weening is already very close for the stage finishing at the Etna.
Hubert Dupont is the best Grand Tour rider so far. He has won the two that have been raced so far in this story: 2009 Tour de France and 2010 Vuelta a España. He also got 2 stages in each of the tours, so his overall balance can't be better.
However, his critics argue that he is too conservative whenever he faces a race. He hasn't shined in any other race apart from the Paris - Nice 2 years ago. Moreover, he hasn't any stage victory outside the Grand Tours. Even in those, he only can win in the last week. This attitude almost cost him the Vuelta, as he only got the overall victory by winning the 19th stage when everyone thought Pieter Weening would be taking the overall win.
Dupont hasn't done anything relevant ahead of the Giro this year, even though the climbers had terrain to prove themselves in Paris - Nice, Catalunya and Pais Vasco. He is anyway the main favorite to take the overall win of the Giro this year. This year the competition should be much closer than last, so the French would do well not to leave everything to do for the stage of the Finestre.
Wins:
2009
- 1st Paris - Nice
- 1st Points Jersey Paris - Nice
- 1st Stages 17 and 19 Tour de France
- 1st Tour de France
- 1st Points Jersey Tour de France
2010
- 1st Stages 17 and 19 Vuelta a España
- 1st Vuelta a España
Other notable results:
- 9th 2009 Giro di Lombardia
- 4th 2010 Tour de Romandie
- 6th 2010 GP Ouest France - Plouay
- 9th 2011 Volta a Catalunya
- 8th 2011 Vuelta al Pais Vasco
A very flat stage takes us south along the western coast of Italy to leave the riders close to the island of Sicily where they will have to climb the Etna twice tomorrow. Today's stage is again over 200 kilometers, what is giving the riders a good deal of fatigue in the first week. It could be though that this is a stage for the sprinters, but a small hill with 1.5 kilometers to go could upset some of them.
The break of the day had 5 riders today, including Simon Gerrans (Quickstep), Luis Leon Sanchez (Euskaltel) and Andre Greipel (Lotto). They had a long run ahead of them, but they managed to open a good gap of 8' 45'' with 118 km to go so the bunch would have to work to catch them.
Simon Gerrans got through the intermediate sprint ahead, but he was only 15 seconds and close to being caught as had been the rest of the riders in the break. Brajkovic sprinted ahead of Vinokourov to get points and bonus seconds.
The sprint trains were at full speed with a bit more than 3 kilometers to go. Van Summeren is leading Devenyns and in the Discovery train Rast is leading Brajkovic. Vinokourov has the wheel of the Slovenian with Rojas and Goss behind. Farrar is nowhere to be seen, but the small climb if a big difficulty for him.
Quite a messy sprint in the uphill part with Pavel Brutt leading the way ahead of Dries Devenyns, Alexandre Vinokourov and Janez Brajkovic. Many riders are progressing from behind.
Hubert Dupont wins in Tropea! The Saxo Bank leader blasts past all the puncheurs and takes the stage win ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov and Janez Brajkovic. The French wasn't one of the favorites to take the win today but he proves that he is in top shape for this Giro.
Surprisingly, there was a break in the peloton in the climb. The bunch arrived there stressed by the wind and some favorites lost 1 minute. Among those who were in the second group: Steven Kruijswijk, Xavi Tondo, Cadel Evans, Chris Froome or Bauke Mollema.
The first pure mountain stage of the Giro takes place in the island of Sicily. A double climb to the Etna volcano awaits the riders through two different sides of the colossus. Both climbs are more than 20 kilometers long, so the climbers will have plenty of chances to attack.
The break of the day was pretty strong, with 9 riders including: Rigoberto Uran (Sky), Rinaldo Nocentini (Katusha), Oliver Zaugg (BMC), Tony Gallopin (Quickstep) and Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto). Halfway through the first climb to the Etna (95 km to go) they had 5’ 05’’ on the bunch. The main group was taking things easy for now.
Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre) and Chris Horner (Liquigas) attacked with 10 km remaining of the first climb. They soon opened a good gap and crossed the KoM sprint 1’ 50’’ ahead of the peloton. Meanwhile, the break had crossed 4 minutes ahead of the duo.
The Radioshack leader, Jean-Christophe Peraud, suffered a fall in the descent that also involved other riders like Tyler Farrar, Andy Schleck and Laurens Ten Dam. Several Radioshack riders dropped from the bunch to put Peraud back in contention.
The break starts the final climb with only 8 riders, as Uran was dropped. The Sky rider wasn’t felling good today. The bunch starts the climb losing 4’ 30’’, what gives the break a very good chance of taking something from the stage. Meanwhile, Peraud’s group is losing 7’ 25’’.
Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) was the first important rider to attack. The main group had still 13 km to the finish, so this was pretty bold. Mikel Nieve and Damiano Cunego jumped behind but they never opened a significant gap. Meanwhile, the break chances of success were increasing, as they still had 3’ 45’’.
Several other attacks happened and it left a group of 8 ahead: Nieve, Mollema, Hincapie, Leipheimer, Cunego, Vanendert, Evans and Devenyns. The remainder of the main group was losing 45 seconds on them with 8 kilometers remaining. Meanwhile, Rob Ruijgh attacked in the break and took 30 seconds on the others.
Rob Ruijgh (Rabobank) was doing a great climb. When he had 5 kilometers to the summit he was already 1’ 30’’ ahead of the other riders from the break. This group was about to be caught by the favorites group. Weening and Dupont had reacted, so the size of the favorites group had grown to 10 riders.
Hubert Dupont (Saxo Bank) started setting the pace in the favorites group and riders started dropping immediately. The first to lose contact were Dries Devenyns, George Hincapie, Damiano Cunego and Cadel Evans. However, Ruijgh was holding very well in the front.
Rob Ruijgh wins in Mount Etna! The Rabobank rider gets a very surprising win from the break, as he wasn’t even a favorite among the other riders of the break. This a very nice way to win his first professional win, in the first mountain stage of the Giro.
Dupont left everyone behind but Weening, and in the final sprint the Dutch took advantage of the work of Dupont and outsprinted him for the second place. They both arrived 38 seconds behind Ruijgh. Behind them, Mollema, Leipheimer and Nieve crossed the line 59 seconds behind Ruijgh. The bad news of the day were for Peraud and Radioshack. The French crossed the line 10 minutes later and said goodbye to his chances of a podium place in Milan.
Pieter Weening is the new leader of the Giro, 1’ 18’’ ahead of Hubert Dupont. Mikel Nieve, Levi Leipheimer and Rob Ruijgh are 2’21’’ behind Weening. This Giro looks set to be a replay of the fight for the victory we had last year in the Vuelta between Weening and Dupont.
We had a big transfer yesterday from the island of Sicily to Termoli, a town close to the Adriatic Sea. The stage that takes us to Teramo is very easy and not long at all. The route follows the sea north until 25 kilometers to the finish, when the route turns west towards Teramo.
A kind of big break took shape today in the first kilometers of the stage. The group of 12 riders had some good riders like: Alberto Contador (Euskaltel), Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank), Jurgen Roelandts (Quickstep), Denis Galimzyanov (BMC) and Anthony Roux (Liquigas). The wind was not an issue today, though the stage was along the coast and the break soon opened a gap of 5’ 50’’ with 90 km to go.
The bunch was a little slow to react today and with 10 kilometers to go, they were still 45 seconds behind the break. Alberto Contador attacked at that point and Jurgen Roelandts was the first that tried to follow the Spaniard.
Contador wasn’t successful, but other fellow Spaniard, Dani Moreno (Movistar), attacked and got to the last 3 km with a small gap on Kenny van Hummel (12 seconds) and the peloton (25 seconds).
Moreno reached the last kilometer 6 seconds ahead, but as the sprint started he was chased down by the bunch. John Degenkolb, Dries Devenyns, Pieter Weening and Jose Joaquin Rojas fought for the stage win. It was strange not seen many sprinters in front.
Pieter Weening wins in Teramo! A much surprising win, as Weening beats the sprinters in one of the easiest stages of the Giro. Farrar’s fall in the Etna must have hampered his chances, but other riders like Goss and Vinokourov were nowhere to be seen.
Devenyns and Rojas came behind the Dutch in a day were the only changes in the GC were the bonus seconds by some riders. Weening is dominating now the mountain and points classification, as well as the GC.
After a quiet day, the Giro continues its journey north looking for the Dolomites. Today’s stage is fairly short but very difficult to control. There are not big climbs, but the route is a continuous up and down of hills with for of them categorized as KoM sprints. The question mark is whether some of the main favorites will look to gain an advantage in the last climbs.
A very big group of 14 riders had a good advantage going through the first KoM sprint of the day, Monte. There were some good riders like Sylvain Chavanel (Quickstep), who took the KoM points, Joost van Leijen (Rabobank), Giovanni Visconti (Lampre), Tom Danielson (Garmin), Pavel Brutt (Katusha) or Matthias Frank (Liquigas). They had 3 minutes on the bunch, but still 98 difficult kilometers ahead of them.
A group of four quality riders: Leukemans, Phinney, Ten Dam and Horner, tried to bridge the gap to the break. In the climb of Rapagnano, 56 km to go, they were 2’ 35’’ behind the leading group. Meanwhile, the peloton was already losing 5’ 05’’.
The bunch took things easy today, so the break reached the intermediate sprint of Recanati with 3’ 45’’. Some riders had dropped from the break, which now had 11 riders to fight for the stage win. The riders that were trying to bridge the gap gave up eventually as they wouldn’t make it to the front group.
The former World Champion, Tom Danielson (Garmin), tried a solo attack in the last 5 kilometers. He never opened a big gap and was riding 13’’ ahead before the climb to Castelfidardo.
Danielson kept the lead in the last km, but Davide Rebellin and Jakob Fuglsang were trailing close. Pavel Brutt also tried to close the gap, but the rest of the group had little strength.
Davide Rebellin wins in Castelfidardo! The Italian gets his first win of the season. This is also the first win of the new Spanish outfit. Behind Rebellin, the strongest in the last climb were Jakob Fuglsang and Giovanni Visconti. Danielson tried hard but in the end run out of gas.
No favorite tried an attack in the last few kilometers, as they seem to be saving energies for the very tough weekend. Levi Leipheimer led the group through the line, but the last climb wasn’t done at a high pace.
No changes happened today in the GC, but Jean-Christophe Peraud lost time again as he has picked up an injury due to his fall in the Etna. Radioshack is having a really poor season, although they have managed 3 stage wins, and the falls by their two best climbers isn’t helping.
