Pellizotti, roturn: Well I'm going to count it as a Quadruple. E3, GW, RvV and PR! But yeah you get a nice little accolade of the 'Flanders triple'. Cancellara's other targets are now the World ITT and also the Giro di Lombardia. That counts as 3 of the 5 major classics.
Squire: Welcome aboard, I can but only admire others enthusiastically reporting about the Tour of Oman and the Mallorca series. But PCM10's repeat stages make those type of races hard to love. Great to have you aboard.
DarioCataldo: I will probably do the Giro in parts, but yeah following the Ardennes I will do Romandie as one whole, with a brief word about Giro del Trentina and Castille Y Leon.
Tuco: Its Frank for the Ardennes only, took the decision to seperate the Schleck boys. Though Andy may have been useful he is attempting the Giro/Tour double. Porte will go to the Vuelta with Frank Schleck, but Porte will be tested out on the Dauphine and other short stage races this year while he develops a bit more.
Thanks for all your encouragement here is the first of the Ardennes races coming up.
Following on from the cobbled classics comes three hilly races in Holland and Belgium. The contenders for these races tend those that have shown some form in the early races, the Tour of the Basque, Paris Nice and Tirrano Adritico in particular. Though plenty of other riders prefer to prepare in slightly different fashion. It isn't always the strongest rider who wins these, it comes down to tactics too.
It is usual to see riders have a go at all three despite the fact they are all tough races held within a week. The biggest trophy is undoubtably 'La Doyenne' at the end of the week, with longer climbs it tends to favour the stage racer type over your typical punchaer. The Fleche Walloone in the middle of the week is possibly the least demanding parcours overall but the finishing climb up the Muy de Huy is a horrific slog that calls for impeccable overall strength and good timing. The opening Amstel Gold race has lots of little hills and finishes up the steep but fairly short Cauberg.
Here are a list of favourites for these races:
Alexandre Vinokorourov - Winner of Tour down Under, Volta and Tour of the Basque already this year. Not only has the Kazach won those races he has also won the harder stages within those as well. Look the strongest on the Poggio at the Milan San Remo too, the only question is whether his form can hold on. His attacking temperament could also work against him also.
Frank Schleck - Paris Nice winner and number one threat to Vino at Basque tour, in fact if it had not been for Time Trials would have run the Kazach close there. Poor bike handler and lacks a sprinters kick making it tough for him to win out of any sort of group.
Damiano Cunego - the little prince has been quietly building his form. Was there and thereabouts at the Basque tour and that finishing kick is in there somewhere. Lampre will work their butts off for him and Cunego seems to have accepted that these type of races suit him best now.
Serguei Ivanov - Leads Katusha's numerous headed threats, though which one is on best form is anyones guess. Kolobnev was superb at Tirrano Adritico, whilst Rodriguez and Kirchen have gone well in the Ardennes in the past.
Sammy Sanchez - Actually is skipping the Amstal Gold race, as he tunes up in the Spanish stage race Castille y Leon. He wins that one so clearly in form for these, the Olympic champ definately has the ability to win one of these but often disappoints here.
Ryder Hesjadel - The Garmin man has already won a couple of hilly races this year against good opposition. Rode a strange one at Milan San Remo, but clearly prepared to give it a go.
Simon Gerrans - Flecha flattered to decieve on cobbles, but the Aussie punchaer should improve on his top 10's last year in these. Has been getting in breakaways to take stage wins which usually suggest scrapping for a bit of form. Nethertheless one to be watched!
There are numerous other squads that have a couple of decent shouts... Quickstep, HTC, Liquigas, and Radioshack have some good names here including the likes of Armstrong and Basso. Slightly disappointing that there is no sign of Phillipe Gilbert for Omega Pharma and lets face it Andy Schlecks and Berti Contadors decision to race the Tour of Romandie instead is a bit of a blow!
Anyway on to the Amstal...here is the full startlist
Early break includes Konovilinos (Cervelo), Petrov (Katusha, Dyachenko (Astana), Carlstrom (Sky), Mondhury (AG2r) and Busche (Radoshack). It's going to be well marshalled and despite having a nice lead of 4 minutes at 200km, its reeled in by some good pace work by Bellis and Steenson of Saxobank. Time for a more serious move then...
Peter Velits (HTC), Vandevelde (Garmin) and Kirylenka (Caisse), good names for sure but Saxobank are keeping this pace really high. 100km to go and 118 riders are left, with names like Millar, Du Gregerio and LL Sanchez all dropped already. A third break is now off with 60 km to go...
Wegmann is main protagonist, Hermans (Radioshack), Langeveld (Rabobank) and Kroon (BMC). Kroon is definitely an outside hope for Holland. With 25km to go the break has been controlled, it is dangling at 40 seconds, as Pineau (Quickstep) tries to bridge.
Alas these names are not good enough, however the ever attacking Vino now explodes the Amstal Gold.
But too many riders are here as first Sky.
and then the powerful and hungry Katusha boys nab back the Kazach... 10km to go and Saxo decide this is the time for Frankie...
He is chased by Chavenel, Cunego and Vino with Katusha still doing the donkey work...
and they get Frank.
Katusha does a job its kinda a mass sprint, but it favours those in front.
Cunego is good for this one comfortably beating Vino. Frank finishes an Okay 4th. Late headway was made by Nocentini who scrmbled past Frank for the final podium spot.
Cunego gave everyone a good lamping in Holland as the happy hilly classics men moved into to Belgium. We were all joined by the Euskatel squad proper who had the good grace to turn up with a half decent squad here following Sammy Sanchez's impressive victory in the Castille Y Leon stage race.
He is a good bet here as he as a fine kick, which Fleche Walloon will surely come to on the last climb. Its a shorter race, but the hills are definitely tougher as things are building up towards La Doyenne at the end of the week.
No chance for Frank? Well the Muy de Huy isn't quite that simple its a case of timing and we saw at Paris Nice on the climb to Mende he can win on this type of terrain.
The great hilly classics men are here but the whole media circus focussed all their intention on a certain Radioshack rider. No problems, we can just concentrate on racing.
Disgracefully BMC only turned up with five riders. at least one got in the first break.
It's not the break of the day because guess who (Saxobank) was making this race a properly selective one. So a second break went clear later on.
Ven de Walle (Quickstep), Kessiekoff (Garmin), Van Goolen (Omega Pharma), Vaugranard (FdJ) and.... Armstrong (Radioshack). Instantly the internet dies...
Fortunately cycle racing continues as commentators bang on about loving and loathing Lance, Saxobank simply reel it in with 50km to go. The peleton are starting to dislike everyones favourite German now as he puts killer pace on...
Just 62 riders left in peleton, Wegmann, Nibali, Boessen Hagan and LL Sanchez are some of the big names dropped. But Lampre (for Cunego) and Astana (for Vino) still look impressively strong.
Undeterred Nocentini (3rd at Amstal) decides today he will make his move...
Joquian Rodriguez makes Katushas play by responding and almost ineviatably Vino makes his move.
This is all well before the big last climb, it does seem foolish but we have seen this before from Vino and well Saxo are pretty used up. Luckily Euskatel are here to chase for their hope Sammy Sanchez.
But Vino still has a gap going in to the last climb.
But those early slopes are causing the Kazach to grit his teeth, Frank Schleck calmly moves side by side with the Astana man.
As the Muy de Huy bites Frank moves away.
No-one else can get close, a great and very satisfying win!
Here we go then the true monument of the hilly spring classics is here and we have seen Vinokourov, F. Schleck and Damiano Cunego in prime form. Some of the other riders have some making up to do, this race is a bit different from the other two Ardennes races. It's more tactical and is unlikely to just simply come to the last climb. Lets examine the parcours...
There are numerous places where one could place an attack the hills at the end all have names that this writer can never remember like Cote Santa Claus and the Climb of many doubts and things like that. They are actually in pretty unscenic areas of Belgium (and lets be truthful, Belgium is a fairly unscenic place!), but the racing tends to be of the most exciting and often unpredictable. The startlist reveals not too many surprises...
It's certainly made Lance's last season in that horrible nasty European continent list and hell even BMC have bothered to send a full squad!
This one will be hard to predict apart from that Vinokourov will be very strong that's been a universal constant, I would expect a decent challenge from Liquigas and Euskatel here though. They have both spent their star riders up here for a reason surely....
Onto the race I will briefly mention the early breakaway, who shall I mention I know Konovalinos (Cervelo) he seems to be popping up in lots of breakaways...
Saxobank rather overeagerly pull this back with 140km to go. A bit silly as this encourages some good riders to have a go.
Igor Anton for instance. He is joined by Nicholas 'not quite your father' Roche, Michele 'hard to like' Scarponi, Popo 'wasted years' vich, Konstantin 'how do you spell your second name' Siutsou and Vasili 'Surely will break through one day' Kirylenka....
these guys are pretty serious, but they are left to hang by the all too familiar sight of a lone Saxo man ahead of massed ranks of Lampre riders
With about 60 km to go this break are caught and heavy Saxo riding reduces the peleton to 54 riders. Perhaps the biggest name dropped is Andreas Kloden, well he doesn't wanna be leader anyway! It's here that Saxo make a new type of move Voigt actually powers away from the reduced front group.
We can see now that Liquigas are the new team on the block, Kreuzinger is doing a great job of chasing an on fire Voigt.
Now then here goes J. Rodriguez with 22 km to go, this is the type of move that bears friut in this race.
It provokes a desired response as Basso, Le Mevel and yes you guessed it Vino are making a move away from the peleton. Sammy Sanchez and Cunego also sneak off, Schleck misses it and after a bit of faffing about tries to bridge as well...
The power group of six (Rodriguez, Vino, Cunego, Sanchez, Basso and Le Mevel) are not going to let themselves get caught... unfortunately for Cunego he crashes on the descent of Saint Nick. So its now five men, Rodriguez opens up the sprint...
The challenge is expected to come from Sammy Sanchez but he cannot make his way round the true champion of the first third of the season..
Alexandre Vinokourov! Gotta give him credit really, the winner of the Volta and the Basque tour has been by far and away the most consistent rider.
Saxo screwed up in the last 20 kilometres, though they knew they had to find a truly decisive moment to get Frank completely away from the pack. It did not arrive, we probably were guilty of putting too much on too soon. Still Frank should have made the lead group bah!
Pellizotti - It wasn't such a bad Ardennes campaign, the Fleche win was very satisfying. I was happy enough with the Amstal Gold race, made it selective at least just went a bit too early with Frank. Wegelius was a very big surprise at FW, also Le Mevel was 5th, 5th and 4th that's surprising.
Tuco - Yeah for a sub target not too bad, Frank may be listed as favourite but he sucks going downhill and any advantage on climbs he loses there plus as we all know he isn't really a sprinter!
Valverde: Not quite sure its a masterpiece, I am pretty pleased with the story so far. Just gotta to be careful not to overstep the mark
Following a highly successful spring with King Cancellara in supreme form completing the rare Flanders triple and Schleck the elder nabbing Paris Nice, along with an excellent Fleche Wallone Saxobank were certainly sitting very nicely going into the first of three grand tours.
Our big gamble towards world domination was to try and give ourselves a realistic attempt at all three GTs in a year. Those nasty Schlecks forming new team rumours refuse to go away and this could be the last year to do it. So Schleck the younger missed the Ardennes to concentrate on a modern day mad mission of the Giro-Tour double.
Saxo's formula for Giro success would involve first two preperationary races, firstly at the Castille y Leon Spanish stage race. One of those small Spanish stage races that has not fallen by the wayside, we all know this is where Lance broke his collerbone last year but it involves some good racing. The second race would be the Giro del Trentino, one that riders like Gibo Simoni like to use as prep for the Giro proper and frankly who would want to argue with him.
So Castille y Leon went like this...
Spoiler
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
18h59'46
2
Michele Scarponi
Androni Giocattoli - Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni
+ 22
3
Andy Schleck
Team Saxo Bank
+ 43
Player
4
Daniel Navarro
Astana
+ 48
5
Levi Leipheimer
Team RadioShack
+ 1'08
11
Lance Armstrong
Team RadioShack
+ 2'59
29
Matti Breschel
Team Saxo Bank
+ 10'36
Player
32
Jakob Fuglsang
Team Saxo Bank
+ 11'36
Player
whereas Trentino went more like this...
In those races part of the Giro master squad was coming together, with Andy Schecks chief domestique being Jacob Fuglsang. Meanwhile we were being honest when we said Breschel was going to go into the Giro as points jersey hope, he as well as Aussie champ Baden Cooke and also Dane hill hater Alex Rasmussen would form a fairly formidible sprint squadron.
The other riders shortlisted for the Giro would be ardennes hard hitters...
Nikki Sorenson, Jens Voigt, Gustav Erik Larsson and youngster Jonny Bellis.
A fairly strong outfit in what is a tough Giro route that includes a fairly length TTT on the 3rd proper stage.
The last get together and training race was to be the Tour of Romandie - which usually favours a decent climbing TTer. This year's parcours suggested that this edition would be no different.
It's a strange one often Giro wannebes don't like to quite hit top form here and its usually someone else who nips in gets a nice win. Either a Tour candidate wanting to test themselves (such as Cadel Evans) or a youngster trying to impress (such as Richboy Kreuzinger).
Considering the lack of Mountain top finishes the Romandie organisers must have been pinching themselves at this amazing startlist...
Needless to say media interest at Contador vs Schleck part one was pretty high! Saxobank media moguls were quick to point out that the parcours certainly didn't favour young Andy and indeed the lack of mountain top finish had some speculating that perhaps Menchov, Kloden, Kirchen, Nibali or even a coming in to shape Bruseghin would perhaps nick this one.
None of those excellent TTers could match this young German on the opening 4km sillyness...
The hilly second stage got rid of Tony Martin mind you and Kim Kirchen made up in some way for Katusha's disappointing Ardennes campaign by winning stage two and almost slapping fast finishing Boesson Hagan while he was at it.
Allan Davis had come along for the one sprint offering on stage 3.
Before a TT proper on stage four, would test the main men. It was clear from this day that Kim Kirchen had fulfilled the role of Romandie's chosen one. Oh well if Andy's not gonna win can't complain about another Luxembourger!
The stage results bear some analysis, Contador is looking quite tasty but Schleck has gotta be encouraged by this showing. The major questions are which of his rivals are going to the Giro?
Spoiler
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
Kim Kirchen
Team Katusha
32'51
2
Alberto Contador
Astana
+ 26
3
Gustav Erik Larsson
Team Saxo Bank
+ 28
Player
4
Andreas Klöden
Team RadioShack
+ 34
5
Denis Menchov
Rabobank
+ 44
6
Jens Voigt
Team Saxo Bank
+ 49
Player
7
Tony Martin
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 52
8
Marzio Bruseghin
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 54
9
Andy Schleck
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
10
Geraint Thomas
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 59
11
Marco Pinotti
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 1'03
13
Michael Rogers
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 1'10
16
Vincenzo Nibali
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
17
Yaroslav Popovych
Team RadioShack
+ 1'13
18
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 1'15
19
Jakob Fuglsang
Team Saxo Bank
+ 1'19
Player
25
Michele Scarponi
Androni Giocattoli - Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni
s.t.
29
Robert Gesink
Rabobank
+ 1'34
30
Óscar Pereiro
Astana
+ 1'37
46
Matti Breschel
Team Saxo Bank
+ 1'59
Player
52
Baden Cooke
Team Saxo Bank
+ 2'05
Player
57
Gilberto Simoni
Lampre - Farnese Vini
+ 2'09
71
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 2'18
80
Alex Rasmussen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 2'22
Player
94
Emanuele Sella
CarmioOro NGC
+ 2'36
97
Nicki Sørensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 2'37
Player
130
Allan Davis
Astana
+ 3'01
176
Andrea Masciarelli
Acqua & Sapone - D'Angelo & Antenucci
+ 4'04
Stage 5 had been touted as the queen stage and while most had poo poo ed the lack of a mountain top finishs. This was a real opportunity to get out on the Swiss Alps and to some good old fashioned racing.
Saxo were winding this up and forced a pretty severe selection of 14 riders, all your favourites are there. But not so in the next shot at the top of the last climb.
Thats Contador in green at the front, Nibali in green, Kirchen in Yellow, Menchov in orange, Kloden in RS crappy colours and Schleck of course in white always the best young un! Kirchen being isolated from teammates struggled to hold on as did Kloden as Contador accelerates. Of course it don't matter for Klodi he don't wanna be the leader anyway!
Berti was uncomfortable at the Basque tour and he his back in his element here winning the stage and taking the overall.
I was so shocked with Charly Wegelius winning the last stage I didn't get a picture, but the GC results reveal a good win for Contador. Romandie chosen man Kirchen got second and Schleck fought hard to get a third place.
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
Alberto Contador
Astana
17h03'27
2
Kim Kirchen
Team Katusha
+ 26
3
Andy Schleck
Team Saxo Bank
+ 42
Player
4
Denis Menchov
Rabobank
+ 43
5
Vincenzo Nibali
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 58
6
Andreas Klöden
Team RadioShack
+ 1'00
7
Jakob Fuglsang
Team Saxo Bank
+ 4'22
Player
8
Robert Gesink
Rabobank
+ 4'46
9
Ben Hermans
Team RadioShack
+ 5'28
10
Gilberto Simoni
Lampre - Farnese Vini
+ 5'45
12
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 5'56
13
Jens Voigt
Team Saxo Bank
+ 6'53
Player
15
Michele Scarponi
Androni Giocattoli - Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni
+ 10'12
17
Marzio Bruseghin
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 10'27
19
Nicolas Roche
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 10'53
20
Marco Pinotti
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 11'29
41
Gustav Erik Larsson
Team Saxo Bank
+ 16'02
Player
44
Nicki Sørensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 16'51
Player
71
Emanuele Sella
CarmioOro NGC
s.t.
84
Matti Breschel
Team Saxo Bank
+ 23'33
Player
Message is clear Contador puts early Tdf marker. Andy meanwhile looks ready for the Giro, in a race with huge competition Andy more than held his own bring on the eye-talians!
So here we have it the first Grand Tour of the year and in some people's eyes sometimes the most exciting one to watch. The Giro tends to pack itself with mountains in the final week of the 21 stage marathon, but with plenty of traversable mountains up and down the nation it can lend itself to plenty of exciting stages.
Last year the organisers deviated slightly from the norm and did well to create an exciting race with the likes of Sastre, Basso, Armstrong, Garzelli and Menchov lighting up the race. The Russians excellent calculating performance landed him his third GT victory. His main challengers last year however were Di Luca and Pellizotti both now mired in doping scandels, that has dogged the best Italian riders this year.
So we are all waiting for this years startlist and here it is..
Andy Schleck's the main foreign threat to the Italians this year. Following the shamed Di Luca and Ricardo Ricco, the home public hope their threats this year are clean. The biggest two threats surely comes from one team as Liquigas present...
reformation man Ivan Basso, who after a trying year last year insists he now knows how to win clean (actually he is still insisting he was clean, but noone really believes that). He is a great staying climber and will be happy with the lack of TTs that creully exposed him as an also ran last year. His teammate Mr Nibbles...
surely has an about equal chance. We know he can win a GT (in rl), his stats reflect this but will team orders scupper his chances. Certainly Liquigas did themselves no favours in the year before with the Pellizotti/Basso rubbish plan can they work it out here. Kiserlowski, Szmyd and Bellotti give the team a reasonably well supported feel. Sagan can contribute, but it does feel that they should have chosen one of Chicchi and Sabatini and fitted a better TT man in there for the team test. The team squabbles invoke memories of this mans win.
Arguably the last clean Italian win (well very arguable coz Salvoldelli downhilled his way to one but I would argue it!). We all know that Cunego has since been exposed as this being a bit of a lucky win in a weak year, lets remind ourselves Popovich and Time Trial doping dude Honchar were main challengers. But Cunego will be bouyed by his Amstel Gold success and will be supported by the ever eager Lampre brigade including good old Simoni. Simoni's ex team Androni have this fella...
Who probably is best of the rest, the Italian wild card team has an excentric but usually pretty smart boss. Giro history does suggest that Italian based teams do well by hook or by crook. Scarponi will insist that he is no crook anymore and comes from the same blood batch as Basso yet seem more of an ugly media duckling. Still he is a gritty trier and could Surprise. Talking of surprising this guys...
transfer move was interesting. Seemed a bit disappointing to see him work for Cunego last year, but the Bruseghin somewhat favours the TTs. Still his climbing has improved a lot and he should be recognised as a valid challenger. Dominico Pozzovivo and Stefano Garzelli warrant a mention but probably not a picture, they have the full support of Italian teams but probably more of top 10 candidates. Marco Pinotti of HTC Columbia is another Italian with top 10 chances, but HTC don't really do GT GC's very well.
The rest of the foriegn legion are probably headlined by this belgian...
Not sure what his motive for being here is. Only the mad (myself) and Italians are attempting the Giro Tour double but Jurgen Van den Broeck is no doubt wheeling out the training excuse. Omega have strange plans this year that have seen no sign of Gilbert and Charly Wegilius producing some great results. Masterminded Jonathan Vaughters has Tom Danielson being talked up for the zillionth time, if anyone can get him to do something decent its our Jonny! The Armstrong squad have allowed Slovenian Brajkovic a chance to lead which is fair enough considering how he hauled Armstrong around Italy last time. Spains best hope lies with Arroyo (Caisse) and Oscar 'Will I/Won't I retire' Periero ... all together now he won the TdF don't you know!
We have some sprinters here, most would feel the sprint battle will be between...
Petacchi - controversy seems to be following this veteren around. He is still fast though! He will be challenged by this rather arrogant German.
You've also got McEwen, Loddo, Chicchi and Julian Dean. Curious choices some of these because there isn't many really pan flat stage's so sprints are going to be more for guys that can get up hills well. Androni's Ginanni and Astanas Gasparotto along with Saxo man Breschel could be more lilely stage winners.
Back to the route... the first couple of weeks will be tense with us starting in the first week in windy Holland, before transferring to Italy for a Team Time Test. The second weekend features some of this
Stade Bianchi, it's not quite as bad as Cobbles but may cause some problems. Also on the second weekend is the first mountain test, though the terminillo is nowhere near the nightmares awaiting the riders in the final week as they are hit with this..
Zoncalon, followed by this
Plan de Coranes.... then a little later this
Mortirolo and finally on the penultimate stage you have this
The Gavia, always immortalised by those horrendous snowy conditions.
I rather fancy it will be Saxo vs Liquigas. The Saxo machine are going to look to put a bit of space between Schleck and Basso on the TTT and the Strade Bianchi stage. Then it will be a case of being watchful for the Nibali/Basso double moves to come! As an aside it would be nice if I coud get Matti Breschel up to win a stage and Larsson or Voigt maybe would be outsiders for one of the two bookendning ITTs. Oh yeah the TTT is one we ought to do well in if I didn't suck at TTTs'.
Janne: I fear that a podium is not really good enough when you have Andy Schleck.But yeah a podium and a couple of stages at least.
Roturn: It'll be interesting to see whos at the second season Giro for you. I am pleased with the startlist seems real enough!
Frietas: Andy should be good enough he was pretty much smoking everyone off his wheel at Romandie - it was only because he simply sucks going downhill that he couldn't do more damage there.
LaMaglia Rosa: Lets hope Andy can take your avatar name, just hoping for no horrible daily form on key days!
Yeah we know Holland don't even border Italy, but you know how it is cycling has its three biggest tours in three countries and you have to spread the love. Besides Rabobank won the race last year, of course their team doesn't look up to much this year. Should be interesting to see how Ten Dam and Weening fare in the mountains, meanwhile Morenhoot and Posthuma are probably good bets for top 10s in the opening prologue.
We actually have a total of three days here, but after the opening 8km prologue its case of staying on your bike for two very flat days. This should give the sprinters at least a chance in the spotlight as they get precious little chance later on.
Prologue in Amsterdam
So things got going early on with wildcards Miche having the privilege of the first rider off. We know Miche as the team that gave Michael Rasmussan a chance to pollute the peleton, but here they have done well to keep ISD and Ricco's team out of the race! Let's see if they can make any type of contribution over the race Baliani is their best rider and he could be good for a stage win somewhere.
Prologues are always really setting the scene affairs in GTs with people always reading far too much into odd seconds lost here and there. Which is just as well because Saxobank didn't really have a great day here. The first serious time set by a real specialist Dave Zabriske
With Jens and Alex Rasmussan only able to get within 8 and 9 seconds of Davey Zee, it was pretty clear the Saxo sums were not working for this distance. Indeed when superkid Peter Sagan came in 4 seconds behind we knew that we had slightly underperformed. Of the main contenders, Vicenzo Nibali has a good ability against the clock and he showed this by just finishing inside teammate Sagan's time.
This was still three seconds slower than the moustached Garmin man and with the wind blowing and Larsson having a real stinker it was becoming clear who was going to pretty in pink later. Of course it could have been worse Janez Brajkovic went round like a freight train and came close...
but alas was 2 seconds down. Great start for Garmin this...
Spoiler
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
David Zabriskie
Garmin - Transitions
10'41
2
Janez Brajkovič
Team RadioShack
+ 2
3
Vincenzo Nibali
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 3
4
Peter Sagan
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 4
5
Ignatas Konovalovas
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
6
Jens Voigt
Team Saxo Bank
+ 8
Player
7
Alex Rasmussen
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
8
Marco Pinotti
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 9
9
Beñat Intxausti
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 10
10
Gustav Erik Larsson
Team Saxo Bank
+ 13
Player
11
Michele Scarponi
Androni Giocattoli - Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni
s.t.
12
Sébastien Rosseler
Team RadioShack
+ 14
13
Svein Tuft
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
14
Marzio Bruseghin
Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
15
Christophe Moreau
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 15
17
Tom Danielson
Garmin - Transitions
+ 16
21
Óscar Pereiro
Astana
+ 21
22
Andy Schleck
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
23
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
30
Damiano Cunego
Lampre - Farnese Vini
+ 26
34
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 29
35
Jakob Fuglsang
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
40
Stefano Garzelli
Acqua & Sapone - D'Angelo & Antenucci
+ 31
46
Baden Cooke
Team Saxo Bank
+ 33
Player
50
Alessandro Petacchi
Lampre - Farnese Vini
s.t.
53
David Arroyo
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 35
59
Gilberto Simoni
Lampre - Farnese Vini
+ 36
60
Fabio Sabatini
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 37
76
Domenico Pozzovivo
Colnago - CSF Inox
+ 40
79
Matti Breschel
Team Saxo Bank
+ 41
Player
100
André Greipel
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 46
107
Francesco Chicchi
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 47
116
Jonathan Bellis
Team Saxo Bank
+ 50
Player
119
Robbie McEwen
Team Katusha
+ 52
154
Nicki Sørensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 1'00
Player
180
Andrea Masciarelli
Acqua & Sapone - D'Angelo & Antenucci
+ 1'21
However not the best start for Saxo, but then no-one was going to win the Giro on day one. Nibali looks in fine form and indeed he was at Romandie and built this up through the Ardennes. Brajkovic is looking dangerous, but his longevity is suspect. Scarponi also a bit of a concern he is a real scrapper.
Stage One - Amterdam to Utrecht
The first road stage and the lack of wind made it look real simple, a case of tuning in for the last 10km surely? For the record we had a break of three riders... Muravyev (Radioshack), Pavarin (CSF) and Reimer (Cervelo).
With 50km to go they had a four minute lead, and it was Lampre and Liquigas who looked interested in propelling one of their men in the sprint. The break had no chance
Lets not forget the HTC boys, German powerhouse Grabsch is the sort of rider for a day like this. They had a good year last year with Cavendish taking a number of stages, of course that was before the British squad Sky came along and ensnared two of the last years Giro stars Lovkvist and Boesson Hagen. Second string man Griepal will be desperate to make his mark here.
Into the last 5km and whoops....
However its a Lampre rival that seem to be most punished as Androni leiutenents Jackson Rodriguez and Jose Serpa are hurt really badly and have to abandon. Disaster for Scarponi this before the Team Time Trial as well...
Meanwhile the sprint is dominated by Petacchi who wins by a country mile.
Breschel, Ginanni, Chicci and Griepal are just some of the names who finish very close together behind. Breschel managing an encouraging third place.
Stage two - Amsterdam to Middelburg
Its flat again, but a lot of guys are looking to snatch the Pink jersey via various means. Most likely either Davey Zee keeps it.
... or yesterdays stage winner Petacchi will nab it on bonifications, he needs to win the stage and the way he sprinted previously he looks good for that. But Garmin have a plan b here as Steven Cozza goes on a lone move.
snapping some bonifications, he isn't so far behind but then Bert Grabsch has the same idea moving away from peleton catching and dropping Cozza and grabbing some of his own.
But its all academic as it comes down to a sprint... it's much closer this time.
Petacchi just takes it though and yes the Italian will bring the Giro to his homeland with Pink on his back great stuff Alessandro!
