The last stage of this 97th edition of the Giro d'Italia brings the riders to Milano. The 138 kilometres are pancake flat.
59km to go
13 riders go in the BOTD today: Mirenda, Pate, Bazayev, Chiarini, Iriarte, Taborre, Pinotti, Marinangeli, Cornu, Facchini, Loubet, Martens and Durán. With 59km to go, their margin to the peloton is 5'57.
6km to go
Team Radio Shack doesn't feel like working hard to chase the BOTD. We neither, simply because this is the best way to prevent Edvald Boasson Hagen in winning the stage, and thus secure the Maglia Rosso. And Dexia and Garmin realize with 35km to go, when the margin is 8'15, that it's up to them to let the stage end in a mass sprint. But too late!
And in the last stage, we see unfortunately the last stage of this Giro. Luckily, none of the victims has to abandon the Giro, only 6km before it ends. GC's number 4 Rein Taaramäe is one of the riders that crashes, but he maintains is position in the GC.
Finish
Riccardo Chiarini wins the sprint of 13, pretty easily, and wins the 2nd stage for Androni Giocattoli. Fabio Taborre finishes in 2nd, with Sergio Marinangeli (Farnese Vini) in 3rd. Then the waiting starts for the peloton to finish, with all cameras aimed at the Maglia Rosa.
Edvald Boasson Hagen wins the sprint of the peloton at 1'30, showing we were right not to chase the BOTD. Vincenzo Nibali finishes in 30th place and wins his 3rd GT: Le Tour in 2012, La Vuelta in 2013 and now Il Giro in 2014!
Results
1
Riccardo Chiarini
Androni Giocattoli
3h12'15
2
Fabio Taborre
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
3
Sergio Marinangeli
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
4
Gianluca Mirenda
Lampre - Alitalia
s.t.
5
Paul Martens
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
6
Dominique Cornu
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
7
Patrick Facchini
Alitalia
s.t.
8
Arkaitz Durán
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
9
Assan Bazayev
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
10
Danny Pate
Sony Ericsson
s.t.
Today's Winner
Word from the DS
Maglia rosso!!!! And 3rd in the GC, amazing Giro for Kelderman!!
Wilco Kelderman had the best start of the favourites, but in the stage to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Vincenzo Nibali took over. Michele Scarponi was able to squeeze between them and took a 2nd place. Kelderman gets his 1st GT-podium, and this won't be the last.
Wilco Kelderman wins the U25-ranking, as expected. Only British Luke Rowe was able to stay near with, but he lost too much time in the first half of the Giro.
1
Wilco Kelderman
Petronas - Monster Energy
85h18'29
2
Luke Rowe
Qantas Airways
+ 21'10
3
Mikel Landa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 50'20
4
Peter Sagan
Petronas - Monster Energy
+ 1h23'43
5
Fabio Aru
Alitalia
+ 1h35'05
Teams
We also win the teams-ranking, simply because our riders were the most consistent ones.
1
Petronas - Monster Energy
257h12'17
2
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 27'24
3
Saxo Bank SunGard
+ 37'04
4
Lampre - Alitalia
+ 39'24
5
Sony Ericsson
+ 47'08
Overall Winner
Word from the DS
Where to start..... The entire team is very proud at Wilco Kelderman. In his first GT as a team leader, he could deal with the pressure, and made (almost) no mistakes. He started with a good prologue, and won the 4th stage to Campobasso. In the 9th stage to Carpegna, he took the GC-lead and was able to keep the Maglia Rosa for 4 more stages. The 2 Italians Nibali and Scarponi were too strong in the high mountains, but Kelderman did a great job, resulting in his first GT-podium.
Also to mention is Peter Sagan, who was close to a stage win a few times (3 times 2nd, 1 time 3rd), but lacked a bit of luck.
Edited by dienblad on 28-01-2013 18:55
3 stage wins, and only 1 weak moment in the 21 stages (the finish at the Croce D'Aune). He was the best climber, and also the best time trialist of the GC-contenders. Vincenzo Nibali brings the Giro-win to Sicily, his 3rd GT in 3 years time, making him member of an exclusive club of cyclists that have won all 3 GT's in their career.
2. Wilco Kelderman
He was the favourite to win the Maglia Bianca, and a candidate for the podium. But winning a stage, wearing pink for 5 stages, and finishing in 3rd place of the GC still must be a dream for Wilco Kelderman.
3. Edvald Boasson Hagen
The Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen won 4 of the first 7 stages. Unfortunately, a crash in the 9th stage injured him too much to add a 5th one to that. Nevertheless, he had a great Giro!
Flop 3
Igor Antón
Basque Igor Antón started the Giro out of form, but that form improved rapidly. He was approaching a podium position, but a crash in the descend of the Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo in stage 19 was the end of that dream.
Ivan Basso
13 was the unlucky number for Ivan Basso. The former winner of the Giro was riding pretty disappointing, but a crash in stage 13 was the end of his ambitions. A fractured coccyx can possibly be the end of his career.
Cadel Evans
The Giro of Cadel Evans had the similar story of Basso's Giro. A disappointing start of the Giro, with getting dropped at the hills, and a crash in stage 13, with also a fractured coccyx....
In the last week of the Giro, Germany's biggest stage race was organized: the 26th edition of the Bayern Rundfahrt. It is the first time the time participates, as the previous years, we raced the Ronde van België. Last year, Dutch Steven Kruijswijk won the race.
***Jack Bobridge, Vasily Karpets (Saxo Bank), Tony Martin (Red Bull),. ** Linus Gerdemann (Red Bull), Marcel Kittel, Dominic Klemme (Nutrixxion). * Mikhail Ignatiev (Glud), Roger Kluge (Rothaus), Joost Posthuma.
Our Goal
With a young team, a bad lead out train, and a sprinter not in his best form: a stage win and top 5 in the GC.
_______________________________________________________________________
Stage 1
The Bayern Rundfahrt starts with a long flat stage, with 2 hills in the last half. The 11-rider BOTD gets a margin of over 12 minutes, but the teams in the peloton keep looking at each other. All the teams expect us to lead the chase, but we want Red Bull (for Gerald Ciolek) to do it.
Consequently, the BOTD stays out of reach. Ingmar Dassler from the Nutrixxion Sparkasse-team has attacked in the final 15km and wins the stage (the other riders are 1 lap behind), his biggest career win. Kittel wins the sprint for the 12th place at 6'57. It looks like, the peloton (and GC-favourites) can put a cross through the GC-ambitions.
207 kilometres from Starnberg to Grassau, with some short steep hills in it. But the story of the stage is the same as yesterday. No team wants to or is able to chase the BOTD. This time, that BOTD contains only 3 riders, ith Finish Jussi Veikkanen being the strongest. Kittel again wins the peloton-sprint, this time for 4th place at 2'00.
Thomas Vedel Kvist (Glud & Marstrand) wins the sprint of the BOTD (11 riders), beating Roger Kluge and Blazej Janiaczyk. Kittel wins the peloton-sprint at 4'54.
It's not that we don't want to do the chase, but also that we can't do the chase with this team. We want to have a lead out man left, so we can't waste all our riders.
I've followed this story for a while but I never leave a comment, but from now on I will
The Giro was realy great, Kelderman has a great future in front of him. And next time you better race the Ronde van België again
Good luck in the next races.
Winners never quit, quitters never win.
It's difficult not to be happy when you're surrounded by Belgians. - Mark Cavendish
Riccardo Chiarini
Paul Martens
Dominique Cornu
Arkaitz Durán
Assan Bazayev
Danny Pate
Rein Taaramäe
Simon Spilak
Luke Rowe
Edvald Boasson Hagen
José Rujano
Saxo Bank SunGard
Alain Lauener
Nacer Bouhanni
Tomas Vaitkus
Piotr Kieblesz
Jussi Veikkanen
Vladimir Karpets
David Jai Crawford
