Tactics meeting
The first grand tour of the season is kicked off by a relatively short team time trial. The outcome of the stage will not have anything to say for the Giro's final outcome. A stage win here would have been nice, but if the cooperation, or lack thereof, in the Romandie TTT is anything to go by, we don't stand a chance.
The usually very strong Garmin team did a decent TTT, and finished 9th in the end.
The rythm of our team was much better than what was shown in Switzerland a couple of weeks ago, and our time held up for 6th place at the end of the day.
Giro favourite Ivan Basso is not in possession of the strongest time trialing team, and Liquigas rode in to a 13th place, 44 seconds behind the eventual winner.
Which was Team Columbia with their many national TT champions. Adam Hansen gets the honour of riding in the Maglia Rosa tomorrow.
Results
1 Team Columbia - High Road 24'51
2 Team Saxo Bank + 9
3 Rabobank + 11
4 Quick-Step + 22
5 AG2R La Mondiale + 28 6 Discovery Channel + 36
7 LPR Brakes Farnese Vini + 36
8 Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli + 37
9 Garmin - Slipstream + 38
10 Silence - Lotto + 41
Tactics meeting
A short, flat and boring stage where we don't have any chance to achieve a good result. Team Columbia will probably lead the stage towards a mass sprint finish.
As expected, the pack arrived at the finish in one piece, and the rider arriving a little faster than the others was Matthew Goss. That means pink jersey for the Australian tomorrow.
GC
1 Matthew Goss Team Saxo Bank 3h23'09
2 Marcel Sieberg Team Columbia - High Road + 11
3 Adam Hansen Team Columbia - High Road + 11
4 Frantisek Rabon Team Columbia - High Road + 11
5 Marco Pinotti Team Columbia - High Road + 11
6 Maxime Monfort Team Columbia - High Road + 11
7 Michael Albasini Team Columbia - High Road + 13
8 Tom Leezer Rabobank + 15
9 Mark Renshaw Team Columbia - High Road + 17
10 Michael Barry Team Columbia - High Road + 19
Tactics meeting
A stage completely like yesterday's, except we're riding 50km more. That shouldn't affect the outcome, which is likely to be another mass sprint.
Alessandro Ballan won the stage, but Matthew Goss keeps the pink jersey. This will be the last he shall see of it though, as we're heading into the mountains already tomorrow.
GC
1 Matthew Goss Team Saxo Bank 8h16'58
2 Marcel Sieberg Team Columbia - High Road + 11
3 Frantisek Rabon Team Columbia - High Road + 11
4 Marco Pinotti Team Columbia - High Road + 11
5 Maxime Monfort Team Columbia - High Road + 11
6 Michael Albasini Team Columbia - High Road + 13
7 Tom Leezer Rabobank + 15
8 Marcus Ljungqvist Team Saxo Bank + 19
9 Michael Barry Team Columbia - High Road + 19
10 Gustav Larsson Team Saxo Bank + 20
Stage 4 Padova - San Martino di Castrozza: 167.4km
Tactics meeting
The first mountain stage comes early, but luckily we don't begin with the hardest mountains. A 12km climb up to San Martino di Castrozza is a nice warm-up, and Brajkovic can test his climbing form.
Gusev was in the break of the day, and he and Ballan were the last to be reeled in by the peloton. That occured just before the start of the climb.
Tadej Valjavec and Michele Scarponi were the first to attack.
A group of four riders were chasing them: Igor Anton, Ivan Basso, Janez Brajkovic and Mauricio Soler. Six kilometers from the top, they were 30 seconds behind.
To kilometeres further up the road, Igor Anton was dropped.
With 2.5km remaining, Valjavec and Scarponi were caught. At the other end, Soler had to let go, and even Brajkovic began to look tired and had to give a little gap.
Scarponi was in the lead when the three leaders approached the finish.
Today's strongest was Ivan Basso, who sprinted away from the others and won Giro d'Italia's first mountain stage.
Janez Brajkovic came in 25 seconds behind Basso and took 4th place. It looks quite good before tomorrow's much harder mountain top finish, but it's a little disturbing that he had to let go of the leaders on today's fairly easy climb.
Today's winner
Results
1 Ivan Basso Liquigas 4h28'48
2 Michele Scarponi Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli + 0
3 Tadej Valjavec AG2R La Mondiale + 0 4 Janez Brajkovic Discovery Channel + 25
5 Mauricio Soler Barloworld + 50
6 Igor Antón Euskaltel - Euskadi + 1'16
7 Maxime Monfort Team Columbia - High Road + 1'16
8 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R La Mondiale + 1'45
9 Domenico Pozzovivo CSF Group - Navigare + 1'54
10 Luis León Sánchez Caisse d'Epargne + 1'54
GC
1 Tadej Valjavec AG2R La Mondiale 12h46'18
2 Ivan Basso Liquigas + 4
3 Michele Scarponi Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli + 5 4 Janez Brajkovic Discovery Channel + 40
5 Maxime Monfort Team Columbia - High Road + 55
6 Mauricio Soler Barloworld + 1'31
7 Igor Antón Euskaltel - Euskadi + 1'39
8 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R La Mondiale + 1'53
9 Daniele Pietropolli LPR Brakes Farnese Vini + 2'09
10 Luis León Sánchez Caisse d'Epargne + 2'18
Stage 5 San Martino di Castrozza - Alpe di Siusi: 129.4km
Tactics meeting
Today is the first real monster climb in the Giro d'Italia. The last 25km of the stage goes straight upwards. Our goal is having Brajkovic keep up with the favourites as best as he can. I doubt he is able to gain any time on them, at least not in the right direction.
Barloworld kept a fierce pace in the lower slopes of the climb. Mauricio Soler obviously had good legs today.
Barloworld's high speed blew the peloton apart, and it split into several pieces.
At the front, the Liquigas teammates Basso and Nibali, as well as Soler, Anton and Pozzovivo, had formed a leading group. Brajkovic couldn't keep up when they upped their pace, neither did Garzelli, Scarponi and GC leader Valjavec.
Our captain recovered a little bit, and got up to the leaders!
But it didn't last long. Brajkovic had to let go again, along with Nibali and Anton. Valjavec, Scarponi and Garzelli joined Brajkovic & co.
At the front, Soler and Basso pushed on. Pozzovivo was struggling to keep up.
A bit further behind, Scarponi, Garzelli and Valjavec was dropped by Brajkovic's group. Valjavec's pink jersey looked like changing it's owner after today's stage.
Mauricio Soler just beat Ivan Basso after a sprint. Pozzovivo took 3rd place, and got the same time as the winner.
Brajkovic crossed the line together with Nibali and Anton, 44 seconds later. Our Slovenian is still mixing it with the best GC riders. Giro-favourite Ivan Basso takes over the leader's jersey.
Tactics meeting
A more relaxing stage than the two previous, even if it's much longer. If a break doesn't win, then the last climb probably will decide who gets the stage win. We're just supposed to watch Brajkovic's GC spot, but if we see a possibility for a stage win, we will of course go for it.
Victor Hugo Peña was in the break, but our Colombian and the rest of the escapees were caught between the two mountains.
Scarponi started the show on the last climb, and other favourites followed his example.
Then Brajkovic also had to get moving. The entire top ten of the GC were making moves today.
Brajkovic's big weakness made a difference today. The Slovenian is unable to accelrate, and he didn't catch the final breakaway which went over the mountain first. Now he had to work some magic on the descent.
It wasn't just Brajkovic who missed the boat. Maxime Monfort and Domenico Pozzovivo also fell behind, and three desperate riders now did all they could to catch up with the front group.
Unfortunately, they didn't stand a chance. This group, with all the favourites, flew down the mountainside at a great speed. Brajkovic, Monfort and Pozzovivo couldn't gain any time at all, and had to fall back to the peloton.
There, Gusev and Van Goolen made a heroic effort to try and limit Brajkovic's losses, but they couldn't prevent the gap to grow to three minutes. This was really looking bad.
Among the riders in the leading group, Rinaldo Nocentini was the strongest in the sprint., and the Italian won the stage.
Janez Brajkovic rolled over the line together with the pack, three minutes and 17 seconds behind the winner. Our captain is now 11th in the GC, as much as five minutes behind Ivan Basso. Top three seems out of reach, but Brajkovic shall continue hanging on in the mountains, even if he can't counter his rival's attacks. Maybe he can gain some time in the inhuman time trial in five days, as long as he doesn't lose even more time on the 10th stage, which is a difficult mountain stage. We will now up our efforts to get stage wins, as it doesn't look likely that we will achieve anything great in the GC.
Tactics meeting
After yesterday's catastrophic time loss, it's relaxing to have a stage where Brajkovic cannot lose any time, even if we're riding 240km. There are possibilities for a breakaway win, and we plan to send a man in the break, as we stand no chance in a mass sprint.
Vladimir Gusev was active in the break, but since he was just eleven minutes behind Basso in the GC, Liquigas didn't take any chances and reeled in the breakaway just before the descent towards the finish. Gusev & co had a lead of ten minutes at most.
Then we got another mass sprint finish, and world champion Ballan took his second stage win so far.
Today's winner
Results
1 Alessandro Ballan Lampre N.G.C 5h49'00
2 Karsten Kroon Team Saxo Bank + 0
3 Francesco De Bonis Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli + 0
4 Sergio Marinangeli LPR Brakes Farnese Vini + 0
5 Manuele Mori Lampre N.G.C + 0
6 Nicolas Roche AG2R La Mondiale + 0
7 Michael Barry Team Columbia - High Road + 0
8 Ivan Basso Liquigas + 0
9 Jonas Ljungblad Silence - Lotto + 0
10 Roy Sentjens Silence - Lotto + 0
Tactics meeting
Once again a perfect stage for a breakaway, and we'll try to put a man in the break today as well. But Liquigas and Barloworld don't look like they fancy relaxing, as they have caught every break so far. I therefore don't have much hope of a breakaway success, but we'll at least try.
Peña was once again our man in the break of the day, but they were caught long before the finishing line, as looks to be the trend in the Giro d'Italia.
On top of the small mountain 25km from the finish, Brajkovic answered some attacks from a few strong riders, and rode past La Maglia Rosa, Ivan Basso.
A small quality breakaway established itself 45 seconds in front of the pack. Those present were LL. Sanchez, Scarponi, Pozzovivo, Valjavec, Simoni, Brajkovic and Milram's Ronny Scholz.
45 seconds behind, Soler and Basso were chilling in the peloton for the time being.
Basso's leutenant and 7th in the GC Vincenzo Nibali, found himself in a group almost two minutes behind Basso's large group. Here was also Pietropolli (8th in GC). Maybe Brajkovic could advance a couple of places in the GC? There were now only 10km left.
Basso decided he wouldn't be behind anyone, so he sprinted up to the Brajkovic group.
Not only did he catch them, he also easily passed them. Soler and Anton caught his wheel. Once again, Brajkovic was unable to accelrate sufficiently, and couldn't join their attack.
Gabriele Bosisio had obviously eaten something "healthy" today. In an impressive manner, he got up to the Basso group. The four leading riders had a decent gap, and were going to fight it out for the stage win between themselves.
Igor Anton was the strongest in the sprint, and took the stage. Brajkovic and the other favourites (except Nibali and Pietropolli) came in 30 seconds behind the Spaniard. When Nibali crossed the line three minutes later, we could celebrate that Brajkovic had advanced two places in the GC, and was once again among the top ten. We will try to keep him there this time.
Tactics meeting
The peloton is riding ten laps around downtown Milano, and something other than a mass sprint is unthinkable. We're just taking it easy in the pack.
The sprint was won by Rinaldo Nocentini, who took his second stage win so far in the Giro. Tomorrow, there's a rest day, before we continue with a difficult mountain stage the day after.
Tactics meeting
After a day's rest, we're embarking on 264 mountainous kilometers. This stage is seen as the hardest stage in the Giro d'Italia, together with stage 16. Brajkovic would have liked to save some energy for the time trial the day after tomorrow, but he will have to push himself to the limit to stay with the best climbers today. It'll be a long day...
Heading up the second mountain, a few riders decided things were going too slow. Pozzovivo, Anton and Scarponi escaped from the pack. Pozzovivo didn't get far, but the other two eventually established a solid gap and joined Serpa up front.
When the riders had climbed up to Sestriere, today's highest point, the peloton was significantly reduced. It was time for a long descent.
The always eager Ivan Basso attacked on one of the flatter parts of the descent.
Brajkovic joined a group chasing Ivan the Terrible.
Basso reached the leaders and teamed up with Scarponi. Serpa and Anton couldn't keep up with the two Italians.
Soon Brajkovic&co had caught Anton and Serpa, but Brajkovic's group had in turn been caught by the peloton. Their deficit to Basso and Scarponi was closing in on two minutes.
Other riders tried to escape from the pack, where we just had Brajkovic and Ivan Rovny. Brajkovic had used so much energy on the previous chase that he couldn't follow the new chasers.
On the way up the last climb, Basso and Scarponi were still in the lead, with the chase group a couple of minutes behind. The peloton was one minute further behind. Just before the top, Brajkovic started to crumble. He was totally empty.
Basso dropped Scarponi, and was now alone in the lead with just a short descent to go before the finishing line. He was heading towards his second stage win in this year's Giro.
Scarponi was accompanied by Nocentini, who had attacked out of the small chase group between Basso/Scarponi and the peloton.
Brajkovic had cracked completely, and couldn't keep up with the peloton in the last hundred meters before the finish.
After an impressive solo effort, Ivan Basso could put his hands in the air and celebrate! With the strenght he has shown ever since we hit the mountains, there are really no one who can challenge him for the overall win. Especially since he's miles ahead of his rivals when it comes to time trialling. Janez Brajkovic wasn't even our best placed rider on today's stage, as Ivan Rovny finished in what was left of the peloton. Our captain dragged himself over the line over four minutes behind Basso, 1'30 behind most of the other favourites and 45 seconds behind Rovny and the peloton.
