Basso is beatable!! Well, Soler unfortunately passed Kloden on GC and also unfortunately Kloden couldn't get time on Gerdemann.. anyway, I still believe he'll pass both of them on the last TT (there is a time trial left, right?)
lluuiiggii wrote:
Basso is beatable!! Well, Soler unfortunately passed Kloden on GC and also unfortunately Kloden couldn't get time on Gerdemann.. anyway, I still believe he'll pass both of them on the last TT (there is a time trial left, right?)
Not left, not right, but up!
The 20th stage is an uphill TT on the Ghisallo.
It's mentioned on the last page, and also in the presentation.
Klöden overtaking them in the TT will require him losing no more time before that. Gerdemann should be cracked already on the next stage, which is the last mountain top finish, but Soler could be hard to contain. There are also several mountains on stage 18.
Tactics meeting
We're moving westwards from the Dolomites and into the Italian Alps. The Monte Baldo is 26km and averages 5.2%. Not the steepest on average, but the last 3km are more than 10%. Those will hit some tired legs hard. Klöden should finally move past Gerdemann today. As for the KoM competition, Martinez has the jersey, but is just 10 points ahead of Pellizotti, 18 ahead of Soler and 25 ahead of Basso. There are 20 points on offer at the top of Monte Baldo, so Martinez could do well with taking out the first climb of the day.
Egoi Martinez, in his brand new KoM jersey, attacked from the gun! He was going for the 10 points on the first climb.
And he got them! Having completed his KoM mission, he sat up and waited for the peloton. No need to waste energy on another breakaway, as the Baldo would probably be won by one of the top guns anyway (Basso, in other words).
Alarm bells ringing! Andreas Klöden had a flat tyre, and what timing! Just as the peloton started the Monte Baldo climb, he had to wait for a spare wheel. Oh no!
Our Giro leaders seem cursed this year. Martinez was sent down to help Andreas, but the bunch seen in front of our duo was just the backmarkers who couldn't keep up when the stronger riders cranked up the tempo. How much time would Klöden lose?
Klöden plowed through lots of groups, and was approaching the second one on the road under the 10km banner. This was the group behind the main favourites.
The leaders thinned out as the climb went on. Armstrong, with Rovny for company, began struggling a bit 4km left.
At the same time, Klöden reached the second group, where Brajkovic squeezed out his last bit of energy to pull Klöden along. They were still 1'20 behind the front group. Luckily, at least Gerdemann was in this bunch with Klöden.
Up front, not much really happened. Luis Leon Sanchez was on a good day, and put in a dig 1.5km from the top. Armstrong was a bit behind now.
Sanchez was no match for the heads of state, and was easily brought back. Soler and Basso were about to fight it out for the stage win!
Juan Mauricio Soler was the strongest! Back-to-back mountain stage wins for the Colombian! Basso lost nothing other than bonus seconds, but he's not as superior as he was in the first two weeks.
The best part of 1 minute later, Armstrong crossed the line with Pellizotti and Rovny on his wheel. Really impressive by our young Russian! Now began the wait for Klöden. Hurry up Andreas!
Brajkovic towed Klöden up 3'23 behind Basso, in a group with Gerdemann and the once again disappointing Gesink. Such bad luck with the puncture! Klöden is now down to 6th overall, passed by Luis Leon Sanchez and still behind Gerdemann. The way things turned out today, Klöden would surely have kept up with LLS on the climb, as there were no significant attacks. Heartbreaking.
Just as the mountain was about to begin, we can even see it in the SS Still, Kloden fought back very well and fortunately didn't lose time on Gerdemann, so Top 5 is still in sights. Good efforts by him after that really bad luck.
Tactics meeting
This is the final foray into the high mountains. The Gavia pass is crossed today, and like last year, this is the Cima Coppi. Over the last two days, Basso has got himself a strong rival for mountain stage wins in Soler, who has won two in a row. He surely can't make it a hat-trick? As for Discovery, we'll try to be more aggressive today. A potential 5th place overall isn't worth using the whole team for, so the orders for today are attack!
Our most eager attacker is still Egoi Martinez, who went hunting for more KoM points in today's early breakaway.
Martinez is still relatively fresh after breaking away on several stages, and left his companions on his way up the Gavia. This means he takes the Cima Coppi prize! Our first 'victory' of some kind in this race, and it helps greatly towards another: the King of the Mountains jersey.
Between the Gavia and the Passo di Foscagno (the last climb), Ivan Rovny attacked the peloton! Martinez was now the lone leader only one minute ahead.
Rovny was joined by Rory Sutherland (Garmin), and together they made it up to Martinez, who was going backwards by now. The attackers carved out a lead of 40 seconds.
He was going for a third! Not long after Rovny's attack, Juan Mauricio Soler accelrated and came clear!
The Colombian just flew past Rovny & Sutherland on his way to the top. Is there no stopping this man?
Our aggressive plan required something more than Rovny. 10km from the top, Lance Armstrong stretched his legs! He drew with him LL Sanchez and Soler's teammate Cheula.
Ten years ago, a move by Armstrong would have left everyone else in awe, but several riders were able to follow him on the Foscagna in 2011.
Armstrong's attack fizzled out, and Nibali countered! In the process, the Acqua&Sapone rider caught and passed Rovny, who was still a bit ahead of Armstrong & co. Leader on the road Soler was about to open up a serious gap though.
The two serious attackers Nibali and Soler weren't allowed to just run away. Unfortunately, none of Armstrong, Klöden or Rovny were able to stay with Pellizotti, Sanchez and Basso when they upped the tempo in pursuit of Nibali. So much for our aggressive tactics.
One who definitely succeeded in taking the race by the horns was Soler. The double stage winner summited the last climb 1 minute ahead of Nibali and as much as 2 minutes in front of the Basso trio! Incredible.
The descent was not technical at all, so Nibali, 2nd on the road, actually lost time to the heavier and obviously fresher Soler. The deficit was approaching 2 minutes, and the Basso group was still some way behind Nibali. Basso would lose quite much!
The Maglia Rosa moved clear of Sanchez & Pellizotti on the small uphill section interrupting the descent, and despite being a horrible descender, Basso ate into the 1 minute deficit to Nibali. Being light was a disadvantage for Nibali on these straight roads.
Soler! This man didn't worry about time gaps, he just raised his arms in celebration of his third stage win in a row! He is sensational at the moment. Today's performance even takes him past Nibali and up to 2nd overall.
Ivan the Terrible had a rather terrible day for his standards. Soler actually took 3 minutes out of him if you count bonifications. That is astonishing. Basso also lost 49 seconds to Nibali, but Ivan's overall race lead was never in danger.
Armstrong, Klöden & Rovny finished 6th, 7th & 8th, 4'30 down on Soler. Klöden's time loss to those ahead of him doesn't matter much for the overall, but Gerdemann finished in the same group and is still hanging on to his 5th place by five seconds. The big talking point today is Soler though. Just imagine if he had another stage like this before the end of the Giro. Could he have wrestled Basso out of pink?
Oh-my-god, what a performance by Soler!! 3 minutes on Basso Also very big time gaps on the stage. Pretty bad Discovery attacks didn't work the way you expected, but still three riders in Top 10 is good. Also bad is Gerdemann continues to hang on after yesterday's weakness show (Kloden finishing with him after puncturing). Still, Kloden should pass Gerdemann on the uphill TT.
I'm also hoping for Soler to keep the second place, he really deserves it, and I believe he'll easily do it considering his current form.
Tactics meeting
Stage 19 is mainly about descending from the Alps. The last part of the stage will take place around Lake Como, which is Giro di Lombardia territory. The profile even includes the last two climbs in that race, the Civiglio and the San Fermo della Battaglia. A race where Armstrong has won the two last editions. I'm just saying.
We continued our attacking mentality, and managed to put two riders in the breakaway! Martinez picked up the first KoM sprint, while Chechu Rubiera kept him company. The break was very strong, with guys like J.Rodriguez (Caisse), R.Sutherland (Garmin) and V.Agnoli (Lampre). This was also evident in the time gap: 10 minutes with 70km left!
60km out, Franco Pellizotti formed his own solo breakaway. He was currently in a disappointing 15th overall, and looked to advance a few places. No chance of him catching the breakaway though, they led by 10'30 now. We had a good chance of a long-awaited stage win with two guys up there.
On the Civiglio, the last classified climb, Chechu Rubiera did some pace-setting Alpe d'Huez 2001 style to set up an attack from Martinez. We had to get this right!
In between Martinez and the pack, Pellizotti got company from two others who wanted improvement on their GC. Soler had broken away again! He was going for the overall win! He was joined by Luis Leon Sanchez, and these three got a gap of 1'30 over a desperate peloton. 15km left.
Meanwhile, up front, Rubiera's efforts had soften everybody except Rodriguez, who tried to run away with the stage win!
Martinez was having none of it. On the top of the Civiglio, he caught Rodriguez' wheel. These two would contest the stage win. Go Egoi!
Soler's dangerous attack came to nothing. As he and Pellizotti were caught by the main field, LL Sanchez took off.
In the fight for the stage win, Martinez had the upper hand over San Fermo della Battaglia! Rodriguez cracked just before the top!
Yes!! Martinez won it! Brialliant riding from the Spaniard! Finally a stage win for us, and as if that wasn't enough, his breakaway exploits wrapped up the the KoM competition. What a nice double victory, and what a relief to finally step up to the top of the podium.
The last two climbs saw a significant reduction in the size of the peloton. The main GC riders headed towards the finish together though. Well, all except one. LL Sanchez was still in front.
Sanchez' attack when Soler was caught was successful, and he stayed away, but he really got nothing out of it. His 4th overall is set in stone already.
The favourites all finished together. Klöden, Armstrong, Brajkovic and Rovny were there, so it's a very good day for us. The only way it could have been better was if Gerdemann was dropped. He wasn't, and we now only have one chance left to get back those five seconds: The Ghisallo uphill time trial!
Tactics meeting
The Giro continues to pay tribute to the Giro di Lombardia. The final time trial goes up the famous Madonna del Ghisallo hill. On the top is a church and a small cycling museum. Ivan Basso takes the Maglia Rosa into the final time trial. Soler has been amazing in this last week, but he surely can't gain 2 minutes in a time trial. More interesting is the battle for 5th beetween Klöden and Gerdemann. Only 5 seconds separate the two Germans, who are both strong against the clock. Klöden has an advantage in climbing. We hope he pulls it off!
Even though it was uphill, Liquigas' World TT champion Fabian Cancellara put his TT abilities to good use. Best time for the Swiss.
Gustav Larsson hasn't been able to make it three top10s in a row in this Giro, but made a solid bid for the stage win. 32 seconds better than Cancellara!
Armstrong is definitely getting older, and with dubious form, he only managed 12th best time when he hit the line, and would probably fall further down the lists. He still keeps his 7th overall though.
So, could Klöden make the jump in the overall classification? His ride up the Ghisallo wasn't among his best performances, but it was decent. 6th place so far, 29 seconds off the pace. It all depended on how Gerdemann did.
We needed Gerdemann to go 5 seconds slower than Klöden, but the T-Mobile rider had other plans. He went 22 seconds better, and slotted in to a provisional 3rd behind Larsson and Gesink. Bad news for us, but not too unexpected.
Lulu Sanchez has had an amazing Giro, and has showed that Valverde is not the only capable GC leader in the team by occupying 4th overall. The time gaps dictated no change in his overall position, but he put in a good ride, and was 2nd behind Larsson at the finish.
The first to beat Larsson was Vincenzo Nibali, 3rd overall. The Acqua&Sapone leader bested the Swede by 3 small seconds.
And what about Soler? After his astonishing triple in the mountains, it was down to earth again today. Or, rather upwards, but slower than quite a few others. The clock showed 43 seconds off Nibali's time, so Soler actually lost his 2nd place overall! The Colombian must be content with a 3rd place and a 15th on the stage.
Despite Soler's dominance in the mountains during the last week, Ivan Basso is still the boss. And he showed why today. He's a lot better at pacing himself than Soler, and today he was better at pacing himself than everybody else! With a time 12 seconds better than Nibali, Ivan is the winner of his fifth stage!
Oh no, Soler lost his 2nd place! I was hoping for him to keep it =(
Pretty bad Kloden couldn't pass Gerdemann, especially on the Monte Baldo stage it looked like Gerdemann had few power compared to the beginning of the race. But still, a good race for Discovery, with two places on overall Top 10, a stage win and the KOM jersey. Not the average result we see with the great Discovery team on GTs, but much more than fair enough given nobody had a peak form following Brajkovic's bad luck. And, as always, awesome reports in everything: pics, texts... congrats for that =)
@valverde, luigi: Yes, the 'domestiques' did a good job
But I'm almost more pleased with Martinez' Giro. The stage win was great, and he really had to fight for the KoM jersey, with Basso&Soler racking up the points late in stages. Hadn't it been for the puncture on the Monte Baldo stage, Klöden would have been ahead of Gerdemann long before the time trial, but 5th or 6th is no big difference.
Tactics meeting
True to tradition, the Giro ends with a stage to Milano. Last year, our team brought the pink jersey into the city, this year we have to make do with the green one. It's a sprinters stage, a nice reward for all the sprinters who made it through the mountains, and especially for the guy who wins.
Around the final turn, Haussler was on the wheel of T-Mobile's Chris Sutton.
That turned out to be the right place to be. Haussler grabbed the stage win, his second of the Giro. Ginanni couldn't follow up his three stage wins from earlier in the race, or repeat his win on the final stage from last year. The former points jersey wearer came 6th.
Ivan Basso is the clear winner of the Giro d'Italia 2011! He wasn't as dominant as he was when he won in 2006 and 2009, but it's still a fantastic performance by the 33-year old. Along the way, he picked up no less than five stage wins!
Even without Roman Kreuziger, we got our time on the podium in Milano! Egoi Martinez has shown incredible spirit to be on the move on most mountain stages, and thereby claim the King of the Mountains jersey! He now enters the history books together with Bahamontes and Luis Herrera as the only three riders to win the KoM in all three Grand Tours.
Today's winner
Results
1.
Heinrich Haussler
Saxo Bank
3h09'23
2.
Christopher Sutton
T-Mobile
s.t.
3.
Dennis Pohl
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
4.
Enrico Gasparotto
Lampre
s.t.
5.
Martin Elmiger
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
6.
Francesco Ginanni
Liquigas
s.t.
7.
Jonas Aaen Jørgensen
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
8.
Allan Davis
Katusha
s.t.
9.
Mirko Lorenzetto
Lampre
s.t.
10.
Karl Menzies
T-Mobile
s.t.
Final GC
1.
Ivan Basso
Liquigas
86h54'13
2.
Vincenzo Nibali
Acqua & Sapone
+ 2'48
3.
Mauricio Soler
Barloworld
+ 3'14
4.
Luis León Sánchez
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 6'17
5.
Linus Gerdemann
T-Mobile
+ 11'25
6.
Andreas Klöden
Discovery Channel
+ 11'52
7.
Lance Armstrong
Discovery Channel
+ 13'03
8.
Robert Gesink
Quick-Step
+ 15'57
9.
José Iván Gutiérrez
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 16'03
10.
Laurens Ten Dam
Cofidis
+ 18'05
11.
Dario Cataldo
Quick-Step
+ 20'17
12.
Giampaolo Cheula
Barloworld
+ 21'24
13.
Janez Brajkovic
Discovery Channel
+ 23'15
14.
Ivan Rovny
Discovery Channel
+ 23'37
15.
Franco Pellizotti
Saunier Duval
+ 25'00
16.
Dani Moreno
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 29'15
17.
Enrico Gasparotto
Lampre
+ 29'50
18.
Thomas Lövkvist
T-Mobile
+ 29'51
19.
Gustav Larsson
Silence - Lotto
+ 30'38
20.
José Serpa
Androni Giocattoli
+ 32'37
Points ranking
1.
Ivan Basso
Liquigas
208
2.
Francesco Ginanni
Liquigas
176
3.
Vincenzo Nibali
Acqua & Sapone
147
Mountain ranking
1.
Egoi Martínez
Discovery Channel
126
2.
Mauricio Soler
Barloworld
95
3.
Franco Pellizotti
Saunier Duval
83
Youth ranking
1.
Robert Gesink
Quick-Step
87h10'10
2.
Ivan Rovny
Discovery Channel
+ 7'40
3.
Beñat Intxausti
Saunier Duval
+ 23'57
Team classification
1.
Caisse d'Epargne
261h18'46
2.
Discovery Channel
+ 1'03
3.
T-Mobile
+ 36'37
The third Giro d'Italia trophy for Ivan Basso! Italy's best stage racer beat former teammate Nibali and held off a late challenge from the sparkling Soler to claim a deserved win. Basso won five stages along the way, his personal record in a single Giro. That takes the total number of Giro stages on his palmares up to 15.
Discovery Channel had a pretty successful Giro, albeit not in the GC. At least not in the top parts of it. We placed four riders between 6th and 14th, which is quite decent. We would've had a 5th place had it not been for a flat tyre. Egoi Martinez takes home our only victory, which was a win on stage 19, in addition to the King of the Mountains jersey.
Another impressive team was Caisse d'Epargne, with victory in the team classification and two riders in the top ten. Liquigas dominated the stage wins, winning eight stages, three with Ginanni and five with Basso. A small fun-fact: Last year, Nibali was 2nd, Gutierrez 9th and Serpa 20th, the same positions as this year. Speaking of Nibali, he must have pulled off the most anonymous 2nd place in a GT ever. He did absolutely nothing except his attack on stage 18 to grab 2nd on the stage, but still he finished only 2'48 behind the usually dominant Basso.
Juan Mauricio Soler is of course the big name apart from Basso. The Colombian climber won three consecutive mountain stages, two of them in superb style after attacks. He only managed 3rd overall, just as 2009, but he definitely had his best Giro so far. Other impressive riders were Linus Gerdemann, with a time trial from outer space to help him finish 5th, and Luis Leon Sanchez, 4th overall. Sanchez has been such a good domestique for Valverde during in recent times, and shows that he can handle a leadership role as well.
All right, that's the end of an entertaining Giro d'Italia with a deserved winner. It's only about a month until the Tour de France, and in the meantime we will prepare ourselves by riding the Dauphiné Liberé and Tour de Suisse. We will also check out how our team did in the Volta a Catalunya that was ridden during the Giro. Stay tuned!
Past winners 2009: Fran Pérez (Caisse d'Epargne)
2010: Ángel Vicioso (Andalucía Cajasur)
The Giro d'Italia was not the only ProTour race ridden in May. Over in Spain, we entered the Volta a Catalunya, with Levi Leipheimer as our leader. Even though he's just starting his build-up towards the Tour de France, we had high hopes of a good result on a mountainous course in Catalunya.
The race began with a team time trial, which we won thanks to the efforts of Levi, Gusev and Meyer. Rabobank finished just behind us. On the hilly stage 2, Saunier Duval's Jesus Del Nero attacked and overtook the yellow jersey, but that didn't bother us too much.
Levi watches the race ride away from him on the first mountain top finish.
It was far more worrying when Levi was put into trouble on the first mountain stage, and finished in the third group. Carlos Castaño (3rd in the Vuelta 2010) won the stage, but it was Michele Scarponi who could pull on the leader's jersey due to Quick-Step's much better result in the TTT. Alejandro Valverde, who dominated the early season, was also one of the strugglers.
The second out of three mountain stages in a row was a 14km mountain time trial. We expected the American TT champ Leipheimer to improve, but that wasn't to be. 14th for Levi, in a stage once again won by Castaño.
A bad day for Levi in his best discipline. Castaño, on the other hand, was flying.
The grand finale for the GC guys was the Port Ainé on stage 5. The amazing Castaño won again, but Scarponi still kept yellow. Xacobeo had been really awful in the TTT, and Castaño must be disappointed, as he was clearly the better climber.
Castaño on the Port Ainé celebrating his third stage win on the trot. He would have been even happier if he had distanced Scarponi with 45 seconds.
The two last stages were flat, and were both won by Daniele Bennati, who added to a very successful May for Liquigas. Micheel Scarponi ended up as winner of the 2011 Volta a Catalunya without winning a stage, and can thank his teammates who set him up for the overall in the team time trial. It's been a very successful month for Scarponi, who also won the Tour de Romandie. This begs the question, what could he have done in the Giro?
Levi Leipheimer was shocking in the mountains compared to his standards, but this race wasn't very important to us, and the Tour is still some way off. The TTT win is a nice positive to take away though. Valverde was disappointing too, finishing 9th after being untouchable earlier in the season.
Past winners 2009: Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
2010: Alberto Contador (Astana)
The day before the Dauphiné Libéré starts, Egoi Martinez continued his successful season by winning the GP Triberg - Schwarzwald, a race which Discovery rider Noval won last year. The Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré comes one week after the Giro, and is perhaps the third most important French stage race.
It's a proper all-round race route this year. It all starts off with a prologue in Montélimar, and on stage 3 we get the big mountain top finish of the race: the Grand Colombier. That is followed by a 43km time trial. The last four stages are tough. The 7th stage even has the summit of the Col d'Izoard 20km from the finish. Col du Glandon and Col du Lautaret are other high mountains crossed during the Dauphiné.
Some strong riders who rode the Giro also rides the Dauphiné, and they will be hoping their form is not on the way down. Luis Leon Sanchez, Robert Gesink and Thomas Lövkvist could feature in the overall battle. Romandie and Catalunya winner Scarponi is here, while riders like Rabo leader Cadel Evans and probably Valverde look to work on their Tour form. Menchov starts the race after a long injury, but his fitness is uncertain.
We field Janez Brajkovic as our leader. He feels quite fresh even after the tough Giro d'Italia, but we don't know what he can do in the overall. He didn't really turn the world upside down as our leader in Romandie. Going by Giro performance, maybe Rovny can knock Brajkovic down from the leader spot? We'll anyway be hoping for good TT results from Gusev.
Discovery Channel Janez Brajkovic Ivan Rovny Haimar Zubeldia Vladimir Gusev Yarloslav Popovych Remy Di Gregorio David Millar Taylor Phinney
@luigi: Thanks! The Suisse squad is pretty good, you're right
This is the 1000th post by the way! Never thought I'd make it this far when I started up. Can't promise another thousand posts, but the story will still go on for quite a long time, I think. It's still fun!
Also very big time gaps on the stage. Pretty bad Discovery attacks didn't work the way you expected, but still three riders in Top 10 is good. Also bad is Gerdemann continues to hang on after yesterday's weakness show (Kloden finishing with him after puncturing). Still, Kloden should pass Gerdemann on the uphill TT.
shame on me.
