Today, the third stage of the Giro d’Italia runs for 180.4km. It first contains a long and fairly easy climb up the Passo del Bocco, which maxes out at about 8% near the peak, and at a gradient that averages only about 2% it should be easy enough to get up. The last 45km of the course should be immensely interesting, however, as there is first a long and rapid descent back to the coast, followed by a couple of short and steep climbs that should challenge the legs. The first of these two climbs is actually fairly tough, averaging almost 7% over 2.6km. The only way that this differs from the advertised course is that the first sprint point will not be taking place today, and so there will be only one intermediate sprint.
The favourites for today remain unchanged after yesterday. With the sprinters disappointed already on one of ‘their’ stages, they will see this as a potential stage to pull out something impressive. Matthew Goss will be looking for a stage win in particular.
The first man to attack today is Yoann Offredo. Pearl won a stage yesterday thanks to some timely aggressive riding and maybe they are hoping for a repeat performance here?
Offredo is quickly joined by several more riders:
Colombian domestique José Antonio Baños Ballester
Danish time trialist Michael Christensen
Frenchman Mathieu Bernaudeau
Young all-rounder Blel Kadri
Another Cafe de Colombia rider Jesus Tendero
And New Zealdand time trial specialist Jesse Sergent
With no reaction from the pack, another three riders bridge the gap and join up with those who are up front:
German time trial champion, Sebastian Lang
Yet another Cafe de Colombia rider Honorio Machado
And another German time trialist Marcel Barth
These 10 start to work decently together and as with yesterday the presence of numerous time trailists helps them to develop as a group. Colombia have done tremendously well to get three riders in here. Lang is the best placed in the group at +35” down but is more likely here to stop his team having to work for Grillo.
Sensing that this will be the defining break of the day three more riders seek to come across: Adrian Malori Hernâni Broco Rafaâ Chtioui
13 is rather a lot of riders and so Santander, Carmeuse and Wikipedia all start to work together to raise the pace. However, none of them are willing to do too much work at this point and, realising that they aren’t eating into the gap too much, they all agree to stop riding and instead leave the work at the front to Jack Wolfskin, who are happy to let the 13 stay away together as our break of the day.
With Jack Wolfskin controlling things at the front, it seems like a good chance to get a look at our new maglia rosa Sebastien Rosseler. With no ProTour wins to his name since the management game started, this will go down as a career-defining moment. Truly it was a great reward for his efforts to stick to the wheels in the finale of yesterday’s stage.
Moving ahead to the sprint, many of the riders go for it but Barth proves to be the strongest of the lead group and takes it out without much trouble. Malori is second and Bernaudeau comes through third.
The bunch comes through at 6 minutes, lead by Jack Wolfskin with some help from Bacadri - Ignis. They are clearly determined not to let the leaders get too far ahead, and the gap only gets out to a maximum of 6’30”. Jack Wolfskin start to push a little bit harder. With the faster pace causing some of the bigger names to start coming forward, Andre Steensen falls off his bike in the crush. He gets up and continues on, but will not make it back today.
Up front, the group arrive at the first mountain points of the day. There is a lot at stake here, with 6 points on offer. That is enough to put whoever takes it out into the provisional lead in the competition. A handful of riders try to push for it and ultimately Chtioui takes it ahead of Malori and then Christensen in a very tight competition.
Jack Wolfskin lead the peleton over the top, now only 2’48” behind with just over 40km remaining. They have not put many riders in serious trouble, but amongst those who have lost contact is Dario Cataldo, who has dropped off the back of the peleton and is clearly suffering after his crash in yesterday’s stage. This is really sad for Wiggle, who will really have to pray for Rowe or Ponzi to rescue their Giro.
Jack Wolfskin continue to push the pace hard on the technical descent, tearing into the gap, but this has a serious repercussion as race leader Sebastien Rosseler takes a turn too wide and comes off his bike!
Fortunately he gets back on and avoids losing any time, but Jack Wolfskin stop setting the pace downhill, meaning that the break’s lead remains steady. Santander and Wikipedia both start to set a more acceptable pace. The gap is still at 2’06” at the base of the climb, with 23km remaining. Jack Wolfskin reluctantly come to the front again to defend their race lead. The sprinting teams really seem to expect Jack Wolfskin to do the pace for them, with only Santander helping out.
The gap starts to slowly fall, but sensing that this is the best chance he will ever have, Baños Ballester makes a solo bid on the flat before the final two climbs.
Remember that with two of his teammates in the break only 9 riders will want to pull him back. Nevertheless, his former companions start to raise the pace to try to bring him back. They hit the climb and Baños has pulled out about a minute over the rest of the chase, which are themselves about 1’30” ahead of the peleton.
With 12.5km to go, the peleton hit the base of the climb too and the race radio crackles in to life, announcing an attack from Riccardo Ricco!
The only one able to respond to it is Tiago Machado, but even he can only go half way across this vicious burst of speed.
At the summit of the climb, Baños goes over first, with a 20 second lead over the chasers, who are lead by Chtioui and Sergent. Chtioui has really solidified the mountain jersey for at least a couple of days.
Behind, Frank Schleck realises that no one is going to be able to bring Ricco back on the climb and so he leaps out himself and seemingly has no trouble blowing past Machado.
The peleton is lead by a panicked-looking Emanuele Sella. It is only the first proper hill of the race and already three of the big favourites are battling it out.
Schleck comes over the summit and joins up with Ricco. Ahead of them is the break which has split into two partys and ahead of the break is Baños, who is descending like a stone, and has even extended his gap slightly. Sella continues to lead the group behind and has succeeded in reducing the gap drastically. With 9km to go the situation is as follows:
33”
35”
24”
34”
2’06”
Baños
--->
5 chasers
--->
7 chasers
--->
Ricco/Schleck
--->
Peleton
All 14 of the chasers join up, and many in the break seem surprised at the speed with which Ricco and Schleck have caught them.
The hammer goes down in the peleton, as Sella gets some help from the Vespa pair of Matteo Carrara and Domenico Pozzovivo start to work. Carrara puts all his effort into the chase and unsurprisingly the peleton ruptures in half.
About 50 riders make the front group, but those caught behind include some really strong climbers. David Arroyo is the only one of the favourites to miss the split, and he is joined by: Mauricio Ardilla Teodoro Costagli Jaime Suaza Dmitri Medvedev
And indeed the pink jersey Sebastian Rosseler is no longer with the main group, not being able to hold the pace.
Realising that he could lose some valuable time here, Ardilla jumps out of the group and bridges across on his own. Santander drop back every single one of their riders and start to pull the second peleton back. None of them can match the pace of the Vespa duo and Sella, however, and the gap starts to widen.
With 3km left, Baños is still going strong. He holds 49” over the chase group and another 47” over the peleton.
His victory is not certain, however, as the break, now lead only by Ricco and Schleck, are bearing down on him, aware that they may have stolen some valuable seconds from the other big favourites.
The peleton are trying desperately to drag the break in but their efforts appear to be in vain.
Up front again, and Baños’ victory looks assured, but what’s this? In the break, Machado has put on a magnificent burst of speed, coming around Ricco and Schleck, who have both been pushing hard for several kilometres now. Could this be an unexpected 1-2 for Cafe de Colombia?
José Antonio Baños Ballester sits up and gives a well-earned salute to the crowd. It is a pity that his big win will be overshadowed by the GC contest.
And behind him, Honorio Machado comes in second, and delivers a magnificent result for Cafe de Colombia, who came into this race expecting nothing.
Ricco comes in third, taking a few seconds in time bonus. Schleck is 4th and Cafe de Colombia get another reward as a celebrating Tendero nets them 5th place.
Chtioui is 6th, but will be happy to wear the mountain jersey tomorrow. Malori is in 7th place while Kadri, Christensen and Bernaudeau round out the top 10. Meanwhile, Pozzovivo leads home the first peleton, 55” behind Ricco and Schleck, who get the same time as the winner of the stage.
Despite the best efforts of Santander Arroyo loses 3’28”, which is not a good deficit to have still in the first week.
There are many jerseys changing hands today. As the best placed in the breakaway, Sebastian Lang becomes the third man in as many days to pull on the pink jersey of race leader. Ricco moves up into third place, only 4 seconds down, whilst Schleck is 6th, 18 seconds down. Mauricio Ardilla keeps a Jack Wolfskin rider in the top 10, and will be glad for the chance to have some time over many of the other climbers.
Chtioui will take the mountain jersey with 9 points in that competition. This should mean that he will keep it after tomorrow’s flat stage as well. Franzo now shares the points jersey with Baños Ballester. As one would expect, Cafe de Colombia have taken a narrow lead in the team classification, with several of the big teams losing time today. Mathieu Bernaudeau will pull on the young rider’s jersey.
