The fifth stage of the Giro is the first real chance that many of the favourites will have to stamp their authority on the race. It is a 189km course from Piombino to Orvieto. The course is slightly different to that which was advertised in the early season planner, but still is in essence the same. There are two major climbs, as well as three sections of the famed strade bianchi, before a final climb of 2.5km that should produce some gaps.
Out on course are two mountain sprints and one intermediate sprint. The first climb is the Saraglio, which gives 6/4/2 points, and the second climb is up the Croce di Fighine, which is also where the strade bianchi starts. Much of the run in to the finish is covered in these roads which should make it hard to recover properly before the final climb to Orvieto. The finish line grants 5/3/1 mountain points, as well as the usual points and bonus seconds. The favourites for crossing the line first today are, rather unsurprisingly, Frank Schleck and Riccardo Ricco. Also mentioned are some of the pure puncheurs like Simone Ponzi and Francesco Ginanni, as well as Diego Ulissi, though he was a victim of the large crash yesterday so may be feeling the effects of that.
Given that the Continental Tour’s version of the strade bianchi earlier this season ended up with a breakaway win, the break today could stand a decent chance. Realising this, the first man out of the gate is Gracjan Lejman. Wikipedia had a great win yesterday and Lejman is their best puncheur, so will be looking to live up to the performance of Goss.
He pulls out a minute advantage before the next group of riders looks to come across. They are: Baños Ballester Vaugrenard Kruijswijk Steensen
Baños Ballester is clearly buoyed by his victory on stage 3. The pack will have to watch out for him though because he is sitting high up on GC, only 42” behind the time of Race leader Riccardo Ricco. He also has 5 mountain points, and so may want to take that jersey off of its current wearer.
These four riders get up to Lejman fairly easily and are soon joined by two more riders. They are Porte and Curfs. This means that 7 riders are up front. It continues a strange pattern that has developed thus far in this year’s Giro, namely that breaks aren’t having to struggle to form.
The early work today is done by Bacardi and Vespa, both of whom have real favourites for the race. They let the gap get out to a maximum of 9’30” before they speed up a little bit. As the race gets to the first of the real climbs today, Webeffect and Vesuvio take things over, working for Sella and Schleck respectively.
Some of the first riders start to become unhitched on the way up to the sprint point, and include 3 B&O riders, as well as 4 riders from Sony Ericcson. No big names are here, however, and so the peleton just keeps pacing up.
At the sprint Baños and Kruijswijk are the only two who look interested in going for the time bonuses. Baños just manages to take it over the Dutchman, moving him up slightly in GC. Lejman rolls over for third place. They have a 7’10” gap over the peleton, which is still just pacing along nicely.
The pace continues onto the second part of the climb, to Saraglio, and a few more riders are dropped. The biggest names these times are Ljungblad and Mayo, both of whom crashed yesterday and so are probably injured. Speaking of crashes, Honorio Machado goes down, but he rejoins the group pretty quickly and so doesn’t lose any time.
At the peak of the climb, Lejman signals his intention and leaps ahead of the other contenders. Vaugrenard is best of the rest and Baños comes in third. This puts Baños second in this competition, only 2 points behind Rafaâ Chtioui.
Webeffect, Wiggle and Bacardi lead the peleton over the climb, with the gap now at 5’32”. There are only 122 riders left in the pack, with all the GC contenders safely ensconced within. Vesuvio set a fast pace on the technical descent and over much of the flat between the two major climbs of the day. Their work is not for nothing and at the base of the climb the gap is down to 4’17” and dropping rapidly.
With a couple of kilometres to the peak of the climb the break hit the first section of strade bianchi. The pace immediately slows, and that is only further compounded by the short section that is almost at 15%.
Behind them, as Ghisalberti finishes his turn on the front, sacrificing himself for Sella, William Walker puts in an attack. Walker is a decent puncheur but not one of the favourites, so he is probably hoping that the better riders will be marking each other.
At the peak of the climb, meanwhile, the sprint for the 5 mountain points occurs. Porte comes from nowhere, edging out Vaugrenard, with Lejman in third place. Vaugrenard is clearly annoyed at this, as he would have had enough points to take the mountain jersey for at least a day. Instead he is now in second place, tied with Lejman. Behind these riders, Kruijswijk and Curfs both have found the pace too high and start to drift back.
Before the pack can reach the summit, however, Levarlet puts in a strong attack. He almost instantly sweeps past Walker and he starts to work his way across the white roads on his own.
The situation over the top is as follows:
47”
14”
59”
20”
51”
3’11”
Leaders
--->
Kruij.
--->
Curfs
--->
Levar.
--->
Walker
--->
Peleton
However, this only lasts for a moment as the Peleton splits going over the top! Wiggle’s strong line-up of puncheurs has succeeded in creating a front group of 31 riders.
The ones who have made the cut are: Ponzi, Scarponi, Bertagnoli, Costagli, Pavarin, Nocentini Schleck, Hoogerland, Wallays, Kvasina, Samwel, Medvedev Ricco, Grabovski, Terciado, Pardilla, Perget Sella, Ghisalberti, Matamoros Kohl, Pauwels Amador, Riblon Pozzovivo, Cattaneo Bellotti Fothen Posthuma Arroyo Flügel
Not far behind these 31 riders is another group of 22 which includes several favourites for both the overall and also for the stage. They include Devolder, Ulissi, Menchov, Henao Montoya, Machado, Denifl and Ardila. The group is lead by a mixture of teams, mostly Nestle, Pearl, Jack Wolfskin and Milka, all of whom have at least one domestique in this group.
Keinath and Ratiy are both in a group about 2 minutes back and Marzano is even further back, about 3 minutes behind. The VW riders are both clearly feeling the effects of their crash yesterday.
Just before the start of the 2nd strade bianchi section, with 27km to go, an elite group attack out of the second peleton towards the front group. The names of these four are Denifl, Ulissi, Menchov and Devolder.
Up front Levarlet and Walker have caught Curfs and Kruijswijk and they start to lead the original two breakaway riders towards the front 5. As the second bianchi section starts we get the first official time checks:
2’02”
36”
20”
1’04”
Lead 5
--->
4 Chasers
--->
1st P
--->
Denifl Group
--->
2nd P
Over the short second section not only does the Denifl/Menchov group catch up, but so does the second peleton. Curfs is dropped out of the chase group and into the bunch. So the new situation as the pack reaches the third and final section of strade bianchi is as follows:
1’28”
31”
1’59”
Lead 5
--->
3 Chasers
--->
Peleton
The high pace with very little recovery has started to take its toll on some riders, and surprisingly the first major victim of the high pace is Markus Fothen, who slips off the back with a few other riders. His teammate and lieutenant Ulissi drops back to help him, sacrificing his own chance at the stage win to help Fothen avoid losing much time.
The pace certainly does not slow, however, and they can’t get back easily. Under the 20km kite, as the road continues staying lumpy and difficult, Simone Ponzi decides to make a bid for the line!
Ponzi is strong enough to make it to the line alone at this distance and with other riders up front his odds are only increased. Sensing that this could be successful, two of the big favourites leap out of the group. The first is Emanuele Sella and straight behind him is Riccardo Ricco!
Cleverly, Pavarin marks this move, sticking to the wheels of the two climbers. All four of the attackers make it up to the chase group of Levarlet and Walker. With 15km remaining they have a 28 second lead on the peleton, and are only 1 minute behind the lead group on the road.
Almost singlehandedly, however, Stijn Devolder leads the peleton back and catches this breakaway group. After getting caught out earlier he doesn’t want to find himself losing any time on the other GC riders.
With 10km to go, Walker senses that there still might be a chance for an attack to stick, and he tries his hand again.
He can only pull out about 20 seconds however, and hovers in front of the peleton for about a kilometre. With about 6km left to the base of the final climb and with all of the white roads behind the peleton, another attack goes. The aggressors are Bellotti, Levarlet and Pavarin. This attack has a lot of potential, but still a lot of the favourites are happy to keep their powder dry.
The attack shows its potential as they quickly close down the 52” to the lead group and start to set the pace. Porte and Lejman are the only two from the original break able to follow them. Walker catches up to the remains of the breakaway behind these riders but he doesn’t seem able to pull the other attackers back.
In the front group of five riders, Porte seems to have something left in the tank as he somehow tries to go it alone!
With 4km remaining in today’s hectic stage, the chase group of riders containing Walker is caught, leaving only Porte up the front, with a slim lead over the 4 other attackers. As the final ramp starts, however, Porte is reeled back in. The lead 5 have a 57” gap to the peleton, with a 2.5km climb ahead of them. This is going to be tight.
Straight from the start of the incline, Levarlet starts pushing hard. He drops Porte and Lejman, leaving only the three attacking puncheurs up front.
And then pink jersey wearer Riccardo Ricco attacks out of the group!
Schleck is straight onto his wheel, and Ponzi is not far behind. The three of them speed past the two dropped riders.
Up front, Levarlet keeps the hammer down and Bellotti can’t hold the pace. Pavarin is holding the pace well, however.
Under the 1km to go banner, Pavarin starts to make his move. He pulls level with Levarlet.
And leaves him in his wake.
Ricco and Schleck, meanwhile, pull past a broken-looking Bellotti. Ponzi is starting to claw back some ground on them, but not quickly enough.
But his teammate Marcello Pavarin pulls out an absolutely fantastic and well-deserved victory.
Levarlet looks devastated, having come so close to a big victory like this. He will have to console himself with second, however. Behind, Schleck kicks again and manages to just pull past Ricco to take third place and the bonus seconds on offer, just 22 seconds behind Pavarin.
Ponzi makes it an even better day for Wiggle, finishing in 5th place. Bellotti holds on for 6th, ahead of a brace of GC challengers – Denifl is 7th, Sella is 8th and Amador is 9th, 41 seconds off the time of Pavarin but more importantly only 19 seconds behind Schleck and Ricco. Pozzovivo once again leads home most of the rest of the peleton another 18 seconds back. Most of the GC contenders are in this group.
Kohl is the only GC contender to get dropped on this final climb, being poorly placed near the back. He comes through 1’30” behind Schleck and Ricco. He will have to find somewhere to make that time up. Fothen, having been dropped so early, ends the day 2’02” down on Schleck and Ricco.
Looking at the jerseys, Ricco remains in pink, but Schleck slightly closes the gap. These two already have over 1 minute on everyone else in the race. Pavarin moves into third on GC and may be able to try something on tomorrow’s hilly stage. Chtioui is rather pleased to keep the mountain jersey for another day at least. Ponzi moves into the white jersey and Vesuvio is the new leader of the team classification.
