Finally the last stage of this year’s epic Giro has arrived and we go into this one still not knowing who our winner will be. Sella trails Ricco by just 13 seconds and though Ricco is considered the better time trialist, it might just come down to whoever has recovered well and is better on the day. There are a large number of top time trialists who have managed to pull themselves over the hills and they will be hoping to fight it out for the stage win. Two such riders are the Jack Wolfskin duo Cornu and Posthuma. Also worth mentioning are Lang, Steensen, Wiggins and two more Jack Wolfskin riders in Vandewalle and Donald. Really today comes down to two separate races – the race for the stage win and the race to sort out the GC placings.
The first person making the 33.2km journey around Milan is Mauro Richeze. Richeze is the last man, in 139th place, almost 7 hours down on Ricco’s time. This is testament to just how hard this year’s course has been.
Richeze gets 17’16” at the first time check, 31’51” at the second check and a time for the entire ride of 50’17”. He can happily lay claim to being the first man to finish this year’s Giro.
The first real time trialist of the day is Vandewalle.
He looks good all the way around and smashes the time checks, setting strong times at all of them. His time at the first check is 16’15” and he manages to overtake Guarnieri shortly after this. His time at the second check is 29’58” and he comes through the finish in 48’13”, more than 2 minutes faster than Richeze. It remains to be seen how long this time will stand for.
Unfortunately for Vandewalle Lang departs only 5 riders behind him. One of the best time trialists to make it this far, Lang has to be a huge favourite. Indeed, he comes through the first check in a time of 16’04”, 11 seconds faster than Vandewalle. Can he hold this pace?
He shaves more time off Vandewalle at the second check, coming through in 29’39” and through the finish line he has a time of 47’44”. It seems like most of the favourites will be aiming for the 47’30” mark.
The next favourite for the day is Wiggins. His time at the first check is 3” slower than Lang’s mark, and his time through the second check is 7” slower.
In the end he comes through in a highly respectable time of 47’55” and slots into second place. Schar isn’t many riders behind Wiggins and had been touted by some as a man to watch today. He can only manage a time of 48’16” though.
Donald is the next favourite out of the gate. He matches Wiggin’s time of 16’07” at the first check. Can he pull off a strong ride here today?
He does through the second check in 29’49”, meaning that he covered the second leg 3 seconds slower than Wiggins. He comes through the finish line in a time of 47’59”, 4” slower than Wiggins and a full 15” slower than Lang.
Team B&O’s aggressive young rider Steensen is the next time trialists out of the block. He has been in a lot of breaks throughout this break and clearly it has taken its toll. He is already 8” off the time of Lang at the first check.
He passes dual stage winner Banos Ballester out on course, but this is somewhat misleading as he still ultimately posts a disappointing time of 48’20”, which is 7th provisionally but there are a lot of strong riders to come.
There is some time to wait before the next strong riders so let’s look at the provisional top 5. Their results are:
Name
1st Check
2nd Check
Result
Lang
16’04”
29’39”
47’44”
Wiggins
16’07”
29’46”
47’55”
Donald
16’07”
29’49”
47’59”
Vandewalle
16’15”
29’58”
48’13”
Schar
16’15”
30’02”
48’16”
The next interesting rider to watch is Meier, another man who has been riding aggressively of late. He is the Canadian champion at this discipline. Clearly he is on good form because he comes through the first check in a time of 15’57”, even faster than Lang!
He has clearly gone out too fast too early though as he can only manage a time of 29’50” at the second check and comes through in 48’06”, slotting into a provisional fourth.
Meier’s strong ride goes pretty much uncovered by the cameras, however, as Cornu is out on course at the same time. From the moment that he leaves the start house people know that this is a quick ride. This is only confirmed when he comes through the first time check in 15’29”, 28” faster than Meier and a full 35” faster than Lang.
Cornu clearly hasn’t made the same mistake as Meier and through the second check he has increased his lead. He comes through that check in a time of 28’57”, now 42” faster than Lang. Finally, he seems to accelerate again and through the finish line he sets a staggering time of 46’45”. There are not a lot of men in the world he can beat that sort of time over this length. The new provisional top 5 looks like this:
Name
1st Check
2nd Check
Result
Cornu
15’29”
28’57”
46’45”
Lang
16’04”
29’39”
47’44”
Wiggins
16’07”
29’46”
47’55”
Donald
16’07”
29’49”
47’59”
Meier
15’57”
29’50”
48’06”
Danacik is the next specialist who must follow this display and he appears well furnished by Lang. Everyone seems to have figured out that a lot of time can be made up in the first leg of the course, provided you can then hold your pace. As such Danacik comes through the first check in 15’49”, which is the second best time there. He comes through the second time check in 29’30”, which is faster than Lang managed.
Finally Danacik posts a time of 47’38”, putting him in second for the time being. As Danacik is getting towards the finish, however, another favourite today comes out on course. This time it is Posthuma. Posthuma is just outside Danacik at both of the time checks, being 2” down at each of them. This is a good sign for Danacik and shows that he has recovered well.
Unfortunately for Danacik, Posthuma talent shows and he manages to make up his slight deficit, eventually coming in with a time of 47’37”, only one second faster than Danacik managed. This makes it two Jack Wolfskin riders at the top of the leader board. After Posthuma comes another time trialist. For Grabovski this whole Giro must have felt like one long time trial as he did so much work every single day to keep the break under control. This is his first real chance to ride for himself this race.
Clearly the long days of work haven’t taken too much out of him. He goes through the first check in 15’53”, but manages to have a strong second leg with a time of 29’30”, just ahead of Danacik’s time. Finally, he holds his pace to the end and gets a great result with a time of 47’50”, 2 seconds faster than Posthuma. Grabovski was the last specialist to leave the gatehouse. There are still riders yet to come who could post a strong result, but for the moment here is the leaderboard:
Name
1st Check
2nd Check
Result
Cornu
15’29”
28’57”
46’45”
Grabovski
15’53”
29’30”
47’35”
Posthuma
15’51”
29’32”
47’37”
Danacik
15’49”
29’30”
47’38”
Lang
16’04”
29’39”
47’44”
The race now transitions away from attempts to win the stage to the attempts of GC riders to perform well enough to at least hold their positions. As stated yesterday there are still a handful of GC positions that could conceivably change hands today. The first of the top 20 riders out on course is Ratiy. He has had a very hard Giro, with a crash on stage 4 costing him valuable time, as well as several stages after that of injury. He has been riding strongly the last few days and appears to be continuing that hot run of form with 16’04” through the first check.
He slows somewhat through the second leg and has a time of 29’55” at the second check. Finally, he comes through in a provisional 11th place in 48’10”. He will be happy with that and it will be enough to hold onto his 20th position over Ji.
In 19th place is Keinath. Brought here as a GC rider he has proven incapable of keeping up with everyone else in both the mountains and the hills. He would have liked more time trialing kilometres, which are his natural terrain. He shows his proficiency by coming through the first check in 15’52”, which is the 4th best time through there today. This has the potential to be a strong ride and this is further confirmed when he goes through the second check in 29’34”, which is the 5th fastest through there.
He manages to hold onto his speed through the final leg and comes in with a time of 47’38”, just fractions of a second behind Danacik’s fourth place time. This is far more impressive than what the man behind him, Webeffect domestique Ghisalberti, can manage. Fortunately for Ghisalberti he came in with a 4 minute advantage so doesn’t have to push too hard. He comes through the finish line with a time of 49’06”, but is clearly happy to be inside the top 20.
The man in 17th place is Talabardon. Warner Brothers came here without any hope in the GC and in a lot of ways Talabardon has over-performed with some well-measured riding over the last few days that meant that he never had to push himself too hard. Time trialing is clearly not to his liking however. He goes through in a time even worse than Ghisalberti’s, only managing 50’13”. He is lucky that it was Ghisalberti behind him on GC because most other riders would have managed to close down the 1’54” gap he had back to him.
The next rider out is Ponzi. After Wiggle’s GC hopes were dashed on stage 2 when Cataldo crashed and injured himself, Ponzi answered the call and rode amazingly well over the hilly terrain. He managed to bring in a thrilling stage win and performances like this on his favoured terrain are what have put him in 16th place overall.
Ponzi is just outside Ghisalbert’s times throughout the whole course and cruises in with a time of 49’18”, which is enough to defend the best GC result in the Giro that he will ever achieve.
Behind Ponzi comes Samwel. Samwel has been one of the best domestiques over the entire race, pushing the pace on climbs and really thinning out the number of people who can follow. He has also been essential to Vesuvio’s performance in the team classification. He is not a time trialists, however, and he comes through in 50’02”.
Another great domestique is in 14th place in Carrara, who has helped Pozzovivo into his current third place. He is also not a known time trialists and he shows this by coming through the first check in 16’55” and the second check in 31’31”.
You can tell we are getting up to the really big names as Devolder leaves the gate next. Here is another man who has been improving in the final week after an injury-riddled first two. This is his last chance to really do something special and he is determined not to waste it. He comes through the first check in a time of 15’49” and the second check in 29’21”. Both of these are the second best time recorded after Cornu.
Over the final leg he manages to catch and pass Carrara and accelerates up the road. He is really powering today and he manages a great time of 47’17”, putting him in 2nd place! Carrara comes through with a time of 50’14”, but that is still enough to hold onto his GC position.
The next rider out of the gate is Ardila, who struggled during yesterday’s stage so may not be on peak form here. However, he just has to avoid losing 4 minutes on Devolder and he will be safe. He comes through the first check in 16’17” and the second check in 31’13”, putting him just under 2 minutes down on Devolder’s time.
He come through the finish line with a time of 48’41”, meaning that he rode the final leg faster than Devolder managed. It is enough to defend his position.
Menchov is the next rider out on course. He has had an up-and-down Giro this year, but probably saved his race with a fairly strong ride yesterday, not losing much time on several of the other riders. If he can make up 1’51” on Arroyo he will move up to 10th place, which would be an incredible result for him. He looks good out on course, with a time of 16’03” at the first checkpoint.
His time through the second check is 29’54”. Behind him Arroyo appears to be riding less well today. The Spaniard has had a couple of stages with big time losses but has still been one of the riders who has proven most capable of chasing gaps back in the mountains. He will be gearing up for the Vuelta start in a few days. He comes through the first check in a time of 16’10” and the second check in 30’07”. He is losing time, but not enough to lose his spot.
Menchov comes through in a very solid time of 48’07”, but Arroyo seems to recover and puts in a time of 48’27”, thus defending his top 10 placing.
Kohl is the next rider out. For much of the race he has been in a private battle with Denifl to be the best Austrian rider but he has bled some time to the others over the last couple of mountaintop finishes and this means that whilst he is comfortably in 9th, he won’t be able to move any higher.
Kohl puts in a decent time of 48’32” overall and will probably be fairly happy with a 9th place. The cameras don’t follow him crossing the line, however, because while he is coming through the first check point the pink jersey comes out of the starting house!
Machado is the next rider to post a time, however. He is only 4 seconds down on the time of Denifl going into today and as such a strong result will move him up to 7th. Through the first check Machado looks good with a time of 15’55”.
Denifl is obviously out after Machado and he too knows what is at stake today. 7th place would be a huge result for the young Austrian, who has really shown his quality throughout this race. He manages 16’03” through the first gap, 8 seconds slower than Machado.
This trend continues and Machado is 15” ahead of him through the second check. Machado finishes the course in a time of 47’45”, which is much better than Denifl’s 48’09” and moves Machado up one place on GC.
The cameras are focussing on a different GC battle however – the battle for the pink jersey! Sella is going through the time check and people watch the clock carefully. Remember, he needs 13” to take the jersey here today. The clock flashes 16’02” as he comes through. What will it show for Ricco?
Ricco approaches and the crowd roars – two Italian champions duelling for the victory in the final stage of their home Tour is a dream come true. Ricco goes through and the clock reads 16’00”. He has gained 2 seconds on Sella so far. Remember though, a lot of riders have been slowing as the course progresses!
Henao Montoya is in 6th place. He is 1’11” behind Amador in 5th, but no one really believes that he can make up that sort of gap over Amador. Henao gets 16’01” through the first check point, and accelerates through the second to clock 29’52”.
He comes through with a time of 48’03”. He has really shown his climbing pedigree this race and that young rider’s jersey is clearly deserved. One day he might be aiming for a jersey of a different colour at one of the major tours.
Amador is the next rider out and the only one who can really challenge for a top 5 time. He shows his time trialing ability as he clocks a great 15’39” through the first check. That’s only 10 seconds slower than Cornu managed!
He continues to ride hard and comes through the second check in 29’12”. He has slowed and is now 15” outside Cornu’s time but still is well inside the time of anyone else. He comes across the finish line in a brilliant time of 47’02” for a well-earned 2nd place.
The man in fourth place overall, Schleck will just be happy that the ordeal is over. He struggled through most of the early mountains and, though he found his rhythm in the last couple of stages, he was never capable of gaining time on the others when the race hit the high stuff.
Schleck comes through in a time of 48’08” and will be pleased enough with that. He has kept his fourth place and that’s all that he needed to do coming into today.
The pink jersey battle heats up again as both of the riders come through the second intermediate checkpoint. Sella posts a time of 29’55” which is pretty much on par with what most of the favourites have been doing.
Ricco seems to be pacing himself to what Sella is capable of, not wanting to fall flat in the final kilometres. He puts in a time of 29’51”, and has gained 4 seconds on Sella now. Is a Giro victory finally in his grasp?
Pozzovivo is the only other rider out on course. He has had a superb race with a great victory on a summit finish that is largely responsible for putting him onto the podium. He seems to have carried his form straight through to this final stage as he puts in a magnificent time of 15’40” through the first check, which he follows up with 29’13” at the second check. This is just one second slower than Amador!
Pozzovivo holds his speed right to the end, but falls just short of Amador’s time, with a time at the finish of 47’05”. Still, he won’t be complaining about another podium place in this race and he can be proud of his best-ever Giro result.
And now the final two warriors are left in the arena. Sella was 4 seconds behind at the second check and really needs to make up the time. He crosses the line.
48’09”
Ricco has paced himself well, and sprints to the line, covering the last hundred metres in a quick burst.
48’04”
Riccardo Ricco has won the Giro d’Italia. By 18 seconds.
The crowd erupts into ecstatic applause. His teammates bunch up around him and there are tears in Ricco’s eyes as he realises what has happened. This is the biggest moment in his career. Sella walks over and shakes his hand, and his eyes have tears in them too. For a different reason.
