The Giro d'Italia is one of three Grand Tours on the cycling calendar. It is airing daily on Universal Sports through May 29 and during the race daily recaps can be found here on this blog.
Today's Stage: A transitional stage (flat or small rolling hills) going south toward tomorrow's big volcano stage on Mount Etna.
Who won today's stage? Oscar Gatto or the Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli (good luck saying or typing that) team attacked on the late hill to win a stage that appeared to be headed to a bunch sprint.
What matters in the GC race? Peter Weening continued to hold his slim lead for the leader's pink jersey. More importantly, race favorite Alberto Contador attacked after Gatto and finished second on the stage, gaining five seconds on all his rivals plus a 12 second time bonus for second place on the stage. He moves to fifth overall and first among the pre-race favorites.
Biggest surprise of the day: Contador's attack. None of the favorites gave it a go yesterday on a mountain finish and most were expected to be saving energy for Mount Etna tomorrow. Contador's attack caught everyone off guard allowing him to take a few precious seconds.
Biggest disappointment of the day: Nobody went with Contador. I hope it was everyone else being caught of guard. If not, Contador is going to win this race easily.
Other items of note: Alessandro Petacchi won the bunch sprint for third to consolidate his lead in the points competition before the mountains.
What is coming tomorrow?
 |
| Mount Etna, Giro d'Italia Stage 9, Thanks to podiumcafe.com for the picture |
That little road you see on the picture there is the road for tomorrow's stage.
Any GC changes tomorrow? Weening is toast at the top of the leaderboard (though I said that a couple of days ago). The favorites should be in attacking form for the stage up and down and up the volcano again. There is a possibility of a total reshuffle in the race top 10 as the race really begins tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment