Today's
stage: Long and boring. And that's not only me saying that.
Michele Scarponi (Lampre) said that before the stage began. And he
was right. Over 250 km with a tricky climb at the end and another
stupidly placed turn on the final sprint home.
Who
won today's stage? Roberto
Ferrari (Androni Giacattoli) found the best line through the hairpin
turn and accelerated away from Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) and a
crashed peloton, passing Tomas Vaitkus (GreenEdge) along the way to
take the stage win.
What
matters in the GC race? Frank Schleck (Radio Shack-Nissan) likely
had his hopes dashed completely. He lost 46 seconds today leaving him
2' 11” behind leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). Considering the
way Schleck struggles in the time trial, his hopes are cooked.
What
matters in the other competitions?
Red
Jersey (Points) – Mark Cavendish took over the lead from Matt
Goss (GreenEdge) with his 3rd place finish on the stage
today. For his part, Goss didn't make the final group.
Blue
Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Miguel Rubiano (Androni
Giacattoli) still leads after his presence in the breakaway on stage
6. He will likely lead until next weekend when the high mountains hit
for the first time. At some point this week, I expect him to try his
hand in a breakaway again for more points. Tomorrow is a day similar
to stage 6 where someone contesting this jersey will try to make the
breakaway.
White
Jersey (Best Young Rider) – No changes here. Damiano Caruso
(Laquigas) still leads followed by Team Sky's Colombian pairing of
Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao
Team
Classification – Not much here either. Liquigas now leads over
Astana, Movistar and Garmin, but this really won't heat up until
Saturday in the mountains.
Biggest
surprise: Normally, it would be Ferrari's win, but that was as
much because of luck in guessing the correct line though it appeared
he had better legs than Cavendish today as well. The winner here is
Vaitkus. Not normally a sprinter, he was only 150m from stealing a
stage win because of the crash behind before fading to 5th.
Still a good placing for him.
Biggest
disappointment: Where was Frank Schleck. Above already chronicled
his time loss, but why? This stage shouldn't have caught any GC
contender out of the group. I know that Schleck got sent to this race
on short notice, but it appears that he, like his brother, only cares
about two races all season: the Tour de France and
Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Even with the short notice, Schleck should be
in good enough shape to stay with the group here.
Other
items of note: Over
at the Tour of California, Peter Sagan (Liquigas) took stage 3 in a
sprint, just like stages 1 and 2. With another hard climbing day
early followed by a long flat/downhill stretch, I wouldn't bet
against him making it 4-for-4 today. At this point, he might even be
an overall contender there because of the time bonuses... There was
another stupid finish today back in Italy that caused yet another
sprint crash, but this is the last of my complaining about it for
today...Thomas Leezer (Rabobank) abandoned today, bringing the total
number to nine so far in the race.
What
is coming tomorrow? 155
km of medium mountain goodness. That said, its breakaway time. The
toughest of the four categorized climbs is 33 km from the finish and
its a category 2. Still, that will be enough to shed the sprinters
and with no real time gaps likely, the breakaway will get a large
leash, especially if it consists of riders an hour down like most of
the breakaways so far in this race. Still and intriguing stage as the
King of the Mountains classification will heat up once again.
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