Giro d'Italia Stage 13 - Last stage before Mountain carnage

Today’s stage: Really short stage built for sprinters before the mountains and the end of all sprinting life are upon us. The organizers didn’t even put a ridiculous turn in to cause a crash or make things interesting.

Who won today’s stage? Refer to earlier posts. Are there hills on the stage? No. Is there any reason why there shouldn’t be a sprint? No. Is Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) in the field? Yes. Pick him. And that is what happened. No climbs, no road furniture, no ridiculous turns and Cavendish was in field, therefore Cavendish won.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing. Nothing at all. The dullest day of Grand Tour racing since I started doing this during the Giro last year means absolutely nothing at all happened in the overall standings chase. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) still leads by 17” over Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) entering the high mountains tomorrow.

What matters in other competitions?

Red Jersey (Points) – Cavendish extended his lead over Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) with his stage win. The question is if he (or Goss) will stay in the race with only one sprint stage left and a whole lot of mountains. If both leave, the defacto leader is Rodriguez with Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil) also in contention.

Blue Jersey (King of the Mountains) – I guess Michal Golas (Omega Pharma QuickStep) is actually going to contest this. He jumped out of the group at the top of the climb to score one point and extend his lead to 10 points. That said, the real battle for this begins tomorrow with the first category 1 mountains of the race.

White Jersey (Young Rider) – No changes. Damiano Caruso (Liquigas) still leads the Team Sky double of Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao heading into the mountains. Uran and Henao are more likely winners here as Caruso will have to help teammate Ivan Basso in the mountains while Uran and Henao are the protected riders for their teams.

Team Classification – No changes with everyone finishing in a bunch. Movistar still leads followed Liquigas and BMC. This category will be shattered tomorrow with the arrival of the high mountains and the first real summit finish of this year’s race.

Biggest surprise: There was no crash today. Every other sprint stage has had one, so the fact that there wasn’t a crash is a surprise, even without any stupid turns right before the finish line.

Biggest disappointment: Nothing happened. I know there is a need for a break, especially with mountains tomorrow and no rest day for awhile, but did the organizers have to come up with one of the single most dull and boring routes in Grand Tour history. Nothing happened at all on this day.

Other items of note: At the Tour of California, Peter Sagan (Liquigas) finally didn’t win. Of course it was a long time trial. Not exactly his specialty. Dave Zabriskie (Garmin) took the win with 40 year old Jens Voight (Radio Shack-Nissan-Trek) a surprising second. Among the overall contenders, Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) became the overall contenders after Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Chris Horner (Radio Shack-Nissan-Trek) had difficult time trials and lost lots of time. As for Sagan, he has one or two more stage chances, but he is out of the overall race after losing over 3 minutes to Zabriskie… We lost another rider today as Reto Hollenstein (NetApp) was involved in a nasty crash and was taken to the hospital with a likely broken collarbone. Considering all of the sprint crashes, it is amazing there haven’t been more abandonments. Entering tomorrow’s first high mountain stage there have been only 13 abandonments, a very low number for a Grand Tour. Expect to number to rise quickly over the next week.

What is coming tomorrow? The torment begins. There are only two climbs tomorrow, but they are really difficult. First up is the Col de Joux. 22.4km long with an average grade of 5.6%. Then a long descent followed by the similar climb to Cervina at the foot of the Matterhorn (27km long with an average grade of 5.5%). These gradients and lengths favor the diesel climbers over the explosive ones. Think Ivan Basso and Domenico Pozzovivo instead of Joaquim Rodriguez.