Today's stage: An uphill run
with no categorized climbs but a nasty hill near the finish to
eliminate the sprinters.
Who won today's stage? Jon
Izagirre (Euskatel) won from an 11 man break that the peloton didn't
care to chase. Izagirre attacked his breakmates on that final hill
and soloed the last 2km away for the stage win.
What matters in the GC race?
Absolutely nothing. The peloton let the breakaway go and didn't
bother to chase losing over 8 minutes. That doesn't matter as none of
them, even with the time gained today, are placed better than 40th
place. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) still leads over Ryder Hesjedal
(Garmin) by 30 seconds.
What matters in the other
competitions?
Red Jersey (Points) – This is
now a two man race. Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) leads Rodriguez. With
one sprint stage and three mountain stages left, Rodriguez still has
a chance to make the gap up. Nobody is within range of Rodriguez
though.
Blue Jersey (King of the Mountains)
– Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini) did take over the lead on Sunday
with his stage win. He leads Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
and Andrey Amador (Movistar), but there are a lot of mountains left.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– This is a three man race now as some of the early leaders have
fallen off because of their domestique duties. Sergio Henao (Team
Sky) leads his teammate Rigoberto Uran by 1'01”. In third is
Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago), 2'50” behind. Nobody else is closer
than 8 minutes to Henao.
Biggest surprise: Nobody a
little closer to the lead got into the break. The break was pretty
destined to succeed. Somebody 12-15 minutes behind should have taken
a flier and got in the break as they could have moved into the top
10. Nobody was ever going to chase today unless there was a real
threat.
Biggest disappointment: Nobody a
little closer to the lead got into the break. The constitution of
this break made chasing unnecessary. And when chasing is unnecessary
and there are no climbs, you get a long transitional procession where
nothing much is happening.
Other items of note: Continuing
from the disappointment section, many fans in cycling debate whether
the Giro d'Italia is a better race to watch, or the Tour de France. I
don't have an answer for that, but I will say that transition stages
like today's are done much better in France... As for the rest of the
course so far, the Giro has done a decent job. It is certainly better
than last year's suicidal course that destroyed the rest of the
season for anyone who rode it seriously... After the first run-in
with the high mountains over the weekend, we are up to 24
abandonments from the race. Given what is coming over the next few
days, that should be all of the by choice exits. Only those who crash
or miss the timecut will leave the race from here.
What is coming tomorrow? Massive
mountain stage. Two category 2 climbs and two category 1 climbs
including the famous Passo Giau summitting 14 km from the end. Given
that super descenders Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Sammy Sanchez
(Euskatel) are not in the field, this looks like a breakaway stage
again as the overall contenders watch each other and limit any time
gaps. It is also a good day for a 1-2 attack from either Team Sky or
Astana where there are two riders positions somewhat close to the
race lead.
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