Today's
stage: A third day of 200km+ medium mountains, this time with a
category 2 climb at the end before a 5km flat finish.
Who
won today's stage? Dominico
Pozzovivo (Colnago) attacked on the climbs and then soloed home for
the stage win.
What
matters in the GC race? Not a whole lot. 5th overall
Peter Stetina (Garmin) was dropped on the climb, but he is going to
be working for overall leader Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) later in the
race anyway and therefore was no threat for victory. Stage winner
Pozzovivo is one of 12 riders within a minute of Hesjedal's lead.
Also of note, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) finished third on the stage
and took the eight second time bonus that goes with it. He now trails
Hesjedal by just nine seconds.
What
matters in the other competitions?
Red
Jersey (Points) – No change from yesterday. Matt Goss (Orica
GreenEdge) still leads Mark Cavendish (Team Sky). This race restarts
tomorrow with a flat stage after a few days in the mountains.
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.
White
Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Damiano Caruso (Liquigas) inherited
the white jersey after Stetina was dropped on the final climb (to be
fair, Stetina punctured right before the climb and had to expend much
of his energy chasing back to the peloton). Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky)
is second, trailing by seven seconds and is probably the favorite
here considering Caruso will be helping his team leader Ivan Basso
later in the race while Uran is free to ride for himself in the
mountains.
Team
Classification – This is still a volatile category as it
measures the top three finishers on a team on each stage. Liquigas
now leads with Astana still second. Yesterday's leader Garmin fell to
third after burning most of the team protecting overall leader
Hesjedal and having Stetina dropped on the final climb.
Biggest
surprise: Pozzovivo's attack stuck. When last here in 1998, the
winner was Alex Zulle, a decent climber and strong time trialer.
Pozzovivo doesn't really fit that mold. He is a great climber
(attacked on the climb) and an average, at best time trialer who
somehow held everyone off (did lose 20 seconds to the peloton on the
5km flat finish). Still, he was not on the short list of possible
winners for the stage before it started.
Biggest
disappointment: What was Andrey Amador (Movistar) thinking? He
was in the breakaway today, but his presence doomed the breakaway.
Amador was within two minutes of the lead meaning the peloton would
chase the break as opposed to the other three riders that were
looking for a stage win and would likely have been allowed to go free
considering they were all an hour behind the overall lead.
Other
items of note: There
were two more abandons today at Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan)
and Dennis van Winden (Rabobank). Both failed to start the stage
today with Bennati felled by a serious fever overnight... The rest of
the cycling world is in California with the start of the Tour of
California later today. Starting with tomorrow's Stage 2 I will have
daily updates from that race as well. Among the favorites there are
Chris Horner (RadioShack-Nissan) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas).
What
is coming tomorrow? A
present for the sprinters. Tomorrow is a short (166 km) and mostly
flat stage. There is a small uncategorized climb near the end, but
the downhill finish after that looks perfect for the sprinters.
Expect the duel between Cavendish and Goss for the Red Points Jersey
to continue.
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