Today's stage: A brutal day of
climbing. This is the second year in a row the Passo Giau has been in
the race and the second year in a row it has destroyed the peloton
despite not being a summit finish. Of course some of that is because
the Passo Giau day has been, for 2 years now, the single most brutal
day of Grand Tour climbing there is. This year, there were three
other climbs, one of them aanother category 1 and another a category
2 that ascended for 30 km.
Who won today's stage? Overall
leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) took a 6-man sprint over Ivan
Basso (Liquigas), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin), Michele Scarponi (Lampre),
Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) and Dominico Pozzovivo (Colnago) after the
descent from the Giau climb.
What matters in the GC race? The
race has now exploded. The six men who contested the final sprint now
are in the top seven overall in the race with only Benat Intxausti
(Movistar) also in the top seven. Rodriguez still leads Hesjedal by
30 seconds (no time bonuses today, same for Friday-Sunday) and Basso
by 1'22”. The three of them and defending champion Scarponi (trails
Rodriguez by 1'36”) are the only true contenders left for the
overall victory because most of the others who could make up their
time gaps (this applies mostly to Pozzovivo) are horrible in the time
trial. Also of note in the GC was the explosion of Astana. Roman
Krueziger was out the back of the front group before the Giau even
started and is now 20th, 12'53” behind and Paulo
Tiralongo was dropped on the Giau and fell to 8th, 4'13”
behind.
What matters in the other
competitions?
Red Jersey (Points) – Mark
Cavendish (Team Sky) still leads and he has a chance a points again
tomorrow. But his lead is only one point over Rodriguez, the most
likely winner in this competition now.
Blue Jersey (King of the Mountains)
– Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini) smartly got himself in the
breakaway today. He took points on the first three climbs and now has
a significant advantage over everyone else.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– Former leader Sergio Henao (Team Sky) cracked on the Giau along
with almost everyone else who managed to even get that far. He is
still second in the classification and trails his teammate Uran by
1'46”. The only other rider in any sort of shouting distance is
Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago) at 3'33” behind. Everyone else is at
least 13 minutes behind Uran.
Biggest surprise: Astana
cracked. The entire team. Those who have been reading know I have
long thought Krueziger would crack. Still, I expected Tiralongo to be
able to hang around and he didn't. He didn't even finish with the
second group today and now Astana has been pretty much reduced to
stage hunting from here with Tiralongo 8th and Krueziger
20th. Maybe they can spring Kevin Seeldrayers for a stage
win as he looked good in the breakaway today.
Biggest disappointment: Whatever
happened to cause Sylvester Szmyd's (Liquigas) mechanical. Szmyd had
been safely riding at the back of the lead group all day just waiting
for the Giau to pace Basso up and detonate the entire peloton. Then
Szmyd had a mechanical issue with his bike on the lower slopes and
that was the end of him for the day. I wonder what the last group
would have looked like had Szmyd been there. Most likely Uran and
Scarponi's hopes for this Giro would be over considering they were
dropped by Pozzovivo at the top of the Giau and chased back to the
lead group.
Other items of note: The total
number of withdrawn riders is 29... Given that everyone is continuing
to make the time cuts, I expect the number to not grow much more with
only four days left to race... One big surprise a bit further down
the GC was Jose Rujano's (Androni-Giacattoli) complete implosion
today. The pint sized climber was near the front and won 2 stages
last years. Today, he lost over 30 minutes in a stunning implosion.
What is coming tomorrow? A sign
that suffering is about to commence. 139 km straight downhill for a
sprint finish. Considering Cavendish is basically the only sprinter
still in the race, he is the easy choice for tomorrow. Then comes the
suffering on Friday and Saturday with two most difficult stages.
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