Giro d'Italia Stage 7 - The favorites finally have to work

Today's stage: The first mountaintop finish of the Giro at the end of a 19km category 2 ascent. In other words, the Giro really started today.

Who won today's stage? Paulo Tiralongo (Astana) came around overall contender Michele Scarponi (Lampre) in the final stretch to take the stage, his second year in a row with a stage victory.

An exhausted Paulo Tiralongo after winning the stage,

What matters in the GC race? The GC has now taken shape. Garmin-Barracuda GC captain Ryder Hesjedal now leads the overall standings. Tiralongo is second (+15”) and Katusha leader Joaquim Rodriguez is third (+17”). The other big winner on the day was Scarponi who took a few seconds on his rivals in the quest to peg back his time trial losses from the first week.

What matters in the other competitions?

Red Jersey (Points) – Matt Goss (Orica GreenEdge) leads with 65 followed by Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) with 53. With a lot more sprint stages than the last few Giros, this is a sprinters category this year and these are the only two contenders at this point. Even with the mountain finish today and another tomorrow it won't matter. The big danger, especially for Cavendish is finishing outside the time cut. He was only 38 seconds clear yesterday on stage 6.

Blue Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Miguel Rubiano (Androni Giacattoli) leads this category after taking most of the mountain points yesterday by being a part of the breakaway. Until we reach the high mountains next weekend, this will be the domain of breakaway riders instead of true climbers.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Peter Stetina (Garmin) leads this category by virtue of being in 5^th overall. Daminao Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale) is second (+19”) and second last year in this competition Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) is third (+27”).

Team Classification – Garmin-Barracuda leads this classification, as it usually does when it brings the time trial team as it did to the Giro. Astana is second.

Biggest surprise: Tiralongo's ride. He has long been a domestique with good climbing skills, but even last year's stage win was gifted to him by his former teammate Alberto Contador. Still, when it got to the end with him against Scarponi, everyone knew Scarponi was toast.

Biggest disappointment: Nothing really. Nobody who shouldn't have cracked actually did on the final climb.

Other items of note: We had our fifth withdrawal from the race today as Gianni Meersman (Lotto-Belisol) abandoned. He was still suffering from injuries from the stage 2 sprint crash in Denmark and the mountains were too much for him... The stage today passed through L'Aquila today, an area still recovering from the 2009 earthquake that destroyed much of the city. The last time the Giro was in L'Aquila was to commerate the town post-earthquake in 2010 in the famous 12 minute breakaway stage that changed the entire complexion of the 2010 Giro d'Italia.

What is coming tomorrow? Another medium mountain stage. This one has a similar category 2 climb at the end, but there are five km of flat riding atop the mountain before the finish. Expect a breakaway to succeed as the five km flat means time losses will be minimized for GC men even if gaps are earned on the climb. There is just no incentive to chase as long as the riders in the break are well behind.