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Yesterday’s stage had something of the calm before the storm about it. A relatively flat run in to Arenzano, it was one for the sprinters and the overall contenders were keeping their powder dry for today’s time trial. Once again, Columbia were in the driving seat at the business end of the stage, attempting to prime another win for Mark Cavendish. Once again, Petacchi rode on Cavendish’s wheel. Yet for the second sprint stage running, Petacchi was muscled off this prime spot, first by Quick Step’s Allan Davis and then by the Americna Tyler Farrar. To me it looks like Petacchi’s rivals have realised that he isn’t the most assertive rider in the bunch. With his LPR team devoted to protecting race leader Danilo Di Luca, he may not get much in the way of help.
Meanwhile today’s stage is probably one of the most hotly anticipated time trials in recent years. 60 kilometres in length, with two significant climbs and lots of twisting road, it’s anybody’s guess what could happen. American Levi Leipheimer is the favourite, but given the nature of the course, the results could spring some surprises.
Yesterday’s stage in Milan was to be something of a departure from the norm for the Giro, a 165 kilometre criterium around the streets of Milan. However, the day turned into something of a damp squib, as a rider protest saw the stage largely neutralised.
Rider power has been a feature of the sport since the 1960′s and races have been disrupted over issues ranging from safety concerns to drug testing. Trouble at this year’s Giro had been brewing for a number of days, with Lance Armstrong publicly complaining about the high speed descents in the rain. Well before yesterday’s stage, Barloworld’s sprinter Robbie Hunter wondered if a 165 kilometre crit was really necessary, arguing that a 100 kilometre affair would be just as entertaining. Pedro Horillo’s horrific crash on Saturday, in which the Rabobank rider came off the road and fell down a ravine, also no doubt focussed some minds on safety.
Yesterday’s protest appears to have been orchestrated by Armstrong, Di Luca and Columbia’s Mick Rogers. The eventual agreement with the organisers was that the peloton would ride most of the course at a relaxed tempo and only contest the finale of the race. Times would not count toward the general classification, meaning that the race was for the stage win only.
TV viewers may have wondered at what the riders were so concerned about, since judging by the pictures, the parcours appeared perfectly safe. However both Rogers and Hunter both explained afterwards that there were parked cars on the course, traffic bollards and, probably most worrying, parallel tram tracks.
When the race finally did get going, it once again came down to a duel between Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi, with Garmin’s Tyler Farrar trying to crash the party. Cavendish’s Columbia team had the bunch strung out on the closing kilometres and the Manxman was perfectly positioned at the rear of his lead out train. Farrar’s team mates then upped the pace even more, with Bradley Wiggins and David Millar taking some massive pulls at the front. Petacchi meanwhile was playing a now familiar game of sitting on Cavendish’s wheel. However, this time around the Italian lost his position as Allan Davis, Matt Goss and Farrar all began bumping shoulders to squeeze into the Columbia slipstream. The cautious Italian slipped backwards and was unable to accelerate up to Cavendish when the latter made his move. Cavendish’s sprint was perfect in execution and although Davis and Goss tried to go with him, neither got remotely close.
Today’s stage was teed up to be round two in the battle between sprinting stars Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi. Anyone who was reading Cavendish’s lips as he crossed the line yesterday would know that he would be desperate for the win today, having let Petacchi ride his wheel to victory. The consensus was that today’s finish would probably suit the Italian better than yesterday’s, but the run in to Valdobbiadene revealed a somewhat lumpy finish with narrow roads.
Once the day’s break was caught, a flurry of attacks began to make life difficult for the sprinters’ teams trying to control the race, with dangermen such as Thomas Voeckler and Jens Voight gettting a gap. Then disaster struck for Cavendish as he and a big group of riders got stuck behind a crash. Up front, Petacchi’s LPR team was piling on the pressure, chasing down the break but also no doubt mindful that their captain’s main rival was behind. Cavendish gamely tried to get back on, riding the wheel of a few team mates who were burying themselves. In his company was general classification favourite Denis Menchov, who also had one of his Rabobank men working on the front to regain contact. Yet it was a bridge too far for Cavendish and he eventually popped and was left riding alone until he was caught by another chasing group.
Meanwhile, for the second day in a row Petacchi arrived at the finale without team mates, who had already done plenty of work for the day. That didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest as he launched himself from the wheel of Filipo Pozzato to score a convincing win. The young American Tyler Farrar made a brave attempt reel him in, but had to settle for second. Farrar, who managed to take a win from Cavendish during the Tirreno – Adriatico, is looking good this year and is one to watch for the future. Petacchi’s win meanwhile means more bonus seconds and vaults him into the maglia rosa for tomorrow. Farrar gets to wear the ciclamino, but only because Petacchi will be in pink.
Today’s crash and a split in the bunch during the closing kilometre’s yesterday which saw Leipheimer and Basso lose a few seconds, means that the pecking order for the overall contenders has been shuffled around a little bit. However, nobody has any reason to be concerned just yet, with the exception of Garmin Slipstream. Christian Vande Velde Crashed out today, while David Zabriskie doesn’t seem to be going for the overall. Here’s how general classification men stand:
0.18 Michael Rogers
0.31 Lance Armstrong
0.40 Danilo Di Luca
0.44 Levi Leipheimer
0.58 Franco Pellizotti
1.00 Damiano Cunego
1.00 Marzio Bruseghin
1.07 Kanstantsin Siutsou
1.07 Carlos Sastre
1.11 Ivan Basso
1.20 Denis Menchov
1.24 Gilberto Simoni
1.29 David Arroyo
1.37 Michele Scarponi
1.39 Stefano Garzelli
6.05 David Zabriskie
Tomorrow’s stage should shake things up a bit, with the first mountain top finish of the race. The 13km climb to San Martino di Castrozza could be difficult enough to force a selection, but coming so early in the race it is likely that the main contenders will be content to mark one another, leaving the door open for some of the outside bets to grab a stage win. Garzelli, Scarponi and Di Luca could all be men to watch.
Meanwhile, Irishman Philip Deignan is having a good Giro so far, sitting 21st overall and 1 minute and 7 seconds down. His main role will be to help his captain Carlos Sastre in the mountains, a job he looks in great shape to do at present.
A pancake flat run to Trieste, followed by three circuits around the city, yesterday”s stage was always going to be about the sprinters and this year’s Giro features two of the top fastmen in the sport. Yet you can’t find any more different riders than Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi. The young Manxman has already seized the crown as the world’s top sprinter, with a bagful of Giro and Tour stages in addition to this year’s Milan – San Remo. Petacchi, now aged 35, remains a formidable threat, as his win in the Scheldeprijs earlier this year proved. The Italian is all about speed, relying heavily on a well organised leadout train which gradually ups the pace in the closing kilometres until he jumps out of the slipstream of his final team mate, launching himself like a rocket to the line. Cavendish meanwhile is a little more versatile. Like Petacchi, he makes good use of his team mates to lead him out, but he also has the skill to mix it up and jump around on to various wheels. His great strength is his explosive acceleration and he can leave opponents for dead within a matter of metres.
Cavendish is a typical sprinter, cocky, brash and thriving on his own self confidence. Petacchi is a very different character, appearing far more fragile. He suffered a horrific crash in the 2006 Giro, breaking a kneecap and, on his return from injury, spoke frankly about how afraid he was every time he sprinted.
On paper, yesterday’s stage seemed to give Cavendish the edge. A technical run didn’t seem to suit Petacchi’s preference for being shepherded home by a line of team mates. On the run in, Cavendish looked primed for victory, sitting comfortably behind a string of fellow Columbia riders at the front. However, Petacchi surprised everyone by throwing his usual tactics out the window, appearing near the front with nary a team mate in sight and glueing himself to Cavendish’s wheel. Three hundred metres from the end, he jumped, leaving Cavendish to play a desperate game of catch up. But Petacchi’s sheer speed kept him at bay, which means round one of the sprinter’s battle goes to the veteran. Cavendish, by virtue of his team’s superior TT on Saturday, get’s to stay in the maglia rosa for another day, but Petacchi gets to don a now familiar ciclamino.
Tommorow is the first really big date in the cycling calendar, Milan-Sanremo. One of the five, big, one day classic races, winning here will cement your place in the cycling hall of fame. It’s often called the sprinter’s classic and usually it’s the fastmen who dominate the podium.
However, sheer finishing speed isn’t enough to win Milan-Sanremo. At 298km, it’s one of the longest races around. Secondly, there are the climbs of the the Cipressa and the Poggio right before the race’s climax. By themselves, they aren’t particularly challenging climbs, but with so many kilometres of racing in their legs, many’s the good rider who’s been dropped on either as the bunch tackles them at breakneck pace and the attacks start coming in. In other words, you don’t just have to be fast to win, you have to survive to even contest the sprint.
Now and then too, the race isn’t won by a sprinter, but rather an all-round classics strongman. No better example of this was provided by Fabian Cancellara last year, who rode his rivals off his wheel in the closing kilometres.
Here’s a few riders who may be in contention tomorrow:
1. Daniele Bennati
Credit: Megabet
My pick for the win tomorrow. While there are other sprinters capable of beating him, he does seem to have the form to take this race. He looked incredibly strong in the Eroica two weeks ago, riding with the leading bunch while the likes of Pozzato and Cavendish struggled on the hills. Bennati has really come of age in the past year or two and this might be his opportunity to win the big one.
2. Alessandro Petacchi
Credit: Bishib70
Now nearing the end of his career, Petacchi is still the top Italian sprinter and is probably the fastest man in the peloton in terms of all out speed. However, Petacchi is a big guy and tends to struggle on the hills so, if the pace is too hectic on the Poggio, he could miss out. He’s won this race once before, in 2005, when he apparently dropped so much weight that some of his peers didn’t recognise at sign-on. Petacchi was looking very lean again at the Tirreno-Adriatico last week and was ominously doing a lot of work on the front for his team on some climbs in the later stages, an obvious sign that he’s priming himself for this race. Another thing to bear in mind though is that Petacchi relies more than most on a lead out train. While this works well in stage races, the pace of Milan-Sanremo means that you cannot guarantee having your all your men with you by the finale.
3. Tom Boonen
Credit: Mnorri
Boonen is a fearsome bunch sprinter, but as he has proven time and again in the big Belgian races, he’s also more than capable of winning from a break or a small group. In theory, Milan-Sanremo should be well within his grasp and the noises coming out of his camp indicate that he’s serious about going for it this year. However, Boonen is Belgian and no matter how big this one is, the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix are always going to be bigger. It mightn’t be the case that he’ll keep his powder dry, rather that he mightn’t take the same risks for victory if it meant risking his chances in the coming weeks.
4. Mark Cavendish
Still only 23, the Manxman is arguably the world’s top sprinter at the moment. Petacchi may be faster in terms of pure speed, but Cavendish’s strength is his explosiveness. In the blink of an eye, he can go and leave his rivals four or five bike lengths behind. This will be his first attempt at Milan-Sanremo and perhaps may be a bridge too far. It’s a very long race for Cavendish and he struggles on the hills. While Bennati was cruising at the front of the Eroica, Cavendish was huffing and puffing out the back. His team Columbia is bringing one of the strongest line-ups to the race, but even they may not be enough to shepherd him to the finish.
5. Thor Hushovd
The big Norwegian has been looking good this year and scored a win at the season opener, the Het Nieuwsblad. Moving to the new Cervelo Test Team this year, Hushovd may benefit from a team that appears to be going well and may benefit from the fact that the team also has Heinrich Haussler in its arsenal. The younger rider has been a revelation this year and having two threats will invariably work in the team’s favour.
6. Filippo Pozzato
The Italian scored a surprise win in 2006 and is definitely a dangerman. However, Pozzato still really hasn’t lived up to his potential and has yet to start winning with any consistency. You can bank on him to score a couple of wins every year, but when it comes to the big occasion, you have to wonder if he has the temperment.
7. Davide Rebellin
A wily old fox who has an enviable palmares. Rebellin is best suit to the hilly classics in the Ardennes. However, now with a new, non-Pro Tour team, he can’t bank on an invite to everything anymore. He was looking strong in Tirreno – Adriatico last week and you have to believe that he’ll have a go tomorrow, as it may be his last chance to win here before the end of his career.
