Giro Diary: Stage Five

On the lower slopes of the 25 kilometre long Alpe di Siusi, the Liguigas team is already lined out at the front of the bunch. The worst of the climb lies ahead but already they are pounding out a fearsome pace. If anyone doubted that today would bring about the first major selection of the race, they could forget about it now. These men mean business and attrition is the name of the game. One by one riders drop of the back of peloton, legs burning, unable to cope with the speed of the men in the driving seat. Still 15 kilometres from the finish, the day’s break is caught. On the front now is Liguigas’s diminutive Pole Sylvester Szmyd and he’s doling out the punishment, his team leaders Ivan Basso and Franco Pellizotti tucked in behind him.

Kilometre after kilometre pass and the scalps Szmyd is claiming just get bigger and bigger. The first one to go is Lance Armstrong, the second mountain top finish in a row on which he’s dropped. Four team mates surround him and work to shepherd him to the finish and minimise his losses. Damiano Cunego then pops, a disappointing performance from the Lampre rider on what is the first real test in the Giro. Then his old sparring partner Gilberto Simoni slips off the back, but never gives up trying to pace his way back on.

Up front now there is a very select group. Ivan Basso carries on his team mates’ work, driving the pace and possibly doing too much in his enthusiasm to break his rivals further back the road. Danilo Di Luca lurks on his shoulder, knowing that if he hangs on he has a great chance of a stage win and taking the pink jersey, which currently lies on the shoulders Thomas Lövkvist, who is having the ride of his life to stay with the leaders. Levi Leipheimer is looking looking comfortable and has his Astana colleague Chris Horner riding shotgun. Meanwhile, two other big names have proven that they aren’t just here as a training exercise. Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov are in the thick of it at the business end of the race. This group are the men, it seems, who could be contesting for victory by the time the time the race reaches its conclusion over two weeks from now.

Sastre, clearly a more confident rider since his Tour win last year, is the first to make a move in the final kilometre, jumping clear of the bunch only to get an immediate response from Menchov who blazes away off the front. Only Di Luca can respond and bravely fights to get on to the Russian’s wheel. Menchov however is too strong and takes his first Giro stage victory. Di Luca though has done enough to take the pink from Lövkvist, another good day at the office after his stage win yesterday.

After today’s stage we have a better idea of who has a realistic chance of winning. Basso, Leipheimer, Menchov, Sastre and Di Luca are all sitting pretty. Gilberto Simoni managed to limit his losses to the extend that he is still only 47 seconds down on the general classification, but such a noted climber should have cause for concern if he couldn’t hack it today. Mick Rogers also fought his way back into contention and is a mere 36 seconds down. The big losers are Armstrong, who lost almost 3 minutes today and Cunego, who is 3:29 down in the overall. Franco Pellizotti, as expected, will now probably have to relinquish his co-captaincy role with Ivan Basso, after being unable to last the pace with the favourites today. The surprise package of the day was Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, who has never been noted as a climber. Yet he remained up with the leading bunch for most the final climb and finished ahead of Cunego and Armstrong. Wiggins, judging by recent photographs at least, seems to have dropped a lot of weight and perhaps is trying to transform himself into more of an all rounder. He now sits 25th overall, 3:58 back.

The Giro d’Italia

The Giro d’Italia kicks off in Venice today. The centenary edition of the Italian national tour, this year’s event is a little different from the norm. It abandons its usual finish in Milan in favour of a trip to the capital city Rome and features a parcours that could throw up some interesting results. As with every Giro, there is plenty of climbing involved, but this year there isn’t much opportunity for the heavy hitters in the time trial to make an impact. The entire race is book ended by two short time trials, a 20km team affair in Venice and a 14km individual test in Rome. The main individual time trial comes on Stage 12, an epic 60km course that appears both technical and hilly. It’s the kind of TT that could allow many of the climbers to put in strong times and remain in contention.

While the Giro is one of the premier events on the cycling calendar it has always played second fiddle to the Tour de France and recent years have seen many top riders keep their powder dry until July. However, this year’s race has attracted huge array of talent for one reason or another and it is likely to be the most open Giro in years. There are five former winners taking part, in addition to two Tour de France winners and a Vuelta victor to boot. While there are some obvious favourites, many are coming back from injuries, suspension and, in one case, retirement. As a result, it’s hard to call a winner, but here are some of riders who should be in contention:

1. Levi Leipheimer

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I can hardly believe it myself, but somehow the American has emerged to be the favourite, on paper at least. Over the past couple of years he has developed into a serious grand tour contender. He grabbed second in the Vuelta last year and came third in the 2007 Tour de France. Yet there is something about Leipheimer that doesn’t convince. For a start, he appears doomed to play second fiddle to someone else. His own team hired first Ivan Basso and later Alberto Contador to play the starring role and this year he found himself slipping further down the pecking order with Lance Armstrong’s return from retirement. It is only by default that he’s found himself to be Astana’s main man for the Giro, given that Armstrong’s collar bone break put him behind schedule in terms of preparing for the Giro. One can’t help but wonder if this lack of confidence in him isn’t justified. Leipheimer is a great time trialist, but in the mountains he often comes across as a bit timid. He’s a great man for following wheels, but rarely attacks. All of this is good enough for a top five position, but you have to wonder if has the killer instinct to take a really big win.

2. Ivan Basso

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The favourite in many people’s eyes, Basso won the Giro in 2006 and then promptly got caught by the Operation Puerto doping investigation and was slapped with a two year suspension. Two years away from the sport leaves a lot of unanswered questions. At the time of his suspension he was emerging as the premier Grand Tour rider of his generation, but even the most dedicated riders (and Basso appears to have taken his training very seriously during his suspension) will struggle to get back to where they were. There is also the tricky doping question, namely how well can he do now assuming he’s riding clean (which he always insists he did, hilariously claiming he was caught before he got a chance to dope). So far, he’s been making all the right noises. His first race back in an end-season race in Japan saw him grab third behind compatriots Cunego and Visconti. He showed well in the Tirreno – Adriatico, doing a lot of hard riding for his team and then topped off his Giro preparations by winning the Giro del Trentino last month. A three week tour is a different kettle of fish and we won’t know until the racing gets going whether Basso still has the edge.

3. Damiano Cunego

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Il Piccolo Principe grabbed a surprise Giro win in 2004 at the tender age of 22, much to the annoyance of his team leader Gilberto Simoni (we’ll have more about that later). Since then however, Cunego hasn’t been able repeat the feat. His form dipped for a year or two due to a bout of glandular fever and over the past two years he has emerged as one of the premier contenders for the hilly classics. That hasn’t stopped him from throwing his hat into the ring for the Grand Tours, coming 4th in the Giro in 2006 and 5th in 2007. Last year he skipped the Italian race in favour of the Tour de France, but wilted badly in the mountains. Cunego was quiet enough in the Ardennes races in April, leading one to conclude he’s either a little off form or trying to peak for the Giro. This year’s race is suited to him however. The climbing isn’t as severe as other years, suiting his punchy style and the hilly time trial could enable him to stay in contention. The fact that he hasn’t threatened in a few years now combined with the return of Basso means that there is less local pressure on him to win, another factor that could swing in his favour.

4. Lance Armstrong

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The seven time Tour de France winner took everyone by surprise last year when he announced his return from retirement. While he says he’s doing it to promote awareness of his cancer campaign, one does get the sense that the hyper-competitive Texan couldn’t resist the lure of competing once again. With team mate Alberto Contador first in line for the leadership position at the Tour de France, Armstrong turned his attention to the Giro, a race he’s neve competed in. A few early season showings proved that he wasn’t totally off the pace at least, but he suffered a severe setback in his preparations when he broke his collar bone at the Vuelta Castilla y Leon. That left him in a race against time to regain fitness for the Giro and vaulted his team mate Levi Leipheimer into the role of Astana’s main man for the race. Armstrong is 37, hasn’t ridden a grand tour since 2005 and has very little racing in his legs going into this one. In short, he looks like a very long shot. But stranger things have been known to happen in cycling.

5. Gilberto Simoni
The veteran Italian, now aged 37, has two Giro wins under his belt and may well be in his last season. Simoni though remains a serious contender, driven by the fact that he feels he should have won more. In 2002, he missed out on repeating his win from the previous year after being suspended for cocaine use, something he was subsequently exonerated of. In 2004, his team mate Damiano Cunego managed to ride off with the win, despite the fact that he was meant to be working for his captain. Simoni is outspoken if anything and his feuds with other riders have lit up many a Giro. In 2004 he called Cunego a “bastard” in front of journalists and in 2006 he famously dubbed Ivan Basso’s riding as “extraterrestrial” pointing a finger months before Basso was named in the Puerto investigation. Cunego and Simoni have reportedly kissed and made up this year, an alliance of convenience driven by Basso’s chumminess with Armstrong. However, while Simoni will no doubt give his all, age has begun to work against him and its hard to see him mounting the top step again.

6. Danilo Di Luca

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The Killer was a surprise Giro victor in 2007. A strong rider in the hilly classics, many had doubted that Di Luca had the legs for the high mountains or the powers of recovery for a three week race. Since then he was thrown out of the Liquigas team after garnering a six month suspension over the Oil for Drugs doping scandal and is now racing with the Pro Continental outfit LPR. The upshot is that Di Luca hasn’t won as many invitations to the big races as before and, as such, is a bit of an unknown quantity at present. Still, he has looked strong at the Tirreno – Adriatico and Giro del Trentino this year, but one gets the sense that Di Luca may struggle to win against the firepower that is lining out for this year’s Giro. He’ll be in the mix and is a candidate for a stage win or two, but the overall could be beyond him.

7. Carlos Sastre

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It is something of a surprise that last year’s Tour de France winner is racing the Giro this year, given that he usually concentrates his efforts on the Tour and the Vuelta. On paper, Sastre looks like he is using this as a training exercise for the Tour and if that’s the case we shouldn’t expect much from him. However, Sastre knows that he’ll be up against much stiffer competition in this year’s Tour, with the return of Alberto Contador and the fact that the Schleck brothers will be racing against him and not for him this year. The Giro could be a better shot of another grand tour win. However, Sastre has been very quiet during the year to date, so if that is the plan, he has played his cards very close to his chest. But he was also very quiet in the run up to last year’s Tour, so you never know.

8. Denis Menchov

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Like Sastre, the received wisdom is that the Russian is riding the Giro in preparation for the Tour, something he did last year too. That didn’t stop him from coming in 5th, so Menchov can’t be ruled out as a serious operator. It’s also easy to forget that he has two Vueltas already under his belt. Menchov is in no position to bank on a Tour win, so if he senses an opportunity here, he may well go for it.

9. Stefano Garzelli
Garzelli’s sole Giro win came in 2000, when his team mate Marco Pantani was on the wane. Since then Garzelli’s career has had its ups and downs and includes being thrown out of the 2002 event for doping. Now racing for the Pro Continental outfit Aqua e Sapone, Garzelli rode a good Giro in 2007, when he won two stages. However, his team failed to garner an invite for last year’s event. Garzelli doesn’t appear to have the legs to be an overall candidate any more, but judging by his form to date this year, which includes a second place at the Tirreno – Adriatico, he is likely to feature at the business end of the race and could very well grab a stage or two.