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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.
Credit: johnthescone (CC License)
There’s a great interview in the Guardian today with British Olympic medal winner Bradley Wiggins, who says that he went on a nine month bender after winning in Athens in 2004:
There were enough moments to drive a self-respecting Olympic champion to drink. In 2004 Wiggins became the first British athlete to win three medals at the same Olympics in 40 years but he and Chris Hoy, who also won gold in Athens, were both ignored at the BBC’s annual Sports Personality shindig. “We were shunted near the back and Chris and me didn’t get a mention the whole evening. They did a 10-minute slot on Red Rum instead. That struck home – we mattered less than a dead horse.”
Thankfully, things are a little better this time around.
Wiggins also confirms that he and Mark Cavendish did have a bit of a falling out after they failed to win the Madison at this year’s Olympics. “I was knackered but he was a bit cocky. Who wouldn’t be when you’re 22, you’ve just won four Tour stages and you’re riding with a double Olympic champion? He thought we’d piss all over it but the reality was different,” he said.
