Antòn wins the most exciting Giro stage so far:

Motorbikes' engines exploding, mechanics shouting at each other, supporters booing at the Maglia Rosa, Riis driving past the jury car, the journalists angry at UCI. And then the race itself: Antòn getting the victory, Contador looking almost human, Kreuziger disappearing in the haze (and frost) of Zoncolan, Nibali, Menchov and Scarponi showing that they're still alive. Desperate, but not hopeless. This, and much more, was today's drama on the road to Zoncolan.

Today's stage was the most exciting stage of this year Giro d'Italia so far, no doubts about that. In it there was everything a supporter could desire: anger, drama, excitement, fear, anger, relief - and, most important, every rider (even Contador) this afternoon looked human.
However, let's start from the beginning of this stage. Or, better, let's start from what happened about 24 hours ago.
As you all know, the Crostis was taken out of the parcours of today's stage after that many ds complained about it with the UCI. Last week these brave men didn't tell the Giro organisers that they didn't want to face the Crostis, although they knew that just 5 teams were in favour of riding up that climb (and down that descent). In fact, they preferred to say that everything was ok in the official team meeting with Mauro Vegni. But then, without telling the other ds (Lampre and Geox's ds didn't know anything about it) and without telling the race organisers, these amazing people phoned UCI. Apparently, Patrick Lefevre phoned the Belgian UCI jury president at the Giro although he wasn't in Italy with his riders.
Since those guys couldn't say that Crostis had a dangerous road (Zomegnan made great efforts to make it become safer; actually, his efforts were so big that, when Lampre's ds went there by car on the rest day to check the descent, he said that it was 'one of the safest roads I've seen in the last years'), they decided to play the only card remaining: the sportive aspect of the race. In fact, they claimed that the stage wouldn't have been acceptable from the agonistic point of view because on the Crostis the team cars wouldn't have been able to follow the riders. Unfortunately for cycling, their claim was successful.
Actually, the ds had another meeting with Vegni (one of the Giro organisers) two days ago and during it they talked about the Crostis. Apparently, Riis got so angry at Vegni that, at a certain point, he even stood up and went in front of him, shouting. Then he met other ds in a bar and we all know what happened next. Actually it seems that, if the Giro organisers wouldn't have accepted the ds' will, some teams would have gone on a strike at the bottom of Crostis. If I had been Zomegnan, I would have told them that they were free to do what they wanted: those who wanted to go on, would have ridden up and down the Crostis. The other ones would have simply got off their bikes and would have been forced to leave the race. Simple as that.

The supporters were obviously very angry at what happened, especially because this decision was a very political one. In fact, it seems that UCI wanted to favour the 'bad' ds because, apparently, they are the same people who in the future would like to go against the UCI system. Because of this political reason, all the people who were waiting to get on Crostis this morning, those who worked (free) in order to make the descent become safe, those who worked (free) in order to asphalt the roads, those who had prepared all the cartels and pink balloons/bikes on the climb, well, all those people couldn't watch the race passing in front of them.
People obviously got really mad when they heard about UCI's decision. And since Riis was heavily involved in it, many supporters booed at Contador during today's stage. Nibali tried to defend his colleague by saying that: 'The poor thing hasn't got anything to do with UCI's decision', but there was no way to convince the tifosi.
In particular, Contador was booed when he collected his pink jersey at the end of the stage. In this way he became the only rider in history who, in less than 12 months time, managed to be booed both by the Giro tifosi and by the Tour supporters while receiving the leader jersey on the podium. Impressive record, really.
Personally, I would have booed at Contador just this morning, when he told Gazzetta: 'I'm very happy that the Crostis has been cut from today's stage. No one wants to lose the Giro because of a mechanical'. Really, this sentence made me wonder (for the third time in less than one year) whether Contador thinks we're all stupid. How can you say a thing like that when you won last year Tour (also) because your main rival's chain popped and you pretended you hadn't realised it? Did Andy Schleck really want to waste the Tour because of a mechanical? What's the difference between him and the other riders? Or does this rule apply just to the Giro?
Talking about the stage and angry supporters, yesterday evening the Giro organisers found another climb that the riders could have faced instead of the Zoncolan. Too bad that the road towards it was blocked by the supporters as a sign of protest so that, with 46 kms to go, the stage was shortened of other 20 kms.
Gadret at that point almost took a wrong road, causing Savoldelli (RAI's chronist) to say with a desperate voice: 'I really cannot understand what's going on, some riders have taken a road, the whole peloton has taken another one and I can't understand anything!' Poor, poor thing.

At that point of the race, Tankink, Brambilla and Rabottini were in a breakaway and they started the Zoncolan with 6 minutes of advantage on the following riders. They were welcomed in Ovaro by the following sentence, coming from the Divine Comedy (Canto II, if I'm not making a big mistake): 'Lasciate ogni speranza o voi che entrate' ('Abandon every hope you who arrive'). Encouraging, isn't it?
In the meanwhile, the peloton split in two parts and the only car who managed to follow the first group of riders was SB's one, who broke a rule by riding past the jury vehicle. According to UCI rules, the stage sould be neutralised because of that. What if someone would have had a mechanical there? As wise Conti says, 'no one wants to lose a Giro because of a mechanical', right?
At the bottom of Zoncolan then there were scenes of mass hysteria amongst the mechanics, who had to leave their team cars in order to get on some motorbikes (UCI, where are you? The team cars didn't follow the riders up the Zoncolan! This means that the stage isn't legal! Neutralise it, now!!). Too bad that the vehicles often risked to crash against one another and that the mechanics soon started to argue. And too bad that also Riis got on a motorbike, although he isn't a mechanic. How did that happen?
In the meanwhile, Rai's motorbike blew up, causing much entertainment to Davide Cassani ('It's Andrea De Luca's motorbike!!', he said, probably while producing a great grin).

With about 7 kms to go, Joaquim Rodriguez attacked. His attack was followed by Anton's one. Then Contador attacked too and in that moment I understood he wasn't feeling that well - or, perhaps, he wasn't going full gas. In fact he didn't drop everyone else, but Nibali slowly managed to get back on his wheel with about 4 kms to go. Also Scarponi, in spite of a chain pop (UCI, stop the other riders, now!), got back on Conti, whereas Menchov was keeping them under control.
With 2 kms to go, Contador attacked again. Scarponi got dropped, whereas Nibali could hold on. In the meanwhile, Igor Anton was riding towards victory and Kreuziger was drowning in the deepest abysses of the peloton. Then Contador attacked again, but Nibali went back to him again. At that point, he dropped him again.
In the meanwhile, Anton took his victory. Yesterday Euskaltel had worked hard for Contador and, according to some, in this way Alberto paid them back the favour. Antòn was really happy for his victory and my mum was just as happyas him. Yesterday in fact she had burst in my room screaming: 'Who's Igor? Where does he come from? HE'S A CUTIEEEEE!' (yes, Fangirlism is a genetic disease).

After the stage, as already said, Contador was booed, whereas Nibali attacked the Spaniard using words as weapons. 'He was disrespectful. I asked him to give me a turn at the front while we were riding, but he said no. Then he dropped me in the last km'. Given that on a steep climb like Zoncolan it doesn't matter who's leading on a climb and who isn't, I think that Nibali especially got angry by the fact that Contador eventually dropped him, thus gaining other 7" on him. It takes good legs to be an excellent rider, but it takes also something else to be a true champion...

Scrolling down the stage classification, we can see Menchov getting an amazing 5th (he said he had suffered from allergy on Etna, poor thing!), Nieve and Dupont getting 6th and 7th, Sivtsov (who'd like to win a stage for his wife) got 9th, Kruijswijk 12th, Niemiec 13th (love this man!). Stetina was a very good 15th, whereas Wyss was a great 22nd. Visconti was 29th (better than Pinotti and Lovkvist, wow!), whereas Kreuziger was 16th. Le Mevel (who in the morning had sung 'Le Marseillaise' for Italian tv) was 19th.
So, this was the Zoncolan stage. A Spaniard triumphed, another Spaniard was booed, the supporters were angry and I was happy for the final outcome for the stage. The Giro's GC riders may look desperate after every attack by Contador, but they won't be hopeless until they reach Milan.