Given the horrible weather, I'm not going out this evening, so I have some time to rewrite that post of mine that Blogger deleted two days ago and to talk a bit also about today's stage. However, feel free to leave comments also in the comment areas of my previous entries: I'll take a look at my old posts regularly during this month!
SAPRI-TROPEA:
NB: Today's stage of the Giro was dedicated to the memory of 8 amateur cyclist who were killed by a car last December. The car's driver was on drugs and he ran over this group of men as they rode outside Lamezia Terme. 7 riders immediately died, whereas the 8th one perished in hospital a few weeks after the accident.
Sapri - Tropea offered us another exciting final sprint and some jawdropping sea landscapes.
The two breakawayers du jour were Leonardo Giordani (U23 world champion in 1999) and Mirko Selvaggi, who were caught by the peloton with 9.5 kms to go. Those two athletes train together whenever they can and that's why, at the end of their adventure, they embraced each other in a very friendly way.
Today's stage had a very particular finale. In fact, the last kms of race were full of curves and presented a very peculiar climb. Said climb in fact was short and easy, but it presented two hairpin turns which forced many riders to slow down and brake, causing them to lose some seconds from the riders who were at the front of the peloton. Saxo Bank guys knew this and that's why they worked hard at the front of the group in the last kms of race.
With about 2 kms to go, when the riders still hadn't got over the last climb, Farnese's Oscar Gatto launched an attack. Right after Gatto attacked, another rider escaped from the peloton and started to chase him. Said rider was Alberto Contador and I had to check his face twice before I could finally believe what I was seeing.
No one else managed to follow the Spaniard, who was reducing his gap from Gatto in a very fast way.
Eventually, luckily for him, Gatto managed to get the stage victory, while Contador (second in the stage) received a time bonus of 12". Add these 12" to the 5" he gained on the rest of the peloton and you'll discover that, on a simple stage like this one, Contador managed to steal 17" from his main contenders. A bad morale blow for the other Gc contenders, isn't it?
Third in the stage was Petacchi, whereas Kristoff was a surprising 4th.
As a consequence of his great team work, Richie Porte lost 1'43" from Gatto in today's stage, whereas Fabio Duarte got retired during the stage (does anyone know why?).
SAPRI-TROPEA:
NB: Today's stage of the Giro was dedicated to the memory of 8 amateur cyclist who were killed by a car last December. The car's driver was on drugs and he ran over this group of men as they rode outside Lamezia Terme. 7 riders immediately died, whereas the 8th one perished in hospital a few weeks after the accident.
Sapri - Tropea offered us another exciting final sprint and some jawdropping sea landscapes.
The two breakawayers du jour were Leonardo Giordani (U23 world champion in 1999) and Mirko Selvaggi, who were caught by the peloton with 9.5 kms to go. Those two athletes train together whenever they can and that's why, at the end of their adventure, they embraced each other in a very friendly way.
Today's stage had a very particular finale. In fact, the last kms of race were full of curves and presented a very peculiar climb. Said climb in fact was short and easy, but it presented two hairpin turns which forced many riders to slow down and brake, causing them to lose some seconds from the riders who were at the front of the peloton. Saxo Bank guys knew this and that's why they worked hard at the front of the group in the last kms of race.
With about 2 kms to go, when the riders still hadn't got over the last climb, Farnese's Oscar Gatto launched an attack. Right after Gatto attacked, another rider escaped from the peloton and started to chase him. Said rider was Alberto Contador and I had to check his face twice before I could finally believe what I was seeing.
No one else managed to follow the Spaniard, who was reducing his gap from Gatto in a very fast way.
Eventually, luckily for him, Gatto managed to get the stage victory, while Contador (second in the stage) received a time bonus of 12". Add these 12" to the 5" he gained on the rest of the peloton and you'll discover that, on a simple stage like this one, Contador managed to steal 17" from his main contenders. A bad morale blow for the other Gc contenders, isn't it?
Third in the stage was Petacchi, whereas Kristoff was a surprising 4th.
As a consequence of his great team work, Richie Porte lost 1'43" from Gatto in today's stage, whereas Fabio Duarte got retired during the stage (does anyone know why?).
I must say that I was very happy for Oscar Gatto's victory. In fact you must know that he was considered a great cycling promise as he turned pro, but then he seemed to have lost his sprinting abilities. This year, finally, Oscar has finally returned back to his good old level and he's already got many good victories. As they say, today's victory in the Giro can be considered 'the icing on the cake' - now, what about adding a participation in the Copenhagen's Worlds to that delicious cake? ;)This afternoon I was also very surprised by Contador's attack, which I didn't expect at all. But still, I think he wanted to send a psychological message to Scarponi (who attacked and almost dropped the Spaniard yesterday) and to Nibali.
Actually, my surprise for Contador's attack made me behave in a very bitter way. In fact, when he escaped from the peloton, my dad said: 'Contador?!? Why is he attacking? I mean, this climb doesn't suit him!!'. Insensitive to my father's excitement, I went: 'Well, it's actually very simple, dad: everyone else's chain must have popped, otherwise Contador would have never attacked. D'you remember le Tour?' Sorry, but at times I really can't handle my bitterness.
Talking about something different, after the stage poor Fabrizio Piacente (RAI's unexperienced journalist) didn't manage to interview Contador for the second time in a week. Dear Fabrizio, I just want you to know that you have all my support.
Moreover, after the stage I was reminded that Kreuziger isn't Italian (he speaks better than me, but this afternoon he failed to understand a question during an interview) and I discovered that Andrea De Luca and Paolo Savoldelli (RAI's journalists) are very good friends. In fact, they watched a post-stage vid together with other journalists and, in the end, they both started to laugh. Asked about this fact, De Luca said that he was laughing because of the vid, whereas Savoldelli said that 'watching De Luca makes me laugh'. What a couple of hilarious boys.
RANDOM LINK TO JOUR:
On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/schleck-hopes-for-a-strong-performance-at-the-amgen-tour-of-california there's an interview with Andy schleck about Tour of California. I won't be covering this race in the next days (I prefer the Giro to ToC), but I'm sure you'll find regular updates on other blogs ('Eisen Andy', for example). However, if you have tales coming up from ToC, I remind you to send them to Bananas About Bikes: you'll see them published in no time :D
FIUGGI TERME STAGE:
Let's now go back in time talk a bit about Fiuggi Terme's stage, which was won by Ventoso. That was the first 'normal' stage that the riders faced since Special WW's disappearance and I welcomed it with pleasure. Actually, the atmosphere on that day was still pretty tense because of the polemics caused by Orvieto's gravel roads. In particular, after ending that stage Contador declared that the cyclists had to ride on 'roads for goats' (I wonder, why didn't he say the same about Tour's cobblestones?), whereas Ongarato asked: 'Who else has died?' as soon as he crossed the finish-line. That was a terrible comment, to which Zomegnan answered by saying that he doesn't even know who Ongarato is.
However, it was Contador himself who put a stop to all the polemics ('The past has gone, now let's focus on the present), whereas Nibali told the viewers that: 'I'm a Sicilian and I know Etna: everything will be perfect on Sunday because Etna usually stops erupting after 48 hours'.
Fiuggi's stage saw Jussi Veikkanen (first virtual Maglia Rosa of the Giro 2011), Kristof Vandewalle, Yaroslav Popovych, Sacha Modolo and Frederik Veuchelen attacking after a few kms after the beginning. The last breakawayer, Vandewalle, was caught with about 4 kms to go.
Amongst the other attackers du jour there were Kiserlovski (yay!) and Pirazzi, who attacked twice.
The riders had to face a little climb in the last kms of race and the finish itself was slightly uphill. The peloton faced the final climb with a very high pace and many sprinters got dropped.
With 1.5 km to go, Di Luca attacked. He was chased by Petacchi, who then had to start another sprint in order to win the stage. However, Alessandro was so tired that he suddenly stopped pedalling with 5 meters to go, leaving the stage victory to an astonished Ventoso. After crossing the finish-line, Petacchi sat down and said that he had 'just lost 10 years of life'.
In the meanwhile, Garzelli was arguing with Marzoli, who hadn't helped him in the sprint. 'I'm the captain, did you get it?', he told his teammate.After the finish-line, there were some very nice scenes at 'Il Processo alla Tappa', a very popular Italian transmission related to the Giro. Valerio Agnoli was amongst the 'guests of the day', together with Ongarato and Contador.
While answering the question of a journalist, Agnoli said that right now he's in a very particular moment of his life. Then he looked his girlfriend Giovanna (who was on the stage of the transmission too), took a ring out of his pocket, and asked her to marry him. The girl was really embarassed, but she obviously said 'yes' and she sat down next to her future husband. The couple whispered for some minutes, before we eventually discovered a few things about the proposal. First, Valerio had kept that ring in his suitcase, waiting for the perfect moment, for 6 days. Secondly, Giovanna was very surprised because she 'didn't think that Valerio was in favour of marriages'. Thirdly, she herself had chosen the ring, thinking that it was a present for the mum of Nibali's girlfriend, who is a great friend of hers. And instead she was taken in, since the ring didn't go to mrs. Nibali, but to the future mrs. Agnoli. How nice! (this makes me ask to my readers: which 'cyclistic' proposals did you prefer so far? Frank Schleck, Van Summeren or Agnoli's one?)
As said, one of the other guests of 'Il Processo alla Tappa' on that day was Alberto Contador, who surprised me by saying that Saxo Bank produces everything the riders eat, 'bread included', in order to avoi problems with clenbuterol. Shocking, isn't it?
REMEMBERING WW SPECIAL...
As you all already know, Wouter Weylandt's funeral (I can't believe I'm typing these words...) will take place in Gand on Wednesday morning.
Leopard Trek riders are remembering WW Special with some messages written on their website (link: http://www.leopardtrek.lu/remembering-wouter ) in their own mother tongues. Here's the translation of what Davide Viganò and Luca Guercilena wrote:
Davide Viganò: 'In this moment I’d like to say you a thousand things and, at the same time, I would like to remain silent. I would like to share with you other serene moments, with the smile on our faces, together with the team, in the peloton.
I would like to relive the successes of the past in an even better way, because in this moment I feel as if I haven’t lived them intensely enough.
Ciao WW Special, I’ll miss you…'
Luca Guercilena: "'What do you think man?' That's how you started our conversations every time you wanted some advice, an idea or even just an opinion about your life as a rider.
"I'll miss being able to give you an answer, I'll miss your serene smile every time we found a solution, I'll miss the times when you said 'Grinta' in Italian to make me understand that everything was clear.
"Now nothing is clear anymore. I say goodbye to you and I'm sure that you'll give us the Grinta and a smile to make us go straight towards the finish-line".
Still talking about Wouter, a little anedocte regarding the stage that his colleagues dedicated to him. While riding, Gorazd Stangelj saw a child who had written 'Wouter froever in our hearts' on a cartel. Moved, he tried to give the kid his water bottle, but the kid didn't see it on time and failed to grab it. Therefore Peter Stetina, who saw the scene, solved the problem by giving his own water bottle to the child. Cyclists can be such nice people...
Hola Fede: Love your blog. About Fabio Duarte, he had knee problems since 3th stage after he crashes !!
RispondiEliminaPahola
I think van Summeren still takes the prize for best proposal - maybe because it was such an emotional occasion. A
RispondiEliminaI can only say Van Summeran as didn't see Agnolis or obviously Frankies. Though if I was the g/f I would have just double checked the next day when he had calmed down.
RispondiEliminaI will be following TofC. Im afraid I was not overly interested in Giro as no Schlecks and Fab.Ive taped the stages and really just fastforward until I see some interesting scenery. Ive totally lost interest since the tragedy and just feel quite depressed watching it.
I also find it so odd that no one seems to know how Wouters g/f names is spelt. It has been used in so many variations.
Re the UCI and 'the list' I think its a two edged sword. Great that they suspect doping still occurring but not so great if the cyclist is clean. I really want to believe the new generation is clean but everytime something like this comes out it kind of destroys this belief. I try and assume everyone is clean unless found guilty but think I'm really being naive.
I find a good reality dose is checking out Floyds twitter. I know people think he is a bitter nuthead but I again naively feel sorry for him. So to see him allege Wiggins and Miller dirty and then seeing the 'list' you kind of wonder when he says Canc and Jens not clean.
Anyhow again I guess innocent till proven guilty. I'm also liking Bertie again(yes yell obscenities at me) and having little thoughts that maybe it was the meat (see how naive I am).Jen
I should watch "Il Processo", I'm missing all the juicy parts.
RispondiEliminaI'm very ignorant and most likely I'll talk nonsense, but I think cobblestones are much worse, Andy Schleck never rode Paris-Roubaix but did ride Strade Bianche for example; wasn't last year that spectacular stage on the roads of Strade Bianche? I repeat, I can easily talk nonsense :P
Anyway, Fiuggi stage was also spectacular and the way Petacchi lost, for a moment I thought Ventoso was his team mate.
Contador's attack was a bad blow non only for GC contenders but also for me :P I'm not happy at all, let's see how thongs turn out.
Francesca
@ Pahola: Hola Pahola! Thank you very much for the information. I'm very sorry for Fabio, he looked so strong in the last few days!
RispondiElimina@ A: I agree with you. The funny thing about Agnoli's proposal is that his girlfriend asked him 'But are you sure?!?' as soon as he popped in the question. She was so embarassed!!
@ Jen: LOL at Van Summeren's girlfriend double checking the proposal ;)
I find the confusion about the name of Wouter's girlfriend very annoying. But still, I believe that in this moment she really doesn't care at all about it :(
I don't like ToC that much, especially because of what happened last year. In 2010 in fact the American race was organised in May for the first time and many sponsors forced their best riders to race in ToC rather than in the Giro because of economical reasons. Here in Italy many people got mad at that, because we can't understand how someone would decide to send their best riders to a race like ToC when in the same week there is the Giro going on in Italy. Moreover, I think that the organisers of ToC are way too much arrogant. Some years ago one of them said that the Tour of California is the 4th most important Tour of the world, I laughed so hard at that!
Re the infamous list: if I understood correctly (which I doubt), this list is a sort of 'classification' according to which certain riders should have been more controlled than other at last year Tour. Apparently, it was based on high results obtained by the riders, on the lack of anti-doping controls in the weeks before the beginning of the race and on strange values in the biological passport. But still, I don't think this list sends the message of 'every rider dopes'. In fact, to me it seems that most of the riders got results that seem to say that they don't dope and this is a very positive thing.
I do think there are some cheaters inside the peloton, but I also believe that there are some clean riders.
And don't worry about being naive: if someone follows cycling but thinks that everyone is a cheater, well, I think they'd better stop watching races: it would be just a waste of time. Actually, I think that cycling has survived the doping scandals of the last years thanks to the supporters's 'naivity' (is this a word?).
@ Francesca: There have been some great moments at the Processo so far!!! :D
I believe that cobblestones are much more dangerous than gravel roads too. However, I think that a rider cannot face a stage like Orvieto's one without having tried it before of the beginning of the Giro, since the descents were very tricky and everyone knew this fact. Some riders went to try this stage, others phoned Cassani, some others didn't worry at all. Imo, this last category of riders should avoid post-stage polemics.
Last year stage was actually safer than this year one, since the gravel had turned into mud and there wasn't any steep descent. But still, there were some crashes also on that occasion.
According to some conspiracy lovers, Petacchi gave the stage victory to Ventoso because Lampre wants Movistar to help Scarponi in the mountains :P
I don't think I'd be able to stand Contador winning the Giro and being banned from cycling after two weeks. Therefore, let's hope that Nibali, Scarponi and Kreuziger will do better than him!!
okay after watching todays stage(really wanted to see Etna) I formally retract my earlier comment about Alberto Contador. After watching him blow apart the peleton/lead group and look like he was taking a leisurely Sunday I would like to shout out- "YOU DIRTY SLIMY DOPER_I HOPE YOU GET BANNED FOR LIFE".
RispondiEliminaNot going to watch anymore giro with him in it..Jen
Contador ate just one clenbuterol steak last year, but this time it looks like he's eaten a whole clenbuterol cow - horns included.
RispondiEliminaIt's not the first time we see Contador dropping everyone else, but today it was just too much. Etna isn't a particularly tough climb, so it should be impossible to drop all the other GC contenders as he did this afternoon! :P
Sorry for being this harsh, but what Contador did this afternoon was way too good to be true. Actually, my dad told me that he had just seen one rider riding that hard on such an 'easy' climb: Marco Pantani, one day before he was banned from the Giro. Not an encouraging similarity...
As I said, being naive is an important thing for cycling supporter, but even naivity has a limit. :P
Anyway, I take advantage of this comment to mention two things about which I'll talk in my next post.
First of all, I would like to point out that McEwen and Graeme Brown (Leela, where are you?) both finished today's stage out of time limit (in fact Contador took 59 minutes less than them to complete the stage).
Moreover,I'd like to wish a hapy white Christmas to all the riders in California!
The Giro is such a beautiful race and I think it's very bad that so many of the best riders just skip it for ATOC or training.
RispondiEliminaI know it can't be done, but it would be so much nicer if the UCI would only admiss cyclists to ride TdF after they participated in the Giro.
Now Contador will probably win not only because he is so strong, but also because the others are not the best riders of the world.
@Barbara- I disagree a little as think there are some really good riders at the giro especially ones who are so suited to the course. I'm also not sure about the giro/TDf double as other than the Spanish Doper there doesn't seem to be many who even contemplate it these days. I think that is most likely why the TOC was moved to May by its organisers to capitalise on this.
RispondiEliminaFede re the TOC with the Americans moving it to May and promoting it as such a big event- (I will apologise in advance if I offend anyone) but in the English speaking countries we know USA doesn't do anything unless its the biggest and the best(and the whole world knows it). Its just seems to be their culture really. They really love their country. The USA cycling federation is able to get massive sponsorship for these events and really make it special for the riders and crew. Little old countries like Australia and NZ can't even begin to match them.
Anyway off to throw darts at my Bertie poster!!
Jen
@ Barbara: I hate it too when riders skip the Giro because they want to take part in ToC!
RispondiEliminaI'd really love to see a Grand Tour with all the best GC contenders at the start. Contador, los Schlecks, Basso, Nibali, Scarponi, Menchov, Anton, S. Sanchez, Rodriguez, Kreuziger, Vinokourov, Evans, Leipheimer and all the other guys in just one race, it would be so great!
However, I don't think that this year the Giro riders are weaker than the ones of the Tour. Andy Schleck is stronger than some of them, that's for sure, but I don't think that a guy like Nibali is inferior to Evans or to Leipheimer. Moreover, we have to consider the fact that the Giro's climbs are different from the ones of the Tour (they're shorter and steeper), therefore they suit guys like Scarponi or Rodriguez much more than the Tour climbs. That's why I think that complete riders should take part both in the Tour and in the Giro: some guys in fact suffer more on the Giro's climbs than on the Tour's one, whereas true champions should be able to ride in the same way on every climb they face.
However, I don't think it is humanly possible to race the Giro and the Tour at a very high level in the same year :P The last one who seemed able to do it was Riccò, who in 2008 was 2nd in the Giro and won 2 stages at the Tour about a month later. Unfortunately, we all know what happened to him afterwards... :P
If UCI forced the riders to take part both in the Giro and in the Tour, then, I'm also afraid many cyclists would take the Italian race just as a training - and I don't think this race deserves such a disrespectful treatment...
@ Jen: I agree with everything you said about ToC. I think that every cycling race is connected to the culture of the country that hosts it, and ToC is no exception. For example, the Tour de France is characterised by the famous French grandeur, while the Giro is organised by 'those crazy Italians' who put dangerous roads whenever they can :P There is such a strong relationship between cycling races and the cultural identity of the countries that host them!!