And the winner is... Alberto Contador!

As predictable, the victory in the general classification of the 2011 Giro d'Italia went to the Spaniard Alberto Contador, the strongest GT rider of the world. Eventual second was Michele Scarponi, who managed to protect his placement also today. Third instead was Vincenzo Nibali, 'the Shark', whereas 4th was John Gadret.
Talking about the last stage, it was won by Millar, who also got advantage from Alex Rasmussen's misfortune. The HTc Columbia rider in fact punctured in the last part of race and decided not to change his wheel. In the end, the poor thing lost the stage for just 7 seconds.
Here you have the Top 20 of the race:
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Esp)
2 Michele Scarponi (Ita) 0:06:10
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) 0:06:56
4 John Gadret (Fra) 0:10:04
5 Joaquin Rodriguez (Esp) 0:11:05
6 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) 0:11:28
7 José Rujano (Ven) 0:12:12
8 Denis Menchov (Rus) 0:12:18
9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) 0:13:51
10 Kanstantin Sivstov (Blr) 0:14:10
11 Mikel Nieve (Esp) 0:16:08
12 Hubert Dupont (Fra) 0:18:06
13 Dario Cataldo (Ita) 0:18:23
14 David Arroyo (Esp) 0:26:56
15 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) 0:32:08
16 Johan Tschopp (Swi) 0:35:20
17 Matteo Carrara (Ita) 0:37:08
18 Igor Anton (Esp) 0:37:39
19 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) 0:38:21
20 Tiago Machado (Por) 0:39:59

So, another Giro is over. Personally I found it boring, although some of the stages were really exciting. For example, I loved the stage won by De Clerq and the Zoncolan stage. However, I think that the stages that will always remain in our hearts will be the one from Rapallo to Reggio Emilia and the one from Quarto to Livorno. As the supporters have said for the last 3 weeks, '108 presente'.

So, dear readers, what are your opinions? Did you like this year Giro? And what was your favourite stage (if you had one)?
This post is really short, but I'm preparing a better one that will be ready in the next days... In the meanwhile, let's wish the riders a well deserved period of holiday!!

(Pic by Bettini)

San Pellegrino, Macugnaga and Sestriere before the last stage:

After two days spent between San Pellegrino and Bergamo, stalking Smiley Menchov and bringing bad luck to Pinotti and Lewis, here I'm back again, resuming the last 3 stages of the race.

Morbegno- San Pellegrino Terme
Pinotti and the other Bergamask riders really wanted to win this stage, which ended in a villagethat is famous worldwide because of its mineral water. Actually, at the beginning of the 19th century San Pellegrino was also a very famous holiday location and its 'Grand Hotel' hosted members of the Romanoff and of the Savoia families, as well as celebrities like Maria Callas and Federico Fellini, the football players of Helenio Herrera's Inter and Italian poets like Quasimodo and Montale.
Anyway, back to the Giro. Amongst the Bergamasks who tried their luck on Thursday there were Carrara, Vanotti and Pinotti. Possoni remained hidden in the peloton, whereas the Sicilian Tiralongo decided to attack too (he lives near San Pellegrino as well).
The first hour of race was really fast (the riders had an average speed of 53 kmph) because everyone wanted to enter a breakaway. Eventually, in Bergamo Alta some riders managed to escape from the peloton. They were Carlos Sastre (he's aliveeee!), Oscar Gatto, Gianluca Brambilla, Russel Downing, Bram Tankink, Jerome Pineau, Paolo Tiralongo, Marco Pinotti, Kevin Seeldraeyers, Jan Bakelandts and Eros Capecchi.
On Passo Ganda (and not 'Gandalf') just Seeldrayers, Capecchi and Pinotti managed to remain at the head of the race. The trio reached San Pellegrino with a minute of advantage on Brambilla and Tiralongo, so they had a lot of time to 'study' each other. In the end, the victory was decided by a sprint, won by Capecchi.
This was the first professional victory for Eros, who comes from a family of farmers and who, according to Gazzetta, is 'so handsome that every day even the podium misses turn their heads towards him as he rides towards the start'. Eros gave us a very emotional moment after the stage, when he burst into tears after remembering his grandfather, who died 5 years ago, and his cousin Rudi, who died last winter at 18.In the meanwhile, Pinotti did look disappointed, but he was also very happy because the people on the road (including the 5 inhabitants of Tagliata, one of the least populated village of Italy) supported him in a great way.
I'll just tell you that, when he reached the spot where I was staying, I screamed 'Go go Marco!!!' as loud as I could. In spite of my effort (and in spite of hurting one of my vocal chords while doing that), I couldn't even hear my voice, such was the noise made by the crowd. And then, as soon as we got the news of Capecchi's victory, everyone stopped screaming and talking. But still, we were all very proud and happy - both for Pinotti and for Eros.

Bergamo - Macugnaga:
On the following day, me went to the start in Bergamo. Amongst the riders I saw there were Pinotti and Lewis, who were really kind with me and with the other supporters. I got Craig's autograph (he was really nice with me) and I wished Marco good luck, happy because I had also managed to take a pic with him.
However, as soon as I got home I learned that Marco had broken his 'acetabolo', which is the part of the femur that ends in the pelvis. Ooops...
A few seconds later, my dad told me that also an American teammate of Marco had crashed. 'What? Don't tell me...It wasn't Lewis, right?', I asked, worried. 'No, it wasn't. Or perhaps...No no, you're right, it was Craig Lewis, he broke his femur', he said, putting an end to my hopes. Well, at least now I know that I'll have to avoid the HTC bus for a lot of time now :P
The Macugnaga stage saw the victory of Tiralongo, who eventually got his first (deserved) victory as a pro at the tender age of 34. For that result he really has to thank His Majesty Contador, who let him win the stage (Alberto and Paolo are really good friends).
Contador yesterday had a very good reason to be happy, since his trial has been postponed. Therefore Riis is already talking about bringing him to the Tour, causing great despair amongst cycling fans, who don't want to see Alberto ruling another Grand Tour in such a boring way

Verbania-Sestriere:

Today's stage was another tough one. The riders had to face Colle delle Finestre, where Savoldelli won the 2005 Giro. Colle delle Finestre is about 20 kms long, has 45 (45!) hairpin turns and it isn't completely asphalted. The scenery, as usual, was great, although I don't know how some supporters could watch the race from the top of the mountains.
The riders who went on a breakaway this afternoon were Yaroslav Popovych, Kevin Seeldrayers (again!), Eduard Vorganov (who didn't pull a meter), Angel Vicioso, Frederik Veuchelen, Luca Mazzanti, Josep Jufre, Vasil Kiryienka, Sebastian Lang, Cristiano Salerno, Diego Ulissi (this time it was him who complained about Vorganov's lack of collaboration, and not the opposite), Carlos Betancourt (the youngest rider of the race) and Miguel Minguez.
On Colle delle Finestre Kiryenka abandoned his companions, whereas Szmyd set the pace at the front of the peloton (welcome back at the front, Sylwester!). Rujano attacked a lot of times and eventually managed to escape the group of the best riders. He wasn't the only one who absolutely wanted to break free this afternoon. In fact, Kruijswijk often attacked in order to annoy (and possibly drop) Kreuziger, while Gadret wanted to drop Nibali and Menchov attacked in order to improve his GC placement (no, I didn't wish him good luck when I saw him the other day :P).
Eventually, the ones who got the worst consequences from this stage were Sivstov and Nieve. Poor Kanstantin arrived 9 minutes after the winner, whereas Nieve arrived 1 minute before him. However, we must point out that the winner, aka the amazing Kiryenka, won with 6 minutes of advantage on Contador, Scarponi and the other GC riders.
Vasil was really moved towards the finish-line and he dedicated his victory to his fallen teammate Tondo (*sobs*). After the stage, Kiryenka admitted that he had worn his looking glasses in order to hide the tears.
Vasil is a really good rider and I think one can't help liking him. This rider from Belarus in fact has a very tough past, since in 1986 he lived near Chernobyl. As a consequence of the nuclear disaster, he lost both his parents and his brother. And the other day, he even lost a teammate. "This was the best way to remember a teammate that was with us only for this season, but yet seemed to have been here for so much time,” Kiryenka said after the stage. “We decided that the best form to pay him tribute was staying into the Giro, and I think we made a good choice because winning in such a hard mountain stage and from such a long break, it was a kind of winning that he liked so much”. Joaquim Rodriguez, interviewed after the race, didn't feel like commenting about Xavier's death, since he was a very close friend of his. Back to the race, Kruijswijk, Gadret and Scarponi managed to gain a few seconds on Nibali and Kreuziger. This last rider made me close my eyes a few times during the descent from Colle delle Finestre, since he really risked a lot there.
Second in the stage (4'43" down on Kiryenka) was Rujano, whereas third was the promising Betancourt. Dupont (yes, I know you're all rooting for him now) was 12th, Brambilla 13th and Nieve 17th. 64 riders ended the race 42" after the winner.

So, these were the last 3 stages of the race. Tomorrow there will be the last stage of the Corsa Rosa, which is taking place in Milan (I can't go, desperation!). Let's hope it'll be an exciting one! (and please Denis, do not crash, really, I don't want a heart attack!)
Pic 1 by Sirotti, 2 by Scanferla, 3 by Bettini

Italian polemics at the Giro, random news and more:

Two days after her last post, miss Fede is ready to write a new one. She couldn't watch yesterday's ITT, but she knows who won and she knows that there weren't many surprises. On the other hand, she did manage to watch today's stage, which saw a rider making one of the most dangerous things she's ever seen. Anyway, let's start from the beginning.
Today the riders had to face Passo Tonale and Passo Aprica. The descent from this last climb ended with 7 kms to go and people thought that Nibali might have tried something there. Moreover, every expert said that today's stage was perfect for those who wanted to go on a breakaway in order to get a victory. That's why, after just 55 kms, a very large group of riders had already broken clear of the peloton. These athletes were the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (who's had serious knee problems in the last two weeks), his teammate Leonardo Giordani (who worked a lot at the front of the breakaway), Christophe Le Mevel, Hubert Dupont, Jan Bakelants (a hero!), Robert Kiserlovski, Kanstanstin Sivtsov (who wanted to improve his GC)), Jesus Hernandez, Ben Gastauer, Pablo Lastras, Diego Ulissi, Eduard Vorganov, Alberto Losada, Mathias Frank, Fabio Taborre and Addy Engels.
These riders had a maximum advantage of about 8 minutes and arrived on the top of Aprica with more than 3 minutes of advantage on the rest of the peloton. Liquigas, Lampre and Geox worked hard to gain time on the 16 men, but they didn't succeed.
On the Aprica descent both Kiserlovski and Frank looked very uncomfortable, whereas Lastras showed that, as well as being a very good sprinter, a very good climber and a very good Classic rider, he's also a very good downhill rider.
As said, people expected an attack by Nibali, but Popovych went at the head of the peloton during the Aprica downhill and nothing happened. Therefore the main part of peloton quietly rolled towards the finish-line, arriving 3 minutes after the winner.
With 3 kms to go, Bakelandts, Visconti, Lastras and Ulissi got a small gap on their adversaries. In the final 2 kms Visconti looked really nervous (he kept on turning his head backwards), whereas Ulissi and Bakelandts both tried to attack in the last 1500 meters of race. But still, they didn't have a lot of luck and they had to face Lastras and the Italian national champion in a sprint.
Poor Bakelandts had to start the final 'volata' and sat up as soon as Ulissi started the 'serious' sprint. At that point Visconti, who was on the right side of the road, suddenly moved to left, trying to follow the Lampre rider and to hide from the wind. On the other hand, Lastras was behind the two Italians, ready to outsprint them. However, soon it became clear that Visconti would have never been able to outsprint Ulissi: in fact there wasn't a lot of space between him and the barriers and Visconti, who isn't a pure sprinter, felt as if he was in a trap, although he was riding much faster than his companions. What did Giovanni do, then? Well, simple: he screamed at Ulissi twice, then he tried to push him to the left of the road. Considering that Ulissi didn't change his riding direction, Visconti pushed him again, this time with more anger. Ulissi was forced to go to the left, trying to recuperate his balance, whereas Visconti crossed the finish-line in first. Poor Lastras avoided hitting Ulissi from behind at the last moment and, in this all-Italian mess, he was the one who had the worst consequences. In fact, poor Pablo found himself third, after that he had to change his direction all of a sudden in order to avoid a serious crash. Right after the finish-line, no one looked happy. Visconti started talking with Lastras, whereas Ulissi, interviewed by Italian tv, said he didn't think he had done something wrong. Visconti, on the other hand, was really angry at Diego. “Sometimes the ones who decide to risk their own lives are the riders themselves, it's incredible! I shouted at Ulissi ten times to let me pass because I was going at twice the speed, but he closed me in against the barriers and, if I hadn’t raised my arm to push him far from me, I would have fallen. He's behaved in a very bad way during the whole day, he's been rude and it's not nice to see a young rider behaving like he did during the breakaway. Now I may be relegated to the last place, just because he wanted me to crash against the barriers. It's not fair!”, Giovanni said after the finish-line. He was very angry and probably still scared because he had risked to crash and hurt himself badly during the sprint.
In his defense, however, it must be said that there's a lot of pressure on him right now, that he's had big health problems in the first two weeks of Giro, that for his team this is the most important goal of the year and that he really wanted to win a stage in the Italian national jersey. Moreover, it must be said that he was interviewed right after the finish-line, when riders don't have the time to think about what they're saying.
After Visconti was relegated to third place (did Bulbarelli understand what the jury told him in French? That is question... :P), his ds decided to take part in 'Il Processo alla Tappa'. Farnese's ds, Luca Scinto, is a very peculiar person, since he always puts a lot of passion in whatever he does. Today he admitted that his rider had done something wrong, but he also said that Ulissi did change his direction during the sprint. "Therefore", Scinto said, "the jury should have given the victory to Lastras, and not to Diego".
A few minutes later, it was Ulissi's turn to arrive on the stage of 'Il Processo'. With his very nice accent, Diego explained how things went from his own point of view. “I tried to surprise the other riders by going early and I was always on the left hand side of the road, and I don’t think I really veered that much towards the barriers”, he said. Then, when asked about his behaviour in the breakaway, he was really honest. "I behaved in a cunning way, I admit it. My ds had told me not to take turns at the front, that's why I didn't work as much as the other riders. Btw, I wasn't the only one: also other 8 riders didn't pull very much. The Saxo Bank rider, for example (ndr; Hernandez), he didn't pull at all, perhaps because he had Contador in the oink jersey. However, I paid for my behaviour. In the first kms of breakaway in fact I argued with Vorganov, he said some bad things to me".
Then also Visconti went to 'Il Processo' and he said that he got angry too because of Ulissi's behaviour in the breakaway and that he thought that Diego was a bit too arrogant. "At a certain point", said Visconti, "I told him: 'If you keep on behaving like this, many riders won't consider a very nice guy anymore', and he thanked me for the advice". Luckily, in the end the two Italian riders made peace and Visconti said some very nice things. In fact right now there is a jersey worn by him during Etna stage on sale on EBay. "The money that people will spend to buy it", said Visconti, "will go to the family of a child who has a very bad disease. Thinking about all the parents that have children who suffer, and thinking about all the tragedies that occurred in cycling in the last weeks, well, it makes you understand that arguing for a victory really doesn't make sense at all. Things have gone this way, it's useless to talk about them now". Very wise words, said by a very young boy.

Talking about the poor Lastras, instead, I must say that I found it absolutely nice when Italian tv interviewed him. In fact they asked him what he thought about the sprint, whether he thought Ulissi should have been punished, whether he thought he should have deserved to win the stage and whether Movistar was going to protest against the jury's decision. In spite of all these question, Pablo always answered with the same: 'Non lo so' ('I don't know'), said with a big, shy smile and an embarassed face. Thinking about Movistar's problems and watching Pablo behaving in that way really made me want to go to Tirano and give a hug to him and to his teammates.

Back to Diego Ulissi, I think he didn't make any mistake in today's sprint and I agree with the jury's decision.
Personally, I like Diego because of different reasons. In fact he's strong, he's not afraid of anything (his arrogance towards the older riders show it), he's just 21, he's pretty and he also has a great accent. I could spend a whole day listening to him saying 'Horsa' rather than 'Corsa', and I think I'd pay a few euros to make him say 'una Coca Cola con la cannuccia' (I always melt when I hear people from Tuscany saying this sentence...).

Still talking about today's stage, here are two random things to point out: first of all, Matthew Wilson, my personal hero of the race, didn't finish today's stage.
'Who is Wilson?', some of you may ask. Well, Matthew is that great rider who was last in the general classification for a lot of stages. Now hat he's retired, I'm a very sad supporter.
Another (very fangirlistic) thing to point out, then, it's a recent discovery of mine (male readers can skip this part of the post, I don't have problems with it): Hubert Dupont is veeeery good-looking. Really, AG2R guys must do everything they can to bring both him and Nicolas Roche to the Tour de France. In that way, they could become Fangirl's second favourite team.
Ok, end of the fangirlistic part of the post. Now it's time for some random link and for a 'communication service':

RANDOM NEWS:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contadors-mechanic-expelled-from-the-giro : A SB mechanic got expelled from the Giro after that, during yesterday's ITT, he opened the door of the team car in order to 'punish' a tifoso who, according to him, had tried to punch Contador. However, Alberto says that the tifosi are always very nice with him and that he loves us all (ok, I'm exaggerating). The mechanic instead said that yesterday Joaquim Rodriguez received a punch from a supporter and that on the Zoncolan the tifosi threw eggs at the SB riders/team cars (I've read two versions of the story). Now, this seems a little strange to me. I mean, the guys would have complained about an episode like that, wouldn't they? And then: isn't it a bit difficult to center a rider with an egg while he's riding? And about the team cars: they couldn't drive up Zoncolan behind the riders and I don't think someone followed SB car in order to throw eggs at it... :P

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-forced-to-change-milan-time-trial-course : The Milan elections, as well as causing an earthquake in Italian politics, have also forced the Giro organisers to change the route of the last stage of race. Now I'm seriously considering the chance of going to Milan to support both the riders and Pisapia.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/golas-withdraws-from-giro-ditalia-to-get-married : I wish all the best to Michal Golas and his fiancé Agata, who are getting married this weekend!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tondos-funeral-to-be-held-today : DEP, Xavier :'(

COMMUNICATION SERVICE:
Dear readers, you all know that tomorrow's stage of the Giro arrives in San Pellegrino Terme.
Considering that the Giro is riding also through Bergamo, tomorrow many roads in the center of the city will be closed. 'A good chance to stay home from school', I thought. And instead no, because we Bergamasks love killing ourselves with work (everyone describes us as 'loyal people who work hard without complaining', whereas I describe ourselves as 'a bunch of crazy people who can't understand what the priorities in life are'), so tomorrow students will have to stay in the schools at least until 12.30 . Then, at that hour, all the students of the city will finally be free.
Now, just imagine this: all the people going to pick up their little children by car, all the students who get the bus to go home, all the teachers/people older than 18 who drive their cars outside town, all the workers who try coming back from work before the roads get closed. All together, at the same time of the day, in the center of the town. I predict problems. And I predict that it will be impossible to get out of the city before half past one.
'What about miss Fede then? Will she go to school or not?', I hear some of you ask. Well, to everyone's joy, miss Fede decided in November 2010 that she wouldn't have gone to school on the 26th and on the 27th of May 2011, so this afternoon she said 'See ya on Sunday!' to all her schoolmates, wished them good luck for tomorrow, predicted that they'll be struck in the biggest traffic jam every for a lot of time and then promised she would bring them some nice photos of the hottest cyclists. Oh yeah, because miss Fede tomorrow will be in San Pellegrino, rooting for every single cyclist who's still racing (Contador included), trying to take good pictures (it won't be easy) and forgetting about all her duties. Because, as Queen sang, 'Bicycles races are coming your way, so forget all your duties oh yeah'.

PS: No, I won't be posting anything tomorrow :P

Xavier Tondo Volpini, 5th of November 1978 - 23rd of May 2011

Exactly two weeks ago, Wouter Weylandt passed away on a Giro descent. This morning, Movistar's Xavier Tondo lost his life in a domestic accident.

Xavier Tondo Volpini passed away this morning, after that his garage door fell on him while he was preparing for a training ride together with his friend Intxausti.
I had to stop twice while reading this news on Cyclingnews because I couldn't realise what I was reading. My eyes were watching the words, but my brain couldn't understand them. 'Xavier Tondo died this morning'. Unbelievable. Dying in such a terrible way, when you're just 32, really makes no sense.
Xavier was a great rider, one of the best climbers of the world and one of the most honest guys in the peloton. He became a hero in December, when he told the Spanish police about a group of people who sold doping products.
Right now I really can't believe that Xavier has really died. I'm shocked, sad and confused and I'm waiting for someone to come and tell me that this is just a joke. Not again, not two weeks after Wouter, not Xavier.
Unfortunately, no one will come - Movistar's manager has confirmed the news and the riders are already paying their tribute to their colleague.
I feel useless, powerless and I can't find the right words for this tragedy. Moreover, I cannot understand why those things can happen. And I cannot understand how our destiny can be so cruel.
Now I'd really like to send all my strength and support to Xavier's family, to his teammates, to his friends and to his supporters. Once again, the cycling family has to face another terrible loss and grief again all together.

Descansa en paz, Xavier. We will all miss you terribly. May you stay close to all the ones that loved you and support them in this awful moment. Once again, DEP.

Dominio español in the Dolomites:

Another strange stage in the Giro, dear readers. And another occasion to get angry for me.

I've always considered the Giro as the most exciting GT of the year, but this year I'm finding it boring and annoying (ok, this is due to the fact that I'm finding Contador hateful). Moreover, I'm regretting the absence of a guy like Riccò (yes, I'm becoming crazy), who would have surely said something to Alberto and to the other Spaniards after today's stage.
First of all, the riders this afternoon had the chance of riding through some of the most breathtaking Italian sceneries. I was in Canazei three years ago and on one day my dad took the car and brought the whole family on a trip on the roads of the Giro. First we drove up Pordoi, then we drove up Giau ('Imagine how it must feel to be on the top of this climb, look down and see your main rivals who have already ended the descent', dad said), then we faced the Rolle, went to Cortina, took a break, and then we went back in our car and drove up Passo Fedaia which, according to my father (who worked hard to make the car go up that climb) was the hardest mountain of the whole area. We didn't drive through the amazing rock walls that the riders could see today, but we did arrive near to the lake at the top of the climb. On another occasion instead we drove up to Gardeccia and went walking, almost reaching the top of the Torri del Vajolet (the mountains that RAI showed after the riders crossed the finish-line).
Said that, the riders today had to face the climbs of Piancavallo, Forcella Cibiana, Passo Giau (Cima Coppi of the race), Passo Fedaia and Gardeccia.
Amongst the riders who atttacked today there were Emanuele Sella (who, on those very same mountains, rode very strong in 2008), Kevin Seeldraeyers (the last rider to cross the finish-line yesterday), Yaroslav Popovych, Johnny Hoogerland, Jan Bakelandts (why am I not surprised that these 3 guys went on a breakaway?), Aliaksander Kuchinsky and Javier Aramendia. Soon they were joined also by Stefano Garzelli (the oldest rider of the field after Noé's retire), Danilo Di Luca, Luis Pasamontes, Stefano Pirazzi, Carlos Sastre (he's alive!!), Pieter Weening (a hero), Philip Deignan, Alberto Losada, Evgeni Petrov, Mikael Nieve and Johann Tschopp.
Hoogerland said 'adieu!' to them with about 70 kms to go, but the first man to finish the Passo Giau was Stefano Garzelli, who was followed by Nieve (who, at the time, had a delay of 45").
In the meanwhile, Contador attacked with a few hundred of meters before the beginning of the Giau descent, since he was simply terrified by the idea of facing an attack by Nibali. In fact, Contador had no teammates left and seemed worried by this thing.
On the descent, Nibali gave us an excellent show and gained 40" on the Maglia Rosa. Ah, if yesterday there had been the Crostis descent!!!
But then, while Nibali was trying to maintain his advantage, a very annoying (at least for me, since I was supporting Vincenzo) thing happened. In fact, Pablo Lastras (Movistar) and Igor Anton (Euskaltel, third in the GC) started to pull hard in order to reduce Contador's gap from Nibali. I was simply shocked when I saw Pablo working in that way for Alberto, as if he was one of his helpers. And to say that, in 2008, Riccò had a terrible argument with Sella because he had given a single turn at the front to Contador on the Monte Pora climb (Riccò even asked Emanuele: 'How much did he pay you?')... I know that allies have always been an important part in cycling, but why was Movistar helping Saxo Bank in that way? Riis' team hasn't helped them yet in this Giro!
Told about this fact, Nibali stopped pushing hard on his pedals. But still, he was going to pay his effort on Fedaia. There in fact he got dropped, just like Lastras and Anton. What happened then? Simple: Rujano took the lead and started to pull in order to help Contador. This was actually more acceptable (although still pretty annoying), since a few days ago Contador gave a stage victory to Rujano. A few meters later, Contador told Arroyo (who had just escaped from the Maglia Rosa group) to follow him. Really, someone should explain the Spaniards that they're not taking part in the Worlds and that they're not riding for the Spanish national team.
On the descent from Fedaia, Nibali made another masterpiece and came back on Contador's group (apropos, why did Saxo Bank team car stop in that curve? It was dangerous!). But then the last climb started and Contador attacked, dropping the other riders and starting his solo towards the finish-line.
Ahead of the Maglia Rosa, however, there were still two riders, Garzelli and Nieve. Right after the beginning of Gardeccia, Nieve rode past Garzelli, who was facing a bonk. Eventually, the Euskaltel rider crossed the finish-line 1'41" earlier than Garzelli.
In the meanwhile, Scarponi started to gain time on Contador, whereas Nibali was facing another terrible time. In the end, Contador gained 6" on Scarponi, about 37" on a great Gadret, 1' 30" on Nibali, 2'20" on Kreuziger, 2'42" on Menchov.
Igor Anton sacrificed his 3rd place in the GC in order to help Contador and arrived 7minutes after Nieve. Kruijswijk instead was very good and showed he's a threat to Kreuziger's white jersey.
The last rider, Matthew Wilson, arrived 44'55" minutes after the winner. Chapeau to him.
After the stage, Italian tv had the chance to interview Riis, who transformed 'Il Processo' in a hipocrisy show. In fact, Bjarne said: 'On the other day I had a meeting with the other ds and they told me they didn't want to face Crostis not because of safety reasons, but because they thought the sport aspect of the race wasn't guaranteed on that climb. I said that a car with the bikes of the best riders on could have followed them, but the other ds said that wasn't enough. Then, I just had to respect UCI's decision. I was disappointed by the public booing at Contador, it was the UCI that decided to cut the Crostis from the race, not me or him'.
Unfortunately, all the facts of the last days (the Crostis thing, Contador's words about mechanical problems, the Spaniards' behaviours) are making me sick and they make me think that, since the end of this Giro, Contador and Riis won't be welcomed anymore by the majority of Italian supporters. I like cycling, but this Giro looks more like a football tournament than like a cycling race. And, personally, I'm saddened me and upsetted by this fact.

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.

Crostis climb cut out of the Giro, as Rujano gets the Grossglockner stage

'I'm the third best climber of the world'. This sentence, said by a little man from Venezuela who had been lost in the thickest haze of the cycling world for almost 5 years, at the beginning of 2010 caused many big laughs amongst sport experts, supporters (me included) and other people. But still, José Rujano has always believed in himself and in that sentence.
'You think you're stronger than Joaquim Rodriguez? Stronger than Carlos Sastre? Stronger than Igor Anton? Stronger than Frank Schleck, Ivan Basso and Danilo Di Luca? Who do you think you are?!?', many people asked José. And today, the 29 year-old (third in Giro 2005) finally showed who he think he is.

The Grossglockner (sorry, but my computer doesn't know what a 'scharfes s' is) is the highest mountain of Austria. From its top you can see very far and, perhaps, you can even see Italy. Italy with its climbs and with its cities. And I'm sure that Alberto Contador clearly saw an image of himself wearing a pink jersey in Milan right after crossing the finish-line.
The Giro had arrived on the Grossglockner already in 1971. On that day the glory went to Pierfranco Vianelli, whereas the final Maglia Rosa wearer in that Giro was the Swedish rider Gosta Petterson. That year the pink jersey celebrated its 40 birthday, this year it celebrates its 70th.
The pink jersey (whose colour derives from the colour of the paper on which the Gazzetta dello Sport has been printed every day for many decades) has always been the 'fémme fatale' of cycling. As if it was a woman, the Italians call her 'she'; As if she was a true 'fatal woman', this jersey has been desired by many men, even after that she abandoned them. She has betrayed many lovers, she has created them illusions, she has made them cried. But at the same time, she has made some of them laugh of joy, she has made them famous, she has made them rich and envied. Yesterday, she even made some men rent a private airplane in order to be able to get a short close meeting with her.

As Contador pointed out yesterday, rest is very important in this Giro. And in order not to lose useful rest time in the hotel, yesterday Scarponi, Niemiec and Marzoli rented a private jet that brought them to Spilimbergo. On the other hand, Nibali opted for a less expensive helicopter, whereas Contador didn't bother about arriving to Spilimbergo in a team car.
Today's stage was the third one of an amazing 'triplete'. Tomorrow in fact the riders will face Crostis and Zoncolan one after the other, whereas on Sunday they'll face 'the toughest stage ever' towards Gardeccia. Apropos: in two days time, be ready to spotting a half-naked supporter wearing a pair of cow horns. He's always on Passo Giau so, when you see him, don't say I hadn't advised.
Because of the demanding next stages of the Giro, many sprinters decided to abandon the Corsa Rosa this morning. More precisely, these men were Renshaw, Petacchi, Belletti, Cavendish, Hondo and Ventoso. During the stage instead there were the retires of Kohler, Modolo, Ciolek and Appollonio (who had promised he would have tried to reach Milan). Chicchi, on the other hand, remained in the race, although he admitted that he received a little help from his team car on Etna.
In spite of the hard climb waiting for them at the end of the race, many riders decided to go on a breakaway this afternoon. They were Cayetano Sarmiento (last rider to get caught on the final climb of the day) Pieter Weening (penultimate rider to get caught), Pablo Lastras (who tried breaking free from the little group of riders every time they approached a descent), Branislau Samoilau, Rafael Valls, Alberto Losada, Angel Vicioso, Craig Lewis, Lars Petter Nordhaug (he enjoys breakaways!), Andrea Noé (42 year-old, chapeau!), Johnny Hoogerland (chorus of *yays!* coming from the Dutch supporters), Rinaldo Nocentini, Kristof Vandewalle (who keeps on racing in spite of his facial injuries, chapeau also to him!), Cameron Meyer and Alessandro Spezialetti. Astana's Robert Kiserlovski (one of my favourite GC riders) remained with those guys until they reached the '40 kms to go' mark. At that point he said 'fare thee well' to his companions (apropos, what's the Croatian for 'Adieu'?) and went on a lonely escape. His attack was neutralised with about 12 kms to go.
In the meanwhile, the peloton was lead by Euskaltel guys. Contador had said he was going to create himself some friends in the peloton in order to win this Giro - and Euskaltel really seems a good friend. In fact, the Basque riders pulled almost for the whole stage, in order to help Igor Anton. Eventually, their work benefited Alberto more than everyone else.
The riders began the climb towards Grossglockner with 15 kms to go. I went to Grossglockner in 2002 and I have great memories of that place (and of that holiday in general). There in fact I saw a marmot, I walked on the glacier (it was July and I was completely shocked by that fact), I discovered how 'burnt car brakes' smell like, watched my dad paying 29 euros (29 euros!! 58 mila lire!!!) just because he wanted to drive his car up to a mountain (at the time I was 10 and I found this pretty strange) and then, in the end, I also went to the little zoo at the bottom of the climb, where I could see some wolves.
Anyway. I'm digressing. With 8 kms to go, Rujano (1.62 meters of height, 48 kgs of weight) attacked. He was followed by Scarponi and by Contador, so he was forced to attack again. Then it was Contador's time to attack. Once again, the only one who could follow the Spaniard was the short man from Venezuela, who this time even gave him some turns at the front.
In the meanwhile, the other GC riders were going up the climb with an apparently slow pace. They didn't organise a serious chase and, when Masciarelli came back on their group, Kreuziger made him pull once again. When Francesco got dropped, no one chased anymore.
With about 3 kms to go, AG2R's Dupont and Gadret both attacked, followed by Anton. In spite of this, they couldn't bridge up to the dynamic duo formed by Rujano and Contador, sorry, 'Terminador', who ended the race with 1'36" of advantage on Kreuziger, Scarponi, Menchov, Nibali, Kiryenka and Arroyo. 13th was a great Kruijswijk, whereas 17th was Sivtsov and 18th Niemiec (love that man!!).
Contador let the victory to José (thus making himself new friends inside the peloton), who couldn't believe his eyes when he won.

CROSTIS UPDATE (added after reading the latest news regarding Crostis):
After the stage, Nibali sounded really depressed. 'Contador is stronger than us, we can't do nothing about it'. Also the journalists said that: 'the Giro is over because Contador is way too strong'. On the other hand, Scarponi admitted 'having tried everything I could'. Talking about Michele, I think he's paying the fact that he was in a super form already in March (just think about his amazing Sanremo!).
Actually, until a few moments ago I thought that Contador still could be defeated in this Giro. Experts in fact said that Nibali could have gained about 2' advantage on tomorrow's descent of Crostis, whereas Contador really feared that downhill road. Unfortunately, right now I've discovered that the riders won't face the Crostis tomorrow. Apparently, the main problem is that the team cars wouldn't have been able to follow the riders down that descent. Some ds were against this fact, whereas almost all the ds whose riders are racing against Contador (Savio, Damiani, Amadio) were in favour of it. Unfortunately for them (and for the supporters who are already in the Crostis area, perhaps without Internet connection), the UCI has decided to cancel the downhill. My 50 cent about this decision? Well, it's very simple: the riders, UCI and the ds knew about the Crostis descent since November. Why do the UCI commisaries decide to take it away from the Giro just now, less than 15 hours before the beginning of tomorrow's stage? I agree with the decision itself, but the way it has been taken really freaks me out.
Just think about the supporters who are already on the Crostis with their campers/roulottes. They'll wake up tomorrow morning at 9 am to find out that the race won't ride in front of them. How nice! And think also about those who have already gone to bed and will wake up tomorrow at 5 to get on Crostis before the police closes the roads for the cars. Are UCI guys going to tell these people directly about their decisions? Or will the supporters find out about it tomorrow morning, when it will already be too late to go up Zoncolan?
Moreover, I understand that safety is a priority for cyclists and I do believe that Zomegnan dared a bit too much with this this year parcours (I said that already a long time ago). However, I think it's interesting to notice that the UCI commissaries decided to cut Crostis from the parcours not because of safety reasons, but because the team cars couldn't have directed the riders properly during the descent and on the climb. Now, aren't the UCI guys the same people who want to ban radios?!? Shouldn't they pay more attention to leaked suspicious list and to the support of the credibility of cycling rather than doing these last minute things?
Really, in this moment I'm very upset and I really do understand the anger of the Giro organisers. Mauro Vegni in fact said: "The route of tomorrow's stage was discussed and okayed by the riders in Catania before the transfer on Sunday (...). We didn't hear any objections from the riders or teams today but we understand that they complained to the UCI judges". Wonderful behaviour, congratulations guys! Now, are those ds/riders going to take their own responsibility for this thing or will their names remain unknown forever and ever?
I didn't like the Crostis descent, but the way they cut it out of the Giro is ridiculous. Whereas I agree with the decision itself, I really do believe it could have been taken in another, better way.
And then, think about the morale of a guy like Nibali: he was sure he would have been able to attack on Crostis descent, now he's found out he won't even face it. Shocking!!!
Really, now it looks like the furunculus on Contador's gluteus is the only thing in which his adversaries must trust in order to defeat him in this Giro (ok, I'm exaggerating; but still, these last minute decisions really do freak me out).

Luckily, the Giro is still long and Contador is human. Have a good night and let's get ready for the Zoncolan tomorrow!

TOC (SHORT AND IMPARTIAL) UPDATE:
1. Figbash points out the crash that Denifl had the other day (or night?): http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/gallery/casey-b-gibson-photos-from-stage-5-of-the-2011-amgen-tour-of-california_174618/attachment/amgen-tour-of-california-stage-5-15 . Ouch!!
2. Another bad news for Leopard Trek: Jens Voigt broke his scaphoid bone and will have to undergo an operation. I wish him a fast recovery!!

(Pic by Bettini: Rujano couldn't believe he was actually winning the stage, he kept on looking at what Contador was doing behind him!!!)