From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jun 2 08:03:07 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 00:03:07 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 20 - Relentless Efforts Message-ID: <3EDAF6AB.1000508@cyclofiend.com> Stage 20 - Canobbio - Cantu - 120 km The last road leg, rolling over mostly flat roads into the great city of Milano, Italy for the penultimate stage of the 2003 Giro D'Italia. Gilberto Simoni of Team Saeco leads by a stunning 8:04 over Stefano Garzelli of Caldirola-Sidermec, who in turn is hanging on by a scant two seconds over the Ukranian Yaroslav Popovych, who rides for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. The famed framebuilder Ernesto Colnago has spoken highly of the young rider, touting him as one of the great forces in cycling in the last 50 years. High praise from a man who has met most of them. In the back of my mind, I supposed that today would be the big "Piaaaaaannnnnooo!" stage - riders taking it easy, rolling along and just dipping into town under the time limit. The Green climbers jersey was pretty much sewn up by Colombia-Selle Italia's Fredy Gonzalez unless he gets abducted by space aliens, the Blue InterGiro jersey was on the shoulders of the imposing Magnus Backsted of Team Fakta and didn't seem to be going anywhere, and the cyclamina (mauve) points jersey was well hidden under the Maglia Rosa on Simoni's shoulders. Garzelli could nick it from him, but clearly won't be given a free pass from the leader to go for the points. Theoretically, Jan Svorada of Lampre could challenge for the points jersey, but even though they were reduced in numbers, the red guard of Saeco probably had enough oomph left to prevent that - Svorada would have to take intermediate points on the road, and then win the stage. Certainly, as one of the last sprinters left in the race, he probably has a high percentage of one or the other of those scenarios, but not both. It's my guess that if he takes the intermediate sprint points, he will be a seriously marked man at the finish. Although they are now without Fabio Sacchi or Dario Pieri, I'm betting that a few of the lanky, red-clad Italians who are left to guard the Maglia Rosa could notch up the pace enough to give Lampre and Svorada quite a headache. I don't remember anyone really managing to lead Svorada out, other than the riders from Fassa Bortolo or the zebras of Domina-Vacanze. As soon as coverage opens at less than 50 km to go, the riders are in the act of proving my intuition dead wrong. Since the rollout, there have been a cavalcade of attacks, a virtual merry-go-round of riders hurtling off the front, others rocketing out to join them and then breaks from within the breaks repeating the whole series of events. I guess the other side of the coin is that since it's the last road stage, _everyone_ is determined to make a go of it, and try to have someone other than Fassa Bortolo (8 stage wins this year - Dario Frigo, Aitor Gonzalez and SIX by Petacchi), Domina-Vacanze (Mario x2) or Gilberto Simoni (three stage wins). The pace for the first half hour was over 50 km/hr... Buckle your seat belts - it's gonna be a scorcher. Bright sun, light winds and a temperature in the high 80's. Today, 97 riders begin the race, none of the teams are intact, and only 7 of the 19 teams have more than four riders left on their squad. Lotto-Domo has one rider left (Koos Morenhout), Ceramiche Panaria has two, FDJeux.com has three (including the strongly riding Sandy Casar), while Gerolsteiner, Tenax, Fakta CCC-Polsat have four left. Julian Winn, British National Champion who rides for Fakta, has moved strongly off the front, and a couple of small echelons move away from the Saeco-controlled peleton. With minor dinking around a few riders hook up, argue, split up, move away, and riders are splintering in and out of groups in front of a stretched out peleton. Speed is high and the Team Directors must have explained the importance of logos in front of television cameras. Lampre gets a bit busy at the front to keep things intact, after a couple of zebras have moved up and away on a short, sharp climb. Others move up toward the striped pair of Gabriele Colombo and Giovanni Lombardi. A group of about 15 riders have hooked up with the pair, containing among other riders Marco Pantani, who is in with at least one teammate. Another group of 10 or so seem to be halfway between them and the peleton, which follows the pacemaking of Lampre and Saeco. Dissension begins in the lead group, as they spread a bit across the roadway and argue about who should be taking the next pull. The entire Panaria team takes up the reigns - of course, that's only two guys, but they're really working hard... The lead group keeps swelling, as the second break seems to have pulled up to have 28 riders away. The InterGiro point appears as if no one was aware, and Eddie Mazzoleni from Caldirola-Sidermec jumps out to take it. About 44 seconds later, a clearly soft-pedaling main group has only Saeco on the front. Pantani grimaces behind the wheel of teammate Cristian Gasparoni, who paces him off the front. They gap the breakaway group, and Sandy Casar lights out after him - Casar is only a few seconds behind the new-eared one in the GC. Pantani has popped off the back, and Mazzoleni has joined up with Giuliano Figueras of Panaria, Carlos Zaballa from Kelme and Lorenzo Bernucci from Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. They can't resist dinking around under the dense trees for a moment of two, but they quickly begin taking serious pulls. A chase group screams through the twisty, undulating roads (where Bob Roll used to train when he lived in the area), and somehow Marco Velo of Fassa Bortolo has moved off the front. They must have caught the small group out of view of the cameras. Velo is away on a good move as folks slow and look for others to take up the chase. In the words of the TV chef - BAM - Giovanni Lombardi - the quiet zebra who usually leads out Mario Cipollini takes off up the roadway. He is instantaly away from everyone instantly, streaking up towards the wheel of Velo. He snags him as if he's got a motor. The two have committed to this as they run under the 25 km to go banner - swapping the pacemaking duties. The two have 1:40 over the main group - no gaps given to the stage-grasping hopfulls who are in all kind of groupings somewhere nearby behind. There we go, they have about a 15 second gap, but it's not clear if that's the closest group or the biggest group. A threesome with Australian Scott Sunderland from Fakta, Denis Lunghi from Alessio, and Bernucci has decided they can make the gap. Now they blow under the 20 km banner, in what seems like only a few seconds later and the gap has increased up to 23 seconds. The troika gets grabbed by the leaders of the breakaway bunch, and when the riders take a breath to recover, Gianni Faresin from Gerolsteiner bolts away, but they keep him under contol with another effort. Lombardi and Velo suffer on a bit of a climb - well, actually Lombardi is obviously suffering as they hit the first bits of the incline to the last GpM point - a category 3 climb. Mazzoleni strongly accellerates out of the bunch and actually has a bit of a gap. 15 km to go. Lombardi's head is down aas they hit a bit of a climbing reprieve. Switching back to Mazzoleni, he clearly is moving faster over the same ground. Figueras has hooked up with Mazzoleni now, and they crest up toward GpM climb through the streets of Cantu, 13 km from the finish. Mazzoleni is a lanky, long-limbed and powerful rider, while Figueras looks like he's built more for the mountains. Nevertheless, they've chipped away a few seconds, while the big chase group has skipped back to around 45 seconds. If the second pair can hook up with them, it will change the dynamics a bit, as Lombardi can easily crush Velo in a sprint if he hasn't lost too much energy on that climb. But the addition of Mazzoleni will put a very fresh looking pair of legs in the equation, and Figueras does have a fast finish as well. The gap has edged down to about 10 seconds as the roads straighten a bit. The chasers can see them and they definitely have the added impetus of seeing their prey. With about 7 km to go, they look like they are about to hook up with thw leading pair - what ho! - there goes Mazzoleni! Just before the hook up, he dropped behind Figueras, blew his nose and just hammered up and away up the roadway! Simoni knows that was the hard move, and tries to move up, but Mazzoleni moves away untouched. Now, Figueras moves up and away, trying to catch him, but the other two nip up to his wheel as everyone rolls under the 5 km to go banner. Mazzoleni takes a quick look behind as he tries to find a little more speed, a little less wind. He is fully committed, sliding up on the saddle and looking like he wants this. That may have been the move of the day, as he hammers it through the streets of town. Back in the big chase group, three of Pantani's teammates still set the pace to bring them up. They grind and hammer Lombardi has gone! He makes an incredible accelleration up a slight incline and turn and somehow, he's regained Mazzoleni! 3 km to go! Lombardi goes right past him continues to hammer the pace, and looking back to coax Mazzoleni to take a turn. But Mazzoleni knows better than to tow the ferocious zebra sprint leadout man toward the line and won't, which allow Velo and Figueras to reattach themselves. They are under a kilometer to go and the four eye each other through an anaerobic glaze. Suddenly Velo hits hard as they pass under the 1 km to go banner, but Lombardi was ready and pounces hard. He knows that he needs to keep everyone together. Now within 800 meters of the line, the roadway opens up a bit and Velo leads the quartet with Lombardi directly on his wheel. It's like a four-up match sprint, as they eye one another and cast furtive glances back up the roadway. From the distance, the thundering hooves of the chase group come into view - they cannot afford to dink around! They close quickly as Velo tries in vain to accellerate away. That kicks Lombardi into action and he wrenches at the bars trying to squeeze every last potential cell of effort into his pedals. Mazzoleni moves with him, punching a large pink balloon out off the way with his pedal stroke. Figueras tries to move as well. Lombardi has speed from another world, and he edges slightly to his right, then holds a straight line directly to the finish. Arms up and a full bike length - Giovanni Lombardi takes the victory. Mazzoleni holds second place with a strong effort while Figueras nips Velo before the line. A mere four seconds later, the chase group hammers in, just a tad too slow today. The main group now rolls in with Saeco pacing the bunch at about 1:47 back. Stage 20 - 1 - Giovanni Lombardi - Domina Vacanze - 3:05:30 2 - Eddy Mazzoleni - Caldirola-Sidermec - s.t. 3 - Guiliano Figueras - Ceramiche-Panaria - s.t. 4 - Marco Velo - Fassa Bortoloa - s.t. 5 - Mario Manzoni - Mercatone Uno - @:04 Mazzoleni's breakaway efforts have moved him into the top ten, replacing Wladimir Belli of Lampre. Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - 88:51:51 2 - Stefano Garzelli - @8:04 3 - Yaroslav Popovych - @8:06 4 - Andra Noe - @9:49 5 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - @10:35 6 - Raimondas Rumsas - @11:01 7 - Dario Frigo - @12:38 8 - Franco Pellizotti - @14:21 9 - Sergei Gontchar - @16:28 10 - Eddy Mazzoleni - @20:03 Vittoria Adorni has held the biggest g From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jun 2 08:03:32 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 00:03:32 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 21 - Time Trial to the Finish Message-ID: <3EDAF6C4.2020802@cyclofiend.com> Stage 21 - Milano Idroscalo - Piazza Dumo - 33 km Individual Time Trial The final stage of the 2003 Giro D'Italia rises today, and barring divine intervention or a couple of poorly placed throat candies, Simoni should hold his jersey today. But down in the next slot, Stefano Garzelli narrowly holds a 2 second lead over Yaroslav Popovych. Dario Frigo could notch himself a couple of spots with a good effort as well, but it will require a supreme effort. There are 33 corners on this relatively short TT course. Fakta's Magnus Backsted rumbles across the line with the first competitively low time of 39:28. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to be using a set of prayer bars - he finishes on a traditional looking road bike. He has notched into first even with what seems to have been a bike change. Fassa Bortolo's ace time trialist, Aitor Gonzalez has been reported with good times at the second time check. Saeco's Leonardo Bertagnolli moves up through the finishing cobbles and turns the screw down to 39:22 - Backstedt had been ahead of him by 17 seconds earlier on the course, which lends credence to the theory of a bike change late on the course. The effort from Marzio Bruseghin from Fassa Bortolo sends us all to the datbase, to try to find what else he's ever done - he comes through with a screaming time of 38:23 - 51 km/hr - more than a minute faster than Backstedt. We've been seeing some photos of a burning building which has been taking some of the emergency vehicles away. Report comes in that a plane crashed into it - a mere 500 meters away from the course. That has grounded the overhead helicopters, so we're not yet getting a lot of images from out on the course - just those from the fixed cameras. De Nardi-Colpack rider and previous World Champion in the Time Trial, Sergei Gontchar has rolled through twith the fastest time at the first check, coming across the line in his tortured style at just over 13 minutes. He's an extremely powerful rider, and has managed not to lose any time on the multitude of turns on this circuit. Aitor Gonzaelez nips across the line two seconds behind teammate Bruseghin - They've clearly told Bruseghin that he needed to go out and blaze the course to figure out what splits to hit - but they forgot to let him know he needed to run out of energy near the end. Oh well, it'll give 'em something to talk about on the bus. Well, it look like the camera motos are back in action, and we get shots of Andrea Noe rolling through what looks like a bike path in a municipal park. Popovych crosses himself and rolls down the ramp from the start house. Quickly driving along at speed, his time trial position is flawless. Dario Frigo has nipped the second fastest time at the first check with a 13:09. Simoni of the roses of his shorts and the pnk of his jersey, gloves, glasses, helmet and - yes - pink Cannondale frame complete with pink disk rear wheel and saddle. At the first time check at 11 km, Popovych rolls through at 13:24. Exactly three minutes later, Garzelli records 13:24 at the same point. Tremendous courage and classy effort seem to elevate the efforts of the Caldirola rider. Eddy Mazzoleni from Caldirola is having an excellent ride as well, and blazes across the finish at 39:54 - it gives him a 12 second lead in the GC over Wladimir Belli, locking down his 10th place finish for this year. Gontchar hammers toward the homeland as the former World TT Champion records a finishing time of 38:03, 19 seconds the better of Bruseghin. Popovych at the second time check at 20 km: 23:31. Garzelli has lost a second at 20 km point at 23:32, but continues to hammer out a powerful cadence. Frigo hurtles around the last couple tight cobbled turns with a time of 38:30 at the line, finishing behind Bruseghin and Gonzalez. Simoni continues to roll relatively easily through the streets of Milano - he's missed an easy one: should've had pink shoe covers. But, he does gain points for the deep section front rim is pink too... Ramondas Rumsas notches into 5th overall with a strong effort. A strangely "invisible" rider until you realize he's turned in a strong effort, or made the decisive break. Popovych is looking like he's hurting a bit - the pain and urgency is evident as he continually drops his chin on the straightaways. He still moves an an incredible pace, but so far, Garzelli has nearly matched it. Andrea Noe of Alessio clicks in with a darned decent effort - currently 8th overall. Popovych arcs around the hard final turns and screams toward the finsh - out of the saddle as his 39:23 8th place. Now begins a very long three minutes for that young man. Garzelli rolls through the streets past a continual backdrop of spectators. Mouth open, he's reaching deeply into himself and punching a huge gear on his nearly all black bicycle. He's under the 1 km banner at 38 minutes exactly. He can not afford to finish after the time of 39:25. He's flying! He banks onto the final hard right cobbled corner, then through the nearrow left - it looks like he didn't hold that much speed into the final corner. Punching the gear and locked into his aero tuck, Garzelli crosses the finish line at 39:20 - an unbelieveable effort to hold second place. Simoni crosses the finsh with a broad salute to the crowd, a kiss of his wedding ring and victory in the 86th edition of the Giro D'Italia. Cheering crowds descend up him, and he is lifted on the shoulders of his well-wishers - they heave him continually into the air and march towar Stage 21 - 1 - Sergei Gontchar - De Nardi- Colpack - 38:04 2 - Marzio Bruseghin - Fassa Bortolo - @:19 3 - Aitor Gonzalez - Fassa Bortolo - @:20 4 - Dario Frigo - Fassa Bortolo - @:26 5 - Raimondas Rumsas - Lampre - @1:03 6 - Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com - @1:05 7 - Stefano Garzelli - Caldirola-Sidermec - @1:16 8 - Leonardo Bertagnolli - Saeco - @1:18 9 - Yaroslav Popovych - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago - @1:19 10 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - @1:21 Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - 89:32:09 2 - Stefano Garzell - @7:06 3 - Yaroslav Popovych - @7:11 4 - Andrea Noe - Alessio - @9:24 5 - Georg Totschnig - @9:42 Coming up - Final standings and comments.