From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 16 03:03:33 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 19:03:33 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Giro Prognostications Message-ID: <3EC446F5.5070903@cyclofiend.com> Despite the best attempts of computers, cable companies, nor-cal weather and nasty spring colds, the 2003 Giro D'Italia looms large. This season's race has an odd combination of "Who's Missing" and "Will they do it?" Regardless, there are enough new wrinkles to the course that it should be an epic race. They'll drop straight into a road stage, so Mario Cipollini will not have the chance to get fined for wearing an outlandish outfit. On the downside, last years winner Paolo Savoldelli, 2nd place rider Tyler Hamilton and such animators as Cadel Evans have directed their attention and training toward the Tour de France, making race for the Maglia Rosa in Milan wide open. The focus on Lance's "Drive for Five" will have to be set aside while Mario Cipollini and his zebra-stripe-clad team of Domina-Vacanza try to tie Alfredo Binda's long-standing record of 41 Giro stage victories. After his emotional World Championship victory last season, and the tremendous wins he had, his challenge will be to see if his 38 year old legs can still push him to the front of the bunch. Gilberto Simoni of Saeco has been mounting a campaign of words to put himself into the Maglia Rosa this year. His dentist - no..his throat candies had a little something extra in it last year, which resulted in him being asked not to continue the 2002 Giro. It will be interesting to see if he can back up his predictions. Although he doesn't have a weak team, it will be interesting to see who can assist him on the stronger climbs. One of the quiet men seems to be Stephano Garzelli. After being ejected from last year's Giro for a positive test for Probenicid, and arguably being one of the final straws which broke Mapei's sponsorship, he's been out of racing for nearly a year. That's still one of the stranger suspensions, and I must admit a personal bias towards wanting to see Garzelli redeem himself. Hopefully Lampre's Francesco Casagrande will let his riding rather than his fists do the talking. Ejected last year for "aggressive behavior" while disputing a KoM spot, he has a great history of wonderful rides punctuated by dismal failures. Perhaps riding in pink and purple of the Lampre squad will humble him enough to concentrate on riding. But, they did team him up with Wladimir Belli, who got ejected for popping a spectator, so who knows... Another of the soap-opera Italian riders is Dario Frigo of Fassa Bortolo. After a suspension, he's back again, and arguably the most serious of the comeback kids. His form has been good in spring races. The only thing he needs to avoid is his tendancy to crack in time trials. Yaraslav Popyvich is another rider who quietly put himself into many of the breaks last year. He's an very strong young rider who might just have moderate anonimity in his favor. He is riding for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, a typo just waiting to happen... Up in the hills, Julio Perez will be waiting for the inclines to pitch to impossible before he rolls away and attacks. One of the few pure climbers around, he has managed the KoM jersey with the results of spectacular climbing efforts. Believe it or not, Marco Pantani still rides his bike. He's either going to fail miserably or regain some measure of form. It's been sad t watch him suffer on the climbs after electrifying the world with his prowess. Of course, there's a ton of miles lying before them, as they begin in the southernmost bit of Italy. Starting in the boot area, they will work their way onto the isle of Sicily before heading north to the serious climbing, massive stages and a finish in Milan on June 1st. As last year, I'll try to keep you up to date with the racing, between gulps of coffee. Cheers! -- Jim From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 16 03:04:04 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 19:04:04 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stages 1/2/3 Message-ID: <3EC44714.7030109@cyclofiend.com> Ok, I admit it, I slept in for the first three stages of this year's Giro D'Italia. Too pooped from a nasty lingering cold to wrestle myself out of bed and over to the coffee maker - the after effect of a few too many miles and tad too little sleep. Nevertheless, the trusty tape machine managed to catch the action. Rather than go through the nuts and bolts of the first three stages (which by now, you've probably already read about...dare I say..."elsewhere"...) So, here's the punk rock (i.e. short-fast-simple) version of the first three stages. Stage 1 - Lecce 201 km circuit Cipo gunning for the big 4-OH! Binda's record to fall today. Flat, as Flat as Flippin' Italy ever is! Go Zebras Go! The start finds everyone wearing helmets - Pantani pops off with some complaints. Everyone's nervous, but no drug busts and no dumb crashes as the gang makes a big circle back into Lecce. Mario's team looks OK, but not as dominant as last year. Fassa Bortolo riders muscle their way in and pull Allessandro Petacchi up into trailing position. The last zebra pulls away as the road begins to straighten and Mario sees the line. Then Mario sees another rider pull up even and pass him. Petacchi's speed gets him to the line first. Petacchi was Cipo's leadout man for the World's in Belgium, but he will not play second fiddle in the Giro! In their wake, the sprinters gnash their teeth and falter. Petacchi takes the stage and the first Maglia Rosa! 1 - Allessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo 2 - Mario Cipollini - Domina Vacanze 3 - Angelo Furlan - Alessio 4 - Isaac Galvez Lopez - Kelme 5 - Robbiwe McEwen - Lotto-Domo 6 - Graeme Brown - Ceramiche Panaria 7 - Jimmy Casper - FDJeux.com 8 - Dario Piere - Saeco 9 - Jan Svorada - Lampre 10 - Graziano Gasparre - De Nardi-Colpack Stage 2 - Copernico - Matera - 177 km Mario takes back a little pride by beating Petacchi to the first InterGiro sprint point. The heat beats down the efforts though, and the speed dips down to 36 km/hr for the first 4 hours. A little bit of a rise in the road puts Fredy Gonzalez of Selle Italia onto the first GpM (Italian for KoM) point, but also saws off Cipo as if were Ivan Quaranta. None other than Mercatone Uno set the blistering pace after the climb - under orders from the recently resurrected Marco Pantani. Sensing the extra effort would not get him back in time, Cipo pulls the plug on the zebras, and they moderate their loses but do not attempt to reattach. The wide flat finish found a speeding Aussie - Robbie McEwen determined to cross the line first, which he did! However, as they say in beginning Physics classes, his horizontal vector also increased, much to the chagrin of Alessio's Fabio Baldato - who taught key Italian phrases to anyone in earshot as he waggled his finger at the Aussie. The judges agreed with Baldato and relegated McEwen for irregular riding. Petacchi follows the battling pair in at fourth, and retains the Maglia Rosa. Oddly, a Cipo-less zebra takes second and another Panaria rider finds himself up in the sprint finish. Amazing for a team that supposedly only had a great climber in Julio Perez. Also interestingly, Stefano Garzelli notches into the top ten, immediately shadowed by Francesco Casagrande. 1 - Fabio Baldato - Alessio 2 - Gabriele Colombo - Domina Vacanze 3 - Giuliano Figueras - Ceramiche Panaria 4 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo 5 - Bernhard Eisel - FDJeux.com 6 - Vladimir Duma - Landouwkrediet-Colnago 7 - Stefano Garzelli - Caldirola-Sidermec 8 - Francesco Casagrande - Lampre 9 - Fabio Sacchi - Saeco 10 - Bo Hamburger - Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave Stage 3 - After another GpM effort by Fred Gonzalez, everyone thought they could win the stage and a multiple number of attacks ensued as the peloton raced down a twisting 10 km descent. Robbie McEwen tried to breakaway, gaining 10 seconds or so, while Petacchi did everything he possibly could to claw his way back up to the Aussie. Chaos and panicked riding brought sprinter's teams to the front. But, the uphill sprint to the line left the big men a bit flat, and Stefano Garzelli fires away to take the win as the sprinters flail and suffer behind. A clear redemption for the talented rider who was ejected from last year's Giro under relatively suspicious circumstances. Casagrande recogizes a serious challenge to the overall victory and scrambles into second place, but Garzelli's victory gains him a 20 second time bonus, which may have strategic significance when the fat crows come to roost in the mountains. Petacchi outdoes himself to take 3rd. Gilberto Simoni even realizes there's a race on and dips into the top ten. 1 - Stefano Garzelli - Vini Caldirola 2 - Fracesco Casagrande - Lampre 3 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fasso Bortolo 4 - Franco Pellizotti - Alessio 5 - Gabriele Colombo - Domina Vacanze 6 - Paolo Lanfranchi - Ceramiche Panario 7 - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco 8 - Serguei Gontchar - De Nardi-Colpack 9 - Andrea Noe - Alessio 10 - Graziano Gasparre - De Nardi-Colpack =============== Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 4 - Terme Luigiane - Vibo Valentia 170 km From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 16 03:04:31 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 19:04:31 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 4 - Tip of the Toe Message-ID: <3EC4472F.5070103@cyclofiend.com> Stage 4 - Acquappesa-Marina - Vibo Valentia 170K Well, one of my early favorites, Ric Verbrugghe has turned in his number this morning. After experiencing a crash on the final descents of Stage 3 while leading Robbie McEwen's attack, he is unable to continue due to injuries. Today is the last stage on the mainland before a few days on the isle of Sicily. The first 100 K will remain fairly flat until a 600 meter climb followed by a long descent to the finish. Elio Aggiano (81) from my brother's favorite team, Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave, Julian Usano Martinez (108) from Kelme, and Martin Hvastia (172) from the Tenax squad take a flyer at the 1k mark, making them the favorites of the peloton as they kick the speed up to 44km in the first hour. They keep their gap of about 3 minutes through the InterGiro spot as the group begins to hack away at their lead under the pace of the Domina Vacanze zebras and the not-quite-lava-Lampres. Pretty quickly, they bring the trio back to about the minute and a half mark with 50 odd km to go. The race continues to parrellel the coast, with beautiful white sand beaches and spotlessly clear waves breaking upon them. The peloton reaches out and grabs the trio suddenly and a flurry of counterattacks hit with no effect. Then a couple riders pop off in advance of the day's climb. Selle italia suddenly has a number of riders up and away leading the charge uphill, finding themselves the majority in a group of 7 or 8 riders who have a bit of daylight. Piotr Chmielewski from the CCC Polsat squad lights out from that group to gain the lead. With the bright orange kit and bike, they look like they've chosen the Euskatel-Euskadi colors. They are however, mostly Polish and Czech riders who have folded over from Mros squad. His minutes are marked as the peloton keeps him within eyeshot. Freddy Gonzalez from Selle Italia, who has serious plans for the KoM jersey pips up to Chmielewski along with Carlos Quesada. A number of riders notch up their pace a touch and Charlie Wegelus latches on. They'll crest this hill - about a 16km climb - and the sprinters are still in touch with the front. It's a rather straight, exposed climb and a number of the bigger boys are kicking up their cadence as they drop gears and try to limit their losses. The long climb continues and now Cipollini drifts backward in a small gear with a couple of monitoring zebras. At the front, Carlos Garcia Quesada has eased off the front and gained about 10 or 11 seconds. Back among the 1st chase group quietly rides Giovanni Lombardi, the main leadout man for Cipollini. They hold a small lead in front of a larger second group. Garzelli rides easily within the second chase group, wearing the Points Jersey even though he's in second in that competiton - Petacchi can only wear the Maglia Rosa. Now Sandy Casar from France de Juene hikes up his shorts and goes after the leading Kelme rider, as the chasers begin to rise up, look around, and figure out if they want to hurt themselves too much more. They move into a town still about 4k from the actual summit, where the fans get a longer-than-normal look at the suffering bunch. Casar suffers his way up to the leader and then cracks massively from the effort, as Garcia Qusada punches it a bit to assert his authority. It's hard to see that the road is still rises, but he finally goes over the KoM on this 3rd category climb. The regrouped peloton comes over at about 26 seconds back, with the bigger boys coming over the KoM at about a minute fifteen. Everyone except for the Domina Vacanza squad seem interested in sitting on rather than taking a decent pull, so they engage in some colloguial phrases and gesticulations to encourage some efforts. Another zebra drops back for help and they form a solid lead group. Cipollini regains the main field as the road pitches down and goes through another of the narrow switchbacks that always populate the Giro. At the front, Garcia Quesada gets pulled back in and theere is a group of six who are trying for glory with about 25 km to go. Breakaway Group: 97 Marcel Strauss - Gerolsteiner 123 Volodymyr Bileka - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 103 Carlos Garcia Quesada - Kelme 74 Carlos Dacruz - FDJeux.com 82 Fortunato Balliani - Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 104 Ignacio Guiterrez Cataluna - Kelme But they seem to only have about 20 or so seconds, and Saeco kicks it at the front to keep them within striking distance. Fabio Sacchi of Saeco decides to bridge, and fires away, meaning that some other sprinters team will have to worry about bringing the group up to the bunch. Robbie McEwen finds himself with a flat front wheel, snags a wheel from a teammate and is back on the road quickly enough to attach himself to a small group speeding back up to the peloton. Oscar Poszzi of Tenex fires away as the Saeco rider gets caught. The roads are anything but flat, as the riders encounter a series of rises as the road snakes through cactus and trees. The last 5 km are supposed to be dead flat, but right now, the undulations are causing mass suffering. 15 km to go, still about 20 off the front. Casagrande and Garzelli sit easily in behind suffering zebras as the lead group manages to extend their lead to 30 seconds. The two Kelme riders raise the pace and splinter the lead group with Strauss from Gerolsteiner. Fassa Bortolo and Lampre spearhead the effort as they begin to pick up the remnants of the break. The peloton is only one or two riders wide as they begin to come into the outskirts of town. The last 5 km may be flat, but as soon as we hit the 10 km to go mark, the road pitched upward, which lead to serious attacks from Freddy Gonzalez and a few other climbers. But, the sound of grinding knees and big rings begin to echo behind them and they try to get back together as they find themselves climbing again. As the peloton zips under the (now flat) 5 km to go mark and immediately erase the lead group's gap, Cipollini has pipped off the back of that group once more. He and his teammates try all sorts of striped combinations to get back up to the leaders. He's running out of roadway, as the Fasso Bortolo riders continue to ramp up the pace. It looks like the effort slowly seeps out of striped riders as they realize the math. Up front, the leaders are under the 1km to go banner. Petacchi is up in sixth place as leaders peel off. Magnus Beckstedt of Fakta hammers to try to get the gap, but Petacchi patiently waits for him to fade as they all scream along at incredible speed. Petacchi can sense a win. But, from a perch on his left shoulder, Robbie McEwen keeps finding extra gears and nicks him by inches at the line. Stage 4 1 - Robbie McEwan 2 - Allessandro Petacchi 3 - Bernhard Eisel (fdj) 4 - Giovanni Lombardi 5 - Magnus Beckstad Overall Standings: Maglia Rosa - Allessandro Petacchi - 17:37:21 2 - Stefano Garzelli - :29 3 - Francesco Casagrande - :39 4 - Gilberto Simoni - :44 4 - Gilberto Gasparre - :44 4 - Francesco Pellizotti - :44 7 - Bo Hamburger - :51 7 - Andrea Noe - :51 Tomorrow's Stage: Messina - Catania which includes a 1st category climb. If today was a tough one for Mario, then tomorrow will truly cause some suffering. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 16 03:05:05 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 19:05:05 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 5 - Sprinting in Sicily Message-ID: <3EC44751.3040000@cyclofiend.com> Stage 5 - Messina to Catania (on the isle of Sicily) - 170 km After the day's strong climb, we check in on the action with around 36 km to go. In the heat (and beauty) of Sicily, the riders remained intact for much of the Category 1 climb, until the climbers got bored (or received their ticket to go from the Consigliares of the group) and broke away near the summit. The ever-opportunistic climber Fredy Martinez of Selle Italia, and his Kelme shadow, Ignacio Cataluna Guiterrez hold a 1:36 lead as they edge up toward the InterGiro sprint on ever-flattening roads, dropping considerably from 3:00 they held after the GpM (Italian for KoM). Frighteningly enough, Marco Pantani finished 9th in the sprint yesterday. One of the markers of his past Giros has been his inability to do anything other than wobble along at the back of the peloton. Maybe the fact that he's riding smart could be a precursor to a stronger ride from the bald one. Perhaps the combination of his ear job and the aero holes of the now-required helmet have cut down his wind resistance. Back at the front of today's stage, Martinez rolls away and takes the Intergiro sprint while crowds cheer. The next small group is led by a Kelme rider who suddenly veers to the edge and hits the brakes - He's trying to give the time bonus to Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave teammate Moreno DiBiase. The teammate does a trackstand just short of the line - a good way to cause carnage on the roads - and DiBiase gets the points - but what do you expect for a team named after cheese... The big boys may have suffered through the climbs, but they now roll intact through the heat. Petacchi and Cipollini ride fully protected and both envision wins while wearing their respective jerseys. The Tenax rider Daniele Pietropolli pips away on the broad finishing roads and scrambles his way up to the leading pair. The reinforced threesome rolls under the 15 km to go with the least little bit of daylight ahead of the chasers - now only 11 seconds behind. Fassa Bortolo had assumed the effort at the front - perhaps wasting a few too many pedal strokes before the race gets serious. Behind them, Cipollini hovers behind a strong-looking phalanx of stripers. The roads undulate and climb slightly next to the Sicilian coast, but no one will let themselves get caught out today - they sweep up the breakaway riders and begin focusing of the final charge. 10 km to go. They are cruising downhill at 90 km/hr (yep, that's around 50 mph)...Nothing like a tailwind and a descent. Now just under 5 km to go and teams organize themselves, as Domino Vacanza mill around just behind the Fakta squad. Crash in the field - four or five riders down including riders from Kelme, Alessio and the Cheese-Boys - they'll lose some silly GC time, but it doesn't look like anyone is hurt. Back up front, the riders punish the pedals and the zebras hold four riders at the front Cipo sits patiently in fifth position. His patience does not extend to the riders who try to pull up and edge into his train -- one is dismissed with a none too subtle shove. Others find that there's no gap in the armor and slide behind as they are unable to match the pace of the zebras. They curve into a hard left turn, and one rider gets dumped onto the grass at way too high a speed as the road necks down slightly. It looks like an Alessio or Lotto rider who tumbles across the turf. Cipo has three riders in front of him, but the confusion of the turns have allowed pink jersey wearing Petacchi just ahead of him. That may be a tactical error, unless his leadout can correct for that. The peloton screams under the 1 km to go banner and the pacesetters begin to falter. The trusted zebra Giovanni Lombardi has the final pull, leading both Petacchi and Cipollini to the line. Last year, Lombardi had just this same situation, and dropped away early forcing the second rider into the wind a bit early. But, today, Lombardi seems to hold the pace a bit longer, before pulling off to the left. Petacchi now sees the finish line, leading the entire peloton at warp speeds, and guns it for his anticipated victory. It does seem as though Lombardi held the leadout a bit too long, and Petacchi goes continues to accelerate along the right hand barriers. But, Mario continues to calculate the remaining distance and notches up his speed as well. Cipo comes around to the left to contest the sprint and begins crawling up even with Petacchi. It looks like he just might have the speed to carry it off, but the extreme lunge of Petacchi at the line seems to just punch out out a victory. Petacchi holds his arms up in triumph, but for those of us watching at home, it's not quite so clear a victory. We finally get the side replay and there can barely be a tire width between them, but Cipo comes up short at the line... There will be no tie of the elusive Binda record today. Stage 5 - 1 - Allessandro Petacchi 2 - Mario Cipollini 3 - Bernhardt Eisel 4 - Christian Moreni 5 - Robbie McEwen Overall M-R - Allessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - 22:31:44 2 - Stefano Garzell - Caldirola-Sidermec - @ :49 3 - Francesco Casagrande - Lampre - @ :59 Tomorrow: Rest Day - Transfer back to the Mainland Friday: Aversa - Avezzano 210 km -------------- From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 16 16:41:06 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 08:41:06 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 6 - Last of the Flats Message-ID: <3EC50692.2070304@cyclofiend.com> Stage 6 - Aversa - Avezzano 210 km Midway up the ankle of the Italian boot, the riders move north on flat roads under grey overcast skies. Ahead of them rotate a paceline of three riders - Christian Moreni of Alessio, Constantino Zaballo of Kelme, and the massive Swede Magnus Backstedt of Fakta who took off at about 30 km. Though they held a strong pace for a few hours, the sprinters' teams have decided that the finish suits the fast men, and Vini Caldirola, Fassa Bortolo and Domina Vacanze balance time and efforts to effect a retrival. The three leaders continue to share the efforts, but visibly feel their strength and lead slowly eek away as the gap edges down to about 1:35 with 25 km. From the continuing story of the Coastal "erosion": USPS signed Manuel Beltran to their squad from the financially crumbling Team COAST. He's probably the last of the Spanish climbers who might be able to cause Armstrong fits comes July. The leaders run under the 20 km to go banner, as they all take short smart pulls on the pointed end of the race. This break would end up with a 180 km breakaway if they could hold out until the end. However, given that the peloton seems to be streaking up to the same 20 km banner, it's not likely. A quick 10 km later, the lead three just hangs on under the 10 km to go banner, the bunch flies along under a mere 25 seconds behind, the average speed on the day hovering around 42.275 km/hr. Garzelli's squad - Vini calidora - punches it at the front to finalize the catch. But, it might not be so easy! Magnus "Maximus" Backstedt attacks from the back of the lead group and turns a massive gear, quickly distancing his breakaway rivals. The remaining pair begin to realize that soft-pedaling is their only friend, while the massive Swede Backsted falls into a pace that may be his only chance to stay away on the mildly undulating roadways. But, it is not to be - within three or four km, Backstedt cracks massively while the cameras watch, eyes visibly crossing and foaming mouth hanging agape. As Paul observes, "Boom, Boom, out go the lights..." He is swept up with little fanfare. Lotto and Alessio power down the straightening roads while the zebras edge into the tip of the peloton. A group of FDJeux.com riders decide to show what they are made of, stretching up next to the Domina-Vacanze squad. What they learn however, is that driving a pace at that speed requires just a bit more effort than they have in the engine, and they crumble, falling back into the ever-stretching group. Cipo nudges his way up to the front as six zebras hammer the pace with a single lost FDJeux.com rider in second. Petachhi sits rght on Cipos rear wheel, watching and marking his adversary. The lead zebra peels off and the lead is shared by three zebras, Cipo behind them. Today they look like the well-drilled leadout team that they can be. Under the 1 km to go and there is clearly a split to the main field - whether from the insanely fast leadout speeds or a minor bobble in the group is unclear, and at this point, elementary. Alessandro Petacchi and Galvez Lopez the Kelme sprinter sit in with a dwindling passenger list, but they've sawn off the peloton. The 2nd to last zebra fires around a hard left turn and gallops toward the line. Cipo looks over and sees Petacchi behind him. Also in the mix is the Ceramiche-Panaria sprinter Aussie sprinter, Graeme Brown. Most-dependable-zebra Giovanni Lombardi is now driving the final pace. From three riders back, Petacchi swings out to the left of Cipo while Galvaez Lopez fires away on the other side and has to briefly negotiate around the slowing Giovanni Lombardi. Cipo's leadout has been executed to near perfection, but the rainbow-stripe wearing man from Lucca sits up and...stops pedaling! This is perhaps the strangest and saddest image in the race so far! Lopez finds his cadence and accellerates toward the line. Off his left shoulder, Petacchi continues to find speed and becomes a pink blur - he takes the stage with half a bike to spare. Jan Svorada rumbles over the line in third as Lombardi and Cipo drift over the line. The sadness on Lombardi's face is evident - a superb leadout and Cipo fires a squib... Stage 6 1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo 2 - Isaac Galvez Lopez - Kelme 3 - Jan Svorada - Lampre Classifica Generale MR - Petacchi - 27:43:16 2 - Garzelli - @ 1:09 3 - Casagrande - @ 1:27 4 - Pellizotti @ 1:32 5 - Simoni @ 1:32 6 - Velo @ 1:36 7 - Lunghi @ 1:39 8 - Hamburger @ 1:39 Tomorrow: Stage 7 - Avezzano to Terminillo 146 km Though a deceptively short stage, this is generally regarded as when the 2003 Giro D'Italia will begin in earnest. A relatively flat route until it spikes up to 1625 meters in the last 16 km. From here, we will begin to see a flurry of climbs and higher finishes. Time for the bird-boned to shine for a bit. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sun May 18 07:22:36 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 23:22:36 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 7 - Terminus at Terminillo Message-ID: <3EC726AC.7050201@cyclofiend.com> Stage 7 - 146 km Avezzano to Terminillo The cheesy boys got visited by the Italian Police last night, and much to the pleasure of everyone, they found nothing after a complete search of the Formaggi Pinzoli Fiave rooms at their hotel. Meanwhile, I'm experiencing a bit of a Mighty-Casey-at-the-bat letdown after watching Mario pull the plug on his efforts at the line yesterday. I'll admit I'm biased, and would really like to see the man from Lucca pull two (or at least one) more victories out of his hat. After such a phenomenal season last year, it's tough to watch him not firing on all cylinders this season. He looks good, and his team has delivered him to the right place, but he's lacked that punch while Petacchi has clearly been on the top of his game. But the race is long, and there will be at least a couple more wide boulevard finishes. Today however, is a date with destiny for those who wish to wear the Maglia Rosa into Milan on the final stage. Gilberto Simoni of Saeco has forecast his dominance of this stage for anyone who will listen, but the 16.1 km climb will drop the big thumb on the scale today. Some will suffer as this is the first real climb, and the legs won't easily make the transition from flat road to elevated efforts. Some will recover over the next weeks, as the real multi-peak efforts of the Dolomites lie ahead for the pure clmbers. Today will be a tightening of the vise, to see just who is ready to handle the pressure. As we join the Giro gang today with about 35 km to go, there's a breakaway of 5 who have about 1:30 in front of the group: 47 Giuseppe Palumbo - De Nardi-Colpack 81 Elio Aggianto - Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave (the Clean Cheese Boys) 171 Cristiano Frattini - Tenax 164 Magnus Backstedt - Team Fakta 177 Oscar Pozzi - Tenex Of course, we could play "one of these things is not like the other - either with the name that doesn't end in a vowel or the boy who's just plain bigger than the rest in the bunch - that'd be Magnus "Magnum" Backstedt - the man towers over the riders in this break. He can't be getting much in the way of shelter by any of the dinky riders in his break. Ok, Frattini is at least riding a frame which is of similar size, but he lacks the mass of the big Swede. Overall, 165 of the original 169 riders. Light wind under sunny skies, and a moderate 72 degrees today. Perfect for the hard effort which lies ahead. The peloton glides under the 30 km to go banner. Saeco has been torquing the effort to narrow the gap before the final climbs. Simoni sits in behind his teammates, biding his time. As the lead group comes up through toward the InterGiro sprint point, Pozzi takes a flyer to try to nab the points, but Backstedt grinds right up to his rear wheel, bringing the others along. As they squeeze within that last 150 meters, Backstedt throws it up a notch and moves away from the rest, taking the InterGiro bonuses. That should move him up from fourth to second, after all the caculations occur. Now Lampre strings out the peleton, paid to deliver Francesco Casagrande to his date with the real race. Aggiano and Pozzi move away as they begin to climb. Bravado, bravado as they move up over the first little notch - a 3rd category climb that provides a bit of demoralization before the final ascent. Garzelli's teammates begin to drive the pace on this climb. At the other end of the group, Petacchi gets squeezed off, enjoying probably his last day in the Maglia Rosa. Before the GpM, Fredy Gonzalez makes a drastic sprint to take the points while the Kelme rider shadowing him nearly stacks into the barriers as he misjudges the corner, losing out on any points as other slip past him. Pozzi roars up to join Gonzalez on a breakaway down the short descent. He gaps Gonzalez as they strak downhill, but radically misjudges a corner and locks up the brakes, breaking into a two-wheel sideways slide before being unceremoniously dumped onto the dirt on the side of the road. He gets up in time to grab the end of the peleton, but he won't be breaking away again today. The climb begins to bite and a huge shuffling occurs - riders break into several groups, and the cameras switch quckly between riders who may be broken or breaking away. Julio Perez gets promptly dropped from the first group, and Pantani seems to be struggling a bit, though it's difficult to see how far back. Vini Caldorolo now drives the pace, splitting the group settling the riders into a few new and different sets. But this is the serious group, and up front Garzelli follows the wheel of Eddy Mazzoini, who is ticking over the pedals in a savage pace, while Gilberto Simoni notches into Garzelli's hip pocket with a powerful looking cadence. The group off the front consists of 8 - Andrea Noe - Alessio 9 - Franco Pellizotti - Alessio (with the biggest hair in the peleton) 11 - Pavel Tonkov - CCC Plsat 117 - Raimondas Rumsas - Lampre 127 - Yaralsav Popovych - Landbouwkredeit-Colnago 151 - Giberto Simoni - Saeco 154 - Marius Saballauskas - Saeco 185 - Stefano Garzelli - Vini Caldirola 188 - Eddy Mazzoleni - Vini Caldirola No big insane pitches on obscure narrow roads - today we get a wide road and steady pitch. The riders roll under the 10 km to banner, now seriously onto the climb. The lead group have got a decent gap up on the struggling chasers, and Pantani leads the third group about 6 seconds behind the second. With a steady cadence, his group begins to absorb a few stragglers from the second bunch. Casagrande seems to be in the second group on the road, but he doesn't seem to be pedaling with an authority to regain the leaders. Up front, Garzelli ticks over a big gear, and sits pushed way back on his saddle, while Simoni rises out of the saddle for a bit. Mazzoleni is just driving the pace at a torrid rate. Somewhere down the mountain, Fassa Bortolo riders seem to be suffering a bit, laden down from the effort of guarding the Maglia Rosa for the past 5 stages. A couple of riders now are pacing a strained looking Aitor Gonzalez. The pace picks up a bit, with Saeco's Saballauskas now leading Simoni ahead of the Mazzoleni/Garzelli pair. Pelizotti gets chopped off the back, and watches the strongmen move away. Simoni makes a hard move in front of everyone, telegraphing his punch so that anyone with binocular vision can see it, and he immediately cuts the up the road. Garzelli immediately grabs his wheel and a couple others light out after the serious attack - Popovych and Noe, with Tonkov. They hang on briefly, then only Garzelli and Tonkov remain, then only Garzelli. Simoni hammers out of the saddle moving hard, driving the pace as Garzelli just sits behind, ticking off cadence in the big gear as he matches the pace. Noe hooks up with Tonkov, now about 10 seonds back and falling. Popovych is not showing up on the camers, but it seems he hasn't dropped as far back as Pelizotti. So two riders who were ejected from last years Giro now lead the race, and they are only 4 km from the finish. Noe finds new legs and moves away from Tonkov and can again just see the two leaders. Wreckage falls behind them - Casagrande, Pantani, Frigo, Perez, Aitor Gonzalez....dropping ever backward on this power climb. Garzelli and Simoni ride side by sid as they continue to climb. Simoni looks over to take a good long look at Garzelli, who obviously didn't read the press releases for Simoni's victory. Now Andrea Noe moves himself back up to the lead pair, riding a slightly higher cadence. Tifosi run gasping alongside them, jiggling and yelling. So far, no sign of the Simoni Hooligans. Again Simoni moves hard out of the saddle, quickly burning off Noe, but Garzelli just hammers the gear from his set back, in the saddle position. Garzelli has continued to match his fforts, but has yet to rise out of the saddle. Noe grinds back up to them again. Phil and Paul both claim that Garzelli is suffering, but it seems more like a difference of styles. As they pass under the red kite, Garzelli rise up slightly and finds an out of the saddle cadence he likes for about 10 pedal strokes, before sitting back down and thumping out his rhythm. He continues to keep Simoni in his sight, while Noe hangs on somehow, with perhaps a bit of blood leaking into his sweat. As they draw around a sweeping bend a couple hundred meters from the finish, Simoni begins his accelleration toward the line, but as soon as the he makes his acclleration, Garzelli swoops past him and punches to the forefront, beating him to the line with enough daylight to sit up and salute the crowd. Noe drifts in on the slipstream. The leaders found out some hard truths today, and the cameras find Casagrande laboring toward the finish nearly more than two minutes and thirty seconds down. Pantani shuttles in with a group 3:45 behind the victors. First blood has been drawn. Stage 7 1 - Stefano Garzelli - 3:55:19 2 - Gilberto Simoni - ST 3 - Andrea Noe - @ :02 4 - Pavel Tonkov - @ :14 5 - Eddy Mazzoleni - Vini Caldirola - @ :37 6 - Marius Sabaliauskas - Saeco - @ :38 7 - Raimondas Rumsas - Lampre - @ :38 8 - Franco Pellizotti - - @ :53 9 - Yaraslav Popovych - Landbouwkredeit-Colnago - @:59 10 - Julio Perez - Ceremich-Panaria - @ 1:21 Overall Classification Maglia Rosa - Garzelli 2 - Simoni - @ :31 3 - Noe - @ :44 4 - Sabaliauskas - @ 1:28 5 - Pellizotti @ 1:36 6 - Tonkov @ 1:40 7 - Rumsas @ 1:54 8 - Popovych @ 1:56 9 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner @ 2:16 10 - Mazzoeni @ 3:02 GpM (Green Jersey) - Fredy Gonzalez Tomorrow: Stage 8 - Rieti - Arezzo Back to the flats - can mighty Mario find his legs and speed? 20 km left, and the From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon May 19 00:08:33 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 16:08:33 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 8 - Can Cipo Come Through? Message-ID: <3EC81271.80906@cyclofiend.com> Stage 8 - Rieti to Arezzo (241 km) A fine sunny day, a relatively flat ride and a wide and straight final sprint zone. Arezzo is a town that Mario Cipollini has won in before, and interestingly enough, it is also a town where Alfredo Binda won a stage in 1928. Today Mario sits just below a record which has stood for nearly 50 years, and no other rider active today is anywhere near Cipo's 40. But, 40 is not 41, and maybe the pressure to perform has become too great, or the legs just lack the snap that they need to put him across the finish line first. Today will be a test on many levels. At the front of the race today are the yellow and black jerseys of the Vini Calidirola, looking maybe a touch uneasy now that the protection of the Maglia Rosa have fallen upon their shoulders. As the arrowhead of the peleton spreads, a mass of Saeco riders surround Gilberto Simoni and the striped Kelme team ride smartly toward the front. An InterGiro sprint point looms ahead, as the Force du Nord of Team Fakta drag their main man Magnus Backstedt to the head of the bunch, the cheesy team responds strongly - as Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave have two riders in the top 6 of this competition. Currently - InterGiro Competition after Stage 7 1 - Moreno Di Biase - Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 2 - Andris Naudusz - CCC-Polsat @ :17 3 - Elio Aggiano - Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave @ :22 4 - Magnus Backstedt - Fakta @ :24 5 - Giovanni Palumbo - @ :52 6 - Mario Cipollini - Dominia-Vacanze @ :54 The InterGiro is among the more bizarre competitions in any major tour. It's a time-based competition, with its own set of bonuses which do not affect the riders overall time. The leader in this competition wears a blue jersey, not to be confused with the cyclimina (purplish-mauve) jersey awarded to the points leader (most consistent finisher). For the InterGiro, there is a 30 second competition bonus for first, 24 seconds for second and 18 seconds for third, so Backstedt could move up a little here. Backstedt's teammates drive the pace strongly and hip check a couple of lesser teams away from the big Swede's wheel. Di Biase slots in just behind Backstedt as the leadout men peel away. High gear and full power as the line comes into view - Di Biase senses the line and begins to move up Backstedt's hip, but finds that the big man breaks a lot of wind, and cannot come any further. A few more feet to the right, another big man in a FDJeux.com jersey - looks like the sprinter Jimmy Casper - hammers it and finds he can accellerate up to the pair. At the line, both Backstedt and Casper throw their bikes...damn close! That will go to the photo finish! Di Biase was clearly behind, but even though the provisional results show Backstedt taking first, even he doesn't seem convinced. Within a few minutes, the official results agree with Backstedt, and Casper is the winner, with Backstedt in second and Di Biase third. Of course, the InterGiro sprint and subsequent easing up causes a quick breakaway of 6 opportunistic riders: 49 - Leonardo Zanotti - De Nardi-Colpack 74 - Carlos Dacruz - FDJeux.com 81 - Elio Aggiano - Formaggi Pinzolo 104 - Ignacio Guiterrez - Kelme 121 - Sergiy Adyeyev - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 175 - Mirko Marini - Tenax They head up the road and work nicely together, pushing their lead out to 22 seconds. No one in the gang are a danger overall (Zanotti at about 9 minutes or so is closest to the leader's jersey), so the boys from Vini Caldirola can ease up a bit and let the sprinters' teams worry about setting the pace. They fulfill their obligations with varying degrees of effort, even convincing the Vini Caldirola men back into the rotation, while the break bounces between 20 and 30 seconds off the front. When the teams get serious and the gap begins to seriously evaporate, Adyeyev takes a flyer from the break in a bid for glory. Now the zebras begin showing up in pairs to push the pace with Fassa Bortolo, and although the curving roads keep Adyeyev slightly hidden from his chasers, they are now within 12 seconds as they pass under the 20 km to go banner. Here's a question: what the hell is Mercatone Uno doing on the front of the bike race? For some reason Pantani has put them up at the front, and we're getting the word that we have a "Gruppo Compato" - which means that they've caught the last breakaway man. On the left hand side of the road Saeco has formed a lead group, but doesn't seem want anything to do with the bald one's team. The subtle jostling continues as the zebras snuffle and organize, while a couple of Fassa Bortolo join up together. The course begins to pitch down a bit, and speed rises in the group with 5 km to go. The hours of drills assert themselves, as the striped team suddenly materialize at the head of events. Six Domina Vacanze riders flying down the roadway, with Mario tucked in at a blistering pace. Cipollini uses his shoulders to maintain the wheel of leadout man Giovanni Lombardi through the twists of a traffic roundabout. The pace notches up again and the members of Saeco and Vini Caldirola bow out of the company of the fast-twitchers. Three or four riders try to muscle in on Cipo's wheel, McEwen and Petacchi get involved in a bit of argy-bargy as they fly through a hard left and then a hard left in the confines of the town. Narrow streets and high speeds, now five zebras on the front, pacing a rainbow-striped Cipollini. Again, they are leading the sprint pace to perfection - but can 36 year old Mario hold off the speed of the youngsters who trail him? Now Backstedt moves up into the mix behind Petacchi and McEwen. A false train appears to one side, but they cannot match the efforts of the speeding zebras of Domina Vacanze, and subside like a wave into anonymity. Cipo has two riders in front with 600 meters to go. They sweep around the last wide right turn and the second to last rider peels away. Now it's down to Lombardi's leadout. The speed is insane. Petacchi begins a huge effort with just outside of 100 meters to go, swinging wide to Cipo's left hand side. Lombardi pulls off to the same side, making Petacchi's route just that much longer. McEwen tries pull up alongside on Cipo's right side, but runs out of afterburner as they match pedal stroke to pedal stroke. Backstedt can only watch from behind as the three move up the road. Petacchi tries to find just a hair more speed, but he cannot move up any further as Mario begins to find his form and desire intersecting on this finish line today. With a man on either side of him lunging for the line, Cipo throws up his hands - half a bike length up on McEwen and half a bike length and a spoke up on Petacchi. Cipollini has Giro D'Italia win number 41! He collapses into the arms of a soigneur and the entire town of Avezzo throws their arms up and howls, "Forza Mario!" Cipo stands surrounded by well-wishers and teammates, beaming broadly. Stage 8 - 1 - Mario Cipollini - Domina Vacanze 2 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto 3 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo 4 - Magnus Backstedt - Fakta 5 - Isaac Lopez - Kelme 6 - Andris Nauduzs - CCC-Polsat 7 - Jan Svorada - Lampre 8 - Angelo Furlan - Alessio All riders at Same Time. Cipollini is now tied with the record number of stage wins in the Giro D'Italia, matching the 41 wins of Alfredo Binda. Mario won his first stage in the Giro D'Italia in 1989. Overall - Another split occurred today in the final runup, which has meant some shifting in the GC. If they gave out a jersey for smartest rider, it would have to go to Garzelli - he's been in the right place on every stage. Maglia Rosa - Stefano Garzelli 2 - Gilberto Simoni @:31 3 - Andrea Noe @ :54 4 - Franco Pelliotti @ 1:36 5 - Marius Sabaliauskas @ 1:38 Tomorrow: Stage 9 - Avezzo - Montecatini Terme (160 km) Other than an uncategorized climb at the 45 km, this stage has a remarkable lack of topographical changes. Flat and fast. Perhaps Cipo can find his legs again tomorrow, or maybe we will watch McEwen, Petacchi or one of the other sprinters try to regain some credibility. But, a winning Mario is a difficult Mario to beat. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed May 21 06:14:36 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 22:14:36 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 9 - Rated [R] Violence may be disturbing to younger viewers Message-ID: <3ECB0B3C.3020506@cyclofiend.com> Stage 9 - Arezzo-Montecatini 160 km In non-Giro news today, the Societe Tour de France (or I guess we call them the ASO now) made the relatively unexpected decision to snub the stripes and stripes of Domina-Vacanze, instead extended the four wild card decisions to Ag2r, Brioches la Boulangere, Jean Delatour and Euskaltel-Euskadi for the centenary edition of the Tour. Mario Cipollini said, "This is completely absurd. This piece of news leaves us completely puzzled. I don't understand this unrelenting attack on my reputation, considerintg I am wearing an important jersey. They will be remembered for being the first ones not to invite the World Champion to their race." But, was this unexpected? Digging back into the memory banks, didn't the ASO try to get Cipo into last year's edition of the race while he wore the World Cup Leader's Jersey, only to be snubbed - which if I remember correctly was a snub from him because they had snubbed him - crikey... Maybe if the whole Coast debacle continues to decay... they are currently attempted to stay formed under a "Team Bianchi" moniker. But, if they bow out, their entry could be up for grabs. Regardless, Mario begins the race sharing a phenomenal milestone - tied with Alfredo Binda for career stage victories in the Giro D'Italia. Hopefully, the other news doesn't take the wind from his sails. The stage will bring the riders into the town of Montecatini, where they will complete a 6km circuit in the streets of the city. According to those who have viewed the course, it is not a typical Mario finish today, with undulations and sharp turns very close to the finish. But, before the riders can contend with the narrow streets, they must reel in a six rider break which has been out and away since the 85 km to go mark. Vladimir Miholievic of Alessio Marsio Bruseghin of Fassa Bortolo Thomas Brozyna of CCC-Polsat Sandy Casa of FDJeux.com Gianni Faresin of Gerolsteiner Fabio Sacchi of Saeco with the pack about a minute and half behind, Casar pops out and takes first at the InterGiro point, followed by Miholievic and Faresin. The peleton seems relatively untroubled by the break, even as they stretch their lead out toward a couple minutes. Even without a serious chase, the pace has remained over 42 km/hr so far. As the main group rolls under the 25 km to go banner, the time check has dropped significantly, as the sprinters teams muscle up the effort and shake off the cobwebs. For some reason Lotto-Domo and Alessio seem the most interested in the pacemaking - the sharp accellerations necessary for the win today do favor a rider like Robbie McEwen. Crash in the field! It looks like a few riders have bounced off the pavement, including Kelme's sprint man, Isaac Galvez Lopez. He may have trouble regaining the field as they less than 10 km from the line. It looks like one of Cipo's zebras got caught in the tumble as well - Alberto Ongarato hammers through the team cars to try to regain contact. Onto the finishing circuit with 6 km left - the Ultimo Giro into the town of Montecatini Terme - this "preview" shows a nasty, nasty finish, with a few turns and then a hard right turn just about 3-400 meters to go. One of the stoic norsemen from Team Fakta, Kurt Arvesen fires away toward the finish - maybe no one told him that they have to complete another circuit, because he is flat out firing away. He quickly gets reabsorbed as Domina Vacane asserts their authority in this town. The aerial footage is incredible to behold - 5 trained zebras leading Cipollini, who hugs the tire in front of him as if velcroed to it. Behind him, anywhere between 3 to 5 different riders are leaning, elbowing, spitting, cursing and growling to get his wheel - it looks like Petacchi, McEwen, Angelo Furlan from Alessio and Andris Nauduzs from the CCC-Polsat team are the most serious about not losing it. Occasionaly some riders try to throw themselves up and in the train of Domina-Vacanze, but that is a futile effort. Something must have happened that we didn't see, as Petacchi gets nasty enough to fling a hand toward the face of Nanduzs as they pull around another of the heinous bends at horrific speeds. Within another block, Nanduzs hammers up next to Petacchi and whacks him solidly on the helmet! A full-on scrum to get Cipollini's wheel continues - McEwen pushes in and three riders are trying to be in the place of one. Hip checks that would make the seediest NHL players blush... Under the 1 km banner, Carlos DaCruz from FDJeux.com takes lyer, quitcly reabsorbed by the snorting Zebras - two riders o the ront. Cipo in third at the last corner, perfectly placed but tightly followed by a horde of challengers. They fly around the 90 degree bend and a rider goes down - it's Nandusz! Somehow, the other riders adapt and counterbalance to stay upright, but someone else seems to be on the deck just under the view of the corner camera. Nandusz stands up, facing backwards on the course towards the 100 odd riders still coming his way. He probably won't contest this sprint... They are firing toward the line, both Petacchi and McEwen came through the corner unscathed. McEwen is perfectly placed to blaze around Cipo after final zebra Giovanni Lombardi pulls off - Afterburner time! McEwen follows the move of Cipolli and challenges toward the line. Mario has got to feel the lube flying off the Aussie's chain as they hurtle toward the finish. But again, McEwen lacks something, or Cipo finds something within him and stamps his authority onto this stage - arms aloft, he wins by half a bike length! Cipo wins! Mario Cipollini takes his 42nd stage victory at the Giro D'Italia! Stage 9 - 1 - Mario Cipollini - 3:41:58 2 - Robbie McEwen 3 - Alessandro Petacchi 4 - Jan Svorada - Lampre 5 - Daniele Bennati - Domina Vacanze All riders same time. Stage 10 - Montecatini-Faenza - 200 km A brutal stage awaits the riders, even though the Dolomites are still off in the distance. Four climbs for the GpM and at least three others which are "uncategorized" but serious scaling. If Cipo notches another victory tomorrow, I'll eat my modem. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed May 21 06:40:29 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 22:40:29 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 10 - Shuffling in the Appinines Message-ID: <3ECB114D.60802@cyclofiend.com> Stage 10 - Montecatini - Faenza - 200 km Everyone's favorite boxer, Andris Nauduzs of CCC-Polsat has been disqualified for his behaviour in yesterday's finish and will not continue this Giro D'Italia. In additon to the visible fisticuffs from yesterday, the feeling was that he was generally riding in an unsafe manner during the sprint stages, and that his actions yesterday were just the last straw. Allessandro Petacchi did not get off scot-free either, as he was docked a minute on overall time for his thwack on the helmet to Nauduzs. 162 riders have begun today's stage, with the retiring of Daniele Contrini, leader of the Gerolsteiner squad. No changes in the general classification after yesterday's stage - althrough there had been some gaps attributed, they were rescinded, officials blaming the transponders which the bicycles have onboard for the error. Today's stage cuts west to east across the Appinines for 200 kilometers. This will be a demanding stage today, as there are four GpM peaks and a number of difficult climbs. Brett Lancaster of Panaria exits the race to drop the total to 161 riders remaining. A group of 16 riders have broken away after the first climb and InterGiro sprint point. The riders include: Constantino Zabala of Kelme Dario Cioni of Fassa Bortolo Paolo Tiralongo of Ceramiche Panaria Leonard Bertagnolli of Saeco, who at 4:19 off the lead, is the highest placed rider in the bunch. Obviously, there are others in as well, but the Italian television is not being terribly vigilant about listing the numbers. I guess they figure that they have a lot of roadway before them, including the 4 climbs which count for the GpM, with one to 2700 feet, and a couple more steep but uncategorized climbs which will take a big chomp out of the legs. Bob's Italian phrasebook terms this stage "pizante" or "brutal" - twisting narrow roads through these mountains with nowhere to rest. Paul shares that the final climb of Monte Trebbio is a savage, narrow ascent with an equally sketchy drop off the back side. If the threatening thundershowers decide to share with the riders today, blood will run in the gutters on the descent. Over the top of Colle Albano, with the Vini Caldorola squad chopping down the break to under 3 minutes now. The efforts over this climb has caused some splitting in the main bunch. At the head of the break, the two Panaria riders tick over the cadence, working out of the saddle as the group chips away a few more seconds. Francesco Casagrande has worked his way to the front of events back in the group, sitting more than three minutes down on the GC. He looks smooth today, and maybe fancies himself kicking it out to join the break, though so far, he's looked smooth and lacked the firepower. He takes over the pace making in front of Vini Caldirola and Garzelli. Just behind him, Pavel Tonkov from CCC-Polsat marks his efforts. Bertagnolli keeps punching the pace at the front of the break, he seems determined to make the chasing group work for every second. From the front of the peleton, Simoni punches past Garzelli in the grassy gutter and rolls unmolested away from the Vini Caldirola leader and his teammates. He has noted the severity of this day and wants to regain his missing time. This is a gutsy break - serious stage and lots of time to go. Simoni has cut down the 2 and half minute gap and has begun picking up the remnants of the breakaway members. At the front of the break, Bertagnolli attacks again causing further splintering. In what was the peleton,a mere handful of men remain, with two Vini Caldirola teammates punching out a more desperate pace, leading Garzelli and dragging Casagrande, Tonkov and a few other leaders up this for-some-reason-uncategorized Monte Casale climb. But they must be starting to see odd visions of pink-clad rabbits with the effort they are making. Zaballa from Kelme takes a flyer off the front of the breakaway. Simoni streaks downhill after him, with extremely good descending form. Somewhere back inthe splintered peleton, Charlie Wegelius overcooks it a bit on a narrow right hand bend, and solidly thumps the thankfully placed hay bales before tumbling back into the center of the road. He stays down for a while, before being assisted to his feet. He rubs his low back while the mechanic tries to figure out whether to shoot his mount. Now on his own or passing flailing riders, Simoni punches out his own cadence, ascending the final climb with frightening ease. This final climb tops out just below 2000 feet with some pitches at 10%, and Simoni isn't even giving a second look at the riders he's passing - but the group of the Maglia Rosa is not too far behind any longer - they aren't quite in sight of him, but aren't too distant. Simoni is only 28 seconds behind Zaballa, now linking up with his Saeco teammate Bertagnolli, and is shown to have 58 seconds up on the group of the Maglia Rosa. Garzelli may feel the jersey being peeled off his shoulders. Casagrande now flies off the front, with no direct answer from Garzelli. Michele Scarponi, the climbing zebra from Domina Vacanze, grabs his wheel Up front, 10 seconds separate the Saeco pair from Zaballa. Seconds later, there is no gap as Simoni zips around the faltering Kelme climber. Garzelli has stayed in the saddle, ticking over an ever-increasing cadence to work his way back up to Casagrande. Simoni and Bertognalli churn away. Bertagnolli is just dying as he can barely hold Simoni's wheel. But, the climb has flattened before the summit, and another three riders tack back on. There's still another 25 km to go and Simoni wisely has matched up with Kurt Arvesen from Fakta, Zaballa from Kelme, Paolo Tiralongo of Ceramiche-Panaria, all the last men who survived in the original break. The roads grow ever more narrow as they spread out toward the GpM point, and Simoni turns around to look for his dropped teammate while Tiralongo grabs the points for first over the top. The group of the Maglia Rosa has managed to set a good cadence up this climb, and they are within sight of the crest of the hill. They begin the descent and after making peace with their makers latch deep into the drops and forget about the brakes. They have cut the defecit to around 48 seconds, while Pantani and Frigo hook back on from behind. As riders screech through twisting descents, the gap drops down another 10 seconds. Arveson was an under 23 World Champion, having beating none other than Oscar Freire to take that title. He should not be underestimated in a sprint. Casagrande keeps pushing the pace, and the creating minor gaps among the 20 riders who have coalesced for the serious chase. Riders taking huge risks on narrow roads. You might squeeze a motorcycle past an auto on these roads which the riders approach 50 mph. The only bright spot is that the skies have in fact remained bright and clear. The roads have flattened a bit, although they haven't grown any wider. The Garzelli-led group is only about 20-30 seconds back. Casagrande again hammers out the pace as they go up another hidden rise on the course. Garzelli pokes his nose out into the wind and sets pace, but isn't sure he wants to be the only rider making an effort. The impetus seems to leave whenever he finishes taking a pull. Alas, when you are wearing the Maglia Rosa, there are not a lot of riders who will go out of their way to protect you. The question becomes how seriously Casagrande gauges his chances, and how hard he's willing to work today. Pantani grasps the end of the bunch after what seems to have been a slight overshooting of a corner. Casagrande has two teammates in this bunch, Garzelli has no one. There is a 20 second time bonus for win today, and Simoni began the day only :31 seconds behind Garzelli. Simoni drives the pace up the road as the gap creeps down to 15 seconds as Garzelli leads them through the 5 km to go banner. He visibly pleads with the other riders for help, as they echelon slightly. But they seem to be losing a little bit of time. The lead group of four go under the 1 km to go banner, Simoni fires away, and Tiralongo leads Arveson up to him, now Arveson guns his spint gear and gets the stage, with Tiralongo trailing in his wake and Simoni taking the 8 second bonus for third! Behind him, the group scrambles over somewhat slick roads, and the clock ticks slowly upward. Casagrande can afford no more than a 23 second deficit without relinquishing the Maglia Rosa, and the roadway must be seeming to stretch before him. Just a couple of more effective pulls would have made the difference as the group comes across the line at nearly 26 seconds back.... Arveson gets a huge splotch of lipstick for Fakta's first stage win in the Giro D'Italia. After a noticably long wait to make sure times were correctly tabulated, Gilberto Simoni strides to center stage and puts on his first Maglia Rosa of the 2003 Giro. Stage 10 - 1 - Kurt Arvesen - Team Fakta - 5:34:23 2 - Paolo Tiralongo - Ceramiche-Panaria - @:01 3 - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - @:01 4 - Leonardo Bertagnolli - Saeco - @:10 5 - Giuliano Figueras - Ceramiche-Panaria - @ :26 6 - Michele Scarponi - Dominoa-Vacanze - @ s.t. 7 - Kim Kirchen - Fassa Bortolo 8 - Yaroslav Popovych - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 9 - Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com 10 - Francesco Casagrande - Lampre 11 - Dario Frigo - Fassa Bortolo 12 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni 2 - Stefano Garzelli - Vini Caldirola - @ :02 3 - Andrea Noe - Alessio - @ :56 4 - Franco Pellizotti - Alessio - @ 1:38 5 - Pavel Tonkov - CCC-Polsat - @ 1:52 6 - Yaroslav Popovych - @ 1:58 Stage 11 - Faenza - San Dona 199 km Completely flat stage. No. Flatter than that. No. Even Flatter. The course profile includes speed bumps... Of course, they will pay for the flat day with Stage 12, as they head into the Dolomites. But for tomorrow, the sprinters should be battling - hopefully while keeping their hands on the bars. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed May 21 17:16:57 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 09:16:57 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 11 - The Weather Factor Message-ID: <3ECBA679.9020100@cyclofiend.com> Stage 11 - Faenza - San Dona di Piave 222 km Flat, flat, flat, flat. Today's stage has a maximum elevation of around 20 meters. There are no GpM points for that spot. We are on the eastern seaboard of upper Italy, running roughly northeast to another circuit finish in the town of San Dona di Piave. Two Tenax riders have slipped away, Sergei Lelekin and Mirko Marini pushed their noses out into the wind at kilometer 35 and built up a long lead - now 11 minutes lead under threatening skies and damp camera lenses. Magnus Backstedt rolls across the InterGiro sprint point in the town of Piovi de Sacco, leading Elio Aggiano to the line and taking the third in that today's segment of the competition. The riders now cover the flat miles on dampening roads, lightning arcing to the horizon. The rain doesn't seem serious, but these roads will leech oil when they receive the moisture - this part of Italy doesn't get a huge amount of rain. Davide Cassani, a former racer and now commentator with the RAI (Italian Television) was the man responsible for yesterday's stage. He managed to find every nasty climb in the region, and Simoni's attack must rank with the inspired efforts of Hinault or even Merkcx. In an interview yesterday, he admitted that he even had a brief thought tht he may have gone too early. The peleton has been unlimbering their legs, and have reduced the gap 7:30 as they roll through the town of Dolo, as jerseys start to darken with spray being kicked up from the riders wheels. The two riders in the lead continue to relay each other while pounding out the miles. Aitor Gonzalez continues to struggle to find form. He lost around 6 minutes on yesterday's stage. Perhaps he's finding that the Vuelta The race has managed to leave the wet weather behind, finding themselves on dry roads but now cooler temperatures. Chipping steadily down on the lead, the Fassa Bortolo riders trade efforts with Domina Vacanze as the gap drops down to the neighborhood of 4 minutes. Crash in the field. A rider lies crumpled in the ditch - Oscar Mason from Vini Caldirola took a nasty tumble. He doesn't move and it looks more than scary. There are deep ditches on either side of the road, and he is between two concrete driveway entrances. His team car is stopped and they motion to get the EMTs up. He's concious, and slowly beginning to move his appendenges. They prepare a stretcher and finally 5 men help him up out of the culvert, where he shakily takes his feet. It looks like they will give him a ride to the finish, with suspected broken ribs. Hideously dark skies sit on the horizon as the lead is another two minutes reduced. There's a sharp chicane at 150 meters to go, and shots of the finish show puddles on the roadway. Chaos is anticipated. The two Tenax riders seem to limp along, after leading the race for 130 km into mostly a headwind. They sense that their time at the lead is doomed as they move through about 35 km to go. Fassa Bortolo continues to set pace, with only a token Domina Vacanze. The shape of the peleton fattens noticeably, as the riders push toward the front, fearing the combination of speed and narrow roads which lies before them. The ridrs split around some nasty sets of traffic islands and the rain comes down. 30 km to go in this now submarine stage. Jordi Riera of Kelme pushes away from the bunch and gaps the group, and another three riders nip away, it looks Lars Back from Fakta, with Giuseppe Muraglia from Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave, plus another rider. They may be hoping that the teams of the big sprinters will decide that the soaking wet in-town circuit will be a bit too daffy for seriously risking themselves. ... Or not. The peleton have just decided that a 160 km flyer is just enough, reabsorbing them with little fanfair. Groupo Compatto. Saeco has taken over the pacemaking, and I am reminded of the Giro of a few years ago when Simoni unleashed a hellish attack on a descent in a stage under a driving rainstorm. He does fancy his bike-handling abilites, but he is closely marked by Stefano Garzelli as they push through the tides. 15 km to go. Rains still coming down. Nevertheless, a couple zebras begin to jettison their 20 dollar clear raincapes. The cameras find yesterday's stage winner, Kurt Arveson. He makes a quick face at the camera which in brief effort encapsulates exactly the humor and misery which everyone must feel under these conditions. Garzelli's Vini Caldirolo squad had been setting the pace, but they are slowly being edged out by Cipo and the zebras. The fight for Cipo's wheel has begun, with Robbie McEwen and Alessandro Petacchi pushing in to start today's scrum. Back in the field, Ceramiche-Panaria sprinter Graeme Brown cannot buy a break, as he goes down, pops back up and find that his chain is seriously jammed. Up front, the squads go through the finish line area for the first time. We've looked at it a few times from the still cameras, but as the riders go through, you get a sense of the scale. The first question that comes to mind is, "What the DICKENS were the organizers thinking?" It's a nasy little chicane with first a left and then a right hand turn all within the last 200 meters of the bike race. It would be overly sketchy with dry roads, but today.... and a zebra tumbles, tangled with a FDJeux.com rider. The Dominia Vacanze rider is Mario Scirea, the oldest rider in the race, who gets unceremoniously left behind as his drivetrain is scrambled. If you check your zebra scorecard, that's striped rider number two who has no chance as regain the head of affairs. Fassa Bortolo has control of events at 4 km to go, but Cipo has four riders well positioned at the front.. Two spearheads form as Fassa Bortolo try to drag race the Domina Vacanze team. The boys of Bortolo managed to push out the zebras for now, accellerating strongly through a corner. Fasso Bortolian/Luxemburger Kim Kirchen gaps the bunch as adrenaline takes over, but the zebras grab their way back up to his wheel. Petacchi follows a single teammate up to the top of affairs, but the dance to the finish continues as the Domina-Vacanze riders now manage to squeeze him back in the group. The speed is creeping up, regardless of the soaked roadways. They are now streaking under the 2 km to go mark. The finishing bit chicane is the stuff that cycling nightmares are made of, and riders nervously begin pushing up the pace as if the route has somehow magically been straightened. Again McEwen and Petacchi duke for the wheel of Mario, who has assembled his men into perfect formation despite the conditions. A Tenax rider shoots off the front, thinking that it might just be worth the effort to get away before any carnage. But, they course under the 1 km and the zebras ease back up to him. That stretches things out a bit in the peleton, though again the speed has increased, as the Tenax rider falls far back. Alessio's Angelo Furlan in the mix as well as the Kelme sprinter, Isaac Galvez Lopez. The second to last zebra pulls off, putting Giovanni Lombardi at the head of events. But a scramble occurs and a rider moves up against the left-hand barriers. Crikey - there's a small dog on the course as well. Lombardi peels off and attacks begin. McEwen has moved hard to the front of the race, with Galvez Lopez moving up next to Mario as they head into the chicane. Rider down! Galvez Lopez skids out on the inside of the corner, taking Mario with him. They slide completely across the roadway and bounce heavily against the far barriers. Other riders tumble and squirm to avoid them, while another rider hits the barriers and cascades across another downed rider. At least four other riders are down. Mario and Galvez Lopez lie stunned against the barriers as the rade moves up the road. Sudddenly alone at the head of events McEwen looks up to find that he has no other rider around him, has time to thank his BMX skills set and win the stage. A few seconds behind, Petacchi somehow avoided everything to take second. Stage 11 - 1 - Robbie Mcewen - 5:44:27 2 - Alessandro Petacchi - @ :02 3 - Crescenzo d'Amore - Tenax 4 - Mykhaylo Khalilov - Selle Italia 5 - Jan Svorada - Lampre Tomorrow - Stage 12 San Dona-Monte Zoncolan - 185 km If today was flat, tomorrow will more than make up for it. Monte Zoncolan ends the stage, a brutal climb that the race has never used. It tops out at 1730 meters, after a few just-sub-1,000 meter peaks to warm the legs up. The climbers will get their day in the sun - perhaps a showcase for Julio Perez, or maybe Marco Pantani has one great stage in his legs for this year's race. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Thu May 22 17:09:03 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 09:09:03 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 12 - Shuffling and Resurrection Message-ID: <3ECCF61F.4080901@cyclofiend.com> Stage 12 - San Dona - Monte Zoncolan - 185 km The rain-induced slip & slide finish took its toll on today's starters, as Paolo Tiralongo of Ceramiche-Panaria, Elio Aggiano of the Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave, Christian Moreni of Alessio have joined the tumbling team of Mario Cipollini and Isaac Lopez and not signed in this morning. It is sad to see Cipo's record "on hold", and the course design yesterday showed a stunning lack of foresight on the part of the race organziers. That means 155 riders will start today, down from an original 169, with only 10 of the teams maintaining a full compliment of riders. Then again, perhaps a short, swift blow is better than the drawn-out agony which will be today's stage. Midway on the day, there's a GpM point which will take the riders up to about 3,000 feet, just to tenderize the legs a bit. Then for the last 13 kilometers, the riders encounter Monte Zoncolan, which has never been used in the Giro (or any other races in memory) with around 4,000 feet of climbing @ 9% average, the last kilometer of 22% average, with pitches to 27 % in that stretch. Some riders have fitted triples, Francesco Casagrande has reportedly figured out a way to mount a 30 tooth _front_ chainring to his bikes, and all have probably gone at the paint layer of their bikes with a knife to whittle away any excess of weight. Marzio Bruseghin of Fassa Bortolo rolls alone under the 30 km to go banner, up by about 2:05 on a chase group of about 10 riders. 2 - Pietro Caucchioli - Alessio 13 - Thomas Brozyna - CCC-Polsat 102 - Adolfo Garcia - Kelme 109 - Constantino Zaballa - Kelme 121 - Sergiy Adyeyev - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 85 - Bo Hamburger - Formaggi Piinzolo Fiave 113 - Wladimir Belli - Lampre 32 - Fredy Gonzalez - Colombia-Selle Italia 72 - Jimmy Casper - FDJeux.com 92 - Gianni Faresin - Gerolsteiner A beautiful warm and sunny clear day finds a red train from Saeco setting pace for Gilberto Simoni a few minutes back. Bruseghin eases up the 959 meter climb of the Valcalda. At the GpM, the splits are 1:10 and 2:20 to the chase group and the group of the Maglia Rosa. Wladimir Belli makes a hard effort as they climb, shaking off a few tiring riders in the chase group and trying to talk the others into working with him. Unfortunately, his group motivational skills are not convincing. As allowed under the helmet requirements, Bruseghin removes his helmet as he officially hits the final climb of the day. :57 ahead of the chase 2:35 ahead of the peleton We go from under 2,000 feet to over 5,000, having started the day at 10 feet above sea level. Belli, who is only 4:20 seconds behind the Maglia Rosa, again attacks away from the chase group. This time, he waits for no one. He trails Bruseghin by about 38 seconds, spinning a gear midway across his sprocket which in a closeup, seems to feature a 28 tooth sprocket. In a flashback moment, Mercatone Uno leads a select group of about 25 or so riders, with Pantani's shiny head popping up in third or so. It's been a few years since the "Original" Bald One has been anywhere but struggling on serious climbs. CCC's Pavel Tonkov moves off the front of this group. All that does is wake everyone up and he is quickly caught. Off the front, Belli latches onto Bruseghin's wheel and immediately and unceremoniously rolls upward past him. What was his chase group has been reabsorbed into a group containing the bird-boned and the Maglia Rosa. Fassa Bortolo's Dario Frigo drops away. He will join teammate Aitor Gonzalez who was struggling on the previous climb and lost contact. In what seems to be the power group, Christian Gasparoni of Mercatone Uno sets the pace of the group of the Maglia Rosa. Behind him Stefano Garzelli looks comfortable as he matches the pace, with Simoni in a fashion-forward semi-tye-dye pink shorts with pink jersey just behind. Pantani and Julio Perez stand and fret about a bit, unlimbering their climbing legs. The chase group rolls up to Bruseghin, whose adventure is now over. Frigo and Gonzalez have actually pulled themselves back by their toestraps and reattached to the group. Casagrande also sits in this group with Angelo Furlan from Alessio. They follow Belli by about 43 seconds. Belli labors his gears with 6 km to go, but he's gained a couple more seconds over the chasers. Garzelli looks very comfortable behind Gasparoni's pacemaking, with his teammate Eddy Mazzoleni ready to assist. Just as I type the last sentence, Gasparoni cracks and falters suddenly, pulls out wide from the group, and now Mazzoleni begins to earn his pay at the front of the chase. He clips the lead back down to 40 seconds at the 5 km to go banner. There's about 14 men left in the chase group as they head up into the steepest bits - now averaging somewhere around 18 percent. Pavel Tonkov's early exuberance has ended, and he is 1:40 off the leader. The main chase group now only sits 20-odd seconds behind and beginning to see Belli's rear wheel. The labor is evident for the Lampre climber. Simoni makes a serious acceleration, matched quickly by Casagrande, my main man Yaraslav Popovych, and Garzelli, while Pantani struggles to hold the pace. The attacking group almost instantly sweep up to Belli, with Casagrande stuck firmly to Simoni's wheel. Garzelli rocks side to side as they climb hits about 20%. Scarponi the climbing zebra tumbles backward from the remenants of the leaders group. Simoni continues climbing out of the saddle on hideously steep roads. Casagrande can no longer hold the wheel of an ever-accelerating Simoni. Pantani has moved up onto dropped Popovych's wheel, finding a climbing cadence that suits him, while up near the front, Garzellil ticks over a fast tempo and moves back up to Casagrande. They can see Simoni up ahead, but cannot stem the leak of time to him. Then, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but Marco, Marco, Marco, with the surgically pinned back ear... The familiar in-the-drops hunched attacking form that we haven't seen in sooooo very long bobs in front of the camera, moves away from Popyvych, and hooks up with the duo of Garzelli and Casagrande. Garzelli moves away and gains a bit of a gap, while the Pirate with the tacked back ears pulls up to Garzelli and the two continue to gap Casagrande. Heads a bobbing - two bald men continue to try to kick it over. Popovych grasps Casagrande's wheel, and Pantani now leads Garzelli as they climb narrow roads which even look steep on television. Simoni rolls under the red kite and is now between the barriers with only 1 long kilometer to go. The gradient now at about 22 percent, the two bald buddies roll under the banner at 22 seconds back. An idiot fan decides to share a two liter bottle of water with the two ex-teammates, dousing first Pantani, then Garzelli, trying to run on a frighteningly steep stretch, while dodging a motorcycle on a curve. Men who drink grappa should not be allowed to watch bike races. Up ahead, the even more seriously insane gradient bites hard, and Simoni can barely keep his bike moving. This is probably the longest final kilometer I've ever seen in a televised bike race. The cameras ar ahead of Pantani and Garzelli, and it seems like we're looking down the side of a building - the narrow pavement a painful purgatory. Garzelli eased away a bit, while Pantani has faltered slightly. In another dimension of the universe, finally, finally Simoni is on something slightly flatter. He has a thousand-yard stare yet knows he has been able to damage his opponents. Simoni finishes in first, clearly wrung out from the effort. Garzelli hammers it to minimize the gap, with Pantani now out of sight behind him behind the screaming throngs. He comes in at 34 seconds back, followed by Casagrande at 39 seconds, then Popovych at 42 and the reborn climber Pantani another second back. Shattered riders continue to limp over the line, with the early instigator Belli rolls in just over 2 minutes back. Stage 12 - 1 - Simoni - 5:10:29 2 - Garzelli @ :34 3 - Casagrande @ :39 4 - Popovych @ :42 5 - Pantani @ :43 6 - Julio Perez @ 1:05 7 - Andrea Noe @ s.t. 8 - Eddy Mazzoleni @ s.t. 9 - Aitor Gonzalez @ 1:30 10 - Kim Kirchen @ s.t. 11 - Michele Scarponi (no gap given) 12 - Dario Frigo (no gap given) 13 - Raimondas Rumsas (no gap given) The great shuffling has occurred, as expected, with the powerful Simoni adding the stage time bonus to his lead. Behind him, Andrea Noe quietly holds onto third, and the young standout Popovych sits in a strong position. There's still two time trials in this race, and three more mountain top finishes. But the big waves have begun to hit the shore, and only the strong will survive the surges. Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco 2 - Stefano Garzelli - Caldirola-Sidermec @:44 3 - Andrea Noe - Alessio - @ 2:23 4 - Yaroslav Popobych - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago - @ 3:00 5 - Francesco Casagrande - Lampre - @ 4:14 6 - Raimondas Rumsas - Lampre - @ 4:20 Tomorrow: Stage 13 Pordenone - Marostica 155 km An undulating stage which might give the sprinters a last day to kick it to the finish. No climbs over 1,000 feet, and a lot of cooked quadriceps from today's vicious ascent. Of course the 14th stage goes... up. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 23 16:50:55 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 08:50:55 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 13 - Recovery and Attacks Message-ID: <3ECE435F.8010107@cyclofiend.com> Stage 13 - Pordenone to Marostica - 149 km The course undulates just a bit today, but the warm weather and clear skies portend a day of recovery from the brutal finishing climb of yesterday's Zoncolon. The riders will complete the day's stage with three laps of a large circuit in the countryside around the finishing town. As the miles work their way into the legs of the racers, it would seem that the challengers to the Maglia Rosa are improving into the 2nd half of the Giro. Casagrande looked more powerful yesterday than he had at the start, while Garzelli continues to show fire even after being out of racing for the last twelve montsh. Simoni says that his efforts yesterday came when he wasn't having a great day. Whether that's more of his lip service remains to be seen. I don't know how anyone could average more than his 11 mph up that wall of a climb yesterday and call it an off day. We catch up with the riders as they have about 57 km to go. There are a few more riders who may well be watching on television as well, with retirees from yesteday Christian Moreni nursing a broken collarbone, and Paolo Tiralongo mending a cracked vertabrae. Dropped from the list of active riders are Carlos Garcia Quesada from Kelme and Mykahlo Khalilov from Columbia-Selle Italia, who came in after the time limit, which has got to suck. Only 7 teams now out of 19 who have a full squad. Two more riders fold up their tents on the roadway today, as Tenax riders Mirko Marini and Mauro Zanetti call it quits. Temperatures have edged up toward 90 degrees today, on a beautiful day in northern Italy. The remaining riders have called a bit of a truce, and enjoy the sun and warm temperatures as they roll along trying to recover some feeling in their legs. Moreno Di Biase took the maximum points in the early InterGiro point, with Jan Svorado taking second and Magnus Backstedt in third. That keeps Backstedt behind Di Biase in the competiton, and he slips a few seconds back. Once reaching the town, the riders will make three large circuits of town (3 Giri al termine). There are still about 48 km to go. Director of the Tour de France, Jean-Marie LeBlanc is coming down to visit the Giro today. He is reputed to be meeting with the directors of Domina-Vacanze. Perhaps not all of the chance has leaked out of their bid to be in the centenary edition of the race this July. From our view over the town, we see the huge outdoor chess board used in the annual outdoor festival, in which humans are used as the pieces. The circuit has a bit of a bump in it, with GpM points for the second circuit. It's listed as a 2.2 km, 856 meter climb, with a 9% bit at the base, averaging out at about 4%. Fakta's Kurt Arvesen moves strongly away from the front of the bunch as they move onto the climb. A Kelme rider moves into the gap while Fassa Bortolo ticks out a tempo to bring the bunch up at a steady cadence. They gather things back together just before the crest of the climb. No points at this time, but the next time up this switchback ascent, the climbers who have their eyes on the GpM jesey will sharpen their knives. The peleton has streched a bit, as a few riders continue to push their noses out into the wind to break things up. With the squads of Fassa Bortolo and Lampre driving the pace, a few groups who had finding their legs a bit chunky on the climb are pacing through the team cars, trying to reattach in mixed team groups. Lampre has actually found themselves at the head of the team competition yesterday, with the finishes of Casagrande and Rumsas. Here's a Giro trivia quesion: What rider had the most stage victories in a single Giro D'Italia? A Selle Italia rider - Rafaele Illiano notches up the pace and moves away off the front - teammate and GpM leader Fredy Gonzalez snaps right up on his wheel, while Fortunato Baliani of Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave goes with them as they aim for theh maximum GpM points on this somewhat minimal climb. Baliani hangs in at third as Gonzalez sits right behind his teammate. The main field is driven by Pantani's Mercatoni Uno squadra - Illiano drops off and Gonzalez leads out Baliani. Baliani has made a move, gets a quick gap over Gonzalez, but may have misjudged the seriousness of the little climber from the Columbia Selle Italia squad. Gonzalez sweeps back up to the cheese-boy and moves past him, nicking the maximum points at the line by a half bike length. As soon as they hit the line, Gonzalez gives him a serious finger-wagging reminder of who the GpM points should belong to. He carries the lesson forward for another 100 meters or so, making the point, that if Baliani had wanted to get serious about the GpM, he should have started duking it out much earlier in the race. But, Baliani has a different plan, and extends his effort to gain a break from the bunch on the descent, finding himself 12 seconds or so as he rumbles under the 20 km to go banner. Although joined by another rider, the lead is doomed, with the bunch grabbing them before they can even work on their victory speech. In the last circuit of the course, the Mercatone Uno team hammers at the front, completely stretching the peleton in the streets of the town. The peleton come onto the base of the climb and Stefano Garzelli fires out and away on the incline. Race leder Gilberto Simoni responds immediately, and Marco Pantani chases out of the main group. It is a move to which all of the serious contenders must respond, and Yaraslav Popovych of Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, Scarponi from Domina-Vacanze and Fassa Bortolo's Dario Frigo are in the mix, which swells to about 15-20 riders. On the far side of the hill, Frigo slowly ticks over a massive gear and zips up his jersey for the quick descent, planning on making his time trialing skills work for him. There's about 7 km to the finish from where he is. But, he doesn't look super-confident as he eases around a few horseshoe turns at speeds that would make our eyes water.. Three riders at the tail of the peleton tumble on the descent - a Saeco rider, perhaps a Formaggi Trentini rider and perhaps a Ceramiche-Panaria rider. The replay shows that the Saeco rider just managed to slide uner the guardrail between the posts. Nasty business. Gerolsteiner's Georg Totschnig uses some serious descending skills to nip back up to Frigo, who actually is not the grandest at using gravity. Totschnig is a pretty mean time trialist himself, so there are some skills at the front. Frigo and Totschnig find themselves about 7 seconds away from the select group of leaders and GC contenders. Now on the flat roads, a couple of Saeco riders assemble to lead Simoni back up to the challengers. Graziano Gasparre of De Nardi-Colpack fires away and gets halfway across the gap as the leaers group dink around arguing about who needs to take up the pace. For some reason, Saeco thinks that the Fassa Bortolo riders should take up the pace, forgetting who is up the roadway. Frigo begins to soft pedal a bit, as the word comes over his earpiece that his team's ciclamina-jersey-wearing-points-competition-leading Allessandro Petacchi is ready to rumble in the group. Sensing the drop in the pace, Gasparre tries a move to escape, but the Fassa Bortolians grab him and absorb him like an amoeba. Some errant zebras move into the top ten spots, perhaps feeling as though they can launch Giovanni Lombardi, now freed from the requirements of leading out Mario Cipollini. They move around a minor chicane, Petacchi sits in at the 5th position, with two teammates at the head of the group as they scream through the widening roadway. The last Fassa Bortolian peels away at about 400 km to go, and an unnamed zebra does his best Giovanni Lombardi imitation. Lombardi is at third wheel, but chaos begins to reign as the teams spread across the wide avenue. Before Lombardi can make his accelleration, Petacchi moves hard to his left and gains a gap, moving ahead as Lombardi's leadout man peels off. Lombardi moves hard, but cannot make up the gap as other riders swarm towards him. Petacchi edges over as he continues to accellerate, but there doesn't seem to be any impeding of the other riders, who are now too far behind to contest the finish. Petacchi rolls over the finish, arms aloft for his fourth stage of this year's Giro D'Italia. Just behind, Garzelli pips into third spot, which gives him an 8 second time bonus, and he edges up toward Simoni again. As I said earlier, he is riding as intelligently as anyone in the group. There's another beefy climbing day tomorrow, followed by the first time trial on the next day. Eight seconds may loom large before all is said and done. It looks like that may not have been Lombardi in the mix on the final runup, as the results instead list Daniele Bennati as the second place finisher. Stage 13 - 1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - 3:38:58 2 - Daniele Bennati - Domina Vacane 3 - Stefano Garzelli - Caldirola-Sidermec 4 - Lorenzo Bernucci - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 5 - Eddy Mazzoleni - Caldirola-Sidermec All riders at s.t. Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - 60h 59:16 2 - Garzelli - @ :36 3 - Andrea Noe - 2:23 4 - Yaraslav Popovych - 3:00 5 - Francesco Casagrande - 4:14 6 - Raimondas Rumsas - 4:20 7 - Georg Totschnig - 4:42 8 - Pellizotti - 4:49 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 14 - Marostica - Alpe Pampeago - 162 km A serious day of climbing and suffering lies tomorrow. Three peaks in the middle of the course, all of which are in the 2,000 meter neighborhood, then a chilling descent before a final 8 km climb up the steep Alpe di Pampeago. Giro trivia answer: That'd be Alfredo Binda in 1927 with 12 wins. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Tue May 27 08:20:09 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 00:20:09 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 14 - Lets all gather at the Mountains Message-ID: <3ED311A9.7000406@cyclofiend.com> Stage 14 - Marostica - Alpe di Pampeago - 162 km Beginning at about 100 meters above sea level, today's stage climbs steadily and immediately for the first 75 km. The riders will grind away at the incline, duke it out for an InterGiro sprint point, then roll through a feed zone. Then the real climbing begins - three 1st category climbs kicking upwards from 765 meters over the Passo di Rolle - 1945 meters - dropping to the town of Paneveggio at 1552 meters before climbing the Passo di Valles - 2033 meters - falling to the bivio di Falcade at 1395 meters, then going back up the Passo di San Pelegrino - 1918 meters. Of course, if that was it, this wouldn't be the Dolomites in the Giro D'Italia. So, the riders enjoy a longer descent to Tesero Centro, with the final bit of the stage ascending the Alpe di Pampaeago, a vicious 10 km climb topping out at 1740 meters. Those specs were a bit too much more Robbie McEwen, Lotto's successful sprinter, who did not start today (as planned and announced earlier, he will not suffer in the mountains so that he can remain competitive at the Tour de France). Also not signing in this morning was Nicolas Fritsch of FDJeux.com. Truly a sprinter's nightmare, while the hollow-boys wonder whether using helium in their tires might give them an edge. The last time the race finished here, a young man named Marco Pantani won by 1:07 over some contender named Gilberto Simoni. Joining the race at the Passo di Valles, GpM leader Fredy Gonzales from Columbia-Selle Italia skipped away from a small breakaway to take the maximum points with no one else in the picture. Behind him climb six other riders who fancy their chances in the stratosphere: 4 - Denis Lunghi - Alessio 25 - Paolo Lanfranchi - Cermiche Panaria 46 - Michele Gobbi - De Nardi Colpack 89 - Rinaldo Nocentini - Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 109 - Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez - Kelme 113 - Wladimir Belli - Lampre Another 10 riders are split between this group and the main, in varied stages of suffering as they left with the others in the escape at kilometer 12. Zaballa follows next over the crest of the GpM points, dropping against Gonzalez in the fight for the Green Mountains jersey. Luca Mazzanti (Ceramiche), Gabriele Balducci (Caldirola-Sidermec), Ief Verbrugghe (Lotto), Marcel Strauss (Gerolsteiner) and Sergei Lelekin (Tenax) all packed it in, leaving 144 riders in the race and 6 out of the 19 teams intact. The climb to the San Pellegrino begins immediately upon completing the descent, with the average gradient at 9%, pitching to 15% when it feels nasty. The skies are overcast, and the throngs of spectators wear jackets of noticable thickness. The group of the Maglia Rosa sits about 5 minutes in back of the climbing group. Pavel Tonkov has moved out into the mix among those who have escaped, and along with Wladimir Belli could be a serious threat to the leaders jersey if Simoni runs into trouble today. Tonkov has not nearly reached the group of six, but has gained some time over the group of the Maglia Rosa. Saeco support riders begin to litter the roadway back among the team cars, as they pop their cylinders while setting the pace for Simoni. Also in trouble is Yaraslav Popovych, who is hanging onto the tail end of the race leader group. Gonzalez again crests the GpM point, while 1:26 back, Zaballa cleanly takes second, but again loses the difference between his and Gonzalez' position. Gonzalez now has 77 GpM points, while Zaballa sits in second with 44. Tonkov continues to creep up toward the climbers group, now 4:00 down on Gonzalez, while the the peleton stretches through at 4:32. Again, everyone drops steeply on wide and beautiful roads. As they hurtle down the descent at around 50 or 60 mph, Nocentini from Formaggi Pinzola Fiave reaches both hands into his back pockets, moves stuff around, rubs his low back, scratches, reaches into his pockets again...crikey! Lest ye think you have bike handling skills... By the time they reach the town, Gonzalez has lost at least 30-odd seconds - descents are when the bird-boned-ones suffer. The chase group has him in their sights, as they press in on his rear wheel. Tonkov is now the only rider who isn't bunched up, as he plugs along in no-man's land, trying to use the cables of his shifters as a makeshift aero bars. In the group of the Maglia Rosa, four Saeco riders set the pace, punching through the air and stringing things out in the group. They've caught Tonkov, and Marco Pantani is tucked in behind the cruising Simoni. They've pinched the gap to the climbers down to 2:45. So far, the current speed of this year's race has picked up to 39.984 km/hr, edging ahead of the fastest previous edition 38.937 km/hr in 1983. Some zebras flock to the front, whether a brain-stem reaction to other teams pacemaking or to deliver their climber Michele Scarponi remains to be seen. The sun peeks out a bit, and the massive climb looms ahead. The gap has fallen to 2:10. The lead group slides under the 10 km to go banner, which means about a minute until the serious pain begins. Behind them, Saeco reminds us of the Red Guard of old and continues to take time back. Now 1:47. The entire peleton takes off their helmets in unison, as allowed by the new regulations - they can remove helmets on finishing climbs. Among the chasing peleton, the climbers have assembled and dropped away most of the helpers - Julio Perez of Ceremiche Panaria, Marco Pantani are both evident near the front. In the break group, Zaballa crunches a big gear as they roll through what looks like an alleyway, and jolts away from the leaders group. He gains a quick 10 seconds over his breakaway ex-compatriots, who climb only 1:22 in front of the peleton. Back in the chasing main group, Perez and Raimondas Rumsas set the pace on the early bits of the incline, while Stefano Garzelli sits in third with a number of teammates in the group. There are no Saeco riders evident any more, anywhere in the dwindling group of the Maglia Rosa. Belli slowly rolls over a bigger gear and has moved into stalking distance of Zaballa. He seems to want to try one more shot at being the climber. At the lead of the Maglia Rosa group is, well, the Maglia Rosa on the back of Gilberto Simoni, shadowed by Popovych who seems to have come back from the dead. He drives the pace strongly with no effort apparent on his face, and instantly splits up the rest of the group, while a select group of five riders follow his effort - Pantani, Rumsas, Popovych, Garzelli and Perez, Others dangle just behind him, but their numbers are up and it's time for them to head to the coat check. Table stakes have been seriously raised here, and only the heavy hitters can handle this action. Now Popovych ticks up the cadence with 5 km to go and moves away from this group. He is, however, no longer the unknown kid, and the others have learned to mark him. While everyone worries about the lanky Ukrainian, Simoni makes a big rip up the right side of the roadway and zips away from everyone. Popovych summons more fire and somehow grabs his wheel, and the two of them ride away, while behind them tongues get burnt on tires as they hang down. The Simioni-led twosome move away to a sizeable gap, while every other rider begins to lose ground. They sweep up to Zaballa who has long ago lost contact with Belli, further up the road. Garzelli sits behind a teammate- I think Eddie Mazzoleni who has been a strong ally in the moutains, mentally staggered, but still in the race. Perez finds his climbing legs, and Garzelli moves to follow the diminutive climber. Simoni raises from the saddle in a forest of fans, and unceremoniously drops Popovych. Garzelli now sets the pace for the the chasers, but Simoni can taste blood in the air and seems to keep finding more uphill speed. In the riders behind him is a look of distant yet highly visible pain. Out the back of the group tumbles Pantani who can climb but cannot match the insane accellerations. The riders are going uphill on a climb that averages 10%, with peak bits near 16%. They are actually on a temporary road which parrallels the construction on some tunnels, and they are hideously steepening at the cruelest time - it gets steeper as it climbs higher. At the head of events, Simoni headbutts this race, flying out of the saddle while the challengers try to stay seated and punch out their cadence. Popovych drifts away from the climbing group of Garzelli, Rumsas and a fading Perez. Belli has moved to another dimension of pain. Perez has found another niche of sugar in his veins, and manages to dance up on Garzelli, who can match his pace, but it seems like no one can match the tortuous power of Simoni who is rolling over a the pedals as the climbs out of the saddle. The climb is clearly punishing the riders, and Perez suddenly cracks and wobbles in among the screaming tifosi. Garzelli still manages to ride well, Perez dances back up, and we pass in front of a fan wearing a gorlla mask. Simoni holds about a 30 second lead as his immediate chasers roll under the 1 km banner. Now the race and stage winner strains under the inflated tea cup which lies within spitting distance to the line. He has acheived a demoralizing victory with this move, and the others must wonder where his weaknesses can be found. Garzelli rolls over 35 seconds back. Rumsas comes in humbly on his wheel after trying to nab second with a come-from-behind after sucking wheel for the entire climb. Casagrande looks to be in a world of hurt and suffering with the confused look of a gutshot enlisted man, while Mazzoleni manages to keep within earshot of the winners even after assisting Garzelli. A clipped Pantani comes in just around 2 minutes down. All the finishers look at best dazed by this strong effort of Simoni. Stage 14 - 1 - Gilberto Simoni - 4:46:42 2 - Stefano Garzelli - @:35 3 - Raimondas Rumsas - @:36 4 - Julio Perez - @:49 5 - Yaroslav Popovych - @:49 6 - Andrea Noe - @:56 7 - Francesco Casagrande - @:59 8 - Eddy mazzoleni - @1:17 9 - Wladimir Belli - @1:38 10 - Georg Totschnig - @1:38 Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - 65:45:39 2 - Stefano Garzell - Caldirola-Sidermec - @1:19 3 - Andrea Noe - Alessio - @ 3:39 4 - Yaroslav Popovych - Landbouwkredeit-Colnago @4:09 5 - Raimondas Rumsas -Lampre - @5:09 6 - Francesco Casagrande - Lampre - @5:33 7 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - @6:45 8 - Franco Pellizotti - Alessio - @7:18 9 - Marco Pantani - Mercatone-Uno - @8:19 10 - Wladimir Belli - Lampre - @8:41 Tomorrow's stage - Merano-Bolzano Individual Time Trial - 42 km From race-report@cyclofiend.com Tue May 27 08:20:52 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 00:20:52 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 16 - Sprinters Again Message-ID: <3ED311D4.8080809@cyclofiend.com> Stage 16 - Arco di Trento - Pavia - 207 km A more traditional day of racing over almost completely flat roads today. The stage began a bit briskly, much to the chagrin of those who punched it hard for an hour yesterday in the Time Trial. But, with riders under control, things calmed a bit. Properly fed and rested, the bunch has managed to keep things more or less intact, but with an InterGiro Sprint point looming, teams are becoming a bit frisky once again. Lampre's Jan Svorada and Formaggi Pinzolo's Moreno Dibiase go wheel to wheel for the sprint point, pushing Magnus Backstedt to third as Svorada takes the time bonus for first in the InterGiro. That doesn't change the leader position, with Backstedt still in the lead, but moves Svorada up a little bit in third place, chipping away at DiBiase's lead over him. A Mercatone Uno rider - Franco Fonantelli - uses the momentum of the sprint to move away from the peleton, with Frankie Hoy from Fakta moving out to follow him. Oscar Pozzi from Tenax scoots across the gap and joins in on today's ever-flat roads. They enjoy a lead for 5 minutes or so, while behind them, the bunch argues a bit about whose responsible to run the errant riders down. Petacchi has sent his men to the front, so he must be loosening up a bit after yesterday's dramatic crash. Fassa Bortolo has been able to keep all of their men in the race, and have a full complement of riders left. A mixed group of sprinter's gregarios keep the pace high now that they have achieved the "Groupo Compatto". --- Today's Trivia Challenge: Who was the first cyclist to win the Giro D'Italia? --- One of the last Lotto riders (only three in the bunch) takes a bit of a flyer, but he is quickly reabsorbed. Fassa Bortolo has had just enough of the nonsense, and takes up the reigns with their zebra buddies. Lampre joins in to add variety. In Tour de France News: Danilo DiLuca went down in a training accident, breaking his collarbone. He was gearing his midseason for the Tour, and despite the break, has been reported to already be logging miles on the trainer to keep his form. Other bouncy rider News: Mario Cipollini has been reported back on his bike for the first time since the high speed cross-road scoot and bump he experienced a few days back. Still no official word whether the ASO (Societe du Tour de France) will make an exception to allow the team to compete. A Fakta rider touches wheels while talking about the upcoming meal, skids 10 feet to his left through other riders (somehow not impacting one!) and tumbles cleats over helmet into a deep, water-filled ditch. He comes up looking like a cyclocross rider, his entire backside covered in mud. The cameras show that it was Werner Riebenbauer, who throws his bike up the embankment and hopes on as soon as he can. He seems a touch embarrassed at his sudden fame. He pulls over with a front wheel change, then the mechanic pulls handfuls of goop out from his machine as he speeds along. He finally gets towed back up by three teammates, who take the opportunity to describe his new jersey style... Other Tech-Geek News: Simoni switched his 54T chainring for a 53 yesterday, after correctly judging the winds to be a factor. He managed to hold higher cadence and better speeds over the final 10 km of the time trial than most of his competition. An almost-casualty of yesterday's Time Trial, Alessandro Petacchi's left elbow and knee joints are swathed in thick bandages today, but he rolls over the gears smoothly. Under 10 km to go now, and the zebras notch in behind the Fassa Bortolians. Garzelli's Caldirola-Sidermec team position themselves up front as well, hoping that their man can nick a couple of seconds from Simoni with a decent finish, as he has managed a few times already. At 6 km to go, and the pace begins to arc up exponentially. Domina-Vacanze riders are positioned to leadout either Giovanni Lombardi or possibly their young sprinter Daniele Bennati. Norwegian national champion Kurt Arvesen from Fakta finds himself at the lead of the bike race for a bit, but he washes away in the wake, Saeco and Mercatone Uno riders squeeze in to the narrowing groupu. Backstedt shows up in the mix, with Bennati and Petacchi trading spots behind the leadout men. With 3 km to go, a mixed group with the zebras at the front, but without the organizatoin they have shown in earlier stages - Fasso Bortolo riders have shufffled in with a couple of Denardi riders, who may be looking to set up their Estonian sprinter, Andrus Aug. Bennati is tucked in right behind Petacchi and knows not to let anyone nip him off the wheel. Angelo Furlan tries to mix in behind Petacchi, looking smooth as well. Under 1 km banner, oldest rider in the race, Mario Sciera cranks up the pace to drive out the unwanted. They swing through a wider turn at about 800 meters, the pace is at full throttle with Lombardi at second position behind Sciera, who then pulls off, his pacemaking stint over. They switch to a camera on the final hard right turn, catching a race official encouraging them to keep their speed down as they careen toward it. Right. Lombardi leads his sprint man Bennati (Cipollini light?) through the tight turn, which, thanks to dry streets and no thanks to the organizers, everyone negiotiates without incident. Bennati follows the leadout by Lombardi and makes his move with a couple hundred meters to go, but while he has good speed, he cannot quite move away with authority. Petacchi screams up from behind the young sprinter who just doesn't have the speed to maintain the lead. From four riders back, Jimmy Casper from FDJeux.com loops around and moves up on the striped rider. Way to the other side of the road, Jan Svorada from Lampre stomps it up toward the finish, not quite quickly enough to catch Casar. Petacchi takes his fifth stage by just under a bike length. As well-wishers descend upon him, the soigneurs link arms and aggressively deflect people from the injuries on his back - they've learned a thing or two while watching the sprints. Stage 16 - Ordine D'arrivo 1 - Allesandro Petacchi - 4:39:34 2 - Jimmy Casper - FDJeux.com 3 - Jan Svorada - Lampre 4 - David Bennati - Domina-Vacanze 5 - Graziano Gasparre - De Nardi-Colpack 6 - Dario Pieri - Saeco 7 - Andrus Aug - De Nardi-Colpack 8 - Angelo Furlan - Alessio 9 - Lars Bak - Team Fakta 10 - Marco Pantani - Mercatone Uno (not a typo!) (all with same time) Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - 71:21:26 2 - Stefano Garzelli - Calidrola-Sidermec - @1:58 3 - Yaraslav Popovych - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago - @4:05 4 - Andrea Noe - Alessio - @5:16 5 - Raimodas Rumsas - Lampre - @6:16 Tomorrrow: Blessed Rest Day to lick the wounds and keep the legs loose. Wednesday: Salice Terme - Asti - 130 km When the GpM point is at 300 meters, you know it isn't a "mountain" stage. Still, these undulating stages usually feature unnmentioned climbs that will tax the riders after a day off. The mountains will bite again on Thursday. --- Trivia Answer Luigi Ganna - 1909 --- From race-report@cyclofiend.com Tue May 27 08:20:28 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 00:20:28 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 15 - Individual Time Trial Message-ID: <3ED311BC.1010507@cyclofiend.com> Stage 15 - Merano - Bolzano Individual Time Trial - 42 km Yesterday's dominating efforts of race leader Gilberto Simoni clearly took their toll physically and mentally on the riders, and 13 riders were not at sign-in for the race against the clock this morning. Some left mid-stage, while others woke up from demon-filled dreams to find that something had been stolen from them. Among them was Pavel Tonkov, who made a strong breakawy effort yesterday only to find the tanks empty before the end of the day. Today may be the day for others to shine a bit, as no one would argue that Simoni's strength is agains the clock. On everyone's short list of favorites for today's ITT are Fassa Bortolian Comrades Dario Frigo, who currently sits at 16th overall at 13:02 back, and Aitor Gonzalez, who trails in 19th place, 17:12 behind the Maglia Rosa. The time trial has a little hump in the middle, which could catch a couple riders out. Magnus Backstedt proves that he can time trial, posting the best time early on at 55:24. Alessandro Petacchi has damn near taken himself out of contention, with a hellacious scraping crash at 25 km which left him with a shredded jersey for the rest of the course. His back is a huge abrasion, while the appearance of this elbows and knees are simply gruesome. He has finished the course, but immediately been transported to the hospital for cleaning and degaussing. Aitor Gonzalez and Dario Frigo are both on the course, with Gonzalez cranking over a huge pie plate of a gear. The word comes out that the winds are increasing, and Backstedt's time has not been bettered by Gonzalez at the 10 km time check. But Gonzalez has managed to better the time of Backstedt at the 26 km check by four seconds. We see the labored style of Sergei Gontchar who seems to be posted a good time but will never win points for style. On the climb, Gonzalez muffs of shift and lays the chain right between the chainrings, comes nearly to a dead stop and labors to regain his momentum. An ugly moment which won't do anything to help him maintain his composure. Even with that, he has clipped more time from Backstadt's lead at the 30 km point. Rumsas wins the tech-geek awared with the double-disk wheel setup - with the holes punched out of the front, it looks like an odd flower at speed. Garzelli smoothly moves onto the first bits of the course, while Simoni rolls out of the start house three minutes later with the cheers of Italy in his ears. Gonzalez screams through the pave in the finishing kilometer and dcrosses at 54:33, posting the first new best time since Backstedt - who now sits :51 behind in second. Popovych's time is 26 seconds faster than Andrea Noe's at the 10 km checkpoint. That bodes well for a move up into third place. Rumsas pays for his tech-gamble, and has to change bikes back to his more normal front wheeled backup rig after being buffeted by the increasing winds. This is man who is haunted by tech-gremlins in the time trial. If you remember in last year's Tour de France, he ran down the ramp of the start house and fond that his handlebars were unhooked and loose. Frigo comes through after an extremely strong final 8 kilometers, and notches into third place. Simoni is certainly riding a "sharp" looking "Cannondale", which seems to slicee through the wind like a "blade"... He has actually lost 19 seconds to Garzelli at the first time check. Popovych continues to chip time away from Noe, and his style looks a lot like a successful rider from Texas - fast cadence, strange hump in the midback... Sergei Gontchar strains his bike over the line in 55:55, which is both fun to type and puts him into third place. Marco Pantani's clipped ears have served him well, as he seems to have bought a time-trial coach in the past year or so - he's in just over 58 minutes, which puts him a couple minutes ahead of a few other climbers. Popovych continues to look extremely strong on the bike, while he rolls through the 32 km time check in 10th place. But, his main effort is agains Noe, who follows him on the road and seems to crawl up the climbs that Popovych. In fact, the time comparison at the check has Noe more than 50 seconds down, dropping him a place in the standings unless he is able to muster an exceptional effort for the finish. Garzelli crosses the 32 km checkpoint 45:19, But as Simoni crosses the same point, it's clear he'd been saving somethng for the climb - 44:44! Simoni conintues to crunch the good numbers when it counts. Popovych finishes in 56:09, laying down the gauntlet for Andrea Noe. Simoni looks extremely fast on the flat run in to the finish, clicking over an extremely fast cadence. Garzelli seems to be running a bigger gear and looks just a touch labored. Noe bumps over the cobbles and is already in the 57's, just clipping through the timing gate at 57:50. He can only hope for success in the upcoming climbing stages, he has lost third place for today. Garzelli can feel the momentum slowly seep from his effort, as he finishes strongly, 56:52. Out on the road, the last rider Gilberto Simoni finds the 1 km kite as the clock ticks 55 minutes. A quick turn or two in the narrowing streets and he can begin to taste final victory, as the stage time clock reads 56:17. Stage 15 - 1 - Aitor Gonzalez - 54:33 2 - Magnus Backstedt - @ :51 3 - Sergei Gontchar @ 1:22 4 - Dario Frigo @ 1:23 5 - Bogdan Bondariew - CCC Polsat - @ 1:30 6 - Yaroslav Popovych - @ 1:36 7 - Gilberto Simoni - @ 1:40 8 - Kim Kirchen - @ 1:41 9 - Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com - @1:41 10 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - @1:52 Overall Standings Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - 66:41:52 2 - Stefano Garzelli - 1:58 3 - Yaroslav Popovych - @4:05 4 - Andrea Noe - @ 5:16 5 - Raimondas Rumsas - @ 6:11 Tomorrow's Stage - Arco diTrento - Pavia - 207 km Fairly Flat and Simple. The day before the final rest day. After that, just four stages and the final day time trial to see who will win this year's Giro D'Italia. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed May 28 07:15:38 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 23:15:38 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]2nd Rest Day - Rest Day Rehash Message-ID: <3ED4540A.10205@cyclofiend.com> Rest Day - the Second Pause Many more of the 3449 kilometers now lie behind the riders than remain in front. Five stages stand between the teams and the final time trial in the streets of Milan. Tomorrow's stage 17 could almost be called a "gimmee", being both the shortest stage of this year's race and a fairly unremarkable elevation. But the next two days after that put the bite on the big boys, with climbs that feature prominently in both stages - Stage 18 rabbit punches the riders quickly with a little thousand foot climb that has a GpM point on it, followed by two nasty, nasty, nasty ascents to the 2300 meter neighborhood (Colle d'Esischie at 2366m and Colle di Sampeyre at 2284m - remember - meters need to be multiplied by three to be roughly feet) and a final climb up the Chianale Valle Var, a wimpy little dig up to 1815 meters. Stage 19 isn't quite so brutal, merely arcing up to the tip of the 1675 meter Cascata del Toce Formazza (I think that's a waterfall of touched cheese, but my translation may be off...) That should shake out the chaff, reduce any pretenders to unrecognizable shells of their former selves and generally turn folks into jelly. Stage 20 lets the hollowed legs recover a bit, with 122 km and no more than 200 meters change of altitude. Then, as the Vuelta Espana did this past year, they will finish with a 33 kilometer Individual Time Trial to finish things off. At this point, it would take a major change of performance to get Garzelli (or anyone else, really) ahead of Gilberto Simoni. But, people have bad days, and there are some severely taxing efforts ahead. It is racing and anything can happen. Regardless of how dominant Simoni appears, the gap is not yet 2 minutes, and an untimely puncture or a minor bonk at the steepest crests can evaporate a lead like that quite effectively. Speaking of leads which could evaporate, Stefano Garzelli shouldn't take his 2nd place position for granted either. Here's why: In the first Individual Time Trial, he lost about a second per kilometer to lanky Yaroslav Popovych, finishing 45 seconds behind the Italian-raised Ukranian who rides for a Belgian team (now _there's_ a gene pool!). Since Garzelli sits just 2:07 in front of Popovych, if he were to lose some time on the climbs, he could sit within striking distance on the Giro's final day. Of course, that last time trial is only 33 km, but races have been lost under these circumstances before, no? That is how Popovych moved into third overall - crunching Alessio's Andrea Noe in the time trial by about 1:45. It is interesting to see Noe holding on over the Lampre-Teletubbies Raimondas Rumsas and Francesco Casagrande. Casagrande has had some glimmers of strength, but seems to fade as Garzelli thumps out his relentless climbing rhythm. Rumsas may have a bit of explaining to do around the Lampre dinner table since it seemed that Casagrande was the chosen one for this race, but Rumsas has been on the podium at the Tour de France, even as his wife was doing some explaining of her own. Behind them sits Georg Totschnig, who I must admit I know little about. He's managed to stay in the mix when it's important, and still nicked into the top ten at the Time Trial. Speaking of Time Trialing, how about Marco-Marco-Marco? Yes, he was 3:32 down on the stage winner, but there were days not long ago where he was in the bottom third in this discipline, rather than the top 26. He's still complaining a bit in interviews, claiming to be a bit overweight, and he's trying to find the right combination of wheeling/dealing and divine intervention to get himself into the Tour this year. The man who is most missed (or will be when the roads are flat) is Mario Cipollini - 42 Career Giro Wins. The anguish on his face as he slid across the wet roadway, knowing full well that those barriers were going to hurt like hell when he hit them... It would've been great to see the World Champion cross the line first at least one more time in this race. Other riders who have done well or otherwise... Kim Kirchen - Fassa Bortolo The race's only Luxemburger (which doesn't appear on the big buck menu at the local Bob's Big Bang Burger Bar) has ridden strongly, another young rider who may prove to do well in the coming years. He's edging around the top twenty overall, and hasn't really been "let loose", with Dario Frigo, Aitor Gonzalez and of course, Alessandro Petacchi to steward. Julio Perez has not climbed with the panache that marked his last two Giro appearances. Word has it that he was trying to create himself as more of an "all-rounder" - someone who could compete for the Maglia Rosa. His pure climbing has suffered to that end, and he doesn't quite have the dominance in his legs to push him onto the podium. Aitor Gonzalez/Dario Frigo - Fassa Bortolo A bit of a goose-egg so far, though Gonzalez' time-trialing skills were definitely in evidence. He and teammate Frigo must not have timed things quite right, and don't seem to have the form they need to contest it when the going gets harsh. Eddie Mazzoleni - Caldirola-Sidermec The main man in the mountains for Garzelli. Thumping the cadence and still managing to hold on for decent finishes himself. It wasn't too many years back that Garzelli was in this same position for Marco Pantani. Michele Scarponi - Domina-Vacanze Who says zebras can't climb? With Super Mario to escort to the finish line, this man has galloped up some of the tougher climbs. Another rider who may continue to bloom. Nothing wrong with 15th position. Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com Leading Frenchman in the race at 23rd overall. I dunno, just seemed important. Team Fakta The Vikings have landed! Taking a stage courtesy of Norwegian National Champion Kurt Arvesen, Leading the InterGiro with the pounding efforts of Magnus "Magnum/Maximus/Magneto" Backsted. Nice job by this little team from the North lands. Bogdan Bondariew - CCC Polsat Because someone has to be last. Plus, it's always humbling to remember that this guy who sits 2:25:40 behind the Maglia Rosa wearing race leader has ridden all the same roads, suffered the same climbs, screeched through the same descents and could still effortlessly kick any of our sorry asses in a bike race. ------------------------------------------ Official Standings at the end of Stage 16 General classification after stage 16 1 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Team Saeco 71.21.26 2 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 1.58 3 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 4.05 4 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Alessio 5.16 5 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre 6.11 6 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Lampre 6.47 7 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 6.57 8 Serguei Gontchar (Ukr) De Nardi-Colpack 9.38 9 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 9.42 10 Marco Pantani (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 10.11 11 Massimo Codol (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 12.16 12 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Lampre 12.35 13 Dario Frigo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 12.45 14 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol) CCC-Polsat 13.50 15 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 14.23 16 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 15.32 17 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 15.59 18 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 18.08 19 Julio A. Perez Cuapio (Mex) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 18.14 20 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 19.25 21 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Fassa Bortolo 19.52 22 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Team Saeco 20.07 23 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 20.14 24 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 21.16 25 Gianni Faresin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 22.52 26 Adolfo Garcia Quesada (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 25.19 27 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 26.36 28 Graziano Gasparre (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 28.36 29 Radoslaw Romanik (Pol) CCC-Polsat 29.32 30 Luis F. Laverde Jimenez (Col) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 30.07 31 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 30.40 32 Scott Sunderland (Aus) Team fakta-Pata Chips 32.51 33 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 34.53 34 Thomas Brozyna (Pol) CCC-Polsat 35.29 35 Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 36.01 36 Vladimir Miholievic (Cro) Alessio 36.08 37 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Team Saeco 36.20 38 Denis Lunghi (Ita) Alessio 38.22 39 Gerhard Trampusch (Aut) Gerolsteiner 38.23 40 Ignacio Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 38.26 41 Fredy Gonzalez (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 38.32 42 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 38.34 43 Constantino Zaballa Gutierez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanc 39.41 44 Joaquim Castelblanco (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 39.50 45 Francesco Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre 43.13 46 Steve Zampieri (Swi) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 44.24 47 Daniel Clavero (Spa) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 44.37 48 Hernan D. Munoz (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 46.45 49 Cristian Gasperoni (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 53.16 50 Sergiy Adyeyev (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 56.05 51 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto-Domo 57.51 52 Roberto Conti (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 58.56 53 Andrea Tonti (Ita) Team Saeco 1.00.03 54 Matteo Carrara (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 1.00.39 55 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 1.01.03 56 Alexis Rodriguez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.01.21 57 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) Team Saeco 1.02.11 58 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1.02.35 59 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) CCC-Polsat 1.04.22 60 Leonardo Zanotti (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 1.04.53 61 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 62 Alessandro Spezialetti (Ita) Team Saeco 1.05.19 63 Bo Hamburger (Den) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 1.06.38 64 Charles Wegelius (GBr) De Nardi-Colpack 1.08.33 65 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1.10.40 66 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) FDJeux.com 1.14.34 67 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Tenax 1.15.03 68 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Lampre 1.15.13 69 David Derepas (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.16.12 70 Volodimir Bileka (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1.17.05 71 Gabriele Colombo (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 1.17.27 72 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Team Saeco 1.17.31 73 Gian Paolo Cheula (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 1.19.14 74 Carlos Dacruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.21.12 75 Ronny Scholz (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.24.10 76 Raffaele Illiano (Ita) Colombia-Selle Italia 1.25.21 77 Giuseppe Muraglia (Rus) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 1.26.29 78 Tom Stremersch (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1.29.13 79 Uwe Hardter (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.29.34 80 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1.29.39 81 Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Tenax 1.30.46 82 Giovanni Lombardi (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 1.31.32 83 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Alessio 1.31.54 84 Rodolfo Massi (Ita) Colombia-Selle Italia 1.32.31 85 Hector O. Mesa Mesa (Col) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 1.34.08 86 Cristiano Frattini (Ita) Tenax 1.34.18 87 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.35.19 88 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1.35.36 89 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 1.37.24 90 Michele Gobbi (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 1.37.51 91 Mario Manzoni (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 1.38.52 92 Scott Davis (Aus) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 1.38.58 93 Paolo Fornaciari (Ita) Team Saeco 1.39.57 94 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 1.42.11 95 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1.43.02 96 Mario Scirea (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 1.43.07 97 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1.43.59 98 Juilian Winn (GBr) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1.46.33 99 Mauro Gerosa (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 1.46.51 100 Gianluca Tonetti (Ita) Tenax 1.47.35 101 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Lampre 1.48.27 102 Simone Bertoletti (Ita) Lampre 1.49.31 103 Fabiano Fontanelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 1.50.32 104 Julian Usano Martinez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.50.48 105 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 1.51.22 106 Seweryn Kohut (Pol) CCC-Polsat 1.52.44 107 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre 1.53.01 108 Leonardo Giordani (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 1.55.11 109 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 1.56.08 110 Ruber Alverio Marin (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 1.56.18 111 Frank Hoj (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1.59.10 112 Rene' Joergensen (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 2.01.26 113 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Alessio 2.01.55 114 Jordi Riera Valls (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 2.02.36 115 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 2.05.26 116 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 2.05.56 117 Biagio Conte (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 2.06.04 118 Johan Verstrepen (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 2.07.05 119 Frederic Guesdon (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.08.49 120 Andrus Aug (Est) De Nardi-Colpack 2.11.21 121 Guido Trenti (USA) Fassa Bortolo 2.12.00 122 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 2.12.57 123 Werner Riebenbauer (Aut) Team fakta-Pata Chips 2.13.51 124 Luca De Angeli (Ita) Colombia-Selle Italia 2.14.54 125 John Freddy Garcia (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 2.14.57 126 Dario Pieri (Ita) Team Saeco 2.15.46 127 Nick Gates (Aus) Lotto-Domo 2.16.05 128 Regis Lhuillier (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.16.12 129 Gianpaolo Mondini (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 2.17.52 130 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.18.14 131 Massimo Apollonio (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 2.18.36 132 Salvatore Scamardella (Ita) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 2.18.47 133 Francesco Secchiari (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 2.20.35 134 Moreno Di Biase (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 2.21.33 135 Martin Hvastija (Slo) Tenax 2.22.02 136 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) FDJeux.com 2.22.36 137 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Lotto-Domo 2.24.27 138 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC-Polsat 2.25.40 Points classification 1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 208 pts 2 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 130 3 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Team Saeco 109 4 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre 107 5 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team fakta-Pata Chips 93 6 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Lampre 63 7 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) FDJeux.com 60 8 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 59 9 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 52 10 Moreno Di Biase (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 48 11 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.com 46 12 Graziano Gasparre (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 46 13 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 45 14 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Alessio 42 15 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 42 16 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta-Pata Chips 40 17 Giovanni Lombardi (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 40 18 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Alessio 38 19 Dario Pieri (Ita) Team Saeco 34 20 Marco Pantani (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 32 21 Gabriele Colombo (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 32 22 Julio A. Perez Cuapio (Mex) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 30 23 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 30 24 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Alessio 29 25 Serguei Gontchar (Ukr) De Nardi-Colpack 29 26 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 29 27 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre 28 28 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 27 29 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 26 30 Dario Frigo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 25 31 Constantino Zaballa Gutierez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanc 24 32 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Fassa Bortolo 23 33 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 22 34 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 22 35 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 22 36 Gerhard Trampusch (Aut) Gerolsteiner 22 37 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 20 38 Andrus Aug (Est) De Nardi-Colpack 19 39 Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 18 40 Matteo Carrara (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 18 41 Bo Hamburger (Den) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 17 42 Fredy Gonzalez (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 16 43 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 16 44 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC-Polsat 16 45 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Team Saeco 15 46 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 15 47 Werner Riebenbauer (Aut) Team fakta-Pata Chips 15 48 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Team Saeco 14 49 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Lampre 12 50 Ignacio Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 12 51 Fabiano Fontanelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 11 52 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) Team Saeco 10 53 Guido Trenti (USA) Fassa Bortolo 10 54 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) CCC-Polsat 9 55 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 8 56 Juilian Winn (GBr) Team fakta-Pata Chips 8 57 Gianni Faresin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 7 58 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 7 59 Vladimir Miholievic (Cro) Alessio 6 60 Denis Lunghi (Ita) Alessio 6 61 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 6 62 Julian Usano Martinez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 6 63 Martin Hvastija (Slo) Tenax 6 64 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol) CCC-Polsat 5 65 Luis F. Laverde Jimenez (Col) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 5 66 Massimo Codol (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 4 67 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 4 68 Michele Gobbi (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 4 69 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Lampre 4 70 Luca De Angeli (Ita) Colombia-Selle Italia 4 71 Thomas Brozyna (Pol) CCC-Polsat 3 72 Sergiy Adyeyev (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 3 73 Raffaele Illiano (Ita) Colombia-Selle Italia 3 74 Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Tenax 3 75 Biagio Conte (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 3 76 Francesco Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre 2 77 Carlos Dacruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 2 78 Cristiano Frattini (Ita) Tenax 2 79 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 2 80 Mauro Gerosa (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 2 81 John Freddy Garcia (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 2 82 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1 83 Adolfo Garcia Quesada (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1 84 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1 85 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1 86 Mario Manzoni (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 1 Mountains classification 1 Fredy Gonzalez (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 77 pts 2 Constantino Zaballa Gutierez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 48 3 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Team Saeco 43 4 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 36 5 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 15 6 Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 11 7 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 9 8 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Lampre 8 9 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 6 10 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Alessio 6 11 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre 6 12 Michele Gobbi (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 6 13 Denis Lunghi (Ita) Alessio 5 14 Julio A. Perez Cuapio (Mex) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 4 15 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team fakta-Pata Chips 4 16 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 3 17 Luis F. Laverde Jimenez (Col) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 3 18 Marco Pantani (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 2 19 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 2 20 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 2 21 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 2 22 Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Tenax 2 23 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Lampre 1 24 Adolfo Garcia Quesada (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1 25 Roberto Conti (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 1 26 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta-Pata Chips 1 27 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 1 28 Volodimir Bileka (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1 29 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC-Polsat 1 Intergiro classification 1 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team fakta-Pata Chips 40.48.48 2 Moreno Di Biase (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 0.22 3 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre 1.32 4 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.02 5 Constantino Zaballa Gutierez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 2.04 6 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 2.08 7 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 2.14 8 Ignacio Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 2.24 9 Martin Hvastija (Slo) Tenax 2.40 10 Juilian Winn (GBr) Team fakta-Pata Chips 2.42 11 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 12 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 13 Fredy Gonzalez (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 14 Fabiano Fontanelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 2.45 15 Bo Hamburger (Den) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 16 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC-Polsat 2.46 17 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta-Pata Chips 2.48 18 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 19 Julian Usano Martinez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 20 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave Most combative classification 1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 59 pts 2 Fredy Gonzalez (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 46 3 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team fakta-Pata Chips 39 4 Constantino Zaballa Gutierez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 38 5 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 28 6 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre 28 7 Moreno Di Biase (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 26 8 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Team Saeco 23 9 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.com 15 10 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 13 11 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta-Pata Chips 11 12 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Lampre 10 13 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) FDJeux.com 10 14 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 10 15 Ignacio Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 8 16 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 8 17 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 7 18 Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 7 19 Gabriele Colombo (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 7 20 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Alessio 6 21 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 6 22 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 6 23 Serguei Gontchar (Ukr) De Nardi-Colpack 6 24 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 6 25 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 6 26 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Alessio 6 27 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 5 28 Juilian Winn (GBr) Team fakta-Pata Chips 5 29 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Alessio 5 30 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 5 31 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 5 32 Michele Gobbi (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 5 33 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC-Polsat 5 34 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre 4 35 Julio A. Perez Cuapio (Mex) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 4 36 Vladimir Miholievic (Cro) Alessio 4 37 Bo Hamburger (Den) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 4 38 Giovanni Lombardi (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 4 39 Fabiano Fontanelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 4 40 Julian Usano Martinez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 4 41 Martin Hvastija (Slo) Tenax 4 42 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 3 43 Dario Frigo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3 44 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3 45 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Team Saeco 3 46 Gianni Faresin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 3 47 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3 48 Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Tenax 3 49 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 3 50 Marco Pantani (Ita) Mercatone Uno - Scanavino 2 51 Graziano Gasparre (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 2 52 Luis F. Laverde Jimenez (Col) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 2 53 Thomas Brozyna (Pol) CCC-Polsat 2 54 Denis Lunghi (Ita) Alessio 2 55 Sergiy Adyeyev (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 2 56 Matteo Carrara (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 2 57 Raffaele Illiano (Ita) Colombia-Selle Italia 2 58 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 2 59 Biagio Conte (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 2 60 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 1 61 Adolfo Garcia Quesada (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1 62 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 1 63 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1 64 Francesco Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre 1 65 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) Team Saeco 1 66 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Team Saeco 1 67 Cristiano Frattini (Ita) Tenax 1 68 Guido Trenti (USA) Fassa Bortolo 1 69 John Freddy Garcia (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 1 70 Dario Pieri (Ita) Team Saeco 1 Azzurri d'Italia classification 1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 27 pts 2 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 13 3 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Team Saeco 11 4 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 4 5 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta-Pata Chips 4 6 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Alessio 4 7 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Lampre 3 8 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team fakta-Pata Chips 2 9 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre 2 10 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.com 2 11 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) FDJeux.com 2 12 Gabriele Colombo (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 2 13 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 2 14 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Alessio 1 15 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre 1 16 Serguei Gontchar (Ukr) De Nardi-Colpack 1 17 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 1 18 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Alessio 1 Trofeo Fast Team classification 1 Lampre 214.25.42 2 Fassa Bortolo 9.14 3 Team Saeco 15.55 4 Alessio 16.17 5 Mercatone Uno-Scanavino 23.49 6 CCC Polsat 31.03 7 Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 31.31 8 Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 40.22 9 Gerolsteiner 44.27 10 De Nardi-Colpack 45.50 11 Kelme-Costa Blanca 52.29 12 Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 53.28 13 Colombia-Selle Italia 1.23.38 14 Team fakta-Pata Chips 1.39.59 15 Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave'-Ciarrocchi 1.42.22 16 FDJeux.com 1.49.33 17 Domina Vacanze-Elitron 2.12.57 18 Tenax 2.55.34 19 Lotto-Domo 3.56.13 Trofeo Super Team classification Fassa Bortolo 407 pts 2 Domina Vacanze-Elitron 303 3 Lampre 290 4 Alessio 248 5 Team Saeco 239 6 Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 224 7 Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 194 8 Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 189 9 De Nardi-Colpack 184 10 Team fakta-Pata Chips 183 11 Gerolsteiner 157 12 FDJeux.com 143 13 Mercatone Uno-Scanavino 115 14 Lotto-Domo 114 15 Kelme-Costa Blanca 107 16 CCC Polsat 100 17 Colombia-Selle Italia 62 18 Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave'-Ciarrocchi 54 19 Tenax 47 From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed May 28 16:05:52 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 08:05:52 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage17 - Short and Sweet Message-ID: <3ED4D050.2060705@cyclofiend.com> Stage 17 - Salice Terme - Asti - 117 km Martin Hvastija of the Tenax squad seems to have drawn the short straw today, and juggled himself off the front on a solo breakaway on this shortest of stages in this year's Giro D'Italia. He's dangled out to the mid 2 minutes, but Fredy Gonzalez' Selle Italia teammates have taken up the chase to get the Cat 3 climb that looms immediately ahead. The effort has paid off as the green jersey wearing Gonzalez pips off the front. He is chased through the town by Fortunato Baliani from Formaggi Pinzolo. The opportunistic climber just surges past Gonzalez at the line. This is the same rider who attacked Gonzalez at a moderate climb a few stages back, and received quite a tongue-lashing from the Selle Italia rider, who didn't feel that it was appropriat for the upstart to nick GpM points. Both riders are almost immediately absorbed by the accelerating peleton, so any suggestions from Gonzalez are not visible to the viewers. Fassa Bortolo takes up the pacemaking with 47 km to go. Suprisingly, the judges have given the GpM point victory to Gonzalez, who still seems to have gotten nicked before the line when they show the replay. The InterGiro point looms out on the road, and rumor has it that Magnus Backstedt's Fakta director has promised the use of his Lamborghini to the rider, if he holds the blue jersey to the end of the Giro. How the massive viking will fit in the Italian auto is a matter of conjecture. The speed of the Fakta riders has continued to string things out, creating a bit of a gap that actually leaves race leader Gilberto Simoni behind a few teammates, struggling to regain the lead group. At the InterGiro point, Backstedt drives away from everyone, and has enough time to grab his 2-way radio mic and tell the team director. Luis LaVerde of Formaggi Pinzolo joins Julian Usano from Kelme take advantage of the post-sprint lull and move away on the twisting roads. They move away to an 8 second lead as the group squeezes down on the narrowing roads. Others flutter away - Julian Winn from Fakta, Adolfo Garcia from Kelme and Hector Mesa Mesa from Formaggi Pinzolo among others. Kelme's Alexis Rodriguez ends up with a bit of a gap - now hovering around 18 seconds with 20 km to go. The post-war stage record is 7 wins in a single Giro, held jointly by Freddie Maertens, Bepe Saronni and Roger de Vlamenck. Last year, Mario Cipolini managed 6, and Petacchi could - on paper at any rate - tie either by the end of the Giro. Fassa Bortolo clicks up the effort a bit, and draws Rodriguez back into the fold. FDjeux.com begin to form at the front, perhaps to put their rider Sandy Casar out into the frenzy. With 10 km to go on this hottest day so far, the riders must be happy to see the banner which claims the finish is not too far away. The Vini-Calidirolians have massed at the front perhaps to nip some cheap seconds away for Stefano Garzellil. Fassa Bortolo has ceased to be the dominant team at the front as everyone rolls under the 5 km to go banner. Fakta arranges themselves next to the FDJeux.com train, who in turn find some zebras who plan to push their young sprinter Daniele Bennati. The hurtling zebras immediately take to the front, while Petacchi notches in behind them. Fast man Giovanni Lombardi has snuck in on Petacchi's wheel, ready to pounce. FDJeux.com moves up, but Sandy Casar loses th wheel of his leaders, and they crumple a bit as the speed takes its toll. Three riders have a short gap after a right turn, and the howl of turbines is in the air as the sprinters hit hard. Petacchi goes off the wheel of his leadout man from what looks like a long, long way out. Lombardi accellerates hard to make a go of it, and from nowhere Lampre's Jan Svorada pops out off the wheel of a Bernhard Eisel from FDJeux.com. He's running up on the heavily bandanged Fassa Bortolo sprinter but runs out of roadway - the lunging Petacchi takes it by half a wheel. Stage victory number six! This sets him up well to join the hallowed group of men who have taken seven Giro stages. Stage 17 - Results 1 - Alessandro Petacchi 2 - Jan Svorada 3 - Giovanni Lombardi Overall - no changes as Simoni completes his 8th day in the Maglia Rosa Tomorrow: Stage 18 - Santuorio Vico - Chianale - 175 km The riders will head over the Cima Coppi tomorow - the highest spot in this year's race, with the crest of Colle d'Esischie reaching 2366 meters. Put on your light climbing wheels, boyos, and fit the big cogs in place, tomorrow will be a pummeler. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 30 01:12:31 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 17:12:31 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 18 - Cima Coppi Message-ID: <3ED6A1EF.7090406@cyclofiend.com> Stage 18 - Santuorio Vico - Ponte Chianale - 175 km Cima Coppi. High point on the Giro. Today, the men aim for the eagles and head up from there. Two massive peaks and a finishing climb will make short work of anyone who hasn't managed to join condition and luck in this year's race. They have reached the snow line and today the sharp knives come out of the sheaths. The obvious battle will be for the Maglia Rosa, with less than two minutes between Stefano Garzelli in second and Gilberto Simoni. But, behind Garzelli, Yaroslav Popovych lurks close behind, while Raimondas Rumsas and others could also spoil the party. The riders have zipped over the peaks quickly today a bit ahead of estimated time and unfortunately before Italian Television begins beaming pictures. Coverage opens with the leaders cresting the Colle di Sampeyre, the second to the last climb of the day. (Yep, in Popular Cycling Magazaine speak - the penultimate climb....) Not all are with us however, as Lampre's Francesco Casagrande, Gerolsteiner's Ronny Scholz, Martin Hvastija from Tenax, and Norwegian national champion Kurt Arevesen of Team Fakta have all checked out today. GpM leaer Fredy Gonzalez of Columbia-Selle Italia led the way up to the top of the Cima Coppi which was the first climb of the day, in the middle of snow from last night's dusting and threatening weather for the immediate future. Behind him, Kelme's Contanstino Zaballa and Gerolsteiner's Georg Totschnig move away from other climbers to challenge for second. Simoni made a strong accelleration to move up to the head of affairs, dropping Popovych and others - Wladimir Belli, Garzelli, Raimondas Rumsas and Marco Pantani have grouped together when Simoni made up his mind to go, and only Dario Frigo from Fassa Bortolo could hold Simoni's wheel as he hammered away. Popovych falters but keeps them in earshot. Though he trailed over the top, Popovych found some gas in the final push for the peak and then screeched straight past Simoni and company, immediately gapping them down the harrowing descent by around 10 seconds. He's either going to get a lead or die trying. Fog lays in the the forest on the rain-slicked far side of the mountain, unrecognizable riders through the twisting narrow roads, rain capes on backwards as they try to reduce any hint of freezing air. The first half mile or so, riders were holding their line on actual snow. In May... Word comes through that Popovych leads. It's hard to say who is where, as chaos has descended with the fog. Camera Motos with fogged lenses provide pictures bereft of actual physical landmarks. There's a short string of riders here, the guy with the backwards jacket there, and aerial shot with the slightest blip of a rider's jersey in the trees. Riders have gone down on the descent. It looks like a few yellowish jerseys of various lineage - it looks like Caldirola Sidermec and Mercatone Uno riders are swapping bikes around and pushing team members away. Bad news for bald men - Pantani went down pretty hard with Stefano Garzelli. It is so flipping cold and damp that the riders must be having a hard time hold the brake levers. Plus, Pantani is running the light-but-not-quite-trustworthy-in-wet-weather carbon deep section rims. Garzelli has headed off. and restarts his descent in horrid conditions. Pantani sits on the side of the road in some serious pain. He may not even be aware his bicycle is just downhill from him. His team car arrives, and they drape a towel over his shoulders. He mops his head and covers his face from the camera. Team Managers and soigneurs seem to be concerned about his left knee, and the left arm, the elbow of which bleeds freely. He is clearly on the edge of tears. Treacherous descent and the wind chill must be devastating on these boys without bodyfat. Popovych remains first on the road, with Dario Frigo trailing solo, and Simoni trying to talk Totschnig into trading pulls - for whatever reason - I don't know - a 10 minute descent in freezing fog? - he seems like he's having trouble finding his rhythm. But the German can just wag his tongue and focus on the spinning wheel in front of him - he's redlined. It seems like the other climbers and pretenders have been passed or dropped - the selection has taken place and whoever has the cookies left will come from these men. The riders have only about 20 km to go, and the finish is in relative better weather, while the riders are finally edging out of the rains. Frigo is ripping hunks of lung to gain Popovych's wheel - it looks like he's turning a time trial gear. Simoni seems to be getting some sort of convective ressurection and pedalling more fluidly. For the first time, we do see some grimaces pass across the face of the race leader. On flattening roads, everyone has started to focus their efforts for the final stage. Simoni accellerates to drop Totschnig, but can't manage a gap while Frigo and Popovych hammer up the steepening climb. Garzelli wears very little roadside dirt, but seems to have scraped off a logo on his left hip and some dermal bits on his elbow. The camera's slip around to the other side of him and it looks like he's carrying another pound of prime Italian Alps dirt on his uniform, and bleeds freely from his left knee. With 15 km to go, the Frigo/Popovych pair are only about a minute ahead of Simoni/Totschnig. Behind them, Wladimir Belli has rejoined Eddy Mazzoleni and Garzelli, and they are joined by actual shadows on the roadway with the passing sun. The shadows remain about as long as we would in among this group. Pantani is reported to have slowly regained his bicycle and making his way down the mountain. Simoni has moved hard on the steeping and drying roads at 13 km to go and hooked up with Popovych and Frigo, finally leaving Totschnig to struggle on alone. This climb isn't as steep nasty as the first two, with an average gradiant of around 4-5%. Of course, they had to ride those first two as well. Simoni, Frigo and Popovych now alternate pulls. Totschnig is suffering drastically and seeing pink ducks. Pantani is now confirmed to be on his bike, having dropped 11:30 off the pace of the leaders. Still, he gains more points for not simply taking off his numbers and getting into the car. Clearly, Marco wants to ride again. The lead three are now onto the fist switchbacks of the climb. Popovych had been dropped on the Sampeyre, but now has more than three minutes on Garzelli - he has serious plans to fight for second today. Unfortunately, Popovych has found a lugging in the engine as Frigo pounds out a huge gear. Simoni senses it immediately and jumps around to join the heaving Fassa Bortolo rider. Popovych has lost 12 seconds already, but has wisely dropped into a good rhythm so he can maintain his own pace. The Devil runs along behind the Frigo/Simoni pair, who raise their pace slightly. Frigo hands off his helmet to the camera moto while Simoni still wears his "Rosa" lid. Simoni realizes that the extra 10 ounces could make a difference, and removes his, looking around for someone to talk into carrying it. Frigo is back into the big ring as they hit a level bit next to a turquoise lake. He and Simoni have about 30 odd seconds over Popovych, and just over 4 minutes over Garzelli. 5 km to go, and Popovych is straining a big gear on the flats, back into his time-trial mode. Time update puts him 1:14 behind the leading pair. Raimondas Rumsas from Lampre works with Alessio teammates Franco Pellizoti and Andrea Noe. They push hard, clawing back some time as they gain the lakeside false flat. It seems that they haven't caught Totschnig yet. Garzelli has reduced the gap a bit, while Totschnig has regained the wheel of Popovych. Again Frigo rides a cadence of about 43 while driving a huge gear, briefly putting Simoni in a bit of trouble. But, the Magli Rosa wearing Saeco rider knows his meal ticket is being punched by the blonde Italian, and digs deep to stay in touch. Frigo leads over the 2 km to go, but the gap has been mended. Garzelli has dropped Mazzoleni and rides with Sergei Gontchar of De Nardi and Sandy Casar of FDJeux.com. Popovych might be in a bit of difficulty, but is now riding solo - unclear if he dropped Totschnig or the other way round... Simoni kicks it out of the saddle as they pass under the 1 km to go banner, moving in front of Frigo. After a couple of punishing strides in the saddle, he lets Frigo come back around him. As they drop down a slight decine, Simoni moves back ahead. Finally, Frigo moves strongly away to take the win decisively with a clear gap - Simoni rolls over about ten seconds down. Down the hill, Popovych is about 1300 meters away from the hot showers, in the drops and mumbling in colloquial Ukranian. In fact, Totschnig had actaully left the suffering rider and rides third on the roadway - he relsihes the decline and hums to the finish more than 2 and a half minutes down. Popovych finds the biggest hear he owns and rolls in at 3:12 - the clock starts to Garzelli...just in time to lose the video feed from northern Italy. The pictures come back to find a hammering Garzelli about 400 meters away from the line. He's had enough seasons to know exactly what his challeng is. He hits the line 5:08 back from the winner - not quite enough to let Popovych slip past him. For today, at any rate... On the podium, Dario Frigo has every layer of team kit on as he takes the bouquet, stuffed tea thingie and the too-damn-cold bottle of champagne. The crowd moves back as he sprays the bubbly. Stage 18 - 1 - Dario Frigo - Fassa Bortolo - 5:23:42 2 - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - @:10 3 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - @2:38 4 - Yaroslav Popovych - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago - @3:12 5 - Raimondas Rumsas - Lampre - @4:00 Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - 79:24:54 2 - Stefano Garzelli - 7:08 3 - Yaroslav Popovych - 7:19 4 - Andrea Noe - 9:19 5 - Georg Totschnig - 9:29 6 - Raimondas Rumsas - 10:14 7 - Dario Frigo - 12:27 8 - Franco Pellizotti - 13:48 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 19 - Canelli - Cascata Toce - 236 km Not but one climb of note, but it'll wring out the quads pretty well - 1675 meters to the finish line after a pretty flat first 200 km. As noted before, Popovych took about a second per kilometer out of Garzelli on the last time trial, and if he equaled that on the 33 km ITT on the final day, he'd be pretty happy. Casagrande needs to lick his wounds and put the hurt on or he could find hmself squeezed out. From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri May 30 17:06:35 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Giro Reporter) Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 09:06:35 -0700 Subject: [Giro 2003]Stage 19 - Rumble in the Tunnels Message-ID: <3ED7818B.8000308@cyclofiend.com> Stage 19 - Today's Giro Trivia Question: How many Belgians have won the Giro D'Italia? ============================================== The blood still flows from yesterday's wounds - in the shuffle and pains of the finish, I missed that Julio Perez of Ceramiche Panaria - last year's GpM winner - did not finish stage 18. A stunning 37 riders were eliminated at the end of yesterday's helacious climbing stage (see below**). Last man up the final climb was Points Competition Leader Alessandro Petacchi, who has handed his cyclimina jersey across to the shoulders of Stefano Garzelli. Clearly in pain from his crash injuries, he finished outside the time limit, nearly 50 minutes behind. It doesn't seem like anyone would have complained if the race officials let these guys finish - and if they used a more Tour de France-type calculation, taking into account the severity of the climbs, no one would have been clipped off. But, a Giro is just not complete without some kind of scandal, and I'd rather see this one than another drug raid. And there is, of course, racing to be enjoyed today - We've contined through the beautiful Alp-like parts of northern Italy, through green hills and overcast skies. No rains or snow today, but the sun just won't cooperate with the riders. With 25 km to go and all the climbing still to come, a breakaway had been out on the roadway, consisting of mostly climbers. As the riders catch a whiff of incline, Rinaldo Nocentini from Fromaggi Trenti Fiave skips out of this breakaway pack and scoots up the roadway - while behind, the Caldirola-led peleton begins to turn up the heat a bit. Nocentini is about 2 minutes away from the main group, enjoying a lead that is dropping by the pedal stroke. In the main group, Marco Pantani rides along, having shaken off the shuddering impacts of yesterday's crash. At about 19 km to go in this longest stage, Nocentini is gathered in by the depleted three man chase group - Alessio's Denis Lunghi, Sergei Adyeyev from Landbouwkrediet-Colnago and Constantino Zaballa of Kelme. At the head of the peleton, Garzelli and his Caldirola teammates marshal the efforts, while Landbouwkrediet-Colnago hover in their immediate wake with Saeco. The Cascata del Toce has not been used in the Giro before, and climbs for about 18 km at an average gradient of over 5%. It's definitely more of a power climb, and the peleton has worked its way up to bottle throwing distance behind the breakaway group. There's still about 13 km to climb, but it's begun in earnest now - suddenly it's raining helmets - all in the main group chucking the polystyrene prisons over to a group of waiting soigneurs and opportunistic fans. Since the finishing climb is more than 5 km, the riders are allowed to remove them. The devil sets a great pace and matches the chase group. The scuttlebutt is that he'd been over at the Peace Race, but left after someone tried to take the massive bicycle that he drags along with him. Popovych has classic Cat3 helmet hair, which shows up dramatically on the images. Clearly, there is a drastic side effect of the helmet rule that no one took into account. Three Caldirola-Sidermec riders up front, as Stefan Zampieri sets the pace, riders steadily drip off the back as Eddy Mazzoleni follows in Garzelli's pocket as they switchback up the sinuous climb. The group of the Maglia Rosa has been whittled down to 25 or 30 riders. The thickening crowd contains huge numbers of Caltrans-orange clad workers - last year that was the color of the "Simoni Hooligans", who hopefully will _not_ be making a showing. Garzelli and his Caldirolians are desparately trying to crack Popovych, continuing to drive the pace. But, he looks pretty smooth as they continue up right and up left. Simoni continues to calmly sit in and seems to be sweating slightly. Much to the delight of Phil, Charlie Wegelius has managed to hang in there with the bunch, riding for De Nardi-Colpack. Il Brontolo = "The Grumpy One" Fassa Bortolo's Kim Kirchen drifts back with a couple of helmets to place in the Shimano neutral sevice car. The sole Luxembuger in the race has some greagario duties, but he's ridden well. Let me correct that - he'as _riding_ well - Kirchen fires away as they cut right, roll across a brige and cut left. Pietro Caucchioli of Alessio zips immediately onto his wheel and the two move away. It is not yet a severe climb as they continue to move through the valley which contains below the cascades which give the finish its name. Caucchioli was the highest placed finisher from last year's Giro. Now with 5 km to go, the hill begins to bite a bit, and the leading pair hold a 12 second gap. Harkening from the days of old, Marco Pantani hauls up and away, in the drops and out of the saddle. The sound of crackling wax, scabs and tendons is almost audible as he visibly loses years. Pantani doesn't quite streak away, with Dario Frigo, Wladimir Belli, Gilberto Simoni and Fanco Pellizotti grasping into the slipstream and clawing up towards him - but, it doesn't look like Popovych and Garzelli have been able to hold the wheel in this split. Garzelli has drifted back slightly from Popovych's wheel - and he needs every seconed. Pantani surveys the damage and realizes there's a split. He hits it again a few times, and this time Simoni moves hard to hold his wheel. Garzelli finds himself with Raimondas Rumsas trying to hammer again, clawing back up towards the leading riders. Pantani now lights it hard and streaks up the roadway. There's a visible gap, but an even harder reaction from the chasers. They don't want to let the reborn Italian climber get a gap. Garzelli had moved back up to the group with Popovych and Simoni, swelling the bunch back up to 15 or so. Mazzoleni rolls up to Pantani and shoots a look his way. It's hard to say if Pantani has another shot in the cylinder, but it was a beautiful moment when he made his attacks. Now Big-Hair-Pellizotti moves up and away, immediately chased by Simoni. Pantani hucks it hard to try to grab Simoni's wheel, but he just comes up short and cannot match this new accelleration. Simoni catches Pellizotti and moves to the front They have found a gap now of 40 or 50 meters. Frigo leads the chase and the small group begins to splinter again. Pantani now sits among a couple Mercatone Uno riders at the back of the chase group. At the head of the race, Simoni leads Pellizotti into a hugely long snow tunnel, and the climb kicks up noticeably. It's open to the side, as is the custom, so we can make out official motorbikes and racers jerseys. Somewhere under the grassy tunnel, an accelleration by Simoni clips off the now crosseyed Pelizzotti. In the chase group, Popovych has taken up the reigns and sets the pace, doing all that he can to collect seconds. But, his bunch has fallen behind the Frigo-led a group of three. Simoni finally pops out of the snow shed, clearly wanting this win. Frigo's group has scooped up Pellizotti, with Noe now hitting them at the front to see if they can keep the Alessio logo up in the rankings. But, Frigo begins to accellerate, first with a moderated hesitation, and then in earnest. He has plans to ditch these buggers before the line arrives. Gilberto Simoni crosses to win his 3rd stage of this years Giro, Mazzoleni follows Frigo in, for some reason having been loosened from the constraints of pacing Garzelli. Emerging from rumble in the tunnels, Popovych has clipped off Garzelli, who rolls in about 8 or 9 seconds in arrears. Popovych now sits two seconds behind Garzelli. Simoni has been showing an incredible dominance in this race, after being unceremoniously dinged out of last year's event. He's returned to this Giro D'Italia highly motivated to show everyone just how good his form is. To watch him continunally move off the front when he has a solid lead is reminiscent of the aggressive tour winners of the past. This has become a Giro of panache and aggressive riding, rather than safety and second counting. Stage 19 - 1 - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - 6:20:05 2 - Dario Frigo - Fassa Bortolo - @ :03 3 - Eddie Mazzoleni - Caldirola-Sidermec - s.t. 4 - Andrea Noe - Alessio - @ :10 5 - Franco Pellizotti - Alessio - @:13 6 - Wladimir Belli - Lampre - @:21 7 - Raimondas Rumsas - Lampre - @:27 8 - Yaroslav Popovych - Landbouwkrediet-Colnago - s.t. 9 - Stefano Garzelli - Caldirola-Sidermec - @:35 10 - Aitor Gonzalez - Fassa Bortolo - s.t. Overall - Maglia Rosa - Gilberto Simoni - 85:44:39 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 Vittoria Adorni has held the biggest gap for around 38 years - somewhere in the 11 minute range. At this rate, Simoni probably won't match it, but he will solidly notch into second in the record for largest victory gap in the Giro D'Italia. **Stage 18 - Riders Outside time limit -------------------------------------- 98 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.com 40.27 99 Matteo Carrara (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 100 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Team Saeco 101 Alexis Rodriguez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 102 David Derepas (Fra) FDJeux.com 103 Frederic Guesdon (Fra) FDJeux.com 104 Massimo Apollonio (Ita) Vini Caldirola-SO.DI 105 Dario Pieri (Ita) Team Saeco 106 Seweryn Kohut (Pol) CCC-Polsat 107 Andrus Aug (Est) De Nardi-Colpack 108 Regis Lhuillier (Fra) FDJeux.com 109 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 110 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Lotto-Domo 111 Frank Hoj (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 112 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) De Nardi-Colpack 113 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC-Polsat 114 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Gerolsteiner 115 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 116 Werner Riebenbauer (Aut) Team fakta-Pata Chips 117 Guido Trenti (USA) Fassa Bortolo 118 Gianpaolo Mondini (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 119 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 120 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) FDJeux.com 121 Scott Davis (Aus) Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo 122 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 123 Giuseppe Muraglia (Rus) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 124 Nick Gates (Aus) Lotto-Domo 125 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Alessio 126 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 127 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den) Team fakta-Pata Chips 128 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) Domina Vacanze-Elitron 129 John Freddy Garcia (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia 40.35 130 Moreno Di Biase (Ita) Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave 40.36 131 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 50.44 132 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 50.45 ============================== Trivia Answer: 3 - Eddie Merckx, Michel Pollentier and Johan DeMunck ==============================