[Giro 2003]Stage 15 - Individual Time Trial

[Giro Reporter]

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.