[Giro 2003]Stage 18 - Cima Coppi

[Giro Reporter]

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.