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Giro: Petacchi nips Cipo' at the line again
Cipollini still in the hunt for No. 41
What a great week it’s been for Alessandro Petacchi and what a bad one for Mario Cipollini.
Petacchi, deep in the best run of his career, beat the world champion in Wednesday’s fifth stage even before the peloton roared into Catania for the mass sprint. Super Mario’s Domina Vacanze zebras took firm control of the race with 6km to go, and typically the battle among the would-be contenders is the fight to grab Cipollini’s wheel.
But Petacchi weaseled his way in front of Cipollini, and when lead set-up man Giovanni Lombardi pulled up, it was Cipollini who was forced to come around Petacchi.
Cipollini didn’t have the gas and the Fassa Bortolo sprinting ace stabbed his bike across the line to take his second stage in this year’s Giro inches ahead of the still winless Lion King. This time the win was in the maglia rosa, something Petacchi can’t believe.
“This is better than I could have imagined,” said Petacchi, who had never won a Giro stage until this year. “I was motivated to win a stage in the first five days, but to win two, both times ahead of the world champion, and to hold the pink jersey, it’s beyond my dreams.”
Petacchi’s win in the 176-kilometer stage from Messina to Catania on the Italian island of Sicily firms up his hold on the pink jersey he’s held since winning the Giro opener on Saturday.
Domina Vacanze and Fassa Bortolo collaborated to reel in a break that forged ahead coming off the day’s main obstacle, the Category 2 Portello Mandrazzi climb midway through the stage. Colombian Fredy Gonzalez nipped ahead to grab the points to fatten his lead in the KOM competition and dangled off the front with Kelme’s Ignacio Cataluna until 12km to go.
A crash coming into the final kilometers cut the peloton, eliminating Angelo Furlan (Alessio) and Isaac Galvez (Kelme) from challenging for the sprint.
Things are certainly looking bleak for Cipollini, who is just one win shy of the all-time Giro record of 41 wins held by Italian cycling legend Alfredo Binda. Domina Vacanze once again did its job, though Lombardi perhaps should have pulled up earlier to force Petacchi into a longer sprint.
Through five stages last year, Cipollini had already won two stages en route to six victories during the 2002 Giro.
Cipo is 0-for-5 so far despite each stage ending in sprints. Second to Petacchi in the opener, Cipollini lost contact in the next three stages over relatively easy climbs.
Things could turn around quickly for Cipollini, but with Saturday’s difficult climbing stage to Terminillo looming, there will be fewer chances for sprinters in the final two weeks of the Giro.
The Giro travels back to Italy in Thursday’s first of two rest days. Friday’s 222km sixth stage, the second-longest of this year’s Giro, features a Category 2 climb at 161km and a Cat. 3 at 178km.
For those of you interested in tossing a few questionsat OLN's Giro crew -- Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll -- head on over to their chat session on OLNTV.com today (May 14) from 7 to 8 p.m.
To see how today's stage unfolded just hit the link to bring up our live update window.
