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Contador weathers Mortirolo storm
Sella strikes again, Riccò stuck in second
Alberto Contador (Astana) is 28.5km from winning a Giro d’Italia he never expected to start.
The Spanish climber deflected a flurry of last-gasp attacks from arch-rival Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) over the Gavia and Mortirolo in Saturday’s 232km mountain shootout to retain the maglia rosa and roll into Sunday’s final-day time trial with the narrowest of margins.
But four seconds might as well be four hours for Contador, who is favored to cement his lead in Sunday’s mostly flat race against the clock into Milano.
“I could never have imagined that I would be in the maglia rosa poised to win the Giro a month ago when my team called me,” a relieved Contador said. “To be in the maglia rosa in the last day of the Giro, playing in the time trial to win it all, it’s something unimaginable a month ago.”
Riccò was stymied once again Saturday against Contador and his lucky stars.
After the pugnacious Italian was unable to distance Contador over the Mortirolo, Riccò was at least hoping to win a 13-up sprint into Tirano to claim the stage and a 20-second time bonus to snag the elusive pink jersey.
But a day after missing the pink jersey by just four seconds in Friday’s thrilling climbing stage to Monte Pora, fate yet again turned away from Riccò and toward Contador.
Emanuele Sella — who Riccò heavily criticized for riding for Contador in Friday’s summit finish — attacked up the day’s third climb at Aprica to power home his third victory of this year’s Giro.
Chasing in his wake were Gilberto Simoni and Joaquim Rodríguez, who gobbled up finish-line bonuses (20-12-8 seconds) and left Riccò to sprint for leftovers ahead of Contador in fourth.
“Maybe Simoni was right when he said I don’t have a strong team here at this Giro,” said Riccò, who has a knack for angering just about everyone. “If I had the team that Contador does, I’d be in the pink jersey right now. The Giro isn’t over, but I have to wonder what could have been.”
Once again, Contador counted on support from Astana to help him weather the storm.
The team sent Toni Colom on the attack over the Gavia before Levi Leipheimer took strong pulls on the lower part of the Mortirolo. Contador later caught Colom on the Mortirolo descent and his roommate helped tow his captain to the line in Tirano.
“Just like me, my team didn’t have time to prepare for this Giro. A week’s notice ahead of a grand tour is just incredible,” said Contador, fifth in the stage. “If we had had time to prepare for this race in normal conditions, we would have had three or four at the front, not just one.”
Contador’s unlikely Giro journey concludes Sunday with a nearly-flat time trial from Cesano Maderno to Milano. Contador is heavily favored against Riccò and time trial specialist Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre) is most likely beyond reach at two minutes back.
Barring a major disaster, Contador will likely end the day in pink.
“It’s the final stage with a time trial, so anything could happen, but if I have good sensations in the legs, I don’t have to fear that I will lose the maglia rosa,” Contador said. “The Giro is not over until the final kilometer of the final stage.”
Podium fight
With Contador and Riccò fighting for the final victory, the fight for the third spot on the podium is still wide open.
A day after blowing up the race in Friday’s perfectly executed attack over the Vivione to claw back into contention at just 21 seconds back, defending champion Danilo Di Luca (LPR) fell back to earth.
“The Killer” lost contact midway up the Mortirolo and couldn’t depend on the descending prowess of teammate Paolo Savoldelli, who dropped back early, to help him chase down Contador.
Russian Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne) caught Di Luca’s wheel in the final 35km, but didn’t take one pull the entire way up the Aprica. Why? Perhaps it was because ex-teammate and compatriot Denis Menchov (Rabobank) was still in contention for the podium.
A disappointed Di Luca crossed the line 15th at 5:27 back to drop from third to seventh at 4:18 back.
“I think I paid for my efforts from yesterday. I just didn’t have the legs to stay with the front group on the Mortirolo,” Di Luca said. “I tried to ride away with the pink jersey yesterday, but I fell short. No one can say this Giro is without spectacle.”
With Contador and Riccò squaring off for the final prize, the final spot in the podium is a four-cart race.
Four riders are stacked within 47 seconds of each other going into Sunday’s final TT.
Menchov and Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre) both revived their podium hopes with strong rides. Menchov helped turn the screws up the Mortirolo to distance Di Luca and Bruseghin, but the Lampre veteran rejoined the Menchov-Contador group coming off the climb.
Menchov later chased the attacking Sella, who took 1:30 on the maglia rosa group and claimed another 20 seconds in time bonuses with the win to climb to fifth at 2:35 back.
Bruseghin slotted into third at 2:00, Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) into fourth at 2:05, and Menchov in sixth at 2:47 back, with Sella in fifth.
Neither Pellizotti nor Sella are considered flat-course time trialists, so the battle for the final spot likely comes down between Bruseghin and Menchov.
“It was really hard today to stay close over the Mortirolo. I used a lot of energy on the climb and then later on the chase,” said Bruseghin, who won the 39.4km time trial at Urbino. “I came to the Giro wanting to win a stage and now I’m close to the podium. It would be a great moment for me if I can achieve it.”
Up the Gavia
The 224-kilometer, 20th stage from Rovetta to Tirano was the Giro’s last hard mountain stage and featured three hard climbs. At 90km, riders began the 17km climb up the Cat. 1 Passo Gavia (2618m), this year’s Cima Coppi as the Giro’s highest point during the race.
At 160km, riders tackled the fearsome 15km climb up the Cat. 1 Passo del Mortirolo (1854m), before the third, the 16km, Cat. 2 Aprica (1173m), at 191km.
The attacks didn’t come until the peloton surged up the lower flanks of the Gavia. The valley at the base of the legendary climb was bathed in sun, but the summit was clogged with fog and rain, not to mention some hardy fans and deep piles of snow.
Andy Hampsten was waiting at the top to pass rain jackets to riders on the 20th anniversary of his epic climb over the Gavia that secured victory in the 1988 Giro.
Some riders were already thinking about Sunday’s final time trial.
"I'm feeling pretty good in the final week. I’ll just spin up the climb today and try to find a group to survive today,” said Jason McCartney (CSC), riding in his third Giro. “I'd like to do well in tomorrow's time trial. It's too bad that it's totally flat, because I can carry speed over some hills better than most guys.”
LPR, Diquigiovanni-Androni and High Road tried to get riders into some moves, but nothing stuck until CSF-Navigare pushed Julio Pérez Cuapio powered into a move with José Rujano (Caisse d’Epargne) and Evgeni Petrov (Tinkoff). A few more riders tried, but they couldn’t match the pace.
Midway up the Gavia, Andreas Klöden abandoned. It was a huge blow for Astana, who counted on the 32-year-old German to help Contador save the maglia rosa on Friday.
“He was already sick for the past week. We didn't tell anyone because then our rivals would think the team is weak and attack us more. He was a great teammate to Contador yesterday, but he went too deep,” said Astana spokesman Philippe Maertens. “The team doctor says he might have a lung infection. He helped Contador save the maglia rosa yesterday."
At the top of the Gavia, Pérez Cuapio crested the summit 35 seconds ahead of Rujano and 45 ahead of Antonio Colom (Astana), Fortunato Baliani (CSF Group Navigare) and Evgeny Petrov (Tinkoff). The peloton trailed through at 3:45 back.
The leaders found company with Colom, as Astana wanted to have an extra pair of legs up the road. There was also an intermediate sprint worth 6-4-2 seconds on the backside of the Gavia which the team didn’t want Riccò picking up.
Standstill up the Mortirolo
Colom, Pérez Cuapio and Baliani hit the base of the Mortirolo with a 3:40 head start.
Bertolini led the way up the lower flanks of the long, grinding climb to prep things for Simoni. After blowing up in Friday’s climb, the veteran Italian wanted to ride off into the sunset with a movie-script win.
The maglia rosa group was still about 20-strong when Simoni ramped up the speed about one-third up the Mortirolo. Sella attacked twice and Rodríguez went once, but no one could gain any space. It was more a war of attrition as Riccò marked the moves.
“Riccò followed me and I think he expected me to be some sort of battering ram for him against Contador. All he did was bring all the others with him,” said Simoni. “Yesterday, I lost a big opportunity to be on the podium of this Giro. I got cold on the Vivione summit and when I finally put on a rain cape, Savoldelli attacked. I lost hope for this Giro, but I wanted to win today.”
Bruseghin, Pellizotti and then Di Luca were struggling to match the pace set by Riccò and Sella. There were 11 riders still together when Simoni attacked two more time, quickly countered by Sella before Riccò hit the accelerator. He was hoping to pull off a victory, a la Pantani, but archrival Sella fought back, helping Contador to split the group.
Contador played the patient hand, following wheels and not losing his cool. Contador stayed with Ricco, Menchov, Sella, Pozzovivo and Rodríguez with Di Luca, Simoni, Bruseghin, Pellizotti and Van den Broeck trailing.
“Yesterday was a much more complicated situation for me. I had Di Luca more than two minutes up the road and all my rivals were attacking me. I could have lost it all, but I was able to ride with a clear head,” Contador said. “Today was difficult on the Mortirolo, but all I had to do was mark Riccò’s attacks. We could count on the circumstances of the race stacking up in our favor.”
With about 4km to go to the summit, Di Luca’s hard effort from the previous day started to kick in and he struggled to stay with the Bruseghin-Pellizotti chase group. Simoni, meanwhile, bridged up to the Contador group.
Up the road, Pérez Cuapio and then Baliani popped as Colom rode alone over the summit. He wanted to get up and over the Mortirolo as soon as possible to be in position to help Contador on the long, moderate climb up Aprica.
Colom topped out 38 seconds ahead of the Contador group, with Baliani latching on just before the summit. Bruseghin paced over 1:04 back with Pellizotti at 1:36 and Di Luca summiting at 2:02 back.
Sella springs again
A group of 13 riders settled in to duke it out for the stage. The grinding Cat. 2 Aprica climb didn’t present a major problem for Contador as he could count on Colom and some friendly riders in the group.
Sella completed his Giro hat-trick with another attack that had some rolling their eyes. The pint-sized CSF-Navigare rider surged away with 28km to go at about 9km short of the summit.
Rodríguez quickly gave chase, but punctured to miss an opportunity to snag a stage win after attacking throughout this Giro.
“I attacked in the Mortirolo because I thought that considering the fact that I am not fighting for the general classification, they would let me go, but unfortunately it was not the case,” Rodríguez said. “After that, I decided to try again but I was the victim of a puncture. It was the front wheel and that happened when Sella attacked. He went and it was no longer possible to catch him. Of course I am disappointed to go home without winning a stage, but in the other hand I know I have to be positive because of the great regularity I showed since we started from Sicily.”
Menchov and Bruseghin were helping the chase, both to drop Di Luca and keep Sella on a short leash, but the gap widened to 1:10 ahead of a chasing Simoni and 1:40 to the maglia rosa group.
Rodríguez attacked again on the narrow, twisting descent off the Aprica and hoped to chase down Sella and Simoni.
The implications were huge for Contador. With the leading pair up the road, they gobbled up the three finish-line bonuses that could have put Riccò into the pink jersey.
“It seems everyone was racing against me again. Of course I dreamed of winning the sprint and taking the jersey, but Sella went, then Simoni,” Riccò said. “When Rodríguez went, I knew that if I chased him, someone else would attack and so on. I have to be happy with second. I made a great Giro and proved I can win this race. I will come back next year to win.”
Contador likely won’t be back to the Giro next year. He’ll have the Tour de France on his radar screen by then.
