THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Zabriskie takes Giro TT, Di Luca holds on to jersey
Forty five kilometers is more than enough to sort out the men from the boys and on Sunday the man of the moment turned out to be an American by the name of David Zabriskie, who blazed into Firenze under the Tuscan sun at a fantastic average speed of 46.140kph.
It was the second grand tour stage win for this Utah native, who now spends his European summers in Spain and winters in California. His first came not so long ago, on Stage 11 of the 2004 Vuelta a España, where the 26-year-old staged an audacious, 162 kilometer solo adventure of suffering - and then did the incredible by actually pulling it off.
Out of the GC contenders, it was Ivan Basso (Team CSC) who had most to gain and gained most, finishing with the second-best time thanks to his point man Zabriskie, and catapulted himself into second overall. Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) also rode an exceptional stage to finish third, 0:44 off the winning pace, and jumped from ninth to third on GC.Results are posted
But yet again, it was the Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) who surprised, the 29-year-old housewives' favorite from Spoltore performing beyond expectations, doing enough - but only just - to hold onto the maglia rosa for at least one more day.
The straight and narrow
It was a straightforward time test on paper, but in reality full of twists and narrow turns, and with one fairly significant obstacle shortly before the course's midway point. Beginning at kilometer 8.4, the climb to Monte Albano, while not overly steep, would see each of the riders race uphill for just under 10 kilometers; the inclusion of a kilometer-long, eight percent pinch, was there for good measure.
It was the 19th rider off the ramp and U.S. time trial champion Dave Zabriskie (Team CSC) who set the early - and final! - best time of the day. Leaving Lamporecchio just before a quarter past one and smoking the course in 58 minutes 31 seconds, Zabriskie was the first of only eight to go under the hour mark. Averaging 46,140 kph, the shy but dry-humored American was all business on Sunday, and did exactly what his directeur sportif Bjarne Riis asked for, acting as point man for team leader Ivan Basso.
Zabriskie's brilliant performance took five minutes-plus out of the next closest time, and it was a good half-hour later before anyone even came close, as Dutch TT champ Thomas Dekker sailed into the finish – in this town at the edge of Florence - 1:23 behind, becoming only the day's second sub-hour rider with his time of 59 minutes, 54 seconds.
Zabriskie's teammates Andrea Peron and Michael Blaudzun also rode well, 2:44 and 3:09 behind him, and stayed in the top-10 for much of the day before the big hitters came through; Peron and later Basso's time gave CSC the teams classification for the stage by the day's end.
By the time maglia rosa Danilo Di Luca left the start-house at 16:13, the best of the rest were Eastern Bloc riders Jan Hruska (Liberty Seguros), Volodymyr Bileka (Discovery Channel), 1:34 and 2:20 behind Zabriskie, and Italian TT specialist Marco Pinotti (Saunier Duval), 2:40 in arrears.
Then, at half-past four, Russian Vladmir Karpets (Illes Balears), 33rd overall at the start of the day, set the second best time (eventually finishing sixth), 1:07 off Zabriskie, and rocketed up the classifica to 11th overall.
As the contenders began making their way into Firenze, pre-race favorite the Ukrainian Serhiy Honchar (Domina Vacanze), 19th on GC at the start, was solid, though not spectacular, finishing with a time of 59:53, roughly a minute back from Zabriskie, and slotting himself nicely into eighth overall.
Coming into the final ten, it turned out Zabriskie's splits were spot-on for Team CSC's main man Ivan Basso. The 27-year-old Italian smoked the course, just 17 seconds shy of his teammate's early best time and moving him right back into contention for the overall, and now sits just nine seconds off the lead.
"Il Falco" Savoldelli was the next man in and the best of the Disco boys, his excellent time of 59 minutes and 15 seconds good enough for third on the stage and third overall. 2000 Giro champion Stefano Garzelli (Liquigas-Bianchi) showed that Saturday's fall wasn't anything too serious, finishing 1:56 in arrears and holding his sixth position on the classifica generale. Out of coincidence, his teammate Dario Cioni clocked the exact same time, and also kept his fifth place on GC.
And then there were four
Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Cafitta) rode well, overtaking his two-minute man to finish 2:52 off the pace. Though once again, it was his teammate turned adversary at last year's Giro, Damiano Cunego, who did better – 28 seconds better to be exact - leaving the defending champ well placed in fourth overall.
Third at the start of the day, Mirko Celestino (Domina Vacanze), started two minutes behind Simoni, but was overtaken by the double Giro champ and rode a disappointing 1:02:33 to finish in 47th place, sending him spiraling 13 spots down to end the day 16th on GC.
With just the maglia rosa to come in and victory assured to American Zabriskie, Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) again performed beyond expectations in a discipline, which is by no means his specialty.
Di Luca finished just six seconds over the hour mark, taking the 10th best time of the day and earning the privilege of riding another stage in the pink.
Ahead
Stage 9 - May 16: Firenze - Ravenna, 139 kmFollowing Sunday's tough time test is a far more gentle transition stage from Florence to Ravenna, measuring just 139 kilometers in length. Yes, there is the rather sizeable Passo di Muraglione to be tackled, but with the day's GPM 90 kilometers from the finish, sprinters will have no doubt saved themselves Sunday as a predictably large peloton rolls into this seaside resort on the Adriatic Monday afternoon.Results are posted
Results - Stage 8
1. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 58:31
2. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 58:48
3. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 59:15
4. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, 59:19
5. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), Domina Vacanze, 59:22
6. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, 59:38
7. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, 59:46
8. Thomas Dekker (Nl), Rabobank, 59:54
9. Jan Hruska (Cz), Liberty Seguros, 1:00:05
10. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 1:00:06FULL RESULTS
Overall, after 8 stages
1. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 36:06:47
2. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 0:09
3. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 0:35
4. Damiano Cunego (I), Lampre, 1:15
5. Dario David Cioni (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 1:27
6. Stefano Garzelli (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 1:35
7. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, 1:38
8. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), Domina Vacanze, 1:39
9. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, 2:10
10. Gilberto Simoni (I), Lampre, 2:11FULL RESULTS
