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Cavendish strikes again; Farrar second in the finale of Giro transition stage
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Mark Cavendish (Columbia-High Road) couldn’t help himself when the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia hit the coast road that leads down the Italian Riviera and toward the finish line of greatest glory of his young, but prolific career at Milan-San Remo.
The pack hit the Via Aurelia after a revived Lance Armstrong led the peloton down the Passo di Turchino at full speed ahead toward Arenzano.
Columbia-Highroad led out its pugnacious sprinter to perfection and, with his narrow San Remo victory fresh in his mind, Cavendish finished off the job to win for the second time in this Giro and deliver Columbia’s fifth Giro stage win.
2009 Giro d'Italia
- Stage 11: Turin to Arenzano
- 214km (133 miles)
- Stage winner: Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad)
- Stage winner's average speed:44.1kph (27.4 mph)
- GC leader: Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes)
- Points jersey: Di Luca
- Climber's jersey: Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone)
- Team GC leader: Astana
- Most aggressive for the day: Cavendish
- Best young rider: Thomas Lovkvist (Columbia-Highroad)
- Previous stage winners/GC leaders:
- Stage 1: Team Columbia-Highroad/Cavendish
- Stage 2: Petacchi/Cavendish
- Stage 3: Petacchi/Petacchi
- Stage 4: Di Luca/Lovkvist
- Stage 5: Menchov/Di Luca
- Stage 6: Scarponi/Di Luca
- Stage 7: Boasson Hagen/Di Luca
- Stage 8: Sivtsov/Di Luca
- Stage 9: Cavendish/Di Luca
- Stage 10: Di Luca/Di Luca
- Up next: Stage 12
- Thursday's stage is the very long and difficult individual time trial from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore. The 61km test includes steep climbs and twisty descents. Many expect the stage to seriously change the general classification standings, with time differences in the minutes, not seconds.
“I was thinking about Milan-San Remo all day,” Cavendish said after kisses from the podium girls. “It was important to be at the front coming down the Turchino. The team did a good job again. They believed in me and all I had to do was finish off the sprint.”
There was quite a fight to grab Cavendish’s wheel, with Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) winning that battle only to lose the war for the sprint. Farrar bolted to second for his third top-3 so far in this Giro and relegated Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) to third.
“Today was a brutal stage, the heat was incredible and we were full gas most of the day,” Farrar said afterward. “The team did a fantastic job to set me up for the sprint, unfortunately a win wasn't in the cards today. We’ll try again on Friday in Firenze (stage 13).”
Danilo Di Luca (LPR) finished safely in the pack to retain the maglia rosa for the seventh day in a row as there were no major shakeups in the GC ahead of Thursday’s highly anticipated Cinque Terre time trial.
Leipheimer crashes, Horner out
On a sunny hot day, a minute of silence was observed before the start of the stage in memory of 69-year-old motorbike rider Fabio Saccani who died in a crash on the way to the start of Tuesday's stage.
Key Astana worker Chris Horner didn’t start, suffering from consequences from a frightening crash coming off the first descent in Tuesday’s monster stage.
Vladimir Isaichev (Xacobeo Galicia) took the day's big flyer, taking off at the 113km mark and building a lead of over 8 minutes ahead of the pack, which was content to allow a long leash for the man who was almost 2 hours behind on the GC.
The sprinters' teams — Garmin, Milram and Quick Step, most noticeably — eventually woke up and brought back Isaichev before the day's only categorized climb, the cat. 3 Passo del Turchino, best known as part of the Milan-San Remo classic.
Lampre's Marco Manzano was the first to bridge to the solo rider, and although Manzano was then absorbed, he attacked again several times in the final 20k.
Armstrong led the charge up the final section of the Turchino climb (with Stefano Garzelli squirting ahead to claim the mountain points) and then drove the pack all the way down to the coast.
Part of it was to avoid any sort of danger on the descent, but it also revealed Armstrong’s rising fitness.
The Texan was revealing improving form in Tuesday’s climbing stage and promises to make some noises in Thursday’s time trial.
“He’s definitely going to try to go hard. I think he’s going to do good in the time trial,” said Astana general manager Johan Bruyneel before the stage. “It’s 60 kilometers so we don't really know but his form is coming. We don't know how good he can be over 60 kilometers. But I think he's motivated to do well tomorrow.”
Astana suffered a day, however, when Horner did not start only followed up by a potentially disastrous crash involving team captain Levi Leipheimer when he hit the deck midway through the stage.
Leipheimer said he was taking a drink with one hand on the handlebars when a full water bottle dropped in front him. He hit it with his front wheel and went rattling to the ground. Luckily, he wasn’t seriously injured and he was able to finish the stage with the favorites.
Before the stage, Leipheimer (fourth at 1:40) said overall leader Di Luca was able to drop him off the Cat. 2 Pra’Martino climb late in Tuesday’s queen stage, a glitch that cost him 29 seconds that he admits will be hard to recover.
“I just made a little mistake. Di Luca came on my inside, then I lost the wheel for a couple of seconds and I just couldn’t get back on. It was so tricky, if you made one little mistake, it was over,” Leipheimer said of Tuesday’s wild finale. “Di Luca is doing what he’s got to do to win the race so far, so he’s strong.”
Cinque Terre TT
All eyes now turn to the highly anticipated, 60.6km time trial from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore along Italy’s spectacular Cinque Terre coast.
The extremely long distance, two hard climbs, harrowing descents and narrow roads will prove decisive in who will become crowned winner of the centenary Giro.
“Like I’ve said from the beginning, this is one of the most decisive days of this Giro,” Di Luca said. “Having the maglia rosa will be like having extra legs. I will do everything to defend the pink jersey. Some say I will lose two minutes to the favorites, we’ll see. There’s no doubt it’s going to be hard.”
Pre-race favorites include Leipheimer and Michael Rogers (third at 1:33), both expected to put down winning rides.
Rogers said the technical profile, steep climbs and long distance will push most riders off their time trial frames.
“No, there’s too much climbing to have the full time trial bike. I think I’ll ride the normal road bike with some clip-ons,” Rogers said. “It’s tough. I think we’ll probably see some important time differences. The first climb isn’t too bad. The second one is much harder. Everyone talks about the climbing, but the downhills will be equally as important. It’s a real bastard of a course.”
Some called the course gimmicky (see Cancellara says Thursday's Giro TT is "crazy") while others, like Ivan Basso, who’s ridden it 10 times, admitted it could permanently tip the balance of the race.
Others to watch include Denis Menchov (second at 1:20) and Carlos Sastre (sixth at 1:54), who will need to put down a strong ride if he hopes to finish among the top 3 in Rome when the Giro ends May 31.
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