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Michele Scarponi wins the Giro's stage 18; Garmin's Pate is third.
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Danny Pate (Garmin-Slipstream) and Jason McCartney (Saxo Bank) went on the hunt for stage victory in Thursday’s 182km hilly 18th stage from Sulmona to Benevento, in what turned out to be a breather for the GC favorites ahead of Friday’s showdown on Mont Vesuvius.
The U.S. pair worked into a huge, 24-rider breakaway across the hilly Campagna region that atrophied to a seven-man winning effort.
McCartney helped forge the decisive gaps late in the stage and settled for seventh, but Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni) ruined a possible victory by Pate to snatch his second victory of this Giro d’Italia.
2009 Giro d'Italia
- Stage 18: Sulmona to Benevento
- 182km (113.1 miles)
- Click for: Complete results
- Stage winner: Michele Scarponi in 4:07:41
- Stage winner's average speed: 44.1 kph (27.4 mph)
- GC leader: Denis Menchov (Rabobank)
- Points jersey: Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes)
- Climber's jersey: Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone)
- Team GC leader: Astana
- Best young rider: Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step)
- Most aggressive: Rafael Cardenas (Barloworld)
- 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
- Stage 11: Cavendish/Di Luca
- Stage 12: Menchov/Menchov
- Stage 13: Cavendish/Menchov
- Stage 14: Gerrans/Menchov
- Stage 15: Bertagnolli/Menchov
- Stage 16: Sastre/Menchov
- Stage 17: Pellizotti/Menchov
- Up next:
- Stage 19, from Avellino to Vesuvius, is another tough one. The 164km (101.9 mile) stage includes several significant ascents and finishes with a climb up Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that buried Pompeii under a river of lava in 79 A.D.
Denis Menchov (Rabobank) finished safely in the pack to retain his 26-second lead to Danilo Di Luca (LPR) while Pate came close to another grand tour stage victory by crossing the line third.
“The bad thing is that no one even remembers who got second in stage 18. No one even knows what stage it is today, no one will remember who second is,” said Pate, who was third in stage 15 at last year’s Tour de France. “It’s just all about the win. We were close, we rode a really good race, it just didn’t work out — not much you can do about it.”
Pate, of course, is wrong. People will remember the stage because the finale was the most exciting breakaway finish so far of this Giro.
McCartney and Pate each played key roles. McCartney was driving the pace with the attack that definitely split the breakaway in the closing 10km. That spit out such dangerous sprinters as Julian Dean (Garmin-Slipstream) and Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) and trimmed the group down to seven.
Pate was marking wheels, hoping that Dean could chase back on from 20 seconds in arrears. McCartney and Bak played the numbers game, but Scarponi rejoined in the final kilometer and then spoiled the party.
“JD was one of the best sprinters in the group. I had to cover the moves as best as I could. I got in a group and playing for JD to come back,” Pate said. “I only attacked once for real, and I followed all the other times. For a while, we didn’t have Scarponi and he came up from behind. He was just strongest up the hill.”
Scarponi regained contact just in time to hitch a ride on the final rising finish, shooting off Pate’s wheel to bolt past Pate and Felix Cardenas (Barloworld) to win for the second time of this Giro.
“It was a perfect finale for me. I like those climbing finishes like that,” Scarponi said. “It’s always beautiful to win out of a breakaway. The last few kilometers were difficult, with so many attacks. I had the legs to cover the moves and be there for the sprint.”
Scarponi’s win was his second of this Giro and the third for his Diquigiovanni team.
The repeat also kept the lid on stage victories for teams at this Giro, with only six teams winning stages so far. In addition to three with Diquigiovanni, Columbia-Highroad has won six, four by LPR, two each for Rabobank and Cervélo, and one for Liquigas.
Menchov in driver’s seat
There will be two GC races up the scarred and burned ramparts of Mont Vesuvius in Friday’s final summit finish.
The first is the showdown between Menchov and Di Luca, separated by just 26 seconds, and second will be a dogfight for the final spot on the podium.
Menchov’s Rabobank team kept Thursday’s breakaway from gaining too much time and even got some help from Ag2r, which was interested in protecting Tadej Valjavec’s ninth place to the potential danger of Popovych’s presence in the break.
“Today was a pretty good day for us. Having a breakaway was ideal and we were able to control it without too many complications,” said Menchov, who crossed the line 27th with the main pack at 3:57 back. “Tomorrow, we know that Di Luca will attack. I have to follow him and then see what happens on the climb.”
Revealing that he was taking the Giro very seriously from the start, Menchov said he climbed Vesuvio once in training to scout out the final obstacle between him and the time trial in Rome.
Menchov knows that he can ride defensively, marking Di Luca’s wheel and keeping Liquigas riders Ivan Basso and Filippo Pellizotti on short leashes. In a worst-case scenario, Menchov said he cannot afford to lose more than a minute to Di Luca or the other challengers.
“If you lose one minute, you cannot do anything in such a short time trial. This difference is very big,” he said. “I am more relaxed now, I am confident, I feel strong. I know tomorrow is an important day, not only for me but my (rivals). It’s the last important day.”
Di Luca didn’t attack in the rising finish in Thursday’s final kilometer and instead decided to cool his engine ahead of Friday’s final clash on Vesuvius.
“It’s the last chance for me to try to win this Giro,” Di Luca said. “It’s an interesting climb, not as long as Blockhaus, but it has some steep sections and it’s an inconsistent climb. I take some confidence out of Blockhaus. If we keep the pressure on Menchov, maybe I can grab the maglia rosa.”
Podium fight
The 164km 19th stage starts in Avellino and rolls along the spectacular Almafi Coast (on tight roads that the peloton’s refused to race on before in other Giros). After tackling a third-category climb at 101km, it’s a straight-ahead run onto the blackened slopes of Vesuvio.
The 13km road climbs 967 vertical meters with an average grade of 7.4 percent, with ramps as steep as 12 percent. The narrow road snakes up the western face of Vesuvio, exposed to the wind and sun.
Di Luca will have to keep one eye on the rear-view mirror and watch for attacks from Pellizotti and Basso, looming in third and fourth at 2:00 and 3:28 back.
Basso will likely try to go on the attack to try to win the stage and put the fright into Menchov and Di Luca, perhaps creating an opener for Pellizotti to try to counter-attack their rear guard.
Carlos Sastre (Cervélo) — fifth at 3:30 back — will also need a dramatic surge if he’s able to achieve his pre-Giro goal of reaching the top-3 podium. His chances took a blow on Blockhaus, when he tumbled from third to fifth after losing contact with the favorites on the high-cadence climb.
“It’s my last chance to do something in this Giro,” Sastre said of Friday’s final summit finish. “My rivals were stronger than me (up Blockhaus) and they were able to take an important advantage concerning the GC. I didn’t feel bad, except that they were simply better than me. I didn’t lose too much, but frankly, it looks pretty difficult.”
Levi Leipheimer (Astana) is poised in sixth at 4:32 back, and could revive his podium hopes going into Sunday’s final time trial if he can rise to the challenge of Vesuvio, but even he admitted that a podium run looks distant at this stage of the game.
“Sastre looks good, Di Luca looks good, Menchov looks good. I wouldn’t say that’s too much of a possibility, but I am going to do my best,” Leipheimer said. “It’s going to take those guys cracking. Right now, Pellizotti and Basso are in front of me. If I were not to lose time to them, theoretically I would be able to take time on the time trial. The other guys, I need to gain time on them, that’s going to be tough.”
Small fracture for Horner
An MRI scan in San Diego revealed a hairline fracture in the lateral tibia plateau on the left leg of Chris Horner, who crashed out of the Giro d’Italia in stage 10. After pulling out of the Giro, Horner returned to the United States and resumed training after a week’s rest.
Team officials said Horner will rest for two more weeks but said he should be able to ride in the Tour de France in July.
