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Menchov wins the Giro d'Italia, despite fall in the last kilometer.
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Race leader Denis Menchov won the Giro d’Italia on Sunday despite suffering a fall in the last kilometer of the final stage, a 14.4km time trial through Rome.
Menchov, now the third Russian to win the Giro, added the title to his two Vuelta a España victories in 2005 and 2007.
The 31-year-old Menchov beat 2007 Giro champion Danilo Di Luca (LPR) by 41 seconds over the course of the three-week tour, with Liquigas’ Franco Pellizzoti rounding off the podium finishers a further 1:18 adrift.
Lithuanian Ignatas Konovalovas (Cervélo) team won the final stage in a time of 18:42 with Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) only a second back and Columbia’s Edvald Boasson Hagen in third.
Menchov finished 10th on the stage with Di Luca 16th.
2009 Giro d'Italia
- Stage 21: Rome time trial
- 14.4km (8.9 miles)
- Stage winner: Ignatas Konovalovas (Cervelo TestTeam) in 18:42
- Stage winner's average speed: 46.2 kph (28.7 mph)
- Final overall winner: Denis Menchov (Rabobank)
- Final Points jersey: Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes)
- Final Climber's jersey: Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone)
- Final Team GC winner: Astana
- Final best young rider: Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step)
- Most aggressive of the day: Konovalovas
- Most aggressive overall: Garzelli
- 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
- Stage 18: Scarponi/Menchov
- Stage 19: Garzelli/Menchov
- Stage 20: Gilbert/Menchov
The Russian had a 20sec lead coming into the final day in one of the closest ever finishes to a Giro, in its centenary year. Di Luca briefly looked to be on the brink of a famous victory when he got to the first time-check fastest of all and 5 seconds up on Menchov.
But the LPR rider had blasted out too fast, gradually fading from there and he was 14 seconds down on Menchov at the next time check.
When he came over the line, Di Luca had lost 45 seconds to Konovalovas whereas Menchov, who had won the 12th stage time trial to take over the maglia rosa jersey, was getting stronger.
Menchov rises
Menchov is one of the best in the bunch at masking his emotions. The stoic Russian is like a sphinx; rivals can’t tell when he’s hurting or feeling good and he never gives much away to the media hungry for a good story.
That mask melted away Sunday in the intense final kilometer of the Roma time trial when glimpses of the intensity behind the Russian wall were revealed.
With showers dampening the cobblestones, Menchov’s decision to ride a full time trial setup seemed to backfire when his front tired slipped out on wet cobbles, sending him flailing arms-out to the unforgiving wet stones. He slid nearly 30 feet, desperately clawing for his bike, slipping even further away on the slick cobbles.
His Rabobank mechanic, Vincent Hendriks, saved the day. Before Menchov even stopped his cobblestone slide, Hendriks pulled the spare bike off the roof of the trailing Rabobank car and directed the frazzled Menchov to remount the new bike. Within 10 seconds, he was desperately pedaling for the finish line.
A flustered Menchov hammered across the line, his maglia rosa scruffed and muddied from the fall, but safe. Despite the final-hour drama, Menchov actually widened his lead to Di Luca to win by 41 seconds.
Once safely across the line, the intensity and adrenaline came pouring out. There was no more holding back, no reason to hide. Foaming at the mouth from the intense effort, Menchov screamed, pumped his fists in the air and hugged the mechanic.
“All the tension and stress of the Giro, everything came out,” Menchov said. “This is the most beautiful victory of my career.”
Di Luca ─ who doggedly nipped at Menchov’s heels since forfeiting the pink jersey in the stage 12 time trial at Cinque Terre – was quick to say that he wouldn’t have wanted to win if Menchov someone lost it all in the final-kilometer crash.
“To fall like this wasn’t beautiful, Denis was the strongest and he didn’t deserve to suffer this setback," said Di Luca, who proudly claimed second to the superior Menchov. “I have nothing to regret. I attacked every chance I had. I can take away a lot from this Giro – two stage victories, seven days in the maglia rosa and the points jersey. I can be very satisfied with this Giro.”
For Menchov, the victory not only makes him only the third Russian to win the Giro (Evgeni Berzin and Pavel Tonkov preceded him in the 1990s), but it also confirms him as one of the best contemporary stage race specialists.
A winner of two Vueltas a España, not many picked Menchov as a likely winner despite his steady fifth-place result in 2008.
Menchov immediately proved he was here to win, sprinting ahead of Di Luca and an elite pack of climbers at the summit finish at Alpe di Suisi in stage 5. Di Luca grabbed the maglia rosa that day, but Menchov looked good.
Menchov took the maglia rosa for good with a stunning victory on the highly demanding Cinque Terre time trial course in stage 12, beating back pre-stage favorite Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and taking a narrow, but decisive lead that would hold to Rome despite incessant attacks from Di Luca.
“I think I was at my best during this Giro. I was really confident,” he said. “I hope it’s a natural and logical progression. I’ve been improving the past few years. I am at the right age to win big tours.”
The inevitable question came: can he win the Tour? By then, Menchov had pulled back behind his mask. All he said was, “we’ll see; now I want to enjoy this victory. You have to have luck to win the Tour.”
He obviously had the legs to win the Giro.
Konovalovas in the dry
Riders were on edge about the technical, cobblestoned course through the heart of downtown Roma.
While it made for great TV, no one was looking forward to the prospect of riding the 20-plus-turn course, with 9km of the 14.4km route on cobblestones. The threat of rain ratcheted up nerves even worse.
The early starters enjoyed dry conditions and that proved to be the decisive factor in the stage.
Konovalovas, a tall, gangly rider who raced with the Lithuanian national time trial jersey on his back, posted an early fast time of 18 minutes, 42 seconds (46.2 kph), a time that would stand as rain started to fall midway through the race of one of the pre-race favorites, Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream).
Wiggins was three seconds faster than Konovalovas at the 7.7km time check when rain turned the cobblestones to ice. The Olympic individual pursuit champion was forced to ease back to avoid crashing, but regained time on the final paved section only to stop the clock one second slower.
“I was looking at this time trial since midway through the Giro. The course was quite hairy, a bit unusual. After taking a look at it this morning, I was shocked at how dangerous it was,” Wiggins said. “It was the same for everyone and I tried to stay positive, but then I took a shower in the rain in the last 5km … that put an end my chances to win.”
Rain increased for the middle starters, including Marco Pinotti, the Columbia-Highroad rider who also targeted this stage. A winner of last year’s final-day time trial, Pinotti had to ride cautiously through the first half of the course, forfeiting 30 seconds in the opening section, and settled into 12th at 29 seconds slower.
Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer (Astana) both refused to take unnecessary chances despite improving course conditions as the rain stopped and wind and even some sun evaporated water on the course for the final 20 starters.
Showers started again for Di Luca and Menchov, who seemed to have a bead on perhaps a stage victory, but soon eased back once he opened a comfortable 30-second gap on Di Luca just moments before his dramatic crash.
If Konovalovas felt like his victory had an asterisk next to it, he didn’t let on.
“I thought already at the start I could win. The time trial always goes for four hours and the conditions always change,” he said. “Today you can be on bad conditions and maybe tomorrow good conditions. Of course the rain helped me, but you never know. We will see in the future.”
As one of the tallest riders in the bunch at 189cm, the victory will only give Konovalovas more confidence for the future. Also a steady climber, Cervélo officials believe he could become a grand tour rider in the future.
“I can’t really believe what I did today. I was dreaming of it, but it came so fast and there is no time to take in the emotions,” he said. “I am still young; the important thing is to discover my identity in this group. We will see how my body reacts in the future.”
The victory capped yet another impressive performance by the Cervélo crew. After riding rails through the spring classics, the team’s GC squad stepped center-stage, headlined by Carlos Sastre.
Cervélo won four stages, with two sublime mountain stage victories by Sastre and a gutsy breakaway win by Simon Gerrans up the San Luca sanctuary above Bologna in the second week.
The only disappointment came for Sastre, who aimed for the final podium to complement his top-3 finishes at the Tour and Vuelta.
“I came here for the GC, so I leave this Giro with a bittersweet taste,” said Sastre, who ended up fifth. “I won Monte Petrano, that was very important; and I won Vesuvio ahead of Basso, so that was also very important for me. Things just didn’t work out the way I wanted it to for the overall.”
OTHER GIRO HIGHLIGHTS
- Columbia-Highroad wins 6: Six stage victories, a run in the maglia rosa and Michael Rogers in the top-10 capped an impressive Giro run for Columbia-Highroad. The team roared to victory in the opening team time trial to open the Giro on May 9 in Venice to put pugnacious sprinter Mark Cavendish in pink. Rising GC hope Thomas Lövkvist then grabbed the pink jersey in stage 4 and held the white jersey before fading in the late mountain stages. Cavendish won three of five stages in the middle part of the Giro before pulling out to prepare for the Tour. Constantine Sivtsov claimed a daring breakaway victory into Bergamo in stage 8, but perhaps the biggest revelation for the team was the confirmation of Edvald Boasson Hagen. The young Norwegian was second at Mayrhofen and then won the next day in a wet and rainy stage into Chiavenna. Third in the final time trial and a finish line in Rome for the grand tour debutant only harkens good things in the future for the improving all-rounder.
- Astana wins team classification: Astana likes to call itself the world’s best stage-race team, and while they didn’t earn any stage victories or podium spots in GC, they did earn top team honors thanks to consistent performances across three weeks. Levi Leipheimer came close to snagging the pink jersey, but ran into a superior Menchov at the Cinque Terre time trial. Leipheimer saw his podium hopes fade with a bad day at Monte Petrano, but hung steady to finish sixth overall.
“I am not disappointed,” Leipheimer said in Rome. “Over the three weeks, there were five guys a bit stronger than me. Basically I decided to do the Giro more out of preparation for the Tour de France. I raced here against riders that were really targeting this race. What makes me happy is that I finished the Giro a lot stronger than last year and that we rode as a real team.”
2009 Giro d'Italia, stage 21: The Vatican was a backdrop for the stage.One of the big stories was the return of Armstrong to grand tour racing in his first ever Giro appearance. The seven-time Tour champ showed marked improvement throughout the three weeks and slotted into 12th overall.
“I came in open minded. I did not know what to expect, obviously because of the crash in Castilla y León, the time off the bike and the trip over here. In my view it has been a hard three weeks,” Armstrong said. “In the second half of the race I showed that I was certainly getting better and I think we can take that away from here. It is promising for June and July. I may have disappointed some fans and people in the pressroom expecting that I immediately should start winning big races. That is crazy. I am almost 38 years old. Both of my feet are firmly on the ground. It’s taking a lot of work up to this point but we might ride strong and be in the front in July.”
- Liquigas on podium: Franco Pellizotti finally secured a long-sought spot on the Giro’s final podium. After missing out last year by just two seconds, the curly-haired Italian rode well to win a stage and finish third. Ivan Basso – back to his first Giro since 2006 – settled into fifth overall. “My career restarts here. I had some doubts before the Giro about how I would do. I hadn’t done a grand tour since I won the Giro in 2006. This is like starting at kilometer zero,” Basso said. “I will race the Dauphiné and then take a month’s rest before reloading for the Vuelta. I will go to try to win.”
- Garzelli in KOM: Former Giro winner Stefano Garzelli didn’t win a stage or finish on the podium, but earned some quality podium time with the best climber’s jersey. “After Alpe di Suisi I lost my chances for me for the overall and I turned my focus on a stage victory. I gave everything I had and came close, but I leave this Giro satisfied,” Garzelli said. “The King of the Mountains jersey is a big success for me and it’s important for my team. We promised to liven up the race and we did.”
- Seeldraeyers best young rider: Belgium may have found the climber they’ve been waiting for with Kevin Seeldraeyers (Quick Step). He’s been a pro for a few years, but he rose to the occasion in the last week of the Giro. With Lovkvist struggling on the brutal stage to Monte Petrano, Seeldraeyers snuck into the white jersey and then held off a challenge from Italian Mascarielli.
