Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal rides in the Stage 21 time trial, on his way to winning the 2012 Giro d’Italia. (slipstreamsports.com)

Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal became the first Canadian to win a cycling Grand Tour Sunday, his sixth-place finish in the Stage 21 time trial good enough to catapult him into the overall lead.

Hesjedal completed the flat but twisting 28.2-km course in 34:15, 1:09 slower than stage winner Marco Pinotti, but 47 seconds faster than the race leader, Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez. Hesjedal started the stage 31 seconds behind Rodriguez; the time trial result left the Garmin rider 16 seconds in the lead.

“Just an unreal experience from Day One—just incredible what the team was able to do,” Hesjedal told Eurosport.com. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

“I knew I was good when I came to this race. I just stayed focused every day and took every opportunity. The team was behind me 100 percent, and I just kept thriving off that support—and especially from the fans back home in Canada. It’s been unreal, the support.

“I kept digging deeper and deeper and deeper every day, and I kept getting rewarded for that effort. I want to thank everybody.”

Hesjedal pushed hard, nearly crashing on a few corners, but his bike-handling skills, honed as a mountain biker, helped him keep upright and moving.

Rodriguez rode well and pushed hard, but he is a climber, not a time trial specialist; the Katusha rider finished 26th, almost two minutes off the pace. His time was good enough to keep him second in the general Classification, and he also won the points competition; some consolation for losing the overall lead, at least.

Thomas De Gendt, the 25-year-old Belgian rider who shocked everybody with his powerful attack in Stage 20, needed to make up 2:18 to win the race. This was too much to ask, even though De Gendt is a good time trialer.

The Movistar rider turned in another excellent ride, despite being sore from the day before. He finished fifth in the stage and third overall. This is a rider with a future.

Belgium's Thomas De Gendt celebrates after crossing the finish line to win Stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

With a brilliant bit of riding which caught the entire peloton off guard, Vacansoleil’s Thomas De Gendt won Stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia, and very nearly won the leader’s jersey, setting up a tight battle for the overall victory in Sunday’s Stage 21 time trialThe 25-year-old Belgian rider attacked just short of the crest of the Mortirolo climb, opened a five-minute gap on the descent and the gradual slopes up to the final climb of the day, and pushed on alone up the Passo della Stelvio, elevating himself from eighth to fourth in the General Classification and giving himself a great shot at winning overall in the individual time trial.

“I’m very happy to win on a legendary mountain climb like the Passo dello Stelvio,” De Gendt told velonation.com. “All the big names in cycling have won here too. I hope it’s a good sign for me. I think I’ve got a future in the Grand Tours.

“When I went on the attack my first thought was to make sure I had a bit of a gap at the start of the climb, to keep my eighth place overall,” he continued. “When I had three minutes and Cunego was a minute behind I started think of the stage victory. But it’s easy to lose five minutes on a climb like this and everything had to fall into place.

“I never thought of taking the pink jersey because I knew the others would go very fast in the finale. I’m happy with fourth or a place on the podium.”

De Gendt surprised everyone; while the GC favorites were watching out for Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal, De Gendt, also an excellent time trialer, snuck away from the field. No one covered his attack because no one saw him as a threat; by the time he was flirting with taking over as virtual race leader, the GC favorites were locked into their strategies and could only hope the Vacansoleil rider wore himself out before he finished.

The entire three-week Giro, 3500 kilometers of racing, will come down to whether De Gendt or Hesjedal has more left in his legs.

A Stage Designed to Upset GC

Stage 20 was a long hard climbing stage. 219 kilometers long and climbing five mountain passes, the route was perfectly designed for riders to attack and others to crack, upsetting the General Classification.

The stage started with a 14-rider break: Roman Kreuziger (Astana,) Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Barracuda,) Damiano Caruso (Liquigas,) Tom Slagter and Stef Clement (Rabobank,) Andrey Amador and Branislaw Samoilau (Movistar,) Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini,) Oliver Zaugg (RadioShack,) Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM,) Mathias Frank (BMC,) Matteo Bono (Lampre,) Alberto Losada (Katusha,) and Jose Serpa (Androni.)

The breakaway had five minutes on the peloton after crossing the first three climbs—the Cat 2 Passo Tonale (10.1km long, 6.1k% average gradient, 8% max,) the Cat 3 Aprica (15.9km, 3.1% average, 9% max) and the Cat 3 Teglio (5.9km, 8% average, 15% max.)

The gap was down to three minutes when the break started the first real obstacle, the Cat 1 Mortirolo climb. This was a serious obstacle—11.4 km long with an average gradient of 10.5% average, with ramps up to 22%.

RadioShack’s Oliver Zaugg attacked the break one kilometer into the climb, soon joined by Movistar’s Matteo Carrara. Damiano Caruso, Christian Vande Velde and José Serpa took off after this pair.

Next: Rodriguez Attacks

De Gendt’s ride was phenomenal; he attacked 56 kilometers from the finish and nearly took the race leader’s pink jersey. (Alessandro Garofalo/AFP/GettyImages)

Astana's Roman Kreuziger celebrates after crossing the finish line of Stage 19th stage of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Stage 19 did not deliver a definitive winner of the 2012 Giro d’Italia, but it did deliver a lot of action. Astana’s Roman Kreuziger, who saw his General Classification hopes evaporate when he cracked in Stage 14, salvaged something from the race by attacking 25 km from the finish line and outlasting the rest of the field to take his first Grand Tour stage win.

The 26-year-old Czech rider attacked on the penultimate climb of the day, the Cat 2 Passo Lavaze, joining with two riders from the breakaway, Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Serge Pauwels and Dario Cataldo, for the next 20 kilometers. Then halfway up the second climb up the Passo Pampeago, Kreuziger accelerated away and finished the race on his own, holding off the charging GC leaders.

“I am happy with my first victory in a Grand Tour,” Kreuziger told velonation.com. “I didn’t break off on the first climb up to Pampeago but waited until the Lavazè, knowing that it was a long and arduous climb. Luckily the two Omega riders had their minds on the classification and we managed to come to a good understanding to keep the break going.

“On the second time up to Pampeago I was aware that the pink jersey group was cutting the gap and I only knew I would win when I was 200 meters from the line.”

Ryder Hesjedal, the man the rest of the GC contenders marked as the greatest threat, managed to gain 13 seconds on race leader Joaquim Rodriguez. Rodriguez and Michele Scarponi said before the stage that they planned to—needed to—take some time out of Hesjedal, who is the best time-trialer of the top four. Instead, the Garmin-Barracuda rider proved the strongest.

“The legs felt good there at the end. I have to take advantage of the situation,” he said. “Today was hard, tomorrow is going to be harder. The team is supporting me. Everything is possible.”

Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal crosses the finish line to take second place, only 17 seconds behind Roman Kreuziger. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Hesjedal could still crack on Stage 20’s titanic climbs, and lose his advantage, but if he can simply hand with race leader Rodriguez, the young Garmin rider should have his first Grand Tour victory.

Race leader Joaquim Rodriquez of Katusha and pre-race favorite Ivan Basso of Liquigas, both said the same thing to cyclingnews.com after the stage: “We were supposed to drop Ryder Hesjedal but it’s been the opposite.”

“Hesjedal gave us a lesson,” added Rodriguez. “He has surprised me, really. I was on his wheel when he attacked and I preferred to follow the more regular rhythm of [Domenico] Pozzovivo. That was hard enough. It’s going to be difficult to beat Hesjedal for the overall win. Now the Giro is in his hands. If he doesn’t make any mistake tomorrow, he’ll be the winner.”

“I still have the pink jersey,” Rodriguez concluded. “I’m still up there, so are Scarponi and Basso who haven’t lost all chance to win the Giro. Anything can happen on the Stelvio. That final climb will make a difference. It’s going to be difficult to recover some time over Hesjedal but the Mortirolo has put some big champions into troubles before.”

Basso seemed equally resigned. “Hesjedal has shown he is the strongest. When someone is the strongest, we only have to congratulate him. When I understood my limits for today, I went at my own rhythm. [Michele] Scarponi’s three attacks put me in difficulty. I haven’t managed to make the difference that I wanted. As I couldn’t do what I planned this morning, it shows the merit of my adversaries.”

Next: Toughest Stage

Farnese’s Andrea Guardini crosses the finish line ahead of Mark Cavendish (R) to win the Stage 18t of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Farnese-Vini sprinter Andrea Guardini beat Sky’s Mark Cavendish, “The Fastest Man in the World,” in a head-to-head sprint to win Stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia Thursday.

Guardini got the jump on the Sky sprinter, who launched late and never seemed to hit top gear; Cavendish seemed to give up ten meters from the line, nearly losing second place to Androni’s Robertto Ferrari.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Guardini said in an interview on guardian.co.uk. “It’s an amazing thing because I’ve beaten the world champion, at least today.”

The 22-year-old Italian elaborated for velonation.com: “I knew this sprint was the last chance I had. I knew it suited me because it was so flat. I knew my chance was today or that I’d have to wait until next year. I knew I could beat Cavendish but I knew I had to jump first and by doing that today, I’ve realized what I can do.”

Cavendish had a good leadout, with Gerrans Thomas and Bernard Eisel; Guardini clung to Cav’s wheel until 250 meters from the line, then cut right and passed Cavendish before the Sky sprinter started to accelerate. The Mans Missile tried to catch the flying Farnese rider, but seemingly didn’t have the legs.

Cavendish, who was intent on winning to cement his lead in the points classification, might have spent himself mountain-climbing, or possibly sprinting for the intermediate sprint points. He still leads Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez by 29 points and will almost certainly win the jersey. Still, he hates to lose; Cavendish could be seen pounding his handlebars in frustration after crossing the line.

As for Farnese-Vini’s young sprinter, this win should give him the confidence to take his place among the sprinting elite. “I’m still very young and I’ve got to develop a lot as a rider. I’ve really suffered on the climbs in this Giro d’Italia but 198 riders started the Giro and now there’s only 168 left. That proves something,” he told cylingnews.com. “During the first week of the Giro d’Italia I didn’t believe in myself enough. I’d been struggling in the sprints and things hadn’t been going my way.”

Things went all the way his way on this day; he beat the world’s best.

Downhill All the Way

Stage 18 was a rarity in this year’s Giro—a stage free of serious climbs. Even most of the “sprint” stages have has a cat 3 or 4 tossed in. Not so with Stage 18, which actually went downhill. There was a little lump halfway through, but it was over as soon as it started. Today was all about the sprinters—in more ways than one.

As usual, a breakaway formed; riders who knew they’d get caught—today of all days—attacked the peloton to gain some exposure or to contest the Breakaway jersey.

This wasn’t to be their day. Mark Cavendish needed to gain maximum points in this stage to win the Points jersey; he certainly couldn’t hope to compete on the next two high mountain stages. Thus, Sky picked up the pace halfway through the stage and ran down the break 70 kilometers from the finish, to set up their sprinter for the intermediate sprint at 65 kilometers.

Next: Intermediate Sprint Might Have Hurt Final Sprint

Katusha’s Spanish Joaquim Rodriguez celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the Stage 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Race leader Joaquin Rodriguez eked out a win in a surprisingly competitive mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia, which saw only six riders in the leading peloton.

None of the eClassification contenders were able to gain any time on the Katusha rider, but several lost a lot: Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo and Roman Kreuziger cracked on the final climb and are essentially out of the race, as are Ag2R’s John Gadret and Lampre’s Damiano Cunego.

The Katusha rider dedicated his win to his late friend Xavier Tondo, killed in a freak accident in 2011.

“Today was a very special day for me,” Rodríguez told velonation.com. “Xavi Tondo died one year ago, a great friend of mine; I knew him not only from our professional career, but since I was a child. “So, today I really wanted to take this victory and finally I did, and obviously it’s dedicated to him.

“It was a very hard stage,” Rodriguez continued. “Liquigas-Cannondale put in a huge amount of work, and if they’re going to keep this pace on Friday and Saturday too, it won’t be easy for me or anybody else to resist and stay ahead. Every single day is dangerous for us; today, just like many of the others, I had cramps in my leg, so I don’t think we can handle this pace during next stages.

Rodriguez made a somewhat surprising observation. “I think Ryder Hesjedal is the great favorite,” he said. “Today he was able to not lose any seconds, and if the gaps will stay like this Scarponi, Basso and I won’t have any chance against him in the Milan TT. So, we have to attack him and try to drop him, otherwise he will win this race for sure.”

Euskaltel Upsets the Strategy

Most teams probably planned to save their climbing legs for the two enormous-finishing stages on Friday and Saturday. Stage 17 had four huge climbs but finished with a long descent which could have allowed stragglers to catch up.

Surprisingly Euskaltel attacked on the second climb of the day, forcing the GC leaders to respond. In response Liquigas rider Ivan Basso raised the pace until only the three riders could match it, though two more caught up on the descent.

Rodriguez won the final sprint. Only the top finishers: Rodriguez, Basso, Ryder Hesjedal, and Michele Scarponi, have a real chance to win overall.

Major Climbs and Descents

The 186-kilometer route from Falzes to Cortina d’Ampezzo included four categorized climbs: the Cat 2 Passo Valparola: 14.1 km, 5.5% average, 13% max; Cat 1 Passo Duran: 12.2 km, 8.1% average, 14% max, Cat 2 Forcella Staulanza: 12.3 km, 6.9% average, 11% max, Cat 1 Passo Giau: 9.9 km, 9.3% average, 14% max.

A group of five riders: Branislau Samoilau (Movistar,) Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini,) Kevin Seeldraeyers (Astana,) Jose Serpa (Androni Giocattoli,) and Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale)—escaped after 45 kilometers. Most of the peloton seemed content to let this group go, but Euskaltel, inspired by their Stage 16 win, decided to real in the break enough to bridge across to it.

The Basque team attacked on the slopes of the second climb, and cut the gap from six minutes to a minute-and-a-half with 60 km to go, when Amets Txurruka led Mikel Nieve on an attempt to reach the break.

Nieve never made it; all the breakaway riders were caught within 20 kilometers as Liquigas decided not to let up after the Euskaltel attack. The peloton was down to two dozen riders cresting the Cat 2 Forcella Staulanza.

Halfway up the final climb, the Cat 1 Passo Giau, only six were left: Basso, Hesjedal, Scarponi, Colnago’s Domenico Pozzovivo, Rodriguez, and Sky’s Rigoberto Uran.
 
Ryder Hesjedal launched one probing attack which was quickly covered; for the rest of the climb the leading six marked each other and tried to match the pace pushed by Ivan Basso. Because Basso is a rhythm climber who doesn’t do well with sudden hard accelerations, he kept the pace high enough to discourage attacks.

Finally 500 meters from the crest of the climb Domenico Pozzovivo attacked, imediatley driopping Scarponi and Uran.

Pozzovivo looked very strong on the attack; had the little Colnago rider moved earlier he might have destroyed the competition and won the stage. Instead he just made everyone—particularly Michele Scarponi—work extra hard on the descent.

The Lampre rider took huge chances to catch up to the leaders, a task made more difficult by a cramp in his right thigh. Scarponi made it back just two kilometers from the finish.

The six were together under the 1-km kite and past the 500-meter mark. With 350 meters to go Michele Scarponi started his sprint, but   slight incline of the road, this was too far. Ivan Basso caught him up, but Joaquim Rodriguez, had saved his energy while following on the climbs so he could use it all now. The Katusha rider passed basso to win his second stage of the 2012 Giro.

Two Mountainous Brutes on Tap

Stage 18 will be a final show for the sprinters, whichever of them might be left. Sky’s Mark Cavendish is all but guaranteed to win here; all his top-tier competitors have withdrawn. The stage is short, only 139 km from San Vito Cadore to Vedelago, and downhill most of the way. This will be almost another rest day for the climbers, and they will need it.

Stage 19 starts with a Cat 3, followed by two Cat 1s, a Cat 2, and a Cat 1 mountaintop finish. As Rodriguez said, everyone will have to attack here to gain an advantage for the final time trial. Many of the riders who are two or three minutes down might try to gain back some time here, which will put even more pressure on the GC leaders.

Stage 20 is worse. Opening with along cat 2 climb, it follows with a pair of Cat 3s and a Cat 1, the legendary Mortirolo, and finishes with 45 kilometers of climbing peaking at the even more famous Hors Categorie Passo Dello Selvio..

Euskaltel’s Jon Izagirre dropped his pursuers halfway up the final climb to win Stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Jon Izagirre got Euskaltel-Euskadi some much-needed publicity Tuesday when he attacked the breakaway to win Stage 16 of the Giro d/Italia.

The Spanish rider earned the climbing-oriented Basque team a win not on a mountain stage, but on what amounted to almost a second rest day—a short, gently sloping uphill stage with a short kick in the tail.

Izaggirre was part of a ten-rider break—Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel,) Lars Bak (Lotto Belisol,) Mathias Frank (BMC,) Alessandro De Marchi (Androni Giocattoli,) Luca Mazzanti (Farnese Vini,) Nikolas Maes (QuickStep,) Jose Herrada (Movistar,) Stef Clement (Rabobank,) Matty Brandle (NetApp,) and Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank)— which the peloton totally ignored; ten different teams were represented, none of the riders were within 30 minutes of the top of the General Classification, and there was no chance at a sprint finish.

Add to that, most riders couldn’t get on their bikes on the rest day due to rotten weather, and none of the top teams were looking to make huge efforts on Stage 16.

A relatively easy stage to kick off the final week after the rest day, Stage 16 was 100 km of flat followed by73 kilometers of gradual climbing with a steep kick a couple kilometers from the end. 4.5 km out, the road tilted up at nine percents (with 100 meters at 12 percent) for 2300 meters, then flattened out until the finish line.

Though not categorized, the climb was severe enough to slow the sprinters; however, the final two km gave a chance for power climbers to catch up to the pure climbers for a sprint among ascenders.

The breakaway riders worked together, opening a gap of over 12 minutes, until the final ten km when the slope increased and distrustful glances askance began flickering between the riders.

Movistar’s Jose Herrada attacked at the very start of the climb proper; Izagirre and BMC’s Mathias Frank followed. Frank attacked at the start of the steepest section; Izagirre, Herrada, and Colnago’s Alessandro De Marchi pursued.

Just past the steepest section Izaggirre attacked, and immediately opened a gap; the steep section had drained his pursuers. De Marchi slowed, letting Frank and Herrada surge past, but the Colnago rider was only resting—while Izagirre rode away on the flat final section, de Marchi bided his time, then out on a burst of speed to take second.

Rabobank’s Stef Clement also saved a final surge, passing Frank and Herrada to take third.

The General Classification remained unchanged, something less likely to happen after Stage 17, with its four enormous climbs.

Peter Sagan (2L) of Slovakia of Liquigas-Cannondale celebrates his fifth stage victory in Stage Eight of the Amgen Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan, the 22-year-old Slovakian cycling champion, came to America and beat the nation’s best in their own backyard. Of course, he also beat the best from the rest of the world.

Sagan, riding for the Liquigas-Canondale team, won the first four stages of the Tour of California, finished second in Stage Six, and won Stage Eight. Sagan didn’t even make the top ten in the General Classification, but his is a feat people will remember.

When asked by NBC Sports if things could possibly have gone better the 22-year-old Liquigas rider replied, “I don’t know—maybe if I won another victory on Big Bear, but in life we can’t have everything. I am very glad and happy, and thanks to my team.”

“Tom Boonen had a good train. The last kilometer was really fast—the last turn right was also dangerous. It was good we had been there six times already.” (The route included several laps around the city of Los Angeles.) “I went at 150 meters and I finished first so I am happy.”

Sagan confirmed that he would ride the Tour de France for the first time in July. “I will do the Tour de France and I will do it well,” he said. “I hope to win one stage.”

Rabobank’s Robert Gesink will also be remembered. This 25-year-old Dutch rider won the overall by the biggest margin in the seven-year history of the event—a whopping 46 seconds. Gesink finished fourth in the Stage Five time trial and won the Queen stage—the hardest stage of the race—the climb up Mount Baldy by enough to win the race overall.

The American RadioShack-Nissan team won the best team classification, and U.S. rider Dave Zabriskie from U.S. team Garmin-Barracuda won second overall—for the fourth year in a row. Maybe, next year, Dave.

Four of the top ten finishers overall were Americans, and five of the top ten from American teams.

The race ran from Beverly Hills to Los Angeles and ran several laps around Hollywood before the finish on Hollywood Boulevard. There were constant attacks, but none mattered; Liquigas and Omega Pharma-Quickstep were each determined to set up a sprint finish.

Omega set up a perfect leadout train for Tom Boonen, but it didn’t matter. Sagan came onto the final straight fourth wheel behind his teammate Dania loss; Sagan cut right around Boonen when the Omega rider started sprinting, and Sagan simply blasted by to win the stage by half a wheel.

Farnese-Vini’s Matteo Rabottini celebrates after crossing the finish line of Stage 15th of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Matteo Rabottini of Farnese-Vini initiated an attack at 18 kilometers, pressed on solo for 86 kilometers, and held off Joaquin Rodriguez in the final 100 meters to win Stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia.

Rabottini’s ride was brilliant; he pushed hard from the start, climbed well in absolutely terrible weather, descended Bravely despite dangerous road conditions, crashed and kept going, and finally, when overtaken a few hundred meters from the finish, fought back to earn his stage win.

Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha attacked in the final kilometer to take back the leader’s pink jersey. The big-name contenders—Ivan Basso, Michele Scarponi, Paolo Tiralongo, Damiano Cunego—all beat race leader Ryder Hesjedal across the line.

One has to commend the designers of this year’s parcours. Several stages have sparked serious competition, and the final outcome of the Giro d’Italia is still up in the air. No rider has managed to gain a real edge, despite concerted efforts.

Monday will be a rest day. Tuesday starts the final week which includes some positively brutal mountain stages.

A Test of Toughness

Stage 15, 169 km from Busto Arsizio to Lecco/Pian dei Resinelli, included four categorized climbs, opening with the Cat 1 Valico di Valcava, followed  the Cat 3 Forcella di Bura, the Cat 2 Culmine di San Pietro and climb to the finish line, the Cat.2 Piani dei Resinelli. After the two tough climbs of Stage 14, this would have been a difficult stage on the best of days, but Sunday was chilly and rainy, the worst possible conditions for riders who had been on the road every day for nearly two weeks.

With most of the serious GC contenders a minute or more behind the leader, Stage Fifteen looked to be a time for attacks. Mateo Rabottini started the process when he and Guillaume Bonnafond of AG2R broke free of the peloton 18 km into the stage, opening a gap of over seven minutes before Stefan Denifl (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Mathias Frank (BMC) decided to give chase.

This pair was soon joined by Francesco Failli (Farnese Vini) and Serge Pauwels (Omega Pharma-QuickStep.) The quartet should have been able to reel in the leaders; instead, they were swallowed up by the peloton within ten kilometers.

A more serious chase group broke free on the lower slopes of the Cat 1 Valcava climb (8.6% average grade for 11.6 km.) This group started with Emanuele Sella (Androni) and Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel) but swelled to include 11 riders: Sella, Txurruka, and Michal Golas (QuickStep,) Marzio Bruseghin (Movistar,) Marco Pinotti (BMC,) Diego Ulissi (Lampre,) Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago,) Evgueni Petrov (Astana,) Adriano Malori (Lampre,) Alberto Losada (Katusha,) Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM.)

Shortly after this group broke free, Rabottini decided he could make better progress on his own and dropped Bonnafond. Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Andrey Amador chased and caught the chase group at the 65-km mark. At this point Rabottini had four minutes on the chase group which was itself five minutes ahead of the peloton.

Rabottini and the chasers crested the Cat 3 Forcella di Bura with more than eight minutes on the peloton, which was now led by Garmin and Liquigas—Liquigas refused to do all the work alone. This might have helped the breakaways stay out front.

Rabottini looked strong as he started the climb up the Cat 2 Culmine di San Pietro, now with 5:15 over the chase group. With 31 km left in the stage Stefano Pirazzi attacked the chase group. He was reeled in and attacked again, wasting time and energy the chasers needed to put into their pursuit. Several of the chasers dropped off the back.

Rabottini finally began showing slowing near the top of the third climb. The Farnese rider had less than three minutes over the chasers when he crested the climb with 25.9 km to go. He pushed hard on the slick, narrow, and very foggy descent, trying to stretch the gap, and paid for it, hitting the deck 1t the 17-km mark. He got right up an continued, but the gap was barely two minutes.

Luckily, the remaining chasers: Cunego, Amador, Losada, Pirazzi and Txurruka, wasted still more time attacking each other. The peloton, now led by Astana, picked up the pace coming into the final climb of the day; the GC leaders didn’t care about Rabottini, but they needed to catch Cunego, who was 2:43 down in GC. The peloton fractured under the pace, with only a couple of dozen riders managing to hang on up the final climb.

The Final Climb

When Rabottini hit the last climb, ten kilometers at a 7.8 percent average grade with ramps up to 12 percent, he had 2:30 omn the five pursuers and 4Z:10 on the peloton. It looked like he wouldn’t make it; the peloton was picking up the pace, and the Farnese rider was looking more and more tired. He had led the race for 140 kilometers, through abominable conditions; he had soloed 75; he had crashed. He didn’t give up.

Stefano Pirazzi attacked the chase group again with 6.8 km left. Losado lead Cunego and Txurruka in pursuit; Amador faded. With 4.2 to go, Losado caught Pirazzi, dropping Cunego in the process. Four kilometers from the line, Pirazzi attacked again. Losado and Txurruka caught him 500 meters up the road; the gasp to Rabottini was now down to a minute-and-a-half.

Meanwhile Liquigas had taken over driving duties, determined to keep Ivan Basso up on the GC, closing the gap to the chasers to 2:40.

Sylvester Szmyd of Liquigas led the peloton until the 2-km mark, when he pulled off the let Ivan Basso finish the stage. Immediately the other GC contenders prepared to attack the Liquigas leader. Sky’s Segio Henao and Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal came up to the front.

At 1700 meters Roman Kreuziger of Astana made an attack but he got nowhere. Lampre’s Michele Scarponi used Kreuziger’s attack to launch his own. The peloton caught him so he went again, this time gaining a gap. The Lampre rider caught his teammate Cunego, but Katusha’s Joaqim Rodriguez and Sky’s Henao caught Scarponi 1400 meters from the line.

Rodriguez accelerated away from Henao and Scarponi with 1000 meter to go, passing Pirazzi, Txurruka and Losado halfway to the finish. The Spanish Katusha rider caught the Italian Farnese rider with 300 meters to go, but Rabottini managed to cling to his rival’s wheel.

Rabottini, after all he had done already, found a way to do just a little more: with 100 meters left in the stage, the Italian rider cut inside Rodriguez, pulled level, and put on a final burst of speed to cross the finish line just ahead.

Rodriguez re-took the leader’s pink jersey, while Matteo Rabottini got the stage win he had worked so hard to secure.

Several of the top contenders: Roman Kreuziger, Ivan Basso, Paolo Tiralongo and Michele Scarponi—moved into the top six spots in GC behind Ryder Hesjedal and Joaquim Rodriguez, who have been swapping the overall lead. Though they are all more than 1:20 behind, they are all at nearly identical times. This half-dozen riders will have to fight it out on every climbing stage, and even then—will they be able to catch Joaquim Rodriguez?

Robert Gesink of Rabobank celebrates as he wins the Stage Seven of the Amgen Tour of California, from Ontario to Mt. Baldy. (Joe Klamar/AFP/GettyImages)

In a finale even more thrilling than had been anticipated, Rabobank’s Robert Gesink took the stage win and the race leader’s yellow jersey on the Queen stage of the 2012 Tour of California, the Hors Categorie climb up Mount Baldy.

The Rabobank rider attacked in the final five kilometers, when the road tilted up to a leg-breaking 17 percent grade, and kicked repeatedly to drop his pursuers and overtake the few riders ahead of him, including second-place finisher Jhon Atapuma of Colombia-Coldesportes and defending champion Chris Horner of RadioShack-Nissan.

For Gesink, the win cemented a change in fortune. The Dutch rider’s father was killed in a mountain bike race in 2011, which left Gesink emotionally dead, he said. Gesink then broke his leg in a crash in September.

His recovery started with the birth of his daughter Anna in December, and was reinforced by taking the yellow jersey in the Tour of California.

Horner’s Bold Title Defense

While Gesink’s late attack was spectacular, RadioShack’s Chris Horner provided much of the excitement for the first two thirds of the race.

The 2011 winner sent joined a huge break half-an-hour into the stage. Started by teammate Jens Voigt in the first few kilometers, the break swelled to 15 riders— Christopher Horner, George Bennett, Grégory Rast, and Jens Voigt of RadioShack, Timothy Duggan, Maxime Bouet, and Mickaël Chérel, of Liquigas-Cannondale, Marc de Maar and Bradley White of United Healthcare, Darwin Atapuma of Colombia-ColdePortes, Alexandre Geniez of Agros-Shimano, Lucas Euser of Spidertech, Christopher Baldwin of Bissell, and Nathan Brown of Bontrager-Livestrong, though Brown dropped back after just a few minutes.

This break pulled strongly until 40 km from the finish, when it started shedding riders. Lucas euswer, Jens Voigt, Chris Baldwin—one by one the breakaway riders slipped back, until only four were left: Chris Horner, Tim Duggan, Jhon Atapuma, and Marc de Maar.

Horner had seemingly lost his chance for a repeat win with his sub-par performance in the time trial, which led him 2:50 down in the General Classification. Instead of accepting his fate, the RadioShack rider gambled everything: he attacked the break with 40 km left in the stage.

Horner took off on his own and stretched the gap to 3:25 within a few kilometers, giving him the virtual lead on the road.

Colombia-Coldesportes’s Jhon Atapuma caught the RadioShack rider at the 35-km mark, and the pair pressed on together, opening the gap to 3:50 31 km from the finish line; unfortunately for Horner’s hopes, the gap started shrinking after that.

BMC started raising the pace of the peloton in the final 30 km, hoping to set up Teejay Van Garderen. The team pulled the chase until the leaders hit the bottom of the final hors categorie climb up Mount Baldy. This climb started about eight kilometers from the finish, but the first three kilometers were not that steep—the hard part was yet to come.

BMC had two riders on the front ahead of Van Garderen when the chase group hit the climb. They attacked, but couldn’t sustain it. Garmin’s Dave Zabriskie, in the yellow jersey, moved to the front, but Rabobank pushed him aside, sending Luis Leon Sanchez and Wilco Kelderman to the head.

Sanchez and Kelderman pulled Robert Gesink up the hill, with Zabriskie fourth wheel.

As the peloton powered up the first few kilometers of the final climb only 14 riders remained: the three Rabobank riders and Zabriskie, BMC’s Teejay Van Garderen, Matthew Busche and Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan,) Tom Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda,) Joe Dombrowski (Bontrager-Livestrong,) Tejay Cameron Meyer and Pieter Weening (Orica GreenEdge,) Nicolas Roche (Ag2R) Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Coldeportes,) Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Cycling) and amazingly Levi Leipheimer of Omega Pharma-Quickstep, riding among the leaders only six weeks after breaking his leg in a training accident.

Next: Last Attacks

Movistar rider Andrey Amador celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Movistar’s Andrey Amador led two other survivors of an eight-man breakaway across the finish line to win Stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia. The Movistar rider took the lead on the long descent between the stage’s two Cat 1 climbs and held on through the final 28 kilometers to beat the other two survivors in the final sprint.

NetApp’s Jan Barta took second, right on Amamdor’s wheel, while Androni’s Alessandro De Marchi took third, two seconds down.

Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal attacked the peloton in the final three kilometers to finish fourth and retake the leader’s jersey.

“The guys started to accelerate a little bit on the climb,” Hesjedal told velonation.com “I knew it eased off after three kilometers. My legs felt good, I decided to give it a go and test myself a little bit. I tested the race as well. I just felt good, I wasn’t thinking about anything, just putting in an effort and seeing what the other guys were up to. It worked out well, I’m back in the jersey, so that is great.”

Action-Packed Race

There was a danger that no one would attack on Stage 14, saving themselves for Stage 15. Happily things didn’t work out that way at all. Instead many riders attacked in the final five kilometers, including some of the top GC contenders.

First Jose Rujano of Androni attacked, with Lampre’s Damiano Cunego on his wheel. Then Colnago’s Gianluca Brambilla attacked, with Euskaltel’s Mikel Nieve.

Third-placed Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Barracuda followed and passed this pair, and rode on to finish fourth and take back the race leader’s pink jersey. Race leader Joachim Rodriguez of Katusha took a shot, but couldn’t get away from the peloton. Colnago’s Domenico Pozzovivo attacked, but was pulled back by Lampre’s Michele Scarponi and Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo.

Liquigas, which has been riding at the front in every stage and through most of this one, ended up gaining three spots for Ivan Basso, who finished 13th, losing nine seconds. Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo gained one spot but lost nine seconds; Sandy Casar lost one place but lost 39 seconds.

Sky’s Rigoberto Uran moved into eighth in GC and also won the Best Young Rider jersey. Lampre’s MIchwele Scarponi moved up to ninth.

As the adage goes, one couldn’t win the Giro on this stage but one could lose it; Astana’s Roman Kreuziger nearly proved that, falling out of the leading two dozen riders on the long last climb. He finished 16th, but still managed to hold onto sixth in GC, though he lost 18 seconds.

Next: Easy Start, Killer Finish

Sylvain Georges of Ag2R nearly collapses after crossing the finish line to win Stage Six of the Tour of California. The French rider made an incredible effort to lead the race for 184.5 km and solo the final fifty km fast enough that the peloton couldn’t catch him. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Ag2R rider Sylvain Georges joined the first break of the day, 1.5 km from the start of the 186-km Stage Six of the Tour of California, and managed to stay ahead of the peloton until the end, beating Peter Sagan across the finish line by 28 seconds.

Georges picked up the pace fifty kilometers from the finish line, on the long final ascent. The rest of the six-man break disintegrated on the long, long climb up to Big Bear Lake; only one rider, Optum’s Sebastien Salas hung on until the King of the Mountain point, when he sat up, having secured enough points to seal the KOM competition.

Georges made an amazing effort, pushing himself so hard he could barely stand after crossing the finish line. None of the GC contending teams expected him to last; Garmin, Liquigas, Rabobank, BMC and Omega failed to chase, waiting for the Frenchman to fade.

He didn’t. Somehow Georges found the will to push himself up the long climb, stay away on the flat route around the lake, and up the final ascending kilometer, while the peloton roared up after him.

For a while it looked as if Georges might also win the yellow jersey, but Liquigas and Garmin, realizing in the last dozen kilometers that their GC contenders might be threatened, turned up the pace and cut the gap from several minutes to half a minute.

“It was at the second KOM [King of the Mountain] point when I caught up with the king of the mountains leader [Sebastien Salas] and I  knew from there the other guy was finished, so I told myself I was going to go for it form that point until the end,” georges to NBC Sports. “For me this is the most wonderful victory. I have never ridden 45 kilometers solo for a victory and it makes it that much more special.”

One other rider from the break, RadioShack’s Greg Rast, very nearly got a podium finish; he joined a pair of Dutchmen, GreenEdge’s Peter Weening and Rabobank’s Wiley Keldermann, who attacked 27 km from the finish. This trio stayed ahead of the peloton until 1300 meters from the finish.

Peter Sagan finished second; had his team started chasing harder a few minutes sooner, Sagan would have gotten his fifth of six stage wins. Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Peter Velits challenged Sagan for the sprint to finish third, netting himself a time bonus which advanced him to fourth in general Classification.

Garmin-Barracuda’s Dave Zabriskie kept the leader’s yellow jersey, with BMC’s Teejay Van Garderen and Rabaobank’s Robert Gesink 34 and 39 seconds behind. Velits is 45 seconds back, and Garmin’s Andrew Talanksy fifth, 48 seconds behind.

All of that could change dramatically during Stage Six, the Queen Stage of the Tour. The 126-km climb up to the top of Mount Baldy will determine the winner of the race; the long climb up to Glendora Ridge Road starting the stage, coupled with the fifty kilometers of climbing to the finish, will make and break riders. Anyone withing a couple of minutes of the leader has a chance, because any rider not on top form could crack and lose huge amounts of time.

Sky’s Mark Cavendish won his third stage in the Giro d’Italia and secured his hold on the points leader’s red jersey. (teamsky.com)

Mark Cavendish of Sky won yet another stage in the Giro d’Italia, taking the sprint in Stage 13. Cavendish used Robbie Hunter as a leadout as GreenEdge squeezed out the Sky train. The Manx Missile went left around hunter, blasted past GreenEdge’s Matthew Goss, and showed once again he is “The Fastest Man in the World.”

“I’m really, really happy and it’s nice to finally get another win,” Cavendish said on the Sky website. “The guys went out and just rode their hearts out today and I’m so, so proud. After they did that I had to win; I had to find some gap to get through.

“It was just a question of waiting for that moment and then taking my chance. It was a headwind finish which probably played into my hands a little bit after leaving it late.”

Cavendish scored two sprint wins in Stages Two and Five, but he also crashed hard in Stage Three.

“I’m feeling better again every day. I came into the Giro in really good form and ideally I’d have liked to have been able to kind of relax through the first week but the crash changed all that,” he explained.

“It took me a week to really fully recover and get my legs back again. The guys are really looking after me though; they are keeping me protected throughout the stages, which is perfect, and I want to go to Milan and win the points jersey.”

A short stage, only 121 km, Stage 13 was one of the last opportunities for sprinters to come out and play. most of the rest of the race will be high int he mountains, where the climbers dominate and the sprinters will be hard-pressed to finish withing the time limit.one of the last chances sprinters will have to show their speed.

Two riders, Martijn Keizer of Vacansoleil-DCM and Francesco Failli of Farnese Vini attacked in the first few kilometers, but they never had a chance. The sprinters’ teams wanted a sprint finish; no breakaway was going to spoil that.

The peloton kept the break within a minute or two for most of the stage, then shut it down with 22 km to go to prepare for the finish.

There was only one attack after the break was caught; 6.6 km from the line, Ag2R’s Julian Berard led Androni’s Fabio Felline and Quickstep’s Julien Vermote in a brief attempt which was reeled in within 1200 meters.

Saxo Bank took up the pace-setting, hoping to set up their man J.J. Haedo, but Sky wasn’t having that; the British team forced its way to the front, was squeezed aside by Saxo Bank, and pushed back with 1200 meters to go.

Sky looked to be pulling off the perfect leadout, but Orica-GreenEdge managed to shoulder them aside in the final kilometer. Cavendish, adept at his task, latched onto the wheel of Garmin’s Robbie Hunter, who was following Goss of GreenEdge. When Goss launched, Cavendish cut left around Hunter, paused a moment to make sure the way was clear, and exploded past the GreenEdge rider to take the win by a bike-length.

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David Zabriskie of Garmin-Barracuda won the individual time trial and the leader’s jersey in Stage Five of the Amgen Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Garmin-Barracuda’s David Zabriskie won the Tour of California Stage Five time trial and took over the race lead with a time of 35:59, the only rider to break 36 minutes over the 18-mile course.

Zabriskie, the U.S. time trial champion, beat the baking heat of Bakersfield, as well as the rest of the riders; temperatures topped 100 degrees out on the  course.

“The biggest  factor was the heat; second was the wind,” Zabriskie said after the race. “Third, there’s not much to look at out there. Its mentally a tough course, but that’s the kind of course I like.”

Preparation played a large part in Zabriskie’s victory. “I came out here in February and videotaped this course and I’ve been watching it quite a lot. I had a few specific spots picked out where I wanted to go easy on the pedals but maintain speed,” he explained.

“Going into that turn-around was one of the sports I picked out to take a big rest before I shot up out of there, so maybe that’s what I was slow going in there. On the way back the wind was pretty much in the face but I just knew that I had to concentrate and keep the speed.”

Zabriskie, who has won the U.S. time trial championships six times, has finished second in the Tout of California three times.

The second half of the course was the toughest, as the sun-baked tar slowed the bikes as they struggled towards the final uphill 500 meters to the finish line.

Jens Voigt of RadioShack-Nissan finished second, with BMC’s Teejay Van Garderen third. Van Garderen had a faster halfway time, but lost  the lead on the tough back half of the course.

David Zabriskie was the only rider to break 36 minutes on the 18.1-mile course. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan, who had won the first four stages, finished 52nd.

The course served to create a selection among the real General Classification challengers. Last year’s Tour of California winner Chris Horner turned in a somewhat disappointing ride, finished 2:50 down. That will be a lot to make up in the mountains. Liquigas rider Vincenzo Nibali lost a lot of time on the stage also.

Last year’s second place winner, Levi Leipheimer, rode a decent time considering he broke his leg when hit by a car while training five weeks ago. He will not contend for the podium this year, but he certainly deserves an award for courage.

The next two stages are serious climbing stages, where the General Classification will again be shaken up.

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Lars Bak of Lotto-Belisol attacked the break in the final 1.7 km and won Giro d’Italia Stage 12 by 11 seconds. (lottobelisol.be)

Lars Bak of Lotto-Belisol won Stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia by attacking a seven-rider breakaway in the final two kilometers, while behind him FDJ’s Sandy Casar and BMC’s Ivan Santaromita fought to take the leader’s pink jersey.

In the end Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez held onto the race lead by 17 seconds over Ryder Hesjedal. Casar moved into third in the General Classification, 26 seconds down.

“It was a tough race—I was lucky to get away in a strong group at the start of the race,” Bak said on the Lott website. “From the car, [directeur sportif] Marc Wauters guided me very good in the final part of the race. I knew it was going to be a hard sprint and, not being a sprinter, I took my chance.”

“Obviously this is my biggest win ever. My last victory was seven years ago, but this is something else. This is a big tour. It’s going great with Lotto Belisol. We were here to get away in the escapes and I think Lotto Belisol has been seen every day in the Giro. There will probably be two more chances to get away in the upcoming stages, before going into the mountains. We will try our luck, because we have nothing to lose.”

The break, originally seven, then nine riders, got away 45 kilometers into the 155-km route, attacking on the first of four categorized climbs.

Sandy Casar (FDJ-BigMat,) Ivan Santaromita (BMC,) Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Nissan,) Andrey Amador (Movistar,) Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-Quick Step,) Lars Bak (Lotto Belisol,) and Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel) formed the original break. Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli) and and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM) bridged to the break about 40 km after the escape.

Casar was 4:01 down in the General Classification, Santaromita 4:16, so both had a chance to take the maglia rosa if the break survived. The peloton seemed unconcerned by the break, despite the presence of Casar and Santaromita; neither was considered a serious GC contender in the long run.

Katusha seemed completely uninterested in defending the pink jersey, and for most of the stage, no other team took up the chase. Long stages, lots of hills and high speeds for sprint finishes have worn out riders who want to save their legs for the mountain stages. Teams with riders seriously harboring GC ambitions probably didn’t see any value in burning up their legs on stages which would not be decisive.

Finally Liquigas took up the chase, cutting the seven-minute gap down to three minutes at the end. Possibly Liquigas wanted Katusha to keep the jersey and the pressure to defend it.

The break rode together until the Cat 2 climb of Valico La Mola, when Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Michael Golas attacked. The Polish rider had captured all the King of the Mountain points, so no one marked him when he sprinted ahead at the top of the third climb. This time he kept going, taking a lot of chances on the descent to open a gap of 20 seconds on the break.

Golas had three near-crashes on the very technical descent; the last saw him skidding to a stop in a driveway as he ran out of road. RadioShack’s Jan Bakelants did crash on the descent, but was able to recatch the breakaway.

The breakaway riders caught up to Golas on the final climb of the day, the Cat 3 Villa Tassani: 5 km long with an average grade of  six percent and an eleven-percent section near the peak, this was a great springboard for attacks.

Lars Bak’s aggressive descending brought him back to the leaders to set up hi s winning attack. (Alessandro Garofalo/AFP/GettyImages)

Sandy Casar attacked repeatedly on the climb, as did Lars Bak and Ivan Santaromita, but no one got away. Casar made a strong effort 100 meters from the peak and took the KOM points and the lead, but he couldn’t stay away on the downhill, which was even tighter and more twisty than the Valico La Mola descent.

Back in the peloton PaoloTiralongo of Astana tried an attack, covered immediately by Lampre’s Damiano Cunego and joined soon by Rabobank’s Thomas Slagter. The peloton picked up the pacer to catch this trio, which cut into the gap to the leaders.

Micahel Gola and Martijn Keizer couldn’t hang on to the break through the final six kilometers; the other seven sparred constantly until the line. Jackson Rodriguez opened a gap, and got caught. Santaromita had a go, and Casar covered. Jan Bakelants then took a turn; again Casar covered it.

With 1.7 km left in the stage, Sandy Casar and Ivan Santaromita were focused on each other; Lars Bak took advantage and sprinted away. Casar let him go; he wanted the pink jersey, not the stage win. Bak time-trialed to the line, winning by eleven seconds. Casar won the sprint for second, picking up 12 bonus seconds, while Andrey Amador took third. Santaromita finished fifth, out of the bonus.

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Lotto-Belisol’s Lars Bak crosses the finish line to win the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Peter Sagan of Liquigas-Cannondale smiles as he crosses the finish line ahead of Garmin-Barracuda’s Heinrich Haussler (L) and Rabobank’s Michael Matthews (R) to win stage four of the Amgen Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan won his fourth of four stages of the Tour of California despite every sprinter trying his best to beat the 22-year-old Liquigas rider.

Stage Four was long, at 210 km, and lumpy, with six categorized climbs, but Sagan made it over in good enough shape to beat Garmin’s Heinrich Haussler (second in every stage) and Rabobank’s Michael Matthews.

Sagan, following teammate Daniel Oss, wnet right by Argos-Shimano sprinter Marcel Kittel, led by Koen de Kort. Kittle launched early, trying to get a jump, but couldn’t match Sagan’s acceleration.

Haussler tried to stick to Sagan’s wheel and come around late, but that didn’t work. Matthews followed Haussler but went around the other side, but couldn’t make it either. The Slovakian champion was simply too fast.

Sagan said that he figured to be saying goodbye to the leader’s yellow jersey after Thursday’s time trial, but he thought he might repeat his 2010 win in Stage Six’s mountaintop finish at Big Bear Lake.

Sagan leads the race overall by 16 seconds.

 Garmin’s Dave Zabriskie tried an attack in the final five kilometers to force the sprinters’ teams to chase, hoping to tire Sagan and disorganize the peloton, but the young Liquigas rider needed only one man to lead him out. The tactic might have slowed Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Tom Boonen, as his leadout train exhausted itself catching Zabriskie, which inadvertently helped Sagan.

Stage Five, the  individual time trial in Bakersfield, should be the first stage not dominated by the quick Liquigas rider. The stage is almost entirely flat through most of it’s 18-mile length, with a couple of tiny lumps and a fair upward slope in the final half-mile. This will be a pure time trialer’s stage, and the final little kick will sort out the best time-trialers—who will save just enough to get up the incline but not so much he is slow over the rest of the course?

Probably Sagan is too big to match the pace of the lighter time trial specialists over the length of the coursed, but after the first four stages, no one would be too surprised if he pulled out a miracle win.

Following the time trial are the two big mountain stages which will likely decide the Tour.
The first, a mountaintop finish at Big Bear Lake, shouldn’t favor Sagan, but he won there in 2010, thought the route is different this year.

Stage Seven. Another mountain top finish atop Mount Baldy, will probably be the decisive stage. Here is where the climbers will shine, and the rest fall back.

Sagan has every chance to win the final stage around Los Angeles Sunday, along with both the points lead and the best Young Rider competition.

Italian cyclist Roberto Ferrari reacts as he crosses first the finish line of the 11th stage of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Benies/AFP/GettyImages)

Roberto Ferrari of Androni outsprinted Mark Cavendish and Francesco Chicchi to win Stage Eleven of the Giro d’Italia after a crash—not caused by Ferrari this time—took down several riders 500 meters from the liFerrari won fairly; Cavendish, with no leadout, seemed to slow before starting his sprint. Possibly the Manx Missile was too tired, after 255 kilometers of rolling hills, to push hard for another five hundred meters. Equally possible is that he had to slow up to avoid the crash, and lost momentum.

Ferrari came from a few riders back to overtake GreenEdge’s Tomas Vaitkus, and Omega’s Francesco Chicchi, who had commented before the stage that this course suited him, couldn’t catch the flying Androni rider.

“It’s the best day of my life—for an Italian rider winning a Giro stage is the best, better than anything else. I wanted to redeem myself after I had made such a big crash in Denmark,” Ferrari told Eurosport.

When a journalist pointed out that he had beat Mark Cavendish, Ferrari said, “Great! I am not sure it’s a pleasure for him though. Today is a big day for me.”

Painfully long at 255 kilometers, Stage Eleven had a sprint finish, but a route designed to sap the legs of the sprinters. After 240 kilometers of rolling road, the route sloped up to the Cat 4 Vico climb; a stage perfect to help the second-tier sprinters and power riders have a shot.

This is why Chicchi felt he had a chance—not fast enough to rival Matthew Goss or Mark Cavendish in a straight sprint, the Omega Pharma-Quickstep rider had the strength to climb the hills and ride the miles and still have legs left for the sprint.

Points leader Matt Goss was nowhere to be seen in the final sprint—apparently the distance and the hills took too great a toll on the GreenEdge sprinter.

The day started with six riders getting off the front 15 km into the stage—Simone Ponzi (Astana), Stefan Denifl (Vacansoleil-DCM,) Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank,) Mickaël Delage (FDJ-BigMat,) Olivier Kaisen (Lotto Belisol,) and Adrian Saez (Euskaltel) opened a gap of several minutes. Ponzi dropped off after 70km, leaving the other five to soldier on.

The peloton could have shut down the break at any time in the last 100 km—the gap varied from a few minutes to under two depending on how hard the bunch felt like pushing. The breakaway was caught about 30 km from the finish—unusually early, as an early catch invites further attacks.

Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank) attacked the break just before the catch. Adrian Saez (Euskaltel) tried to follow, but didn’t have the speed to catch the Saxo Bank time trial specialist.

The peloton let Boare open a gap of a minute, with Saez halfway between; as long as he and Saez stayed out front, they discouraged further attacks.

Boare was reeled in with 14 to go, and almost immediately the attacks started. Denis Vanendert (Lotto Belisol) and Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil-DCM) had a go; once they were caught a more serious attack formed with Giovanni Visconti (Movistar,) Angel Vicioco Katusha,) Oscar Gatto (Farnese,) and Damiano Caruso (Liquigas.) This break started to matter when Astana’s Roman Kreuziger and Lampre’s Michele Scarponi—both serious GC threats—bridged to it. That was when the peloton decided to shut it down.

Through the descent from Vico and into the final kilometers, Sky led most of the time, with Saxo Bank taking a short turn and NetApp trying. Thought the pace was very high, BMC’s Alessandro Ballan tried to attack at two km. He got nowhere, and then the peloton was speeding through a series of tight bends towards the finish line.

Visconti moved to the front under the one-km banner, with Francisco Ventoso on his wheel, but Sky wasn’t having any, and GreenEdge tried to get a rider to the front, though Goss was gone.

A crash in the final bend wiped out several riders and may have balked Cavendish. In any case, GreenEdge’s Tomas Vaitkus was all alone in the lead after the crash, with Chicchi and Ferrari giving chase. The GreenEdge rider faded with 100 meters left, while Ferrari seemed to accelerate for the entire final three hundred meters. Chicchi came past Vaitkus but couldn’t catch the Androni sprinter.

The Hills Are Coming

The sprinters won’t get another shot at it for another couple of days. Stage 12 is full of climbs, though shot compared to Stage 11, at only 157 km. With a Cat 2 climb 35 km from the finish and a Cat 3 in the final 15 km, this could be a stage where a breakaway could stay away. That last climb could be the perfect springboard for a mad attack and race to the line.

The next two stages start the high mountain stages, both with mountaintop finishes. With a rest day Monday, riders will have no need to save energy. Look for a high pace and a lot of moves here.n

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(L-R) Peter Sagan of Liquigas-Cannondale celebrates his win ahead of Heinrich Haussler and Tom Boonen in Stage Three of the Amgen Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan of Liquigas once again proved the strongest man in the peloton, blasting past the competition in the final hundred meters of Stage Three of the Tour of California to take his third win and keep the leader’s yellow jersey.

The 22-year-old Slovakian champion easily stayed near the front of the peloton through the stage’s three categorized climb, and when all organization fell apart in the final kilometer, showed his skill at the right wheel to follow.

With the riders sprinting into a headwind, timing was everything, and Sagan times his run perfectly. Garmin rider Heinrich Haussler started the sprint, with Sagan third wheel and Omega’s Tom Boonen fourth.

Haussler went too soon, and faded slightly in the final few kilometers; Boonen waited a fraction of a second too long and finished third. Sagan used his competition as a leadout train, then came around the two riders in front of him and crossed the line just ahead of Haussler, completing his sweep of the Tour of California’s opening stages

Perfect Stage for a Power Rider

Stage Three was a perfect stage for a power rider. It featured three categorized climbs: Cat 4 Calaveras Road 8.4 km into the route; Cat 2 Mt. Diablo at 87.4 km and Cat. 3 Patterson Pass, 15 km from the finish line.

This last climb was a perfect launching platform for crazy breakaway attacks; a rider who got a small advantage on the climb could push hard on the descent and possibly spoil the day for the sprinters, either by forcing them to work too hard on the climb or winning the stage, making the sprinters fight for second place.

A strong man like Peter Sagan or Omegas Pharma-Quicktep’s Tom Boonen were well-suited to this stage. The final climb was ling but not steep, so the heavier riders could keep up with the pure climbers and still have legs left at the end.

A four-rider break developed just over the first Cat 3 climb, only 8.5 kilometers into the 185.5 km stage. These four riders— Sébastian Salas (Team Optum,) Jonathan Patrick McCarty (Spidertech,) Jeremy Vennell (Bissell Cycling,) Wilson Alexander Marentes (Colombia-Coldeportes,)—got a gap of about eight minutes before Jeremy Vennell decided they were slacking and attacked, 69 km from the finish line. Wilson Marentes latched on, and the pair stayed away until the 25-km mark.

Liquigas and Omega Pharma-Quickstep led the chase, Liquigas riding for race leader Peter Sagan, Omega for roleur Tom Boonen, who had wanted to challenge Sagan in the first stage but punctured 500 meters from the finish.

Next: Crosswinds, Headwinds

Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez took the Stage Ten win and the race lead in the Giro d’Italia. (Katushateam.com)

Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez showed his climbing strength on the torturous double uphill finish of Stage Ten of the Giro d’Italia, attacking in the final two hundred meters to take both the stage win and the leader’s pink jersey.

The final three-and-a-half kilometers of Stage Ten consisted of two tough climbs with a very short descent between, over very narrow roads through the town of Assissi. The first climb had ramps up to 15 percent, while the second started at nearly eleven percent, flattening slightly near the end.  

Rabobank’s Thomas Slagter made a huge effort, leading much of the first climb and much of the second, while Katusha’s Daniel Moreno led Rodriguez up the second ascent, with Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal and Sky’s Sergio Henao near the front.

Slagter attacked halfway up the final climb, with Rodriguez and NetApp’s Bartosz Huzarski in tow. Two hundred meters out, Rodriguez made his move, dropping Slagter while Movistar’s Giovanni Visconti made a late charge to take third.

“Big thanks to Moreno for those last kilometers of the race,” Rodriguez told Eurosport. “That’s a great course for me. Today I knew we could try and go—it was going to be a spectacular finish. It’s so important for me to do what I can here for the stage victory and also for the bonuses.

“A journalist told me about the finish and now I know it was exactly my sort of thing. When you get to a finish like this you just have to take every advantage you can, do everything you can.”

Everything Focused on the Finish

A five-rider break—Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R,) Francesco Failli (Farnese Vini,) Matthias Brandle (NetApp,) Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM,) Miguel Minguez (Euskaltel)—but despite none of these riders being GC threats, the peloton never let the gap reach four minutes.

The catch could have been made fifty km out, but the peloton eased its pace; catching the break too soon would only invite further attacks, and the bunch didn’t want to exhaust itself chasing. There were too many riders who wanted a crack at the stage win or were within striking distance of the race leader. Everyone wanted their best for the decisive final climbs.

Thirty-two kilometers out from the finish, Rabobank’s Stef Cleemtn bridged up to the breakaway, which by this time had split in half. The two trailers, Matthias Brandle and Martijn Keizer, followed Clement all the way back to the leading trio of Bonnafond, Failli, and Minguez, cathng them 17 km from the finish.

By this time the peloton was flying, and ten kilometers after the leaders united, they were swallowed up. This kicked off a series of short attacks, none lasting more than a few hundred meters, as the roads got narrower and the teams started fighting hard for position.

Slagter led the charge into the first climb, with Lampre’s Michele Scarponi and Astana’s Roman Kreuziger, followed, with Rodriguez and race leader Ryder Hesjedal following. Colnago’s Domenico Pozzovivo then surged to the front, but Slagter fought back by him to reach the crest first.

Sky’s Rigoberto Uran and Ag2R’s John Gadret raced away from the rest on the short, narrow descent but once the road titled up again in the final 1200 meters this pair was overtaken.

Moreno led his teammate Rodriguez onto the next climb, with Henao and Hesjedal on his wheel. Halfway up, Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo attacked, Rodriguez followed. Slagter responded, catching up to and passing Rodriguez with NetApp’s Bartosz Huzarski clinging to him.

This trio gapped the rest in the final several hundred meters; the leaders hit the flatter section while the main bunch was still on the steeper part.

Rodriguez waited until the final few hundred meters to launch his attack. Slagter was done; he had pulled hard up both climbs and simply had no more. Huzarski trailed by an easy 15 meters at the line; Rodriguez excels on steep, short climbs and he proved it again here.

Ryder Hesjedal turned in a creditable ride to finish sixth; the young Canadian is still in the hunt for the overall. NetApp’s Batrosz Huzarski was a huge surprise, as was Rabobank;’s Thomas Slagter, who showed great climbing ability on both ascents.

Stage 11, 255 km from Assisi to Montecatini Terme, is a very long flat stage despite a Cat 3 and Cat 4 climb. The Cat 4 peaks 11 km from the finish, leading to a long shallow descent with an uphill kick in the final kilometer.[related right]

This stage will really test the sprinters, the few that are left. A good leadout could make the difference—with the incline, the sprinters’ final s will be shorter. Cavendish may be “The Fastest Man in the World,” but Matt Goss has the best leadout—assuming either makes it over the final climb in shape to sprint.

Peter Sagan celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage Two of the Tour of California ahead of Heinrich Haussler and Leigh Howard. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan of Liquigas continued his Tour of California success with a win in Stage Two Tuesday. The 22-year-old Liquigas rider again showed poise beyond his years as he waited calmly to get a slow puncture attended to, then raced back to the head of the peloton in time to win the final sprint.

This is the second stage where the Slovakian champion successfully ascended the big climbs, stayed up front on the descents, recovered from mechanical problems, and still managed to get back to outsprint the rest of the field.

At the finish, Sagan swept around the outside of Orica-GreenEdge sprinter Leigh Howard, seeming to catch him off guard, and exploded toward the finish line. Garmin-Barracuda’s Heinrich Haussler was right behind but couldn’t match the Slovakian’s speed.

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Movistar's Francesco Ventoso crosses the finish line to win Stage Nine of the Giro d'Italia. (movistarteam.com)

Movistar’s Francesco Ventoso won Stage Nine of the Giro d’Italia After a crash in the final 300 meters sidelined most of the top-tier sprinters.

Ventoso came from third wheel to overtake Best Young Rider Damiano Caruso of Liquigas and RadioShack’s Giacomo Nizzolo, then held off a late surge from Androni’s Fabio Felline to take his second career Giro stage win.

The final several kilometers of the 166-km stage were tricky, with four small hills which offered great launching points for attacks, lots of turns, and a very sharp left-hander in the final 300 meters.

It was this last turn which caused Pozzato to hit Matt Goss, in a crash which claimed Mark Cavendish, J.J. Haedo, Nikolas Maes and Mark Renshaw.

“I knew I was too far from the top places, but when I saw there were some riders not taking it properly, I saw a chance coming for me,” Ventoso told Velonation.com

“I came into good position through the turn and knew that had to go on full steam until the finish. Nizzolo was really far, but I started recovering bit by bit and I was only thinking of not being overcome like him and keeping the lead until the line.

“To tell the truth, I haven’t had many chances in the sprints until today,” Ventoso continued. “I saved every bit of energy I could for this second week because I knew sprints like this would be happening, and we could snatch the win at the first attempt. We were really close to winning in the last few stages, and today’s victory was the reward for that consistency and that superb level by all the team.”

Short Stage, Tough Finish

Stage Nine, San Giorgio nel Sannio to Frosinonem was short, particularly by the standards of this Giro, and mostly flat, with a few short hills in the final several kilometers and several sharp bends in the final approach.

A breakaway formed almost from the start with Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel,) Brian Bulgac (Lotto-Belisol,) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil) opening a gap of almost four minutes, but they had to know all along they were doomed—this was one of the final few stages for the sprinters, with the rest coming after a series of mountain stages likely to thin the ranks.

Martijn Keizer attacked the fading breakaway 32 km from the finish, ansd stayed in front until 17 km from the end. With everyone together and the hills and twists coming, the attacks started.

Lotto’s Dennis Venendert was the first to try, ten km from the line. He lasted a kilometer. Next to go was Farnese’s Matteo Rabottinin, who was quickly overtaken by Lotto’s Gaëten Bille and Colnago’s Sonny Colbrelli.

This pair was joined by two Katusha riders, Angel Vicioso and Joaquin Rodriguez, only none seconds down in the General Classification. This would have been an ingenious move, if it had worked.

Rodriguez attacked this group with six km to go, but he was ridden down just past the five-km banner.

Farnese’s Filippo Pozzato made a half-hearted attempt with a Colnago and Omega rider, but really opened no gap. Androni’s Fabio Felline took off next, and lasted 700 meters until he was caught.

Just past the three-km banner Lotto’s Adam Hansen made a strong attack, but he too was caught up by the peloton, driven by Orica GreenEdge.

Coming into the final kilometer GreenEdge had two riders in front of their sprinter Matt Goss, no other team was able to organize.

Mark Cavendish was seen remonstrating with his Sky teammates earlier in the stage; coming to the finish, he was on his own, 20 riders back and moving up on the far right.

Next: The Crash

Peter Sagan of Slovakia, riding for the Liquigas-Cannondale team, celebrates after winning Stage One of the Amgen Tour of California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Liquigas rider Peter Sagan won Stage One of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California after recovering from a late puncture and avoiding an even later crash.

After a long chase to catch a seven-rider breakaway, which seemed like it might stay away, the peloton finally came together with seven kilometers left in the hilly 186-km stage. Seconds before the catch Sagan punctured a tire. The 22-year-old Slovakian champion coolly waited for his mechanic, knowing he was losing precious seconds but not letting it ruffle him.

Once he had his new wheel, Sagan rode furiously to rejoin the peloton, paced by teammates Ted King and Alessandro Vanotti. Halfway to the finish a crash decked his teammate King and several other riders. Sagan made it through, joined with his lead out man Daniel Oss, and charged past the Orica-GreenEdge team, which was leading the stage.

Colnago's Domenico Pozzovivo won Stage Eight of the Giro d/Italia. (colnago.com)

Colnago’s Domenico Pozzovivo showed he still has the kind of climbing legs which won him two stages and the General Classification win in April’s Giro del Trentino—Pozzovivo attacked on the steepest section of the final Cat 2 Colle Molella and rode away with Stage Eight of the Giro d’Italia.

Not only did the diminutive Italian climb well, he held his lead over the flat final four kilometers, holding his gap over pursuer Benat Intxuasti of Movistar and the rest of the peloton, led by Liquigas. The Colnago climber announced that he might be a GC or stage-winning threat in the mountainous final week of the Giro.

Race leader Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Barracuda held onto the pink jersey despite looking uncomfortable on the climb. His lead was cut to nine seconds by Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez, who took third and an eight-second bonus.

A group of four riders attacked 3o kilometers into the 229-km stage. Andrey Amador of Movistar, Julien Berard of Ag2R, Tomasz Marczynski of Vacansoliel, and Miguel Minguez of Euskaltel were doomed from the start because Amador was only 1:16 down in the General Classification; none of the favorites’ teams were going to let him stay away.
 
Amador and Marczynski attacked the break 50 km from the finish, and stayed away until 16 km from the end. Liquigas led the chase, turning the speed up high to wear out the peloton on the road up to the final climb.

They hit the climb in force, with three riders ahead of leader Ivan Basso; Astana led onto the climb with five riders protecting their leader Roman Kreuziger.

Liquigas took over the lead as the climb progressed, with Sylvester Szmyd at the head. Szmyd kept the pace high to discourage attacks, but not high enough to discourage Pozzovivo. No one responded to his attack; the Colnago rider was apparently not considered a real threat, and none of the top GC contenders wanted to burn out themselves and their teams after such a long stage, early in the race.

Intxausti let the Colnago rider get a kilometer free before launching his chase; he was never able to get closer than 22 seconds, but that was enough to earn the Movistar rider fifth in GC.

Stage Nine is almost tiny by the standards set by the Giro so far—at only 166 km from San Giorgio nel Sannio to Frosinone, it shortest road stage by far. The route is flat, with nothing to hinder the sprinters, though the final kilometer slopes up slightly.

Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo bursts past Michele Scarponi to win Stage Seven of the Giro d’Italia. (Astana)

After 201 kilometers of racing, everything was settled on the final step, one-kilometer climb at the end of Stage Seven of the Giro d’Italia.

With 500 meters to go Lampre’s Michele Scarponi launched a huge attack, dropping all the GC contenders except Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo who clung to the Italian’s wheel until the last 50 meters when the Astana rider pulled out and passed, winning the stage by four bike lengths.

“For a long time I was working for my team leaders and always gave everything for them,” Tiralongo told velonation.com. “Today I got a chance to ride my own race. I‘d studied this finish and wanted to try and win. I stayed near the front, suffered and then went with Scarponi at 400m to go. I struggled to close the gap but as he looked around and eased up, I jumped past him and won. It hurt though, as everyone could see when I crossed the finish line.

“I don’t think I’m a champion or a great rider,” he continued. “I’m a good rider who works hard and helps his team leaders. I’m here to work for the team and won’t get big headed during the rest of the race.”

Tirolongo moved to second in the General Classification, behind Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal, as pink-jersey-wearer Ramunas Navardauskas of Garmin-Barracuda couldn’t keep up over the climbs.

Astana’s directeur sportif Alexandr Shefer explained the team’s strategy on the Astasna website: “We managed to execute the plan we had prepared and Paolo was our man for the finish. He is doing very well at the moment and that’s why he was tasked with getting in a break at the finish or fighting it out in the sprint if the leaders approached the line in a bunch. He already got a number of good results in sprints at the end of mountain stages in the Tour de Romandie.

“During the last ascent we caught up with the various breakaways and managed to keep our cool right to the end, with the whole team performing brilliantly there.

“Tomorrow we will face a very tough stage with another summit finish. Paolo is only 15 seconds behind the pink jersey and we might have a little think about that, even though the team is riding for Roman Kreuziger and our end goal is the finish in Milan.”

Long, Lumpy Stage With a Fraught Finish

Stage Seven was long (202 km) and lumpy, but the climb everyone was focusing on was the last one, the 19-km 3.9-percent climb to Rocca di Cambio. While nto steep, the climb was veruy long at the end of a long stage; further, it finished with a short dip and then a final 1.3 km of much steeper climbing, with sections at ten percent.

Four riders got away near the start— Fumiyuki Beppu (Orica-Greenedge,) Matteo Rabottini (Farnese-Vini,) Reto Hollenstein (Netapp,) and Mirko Selvaggi (Vancasoleil)—but by the final climb this group was busy infighting as they realized their gap wasn’t big enough. Only Rabottini persisted, but he too faded on the final climb.

As expected, that final 19-km climb was the site of ongoing attacks after the initial four-rider breakaway dissolved.

Stef Clement of Rabobank was the first to try at the base of the climb; he lasted a kilometer before a large group of riders accelerated after him. Once he was caught, Colnago’s Stefan Pirrazi took off. He caught three of the fading breakaway riders and headed off after the sole survivor, Farnese’s Matteo Rabottini

Liquigas rider Valerio Agnoli, Lampre’s Danieli Pietropolli, and Movistar’s Jose Herrada set off with 15 km to go. Pirrazi caught Rabottini at the 13.7-km mark and tried to go right over the Farnese rider, but Rabottini clung to the Colnago rider’s wheel. 13 km out Katusha’s Angel Vicioso attacked.

Jose Herrada dropped Agnoli and Danieli Pietropolli and caught up to the leading pair with 12.3 km to go, while back in the peloton, Androni started a series of attacks: Emanuele Sella went first; Damiano Cunego led the catch. José Rujano made the next attempt, and when he was caught Carlos José Ochoa attacked. Apparently Androni’s directeur sportif ordered his team to go for the win, and why not?

Robottini cracked halfway up the climb—after riding in the lead for 192 km, the Farnese rider came up just a little short, but it was a good ride.

Androni’s Rujano took the head of the peloton and pushed the pace for a few hundred meters; then Astana’s Romain Kreuziger took over, cutting the gap to the leaders.

Up ahead, Pirrazi advanced in a series of spurts, opening short gaps over Herrada which the Movistar rider patiently erased. With 2 km left, the rode sloped down for several hundred meters. Pirrazi and Herrada charged, trying to preserve their 20-second lead.

1300 meters from the line Pirazzi nearly collided with a camera motorcycle, and then nearly hit the left-hand barriers. This gave Herrada a huge advantage, as Pirrazi lost all his momentum at the start of the final steep climb.

Herrada’s lead didn’t matter—the peloton swept him up 600 meters from the line, as Lampre’s Michele Scarponi moved to the head of the peloton, with Frank Schleck and Joaquim Rodriguez following. With 500 meters to go, everyone attacked—but it was Michele Scarponi and Paolo Tiralongo who were strongest. This pair dropped the rest and headed uphill alone.

Tiralongo rode Scarponi’s wheel until about 50 meters from the line when the Astana rider swung right and blasted past, opening a four-length lead by the finish line.

Scarponi probably didn’t care: he put a lot of time into his competitors, though he didn’t break into the top ten in General Classification. Scarponi moved to second in GC, but he is not likely to be there later in the race.

Ryder Hesjedal took over the race lead, with tow Garmin teammates, Christian Vande Velde and Peter Stetina, in the top ten. Katusha also has three in the top ten, with Joaquim Rodriguez third overall. Ivan Basso of Liquigas sits eighth, 40 seconds back.

Stage Eight is a long (229 km) trek from Sulmona to Lago Laceno, another lumpy stage with a Cat 4 early and a Cat 2 climb in the final ten km; the final few kilometers are downhill with a couple little bumps and the final 300 meters downhill. As with Stage Seven, there could be a swarm of attacks on the final climb.

Miguel Rubiano celebrates crossing the finish line of the Stage Six of the Giro d'Italia. (Luk Beines/AFP/GettyImages)

Miguel Rubiano of Androni-Giocattoli attacked from the breakaway and stayed away to win the long and lumpy Stage Six of the Giro d’Italia. Rubiano attacked on the final climb of the 207-km stage, coming within 30 seconds of capturing the leader’s pink jersey as well.

“At first I was just aiming for the mountain points, but then when I heard how far behind the group was I decided to take a risk and try a breakaway, and it went well,” Rubiano told cyclingnews.com after the race.

Lampre’s Adriano Malori, also riding in the break, took the maglia rosa from Garmin-Barracuda’s Ramunas Navardauskas. Garmin didn’t really defend the jersey; the team mounted a half-hearted chase ion the final 10 km but it was already far too late.

Not many teams were willing to chase early on, because almost every team had a rider in the break. Garmin had Jack Bauer; they weren’t interested in pushing hard until he faded on the final climb. The team did

Likely no team was really eager to win the maglia rosa, and the responsibility to defend it, this early in the race. Liquigas, which didn’t have a rider in the break, did most of the driving, but without much urgency.

A 15-rider break—Miguel Rubiano (Androni-Giocattoli,) Adriano Malori (Lampre,) Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana,) Manuel Belletti (Ag2R,) Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini,) Dominique Rollin (FDJ-BigMat,) Jack Bauer (Garmin-Barracuda,) Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha,) Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge,) Gatis Smukulis (Katusha,) Pablo Lastras (Movistar,) Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-QuickStep,) Dennis Van Winden (Rabobank,) Cesare Benedetti (NetApp,) and Luke Roberts (Saxo Bank)— got started after about 30 kilometers of racing, shrinking to 11 within forty kilometers as Balloni, Van Winden, Belletti and Keukeleire dropped off.

The remaining eleven went over the first two climbs—the Cat 3 Cingoli (6.4 km at6.5% avg. 13% max) and the Cat 2 Passo della Cappella (4.5 km at 7.7% avg. 16% max) without incident; then Pablo Lastras and Jack Bauer crashed on the descent of the second climb. Lastras had to withdraw with collarbone, shoulderblade, and rib injuries.

Androni’s Miguel Rubiano attacked at the top of the climbs to collect King of the Mountain points; he lost out the first time to Michal Golas, but took the rest, staying away just a little longer after every peak.

The climbing over, Rubiano stayed away for the rest of the stage while the four chasers did their best to both run him down and keep ahead of the peloton.

Sky’s Mark Cavendish, in his rainbow-banded World Champion’s jersey, beats Matt Goss in his red points leader jersey in Stage Five of the Giro d’Italia. (teamsky.com)

The numerous hills in the final forty kilometers of Stage Five of the Giro d’Italia slowed a lot of sprinters but not all of them. Fastest among those who made it over the inclines was Sky’s Mark Cavendish, who earned his eighth Giro and 32nd Grand Tour stage victory by once again being “The Fastest Man in the World.”

While a few big sprinters like Tyler Farrar, Theo Bos, Roman Feillu, and Andrea Guardini rolled home nine or more minutes late, several sprinters stuck around to make it a contest. The fastest of these was Orica-GreenEdge rider Matthew Goss, who finished a couple bike lengths ahead of all the other competitors—and a bike-length behind Mark Cavendish.

The Manx Missile dominated the sprint, despite being less than 100 percent after his crash Monday.

“I didn’t feel great three days after the crash. I was a little bit tired and we did really what the other teams have done and let the others do the work,” Cavendish said on the Sky website. “But we were able to commit all our guys at the end and we took the race up with 10k to go and it was textbook work from the team.”

“I’m even more happy because my girlfriend and my daughter are here and I had my daughter on the podium. It’s the first race she’s been to watch me at and I’m so happy to make her proud and win for her here.”

Teamwork made the difference. In the final few kilometers Sky was able to line up six riders in a leadout train to deliver their man to the right spot in the best possible condition, while none of the other teams were able to organize. Matt Goss, who took second, got there by using Cavendish as a leadout because GreenEdge couldn’t get it together.

Teamwork also mattered in the short, frequent climbs which made the end of this stage so difficult. “The guys were all around me on the climbs and we started in a good position so I stuck with them. I was never in any trouble. It wasn’t easy at all but I’ve good form and the guys really looked after me there so I was lucky enough to get over it in reasonable condition,” Cavendish explained.

Sky’s train had to run longer than usual because of the slight slope to the road and the wind direction, but they did the job perfectly.

“It wasn’t an easy finish. There was a headwind and I only went with 200 meters to go. It felt like a long time because of that headwind and I could see Gossy’s shadow but I was able to hold him off. I’m super, super happy!”

Here Comes the Sky Train

The race started with a four-rider break attacking in the first 15 kilometers—Alessandro de Marchi (Androni,) Pier Paolo de Negri (Farnese Vini,) Olivier Kaisen and Brian Bulgac (Lotto-Belisol) never got much over six minutes ahead as the roads for the first 150 km of this 199-km stage were straight, flat and wide; the peloton had no trouble controlling the gap.  

A couple of crashes interrupted the peloton in the final 45 km, as everyone got nervous about the approaching hills. Saxo Bank’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo was looking behind and hit the man in front, flooring himself and teammate Manuele Boare. BMC’s Taylor Phinney got caught in this one—the American youngster has certainly seen the highs and lows of cycling this week—and Ag2R’s Elai Favili, who managed to fight all the way back to the front to take seventh in the sprint.

Another crash a few km later claimed two BMC riders, too busy looking for teammates for the climbs to focus on the approaches.

The only categorized climb of the day was the Cat 4 Gabicce Monte, two km at an average of 4.8 percent but some spots up to nine percent. This climb cracked Thor Hushovd, who had been a favorite for the uphill finish, and Tyler Farrar, along with a handful of other sprinters who never managed to reconnect with the peloton.

The breakaway split with 35 km to go ad Alessandro De Marchi decided he could do better alone. The remaining three were caught in ten km; De Marchi made it another ten. Then it was gruppo compatto, and the sprinters’ teams started struggling to control the head of the peloton.

GreenEdge and Rabobank both tried to organize, but Sky had managed an HTC-Columbia-style grip on the head of the peloton.

3.2 km from the finish, Lotto-Belisol’s sprinter Adam Hansen incomprehensibly attacked, but that didn’t last. Coming into the final two km, Sky still had four riders in front of Cavendish; under the one-km flame rouge Cav still had two. Colnago’s Sacha Modolo rode Cav’s wheel with Matt Goss next in line.

Goss had to go around Modolo and then Cavendish, and the extra few meters were too much. Cavendish took the win, with Goss leading RadioShack’s Daniele Benatti and Garmin’s leadout man Robbie Hunter. Modolo held on for fifth.

Look for a sprint among climbers to end this stage, and look for GC contenders to be moving to the fore here.

Garmin-Barracuda prepares for team time trials, and the effort paid off with a stage win Wednesday. (slipstreamsports.com)

Garmin-Barracuda put in the best performance in the Giro d’Italia Stage Four team time trial and captured the leader’s pink jersey.

Garmin-Barracuda bested second-placed Katusha by only five seconds; Astana and Saxo Bank were each 22 seconds back.

Garmin’s Ramunas Navardauskas will wear the leader’s pink jersey for the start of Stage Five; he leads teammates Tyler Farrar and Robert Hunter by ten seconds, and Ryder Hesjedal by 11. Farrar and his leadout man Hunter will likely try to seize the maglia rosa away in Stage Five’s sprint finish—Farrar is the best-placed sprinter in the General Classification.

MC’s Taylor Phinney lost the race lead, and his team didn’t do well in the TTT, because Phinney couldn’t put full force through his injured ankles, which is still very swollen—the 21-year-old American rider needed four stitches after crashing Monday. BMC had to slow down and wait for Phinney on a couple of occasions.

Phinney is only 14 seconds out of first place, but he is not likely to do well in Thursday’s 123-mile stage.

Lampre was the first team to put in a really good time, followed by Katusha. Garmin, which puts a lot of emphasis on TTTs, then put in a great ride and gained the top four spots in the General Classification, and six of the top ten. Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal, though young, could be ready a big results; Christian Vendevelde has had some good races ruined by bad luck; he is due for a good Grand Tour.

Mark Cavendish of Sky Procycling celebrates as he wins the second stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race. Cavendish will have several chances to shine in the next 11 days. (Claus Fisker/AFP/Getty Images)

The first of cycling’s 2012 Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia started Sunday and will continue through 21 stages and 2160 miles of racing to its finale in Milan on May 27. Riders will have spent five stages climbing mountains, six on hills, and contested seven sprint stages plus three time trials by the time they reach the end.

There are two rest days in the 23-day calendar, Tuesday May 8 and Monday May 21. Those rest days are much farther apart than usual, which means the riders will be more tired when they hit the first big mountain stages.

Here is a quick look at what to expect between rest days.

Stage Five, 199 km from Modena to Fano has a handful of climbs, including a Cat 4, in the final forty kilometers—just enough to strain but not really drain the pure sprinters. On top of that the final kilometer slopes upward—possibly a lesser-known but stronger power sprinter might beat the pure speed sprinters here—it’s a Thor Hushovd/Oscar Friere kind of finish.

Stage Six, 207 km from Urbino to Porto Sant’Elpidio, has fifteen climbs though only four are categorized—Cat 3, Cat 2, Cat 3, and a Cat 3. This is a non-stop up-and-down stage—a great stage for a breakaway if it came later in the race but likely too many riders will be too fresh to let a breakaway escape.

Stage Seven, 202 km from Recanati to Rocca di Cambio—another medium mountain stage with a Cat 3 and a Cat 2 climb. The Cat 2 comes in the last 15 km; the last three kms descend are uphill then short downhill finish but the final 1500 meters climb at 5.7 percent. One could hope for attacks on the cat 2 climb, and unless one rider has escaped from the peloton, one would expect more attacks in the final 1500 meters.

Stage Eight, 229 km from Sulmona to Lago Laceno, is long and lumpy with a Cat 4 climb early, a lot of stacked uncategorized climbs in the final third, and as Cat 2 climb in the final 15 km. The last five km are downhill, but the battle will be on the last climb.

Stage Ten, from 187 km from Civitavecchia to Assisi, is a lumpy stage with a Cat 4 uphill finish—a double-hill finish, in fact. The final four kilometers start with a climb with a grade of over 13 percent, a quick descent and then the final Cat 4 which hits 10.4 percent in the middle and falls off to 5.6 percent. The climbers will need a rest after this one.

Matthew Goss earned Orica-GreenEdge its first Grand Tour victory in the sprint finish to Stage Three of the Giro d’Itlaia. (greenedgecycling.com)

GreenEdge rider Matthew Goss won the sprint in Stage Three of the Giro d’Italia ahead of J.J. Haedo and Tyler Farrar, while Sky’s Mark Cavendish got caught in a crash which also claimed race leader Taylor Phinney.

The 190-km stage came down to a confused sprint finish, much like Stage Two, as no team could take control of the peloton in the final kilometer.

While GreenEdge brought Matthew Goss to the front, Sky had run oput of riders, leaving Stage Two winner Mark Cavendish well back. When Cavendish made his move towards the front, he was knocked down by Roberto Ferrari in a crash which collected half-a-dozen other riders including BMC’s Taylor Phinney in the Maglia Rosa.

The win was the first for GreenEdge in a Grand Tour, the first for Goss in GreenEdge colors, and his second Giro stage win.

“I guess it was a bit of really fast sprint,” Goss told Cyclingnews.com. “I had two guys who delivered me to the last 300 meters, but I think there was a bit of carnage behind.

“It’s my second Giro stage win. It’s great to win here in a pure bunch sprint. I’m very happy for the team. There were a lot corners in the finale, that always strings the bunch out but I had a great team.”

Tribute to Wouter Weylandt, Then Racing

The stage opened with a tribute to Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt, who was fatally injured in a crash in Stage Three of the 2011 Giro d’Italia. The riders lined up across the road by teams, removed their helmets and observed a moment of silence for their fallen friend.

Once the race got underway, a breakaway of six riders formed— Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda,) Reto Hollenstein (NetApp,) Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini,) Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM,) Mads Christensen (Saxo Bank,) and Miguel Minguez (Euskaltel-Euskadi.)

This group got away at 12 km but never got a gap bigger than 3:30. They were caught at 28 km to go, but first Mads Christensen, who had led through his hometown of Odder at the 76-km mark, attacked the weakening break. Christensen stayed away for eight kilometers before being caught at kilometer 24.

Five km later Lotto-Belisol’s Lars Bak launched an attack, a carbon copy of his Stage Two effort. Bak was caught with 11.6 to go, after getting some important TV exposure for his team.

A pair of very tight, narrow corners in the final six kilometers stretched out the peloton. Sky, at the head of the peloton, picked up the pace after these corners, which further increased the nervousness of the riders. Several teams tried to take control: Liquigas, Astana, Garmin-Barracuda, and Saxo Bank all vied with Sky to lead the peloton.

Collision at the Finish

Sky managed to take the lead with two km to go but Cavendish had come adrift; he was sitting seventh wheel Rabobank’s Mark Renshaw (Cav’s leadout man at HTC-Columbia for the last several seasons.) Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Nikolas Maes attacked with 1200 meters to go but was caught shortly after the 1-km banner.

GreenEdge then moved down the middle with two riders leading Matthew Goss, cutting all the way to the left once they took the lead. Garmin’s Tyler Farrar and Saxo Bank’s J.J. Haedo clung to Goss as GreenEdge moved forward.

After the two GreenEdge leadouts peeled off, Matt Goss led the sprint down the left side with Saxo Bank’s J.J. Haedo and Garmin’s Tyler Farrar just behind off his right shoulder. Cavendish, six back now, launched his attack down the middle and quickly closed the gap to the leading three.

Androni Giocattoli’s Roberto Ferrari, fourth in line, tried to come from the far left across to the right to get around the three leaders, Goss, Haedo, and Farrar. Ferrari, intent on what was ahead, didn’t look back and chopped across the onrushing Cavendish, clipping his front wheel and dumping him to the pavement where he collected half-a-dozen other riders including race leader Taylor Phinney who sat on the pavement for several minutes with what looked like an injured ankle.

Cavendish carried his bike across the finish line with severe roadrash on his left shoulder. Taylor Phinney was treated briefly in an ambulance before emerging to cross the line a few minutes later to retain his leader’s pink jersey.

“I’m better now,” Phinney told Cyclingnews.com after the stage. “When I was on the ground I was a bit confused and in a state of shock, but I started to feel better when I was in the ambulance.

“I must have hit something when I fell. It’s a pity that it happened and hopefully it’s nothing important. It’s lucky tomorrow is a rest day.”

Phinney, Cavendish, and any other injured riders will be very glad for that rest day Tuesday, which might give them time to recover and continue.

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Mark Cavendish of Sky proved to be the strongest sprinter once again, winning Stage Two of the Giro d'Italia. (teamsky.com)

Stage Two of the 2012 Giro d’Italia came down to a bunch sprint, and Sky’s Mark Cavendish showed that he is still the “Fastest Man in the World.” The World Champion followed Geraint Thomas , one of the few riders to get any kind of leadout at all; the peloton couldn’t organize in the final kilometers, and a crash 500 meters out only made things worse.

BMC’s Thor Hushovd made a strong effort 400 meters out but burned out near the end; Tyler Farrar, following Robbie Hunter, hesitated before launching and lost his chance, finishing fourth. GreenEdge’s Matt Goss started his sprint at the same time as Cavendish but didn’t have the speed and ended up tucking in behind the Sky rider to save second. FDJ’s Geoffrey Soupe made a late charge to take third.

“The guys were so great and they stayed together,” Cavendish said on the Team Sky website. “We had a mixture of the old guard and new people. Jez Hunt, Bernie Eisel—experienced guys with [Geraint Thomas] too. And guys like Pete [Kennaugh] who are pretty new and who I’ve not worked with before.

“Everybody handled it well and we stayed together as a team. I was really looked after at the finish and kept sheltered. Geraint took me perfect and went exactly when he was supposed to. I was able to come off him and win the stage so I’m very, very happy.”

Cavendish explained why the finish was dangerous: “When you have fresh teams if they aren’t riding all day and then come up with a fresh sprinter it can become quite dangerous. But as long as you are well looked after it’s okay and I was looked after great by the guys.”

BMC’s Taylor Phinney kept the leader’s pink jersey with a huge ride in the final eight kilometers after losing his chain in a collision. Taylor time-trialed back to the peloton in time to get counted with the main group.

“I just found myself on the ground, having touched wheels and lost balance,” Phinney said on the BMC site. “Then I couldn’t get my chain back on. So I kind of made a second prologue effort. I was quite scared there for a second that I was going to lose the jersey.”

The race started with a three-rider breakaway, which was caught early, with 40 km left to race. This prompted an attack by Lotto Belisol’s Lars Bak, who stayed away for 20 km before surrendering to the onrushing peloton. Sky’s Ian Stannard led much of the chase, as the British team was intent on a sprint finish for their big gun, Cavendish.

No team could take control in the final kilometers. Sky, Garmin, GreenEdge, Colnago, even Farnese-Vini tried to assemble leadouts but the skirmishing in the peloton in the peloton was too fierce; no one could take and hold position.

About 500 meters from the line Theo Bos touched wheels with his leadout man Mark Renshaw while coming around a 90-degree right-hand corner, sending Bos fling sideways into Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff and collecting a couple other riders.

Up ahead Thor Hushovd went early, hoping the slight uphill before the finish would suit him better than the pure sprinters. The big Norwegian couldn’t keep up once the sprinters launched, though, and had to settle for seventh.

Robbie Hunter and Tyler Farrar had the lead around the corner with Cavendish boxed in on the right. Cav cut sharply to the middle and he and Matt Goss passed BMC’s Marco Pinotti, as Hushovd streaked by on the far left. Cavendish and Goss immediately took off, the Sky rider slipping in front of Tyler Farrar within a dozen meters.

Cavendish kept moving right, with Goss tucking in behind when it became clear the GreenEdge rider couldn‘t get past. Farrar looked not to have the legs to keep up with the two leaders. The Garmin sprinter edged past Hushovd but himself was beaten right at the line by FDJ’s Geoffrey Soupe coming across from the center.

It was not just speed, by tactics which gave Cavendish the edge. The Manx Missile was able to see the safe route and work past his opponents into proper launching position, and was also clever enough to pick a trajectory which crossed theirs, so his opponents had to re-aim in order to get around him.

Stage Three should be another sprint finish, 190-km loop around the Danish town of Horsens, is basically flat with no obstacles to help a breakaway. After that the Giro takes a rest day before the team time trial in Verona, Italy.

U.S. cyclist Taylor Phinney rides during the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia, an 8.7-km time trial around Herning. (Luk Benies/AFP/Getty Images)

21-year-old Taylor Phinney of BMC Racing won the short Stage One time trial of the 2012 Giro d’Italia cycling race, earning the American rider the leader’s Maglia Rosa.

Phinney, whose father is famous American cyclist Davis Phinney and his mother gold-medal Olympic cyclist Connie Carpenter, showed his breeding by beating the best cyclists in the world on the short, flat time trial course.

This was the young American’s first Grand Tour stage win; he won the Under-23 Paris-Roubaix in early April, but Sunday he beat the big boys.

The 21-stage Giro d’Italia is the first of three Grands Tours, along with the Tour de France in July and the Vuela a España in September. These are the greatest test of cyclists, and wins in these races mean more than wins almost anywhere else.

Young Taylor Phinney isn’t likely to hold the pink jersey for more than a couple of days, but he will treasure the memory for the rest of his live.

Phinney has huge potential as a time trailer and possibly eventually as a General Classification contender, but so far it is in time trials that he has shone brightest.

The Tour of Italy oddly opened in Herning, Denmark for the first two stages and a third in Horsens, Denmark before a rest day Tuesday. Then the Giro heads to Verona Italy for a team time trial and the rest of the race.

Stage Two will be a flat 206-km jaunt starting and finishing in Herning—a day for the sprinters. Stage Three, 190 km and almost as flat, will again almost certainly end with a bunch sprint.

Bradley Wiggins rides to a stage and overall win in the Tour of Romandie time trial. (teamsky.com)

Sky’s Bradley Wiggins put in a great performance in the final time trial stage of the Tour of Romandie cycling race to win the General Classification by 12 seconds Sunday.

Wiggins had won the leader’s jersey by a scant seven seconds with a long closing sprint in Stage One, then held onto it until the penultimate stage, when Rabobank’s Luis Leon Sanchez won both the stage and the overall lead by nine seconds.

Wiggins knew he could count on his time-trial skills to make up that deficit if he rode well and he did, but it wasn’t easy; a mechanical problem slowed him near the start of the stage.

Wiggins’ chain popped of as he was climbing the hill in the first half of the course. The Sky rider hopped off, waited while a mechanic made a quick repair, and still managed to win the stage by seven-tenths of a second and the General Classification by twelve seconds.

“It’s really nice to finish it off in a time trial on the last day for the boys,” Wiggins said on the team website. “All week they’ve been incredible—it doesn’t matter how strong you are as an individual, without those team-mates this week I wouldn’t be in this position.”

Ivailo Gabravski, riding for Konya Torku, won the 48th Presidential Tour of Turkey. (TourofTurkey.org)

Ivailo Grabovski,the Bulgarian champion riding for the tiny Turkish Continental team Konya Torku Seker Spor won the General Classification of the 48th Presidential Tour of Turkey, beating big name riders from Europe’s best ProTour teams.

Grabovski earned his win, gaining a 1:33 lead will a very long solo attack in Stage Three, and defending that lead in every subsequent stage, covering almost every break at a tremendous cost of energy. The Bulgarian’s legs held out just long enough; he kept close enough to the front right down to the final sprint of the final stage.

Rabobank’s Theo Bos won the first and the last stages of the Tour of Turkey, in both cases in a very close sprint victory. In Stage Eight he was led out by one of the best in the business, Mark Renshaw (who also proved he can win a sprint, taking Stage Four.)

While many riders rode well, Grabovski is the hero of the event. He won the first Tour of Turkey stage for a Turkish team, and pushed himself hard to win the GC. His teammates also answered the bell in Stages Six and Seven, helping drive the peloton when none of the ProTour teams were willing to help.

The Tour of Turkey has dramatically increased its international profile through the past couple of years; there is talk of it eventually becoming a World Tour event—in which case Continental teams like Konya Torku would be excluded.

Grabovski struck at the perfect time in Stage Three, attacking near the bottom of the final climb and getting so far ahead that later attacks couldn’t reach him. He and his team struck at the right time in the Tour of Turkey’s career as well. Cycling is indeed a sport of strategy as well as strength and stamina.

Konya Torku riders pull the peloton, defending Ivailo Grabovski’s lead. (TourofTurkey.org)

Luis Leon Sanchez exults on the podium after winning Stage Six of the Tour of Romandie. (rabosport.com)

Luis Leon Sanchez earned a stage win for Rabobank in Stage Three of the Tour of Romandie, a very hilly stage with a long uphill finish that set up a bunch sprint between climbers. Sanchez beat Lotto’s Gianni Meersman across the line by a few centimeters, taking the stage and a ten-second time bonus.

“Even after that tough luck in the first stage when I couldn’t join in the sprint because of a broken spoke, the team kept on working for me,” Sanchez told velonation.com. “Today everything worked out well.

“The team was really strong again and there was no bad luck in the sprint,” he explained. “It was definitely very hard and very close, but I am glad that I could clinch it for the guys and the hard work they did.”

[AD]Five riders—Matt Brammeier (Omega,) Gatis Smukulis (Katusha,) Leigh Howard (GreenEdge,) Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Belisol,) and Anders Lund (Saxo Bank)—got away ten kilometers into the stage, only to be caught in the final five kilometers. A few attacks were tried–Fabrice Jeandeboz of Saur-Sojasun, Dave Zabriskie (Garmin,) Romain Kreuziger (Astana) and Simon Spilak (Katusha,) Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack)—but in the end it was Rabobank delivering their rider to the front.

Bradley Wiggins held onto the leader’s jersey, but just—he wasn’t able to contest the sprint and didn’t get any time bonuses, while Luis Leon Sanchez did for the second day in a row. Wiggins has a single second’s lead over the Rabobank rider, with the race’s hardest stage on the horizon.

Colnago's Sascha Modolo wins the sprint in Stage Six of the Tour of Turkey. (TourofTurkey.org)

After six stages of surprisingly tough racing, local team Konya Torku retains the race lead despite the best efforts of some of cycling’s strongest riders. Over courses which didn’t look that hard but proved to be quite challenging, this small Continental team has protected its leader, Bulgarian champion Ivailo Gobravski and his 1:33 lead.

Colnago’s Sascha Modolo won the final sprint after the last of numerous breakaway riders was caught only 500 meters from the finish. Colnago led out beautifully for Modolo, and he cruised around the final corner to win with ease.

Modolo gave a unique thumb-sucking salute as he crossed the line, honoring the child he is expecting.

The real battle was for the turquoise jersey, and here the underdog was again the winner.

Stage Six, 179 km from Bodrum to Kusadasi, was another series of endless climbs and descents, with a single Cat 2 climb in the first third and a steep uncategorized climb 30 km from the end.

Crosswinds and aggression within the peloton made this an especially challenging stage, as if the terrain itself was not enough.

The big ProTour teams didn’t want a small Continental team, to win overall, regardless that it was a team from the host country. Of course, Konya Torku wants very much to be the first Turkish team to win the Tour of Turkey, and their performance in Stage Dix demonstrated that.

Team leader Ivailo Gobravksi continued to mark every attack, beating himself up to keep the leader’s turquoise jersey, while big teams like Astana and Lotto took turns trying to break the brave Bulgarian

They failed. Konya Torku showed unexpected strength, driving the peloton when no of the top teams would and riding down every attack launched by those big teams.

Crashes, crosswinds and climbs split the peloton early in the stage; repeated attacks fragmented it further. After the Cat 2 climb, five riders had a lead, with nine, including Gobravski, in pursuit.

These groups merged, with Romain Bardet (Ag2R,) Alexsandr Dyachenko (Asytana,) Vladimir Gusev and Maxim Belkov (Katusha,) Michal Golas (Omega,) Geoffroy Lequatre, Florian Guillou, Romain Hardy, Laurent Pichon, Florian Vachon (all Bretagne Schuller,) Andre Fernando Cardoso (Caja Rural,) Fabio Duarte (Colombia Coldeportes,) Thierry Hupond (Argos-Shimano.) Alexander Efimkin (Team Type 1-Ssanofi,) Philip Deignan (United HealthCare,) and  Gabrovski—six of the top ten in General Classifiaction—opening a gap on the peloton. Palomares, De Vocht, Battaglin and Petrov—three more top-ten GC contenders plus De Vocht—bridged to this atack.

Belkas, Golas, and Deignan attacked this group and opened a gap. Meanwhile Caja Rural was working hard to chase down the second group full of GC leaders. Once the two groups merged, Lotto’s Andre Greipel, spoke briefly with Astana’s Alexandr Vinokourov, and then attacked. He was caught; then Vinokourov attacked.

Bardet was the next to try it; again Gobravski and his teammates rode down the attacker. None of the ProTour teams would help; somehow Konya Torku’s riders found the legs to compete with the higher-ranked riders.

Farnese’s Diego Caccia tried an attack; he too was caught.

Konya Torka has shown throughou tthis year’s Toour of Turkey. Colnago has also done well with stage wins. With  two stages left, will the ProTour giants rise up to slay their smaller rivals, or will determination trump reputation; will Konya Torku be able to hold on?

It seems they might.

Jonathan Hivert of Saur Sojasun won the final sprint of Stage Two of the Tour of Romandie. Saur Sojasun

Jonathan Hivert of Saur Sojasun won the final sprint of Stage Two of the Tour of Romandie after a hilly stage slowed the pure sprinters. The 149-km stage contained a Cat 3 and two Cat 2 climbs which offered great platforms for launching attacks but also trimmed the peloton to about fifty by the time it reached the finishing town of Moutier.

Two riders—Lars Bak of Rabobank and Christian Meier of GreenEdge—attacked 40 km into the stage but never got more than four minutes ahead. Sky led the peloton on a leisurely chase as several riders made leisurely attacks, all of which came to nothing until Fabrice Jeandesboz (Saur Sojasun) and Peter Stetina took off near the crest of the final climb. Meier cracked on the ascent, and Bak didn’t last much longer, leaving Jeandesboz and Stetina to try to stretch their lead.

Sky didn’t really accelerate until the final ten kilometers; GreenEdge and Europcar then moved up and really picked up the pace, catching the two escapees four km from the line.

From there it was a matter of which non-sprinter could get the best position for the sprint. Movistar’s Rui Costa got an early lead but Saur-Sojasun’s Jonathan Hivert passed him at the line.

Andrea Di Corrado of Colnago attacked the breakaway and rode home alone to his first professional win in Stage Five of the Tour of Turkey. (TourofTurkey.org)

Stage Five of the Tour of Turkey was one of those rare races which inspire exhaustive acts of bicycling bravery for the rest of the season: In Stage Five, the breakaway stayed away and won the stage.

Twenty kilometers into the 178-km stage, six riders— Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana,) Jonas Aaen Jorgensen (Saxo Bank,) Sébastien Duret (Bretagne,) Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago,) Jérôme Cousin (Europcar,) and Alfredo Balloni (Farnese) successfully attacked the peloton. This group opened a gap of 14:50 halfway through the race; none of the major teams were willing to chase because none of the riders were threats to the General Classification lead.

Turkish teams Salcano and race-leading Konya Torku started the chase, but neither  r team was overly concerned. Caja Rural, Ustensilnord and Accent Jobs started the chase for real once the lead neared 15 minutes.

With 20 km to go, Argos-Shimano moved to the front of the peloton as the big teams used the stage as a rest day. Konya Torku joined in the chase, ready to move to protect the turquoise jersey.

With 15 km to go, the break started attacking itself. Jorgenson was the first to try it. Balloni and Cousins went next. Cousins went over the top of Balloni and opened a small gap, but Balloni caught him with ten km to go. The rest of the breakaway caught this pair, and Di Corrado immediately attacked. No one could answer.

Ag2R moved to the head of the peloton, now only two-and-half minutes behind, but it was too late; the breakaway had its victory.The six escapees took the top six spots.

Ivaïlo Gabrovski of Konya Torku kept the leader’s turquoise jersey for one more day, riding home easily with the rest of the peloton.

It was Di Corrado’s first professional win.

Stage Six, 179 km from Bodrum to Kusadasi, is much like the prior two stages: A Cat 2 climb in the first third and non-stop hills for the rest of the day. This stage features a healthy climb in the final tne km and a little bump before the finish.

It is unlikely the big sprinting teams will let another stage go to a breakaway, and it is unlikely the big teams won’t challenge Konya Torku for the overall lead. Tomorrow’s Cat 2 climb is the last categorized climb of the Tour; while all the stages are hilly, none are mountainous. Expect attacks tomorrow; if not, perhaps in Sunday’s final stage, which finishes with eight laps around Istanbul.

Sky’s Bradley Wiggins (C) wins the Stage One sprint to claim the leader’s jersey. (teamsky.com)

Sky’s Bradley Wiggins came to the Tour of Romandie intent on a General Classification win; his performance in Stage One showed the depth of that intent.

Sky’s leader had to ride hard to keep the leader’s jersey for his team after sprinter Mark Cavendish lost the pace with 28 km left in the hilly 185-km stage.

Wiggins then fell back with a flat tire with 25 km to go. His team dragged him back to the front with 13 km left. Then he had to cover attacks in the final few kilometers, led the whole peloton for the final 1000 meters, and flat-out sprinted the last 400 to win the stage and keep the leader’s jersey.

“I had a lot of adrenaline after I punctured with 25k to go. When that happened the boys dropped back for me and did a fantastic job,” Wiggins commented on the Sky website.

“In the final I was kind of on my own and marshalling everything. I just wanted to pay them back for everything they’d done, they were incredible. I’ve got them to thank and it was really nice to be able to finish it off like that.

“I went a bit early and had to sit down to rest for a bit and then went again but it was good to get the win!

“I want to win Romandie, that’s for sure. I’ll take what I can every day and it’s really nice to win a sprint like this because normally I only ever really win time trials.”

The hilly 185-kilometer stage with two Cat 2s and a Cat 3 climb, the last two in the final 25 kilometers, seemed equally suited to a breakaway or a sprint finish. The climbs were serious enough to slow the pure sprinters, but if they could survive, the end of the route was suited to a bunch sprint.

Sky certainly intended to bring their sprinter, Mark Cavendish, to the end, certain that he could beat the field; because the entire race only offers two possible sprint finishes, most other big name-sprinters weren’t in attendance. Sky knew Gerraint Thomas, fresh from the European track season, wouldn’t be able to hold the leader’s jersey, but were confidant Cavendish could keep it for the team.

Things didn’t work out at all as planned. After helping to bring back the four-rider break of Martin Kohler (BMC,) Kenny Dehaes (Lotto-Belisol,) Angelo Tulik (Europcar,) and Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun,) Cavendish dropped off the back early on the last Cat 2 climb. Thomas also cracked on this climb, and with 28 km to go, Martin Kohler forged on ahead alone.

The chase had pushed too hard, too soon. Not only did Sky burn out its sprinter, they brought the break back too far out; this invited further attacks, and they came in quantity.

Fabrice Jeandesboz of Saur Sojasun attacked first, chased by Cyril Gautier of Europcar) and Thomas Rohregger of RadioShack. At 24 km Thibaut Pinot of FDJ attacked. None of these moves served to do anything but make the peloton nervous and wear out the leaders.   

As this was happening Sky disappeared from the front of the peloton. Bradley Wiggins had a puncture, and the entire team dropped back with him. This prompted some more serious attacks, as large groups of riders realized that without Sky pulling, a breakaway might well stay away all the way to the finish.

Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker Sorenson 133and Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal led the charge, with two groups of seven trying to make good their attacks.

Sky stepped up. Determined to win the stage and the leader’s jersey, the remnants of the team dragged Wiggins back to the front with a huge effort.

This didn’t stop the attacks. Thirteen km from the finish, on the slopes of the final Cat 3 climb, Saxo Bank’s Daniel Navarro took a try. He was joined by Ag2R’s Rinaldo Nocentini and Saur Sojasun’s Maxime Mederel.

This trio lasted until seven kilometers form the end; luckily for Sky, BMC and Astana took over the chase duties, letting the Sky riders rest their legs.

Rabobank’s Laurans Ten Dam was the next to attack, unsuccessfully. Movistar’s Rui Costa then got away, chased by Katusha’s Giampaolo Caruso This pair lasted three kilometers, then Europcar’s Pierre Rolland struck out, followed by Fabrice Jeandesboz. Costa caught this pair and went right over them. Then, surprisingly, Bradley Wiggins latched on to Costa. Apparently the Sky leader had rested enough.

Three Rabobank riders came up on the left, but couldn’t get away. Movistar’s Angel Madrazo took a flyer off the front and was ridden down by Rabobank.

With two kilometers to go Rabobank held the lead. The two riders from Liquigas moved to the front, with Wiggins and BMC’s Cadel Evans marking every move. Evans had a Tejay Van Garderen to help him; Wiggins was on his own through the last kilometer.

Stage Two is a lot like Stage One; the hills are a little bigger if less numerous. The first categorized climb, a Cat 3, falls 50 km into the 149-km stage, followed by Cat 2s halfway and then 30 km from the finish. The final 15 km are uphill, if not actually up a hill, so once again the climbers might end up sprinting for the win.

Mark Renshaw of Rabobank beatsMatthew Goss of GreenEdge by millimeters at the finish line of Stage Four of the Tour of Turkey. (TourofTurkey.org)

After a stage of non-stop attacks—the last not caught until 200 meters from the line—Renshaw, who spent the last few years leading out Mark Cavendish, showed he is a winning sprinter in his own right.

The finish was so close Renshaw didn’t know he had won.

“Until they told me after the finish, I didn’t know the answer,” he told Eurosport. “I knew it was really close.

“I know Matt Goss really well—we train together in Monaco—and I think after the line we both looked at each other and went, ‘Who got that?’

“I had my fingers crossed. Just the one tenth of a second that I threw my bike before his—I think that made the little difference.

“It’s starting to come together now, Rabobank; it’s taken a little while. I’ve been hunting this victory for as long time; to finally to put a run up on the board, I’m ecstatic.”

Ivailo Gabrovski of Konya Torku held on to the leader’s turquoise jersey. The Bulgarian champion, riding for a Turkish Continental team against the much more powerful ProTour squads, had to try to cover every attack alone—without race radios, he had a hard time knowing which riders might be General Classification threats.

Stage Four, 132 km from Fethiye to Marmaris, was very hilly. With only one categorized climb but very little flat road, this was a great stage for a breakaway and equally well suited for a sprint.

“It wasn’t a flat stage at all,” Renshaw commented. “It was only short, but often that produces the best racing. We saw today, we had three climbs in the start and then quite a tough climb at the finish—it’s quite exciting having the short racing. I think Tour of Turkey has done well with the parcours this year.”

Next: Many Breakaways, All Caught

Gerraint Thomas of Sky Procycling won the Prologue and leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour of Romandie. (skyteam.com)

Gerraint Thomas of Sky Procycling beat the rain to win the Prologue of the Tour of Romandie cycling race. Rain, which started shortly after the start of the race, made the 3.3-km Prologue course dangerously slick and added ten seconds to the times of all the riders who started later in the day.

Thomas was in perfect form for the short prologue; he has spent the past several weeks riding Pursuit events for the Sky track cycling team. Training for those four-kilometer races set him up perfectly the opening stage of Romandie.

“It’s a nice little win the team told me I was racing here about ten days ago so it was great to come here. I always knew I’d be up there,” Thomas told Eurosport. “Fortunately with the rain, conditions played into my hands a bit, but there was only really one corner anyway—there is only so much time you can lose in one corner.”

The Sky rider was quick to explain that he wasn’t looking for stage wins; his job was to help sprinter Mark Cavendish and team leader Bradley Wiggins, who was looking to win the General Classification.

“For myself, it’s purely a team role. I’m here to help out in the sprints, wherever they come and obviously Bradley’s going for the GC as well, Thomas said. “Coming from the track I don’t really have the climbing legs at the minute, but it’s all goods work before the Giro [the 21-stage Giro d’Italia starts May 5].”

Thomas didn’t even favor his chances in the final stage, the 16.5-km individual time trial.

RadioShack-Nissan’s Giacomo Nizzolo finished second, five seconds behind the Sky rider, while Thomas’s teammate Mark Cavendish came in third, six seconds off the lead. Bradley Wiggins, riding cautiously in the rain, finished 11^th.

Ivailo Gabrovski riding for Turkish team Konya Torku crosses the finish line to win Stage Three and the leader’s turquoise jersey in the Tour of Turkey. (TourofTurkey.org)

Bulgarian champion Ivailo Gabrovski riding for Turkish Continental team Konya Torku Seker Spor earned a the first win for a Turkish team in the 48-year history of the Presidential Tour of Turkey.

Gabrovski attacked eight kilometers form the end of the final Cat 1 climb of the mountainous Stage Three, opening a gap of over a minute as none of the riders from the bigger teams had any response.

“I knew everyone would be waiting for the final three kilometers. I took a risk and went early because I knew that the others, the better climbers, would be waiting for the end. I made the decision and went on my own,” Gabrovski told Eurosport. “The final three kilometers were the hardest of my career.”

Gabrovski also won the race leader’s turquoise jersey by 1:33.

Astana’s Alexsandr Dyachenko beat Caja Rural’s Danail Andonov and Andalucia’s Adrian Palomares in the sprint for second place, ninety seconds behind the winner.

Gabrovski attacked halfway up the final climb, when the grade was about eight percent, knowing that the real climbers would be saving their legs for the steepest sections at the end. His gamble paid off—none of the big-name climbers could close the gap when the gradient topped ten percent or more near the end.

A six-rider break got away 30 km into the 152-km stage from Antalya to Elmali—Karol Domagalski (Caja Rural,) Laurent Pichon (Bretagne-Schuller,) Leonardo Giordani (Farnese-Vini,) Tony Hurel (Europcar,) Juan Pablo Suarez (Colombia-Coldeportes,) and Marco Bandiera (Omega Pharma-Quickstep.

The peloton allowed this group a five-minute gap over the day’s second climb, another Cat 1 ascent halfway through the stage, then reeled in the break on the lumpy plateaus before the final climb. Colnago and Omega Pharma-Lotto led the chase; the peloton caught the escapees 16 km from the finish, when the road first started to angle up to the mountaintop finish.

The climbers took it easy for the first five kilometers of the climb; with one km to go, when the grade hit eight percent, Astana picked up the pace, with riders from Andalucia and Colombia Coldeportes in line.

Romain Hardy of Bretagne-Schuller was the first rider to attack, but he was shut down quickly. Katusha’s Vladimir Isaichev and United HealthCare’s Phillip Deignan moved to the front, eyeing each other, when Ivailo Gabrovski exploded out of the peloton and simply rode away. No one marked him, possibly because no one recognized the jersey as a serious ProTour team, Konya Torku is a Continental team, one rank below the elite ProTour squads.

Next: More Attacks

Andre Greipel, here winning a stage in the Tour Down Under, captured Stage Two of the 2012 Tour of Turkey Monday. (Morne de Klerk/Getty Images)

Lotto-Belisol’s Andre Greipel used tremendous power and perfect timing to take the sprint finish of Stage Two of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. Greipel came from sixth wheel in a disorganized bunch, saw an opening 300 meters out and opened a two-length gap before anyone saw him go.

The big German didn’t have any teammates to help him; as Europcar, Accent Jobs, and GreenEdge fought for control in the final 500 meters, Greipel watched, waited, and took total advantage.

“I just thought to myself, Okay I’m going to give it a try even I think it was 350 or 300 to go,” Greipel told Eurosport. “First time I looked up it was still 200 meters and I was pretty tired but the last 100 meters I looked through my legs and I couldn’t see anyone. It was a nice sprint I think.”

The Tour of Turkey has attracted some very powerful squads this year, which made Greipel’s win more significant.

“I thought before we started this race, ten really world-class sprinters here,” he commented. “I don’t have my leadout train here so we didn’t put so much pressure; but still we wanted to win a stage, and we have already reached our goal in the second stage

“The circuit is harder than in other years and also the riders are better, so we just have to give it another chance.”

GreenEdge’s Matt Goss finished second in the sprint for the second day in a row, earning himself the leader’s turquoise jersey; he is not likely to keep it as Stage Three is a mountain stage.

Rabobank’s Theo Bos won Stage One by inches from Goss Sunday. Bos and Mark renshaw rtrade leadout/sprinter roles on the Rabobank squad and Monday was Renshaw’s day; he finished fourth behind Europcar’s Matteo Pelucchi.

Stage Two, 153 km from Alanya to Antalya, was a rolling route with a flat finish, made for sprinters. That didn’t stop the breakaway riders. Astana‘s Alexandr Vinokourov, inspired by the victory of teammate maxim Iglinskiy in Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday, led the first successful attack fifty km into the stage. Vinokourov led four other riders—Laurent Pichon (Bretagne-Schuller,) Paolo Locatelli (Colnago,) Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1,) Matteo Fedi (Utensilnord)—until they were swallowed up five km from the finish line.

Farnese Vini was the first team to take the lead after the break was caught, but with only three riders, they ran out of firepower. Lampre and Saxo Bank fought for the lead before NetApp came down the right with four riders, but netApp lacked the speed.

Europcar took over in the last two km with three riders, and held on into the final kilometer, when Accent Jobs spoiled the Europcar train with two riders. A UHC rider moved the front for a moment; then GreenEdge sent an organized trio down the right side. As riders were pushing and shoving trying to get on the right wheel, Andre Greipel spotted a clear path down the middle of the road and attacked.

Maxim Iglinskiy of Astana celebrates winning the 98th Liege-Bastogne-Liege cycling race. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Astana’s Maxim Iglinskiy won the final of the three Ardennes Classics cycling races, Liege-Bastogne-Liege by 20 seconds over Liquigas’s Vincenzo Nibali.

Nibali made a brave attack on the descent of the Côte de La Roche aux Faucons, 20 km from the finish line, and very nearly pulled off the win; Iglinksky, who launched his own attack 10 km out, caught the Liquigas rider 1300 meters from the finish line. Nibali, spent from his efforts, struggled to salvage second place while the Astana rider cruised to victory.

“I have raced Liège seven times and I have finally won,” Iglinsky told velonews.com. “It was a surprise that I could catch Nibali. I could see he was suffering and I attacked him because I could see he was finished. I just buried myself and I won.”

“It’s the biggest win of my career,” he continued. “[Teammate Alexander Vinokourov] called me this morning and told me I could win this race, but that I had to try and get into a breakaway.”

Astana’s Enrico Gasparotto, who won the first of the Classics, Amstel Gold, on Monday, finished third in Liege, outsprinting the rest of the chase group which struggled and failed to catch Nibali and Iglinskiy.

BMC’s Philippe Gilbert, who won all there Ardennes Classics in 2011, struggled on the final climb and ended up 16th.

Next: Long, Hard, Cold and Wet

Domenico Pozzovivo attacks, followed Carlos Betancur and Darwin Atapuma, while Sylvester Szmyd and Damiano Cunego try to keep up. (colango.com)

Domenico Pozzovivo of Colnago showed he can handle power climbs as well as steep climbs, winning the Giro del Trentino with a third-place finish in Stage Four.    

The diminutive Italian showed he could ride power climbs as well as the super-steep ascents, as he rode easily in the front group up the Cat 1 Passo Pordoi, then dropped the favorites in the final kilometer. He was not bothered by the long, medium-grade climb, the cold, the snow or the altitude; he never looked stressed, no matter the pace.

“When I think back to the cold we suffered today – I am still shivering,” Pozzovivo told cyclingnews.com.

“I found the right rhythm and a rising determination as the Tour progressed. It was important to do well as a team as the Giro d’Italia is coming up very soon and we were immediately comfortable with the team time trial on the opening day.

“My teammates have been busy all day to keep the race closed for me. Lots of riders tried to attack me and it was not always easy to answer. But I never had moments of great crisis and in the end I felt so good that I was also able to attack in the finale.”

Pozzovivo had the reputation for being a super-steep specialist, best on the climbs with double-figure gradients, but not strong enough to match the bigger men on the long power climbs. Lampre’s Damiano Cunego and Liquigas’s Sylvester Szmyd, third and second in the General Classification, were favored for the final stage.

Liquigas set a huge pace on the final climb, hoping Pozzovivo wouldn’t have the strength to stay with them. However, the tiny Italian climber handled the pace with ease.

Pozzovivo in Pink—Domenico Pozzovivo wears the maglia rosa after winning the Giro del Trentino. (colnago.com)

A crash on the early slopes of the climb split the peloton, and the pace set by Liquigas riders Ivan Basso and Eros Capecchi did the rest; a group of 18, then 12 riders clung to the leading Liquigas riders while the rest dropped back.

Two breakaway riders, Brian Vanborg of Spidertech and Reto Hollenstein of Netapp were caught a third of the way up the final climb.    

Right after they were caught, Androni Giocattoli’s José Rujano made a strong attack, held a gap of ten bike-lengths for a few minutes, and was caught. He immediately dropped off the back, unable to match the pace set by Liquigas. Rujano, fourth in the General Classification, was the first of the overall contenders to crack under the pressure from Liquigas.

Astana’s Roman Kreuziger, fifth in the GC, was the next to go, as Capecchi took over from Basso and kept the pace high.

Halfway up the final climb Capecchi was done, and the final seven-man group was left to fight for the win.

Pozzovivo moved to the front, riding easily, followed by Sylvester Szmyd, Damiano Cunego of Lampre, Acqua & Sapone’s Carlos Betancur, Colombia-Coldeportes’s Darwin Atapuma, Androni’s José Serpa and Ag2R’s Hubert Dupont.

Dupont, tenth in GC, decided to take a flyer. Pozzovivo didn’t react; he just kept riding quickly and easily and eventually rode down the AG2R rider. Spent, Dupont slipped off the back, with Serpa who was also worn out.

Darwin Aatapuma crosses the finish line to win the final stage of the Giro del Trentino. (colombiacoldeportes.com)

The final five riders stayed together until the final kilometer when Pozzovivo, still pedaling easily, picked up his pace and dropped Szmyd and Cunego. Colobians Carlos Betancur and Darwin Atapuma, used to the high altitude, were able to match the Italian.

Szmyd led Cunego across the line; since the pair finished together, the Lampre rider took second in GC, the Liquigas man, third. Betancur moved from sixth to fourth, Rujano from seventh to fifth. Roman Kreuziger dropped from fourth to sixth.

Colnago's Domenico Pozzovivo won Stage Three and the leader's pink jersey in the Giro del Trentino with a huge effort on the extremely steep Punta Veleno climb. (colnago.com)

Domenico Pozzovivo was the best climber on the course in Stage Three of the Giro del Trentino, riding to victory on the brutal Punta Veleno. The Colnago rider took the leader’s pink jersey as well as the stage, finishing 23 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor and 1:42 ahead of previous leader Mathias Frank of BMC.

“Today is a great day for me, I managed to keep calm and keep up the pace I wanted,” Pozzovivo told cyclingnews.com. “The [final] climb was so hard that I had to use the 34×29 and only in view of the GPM [top of the climb] I switched to the 34×27. With the team we were able to control the situation and when I attacked I immediately made a difference.”

Pozzovivo started the final 8.5, km, 15 percent climb in the lead group, dropped back a bit as Androni Giocattoli’s Jackson Rodriguez took the lead, then took over and rode to the front, seated most of the way and looking quite comfortable as he passed every rider and pressed on alone.

A group of Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas,) Damiano Cunego (Lampre,) José Rujano (Androni,) and Romain Kreuziger (Astana) pursued the 29-year-old Italian, but one by one faded and fell off the pace.

Sylvester Szmyd of Liquigas finished second, ahead of Lampre’s Damiano Cunego, who was fourth on the climb but caught Rujano on the brief, steep descent before the final upward slope to the line.

“It’s a different slope and the team will have to work on the stretch of plain before the Pordoi,” said Pozzovivo. “Surely there will be attacks and Kreuziger especially scares me. I’m fine and I’m ready to do battle.”

Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Katusha celebrates after winning the 76th edition of the Flèche-Wallonne one-day cycling classic. (Michel Krakowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, fresh off two stage wins in the tour of the Basque Country, added another victory to the list with a win up the super-steep Mur de Huy in the 2012 Flèche-Wallonne cycling race.

Rodriguez, nicknamed “Purito,” is a master of the short, extremely steep climbs, and the Mur de Huy is certainly that: 1.3 kilometers long, it has an average gradient of 9.3 and ramps up to 25 percent.

This year’s route took riders up the Huy; once early in the 194-km race, once 31 km from the end, and again for the uphill finish.

Rodriguez waited until the steepest section of the final climb, and attacked. Riders chased him, but none could catch him and he crossed the line pedaling comfortably with a four-second gap.

The victory meant all the more to the 32-year-old rider as he finished second here in 2010 and 2011.

“It’s the best and most incredible victory of my whole career,” Rodriguez said on the Katusha website. “Today is definitely one of the best days of my life. I’ve always been in love with these Classic races, and a victory in these competitions has always been one of my main goals: finally, after many good results, I managed to win. Obviously I have to thank my teammates: all of them did a great job from the beginning to the end.

“It’s true that Mur de Huy was a more suitable final part to my characteristics than Cauberg [the final climb in the Amstel Gold Classic], but I have to admit it was really hard. It looked like an easy victory, but I did a strong effort in order to defeat my rivals.

“Now I can get ready for Liege-Bastogne-Liege with high motivations. I don’t think this victory will change anything, I’m not the only forerunner, there are many strong riders with chances to win. Everything changed from the Amstel Gold Race to Fleche Wallonne and everything can change on Sunday too. So we have to pay a lot of attention and work at our best if we want to take this legendary double.”

Katusha All the Way

In a way, Katusha earned this win; the Russian team, along with Lotto-Belisol, drove the peloton all day long, and particularly at the end, trying to stifle breakaways.

The weather was miserable at the start, cleared for the middle kilometers, and rain came pelting down again shortly before the finish, the last showers were intense but brief; just enough to make sure every rider was thoroughly miserable and the roads dangerously slick for the finish.

After a few abortive attempts, two riders got away 55 km into the race: Dirk Bellemakers of Landbouwkrediet and Anthony Roux of FDJ opened a gap and eventually stretched it to seven minutes. 45 km later Sander Armee of Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator tried to bridge, but never made it, getting caught with 44 km to go.

A number of small…

Damiano Cunego won Stage Two of the Giro del Trentino. (teamlampre.it)

Lampre’s Damiano Cunego won Stage Two of the Giro del Trentino cycling race, sprinting past the competition up the final 500 meters of the hilltop finish.

Lampre moved to the head of the peloton after cresting the Cat 1 Passo Redebus, setting up Cunego’s attack on the 10-kilometer final climb. The Italian rider led with 500 meters to go, when Astana’s Roman Kreuziger attacked. Cunego caught and passed him, and stayed ahead just of Acqua & Sapone’s Alberto Betancur at the line.

“I knew my fitness is good, the team is strong and the course was suitable for my characteristics,” Cunego told cyclingnews.com. “I’m very happy I made all these conditions become reality, obtaining the first victory in this season. This helps me to decrease the disappointment from the Cauberg crash [at the Amstel Gold Race].”

BMC’s Mathias Frank finished seventh, three seconds back, which was good enough to win the leader’s yellow jersey.

21-year-old Taylor Phinney led the BMC team to victory in the Giro del Trentino Stage One team time trial. (bmcracingteam)

U.S. team BMC Racing crossed the line with the fastest time in the Stage One team time trial of the Giro del Trentino cycling race Tuesday, and Taylor Phinney won the leader’s jersey for leading the team across the line. BMC finished the 14.3-km course in 15 minutes, 50 seconds, ten seconds ahead of the time of second-place Astana.

Liquigas and Lampre, the two toughest teams in the event, made poor showings. Liquigas started fast but faded, finishing sixth, while Lampre lost two riders in a crash halfway through and finished eighth.

The four-day Giro del Trentino is a tune-up for climbers planning to contest the Giro d’Italia, May 5–May 27. With four stages: a team time trial and three climbing finishes, this event is all about going uphill.

The 512-km course winds through the Dolomite mountains of northeast Italy. The Dolomites, the southern and of the Alps reach some serious altitudes; Stage Four finishes at 2239 meters (7345 feet) so the air will be thin and cold while the legs and lungs will be burning.

Stage One is a mostly flat 14.3-km team time trial, a quarter-hour warm-up for the climbs of the coming days.

Stage Two, 152 km from Mori to Sant’Orsola Terme/Val dei Mòcheni has a long 5.3 percent Cat 2 climb followed immediately by a short 7.4 percent Cat 1 burst to 1449 meters (4754 feet,) a 20 km descent and ten km at 5.7 percent to the finish line.

Stage Three, 168 km from Pergine Coop. Piccoli Frutti to Brenzone Punta Veleno, is not an actual mountaintop finish; the stage ends with a 2.5 km descent from the very steep (15 percent) final climb. There is a cat 2 climb at the 100-km mark to warm the riders up for the final Hors Categorie blast.

Many riders move from the Giro del Trentino to the Tour of Romandie and then directly to the 21-stage Giro d’Italia, one of three Grands Tours on the season’s cycling schedule.

Katusha’s Denis Galimzyanov admitted to using the banned substance EPO to improve his cycling performance. katushateam.com

Denis Galimzyanov, sprinter for the Russian Katusha cycling team, has been suspended by the team admitting to using the performance-enhancing protein hormone Erythropoietin (EPO) which increases red-blood-cell production.

Galimzyanov was caught in a surprise test on March 22 at his home in Italy, where he was resting between races.

The 25-year-old Russian rider did not ask to have his B sample tested, in case of a false positive. Instead, he wrote a letter of apology, which was posted on the Katusha website, taking full responsibility for his actions and absolving the rest of the team of any involvement.

The letter, translated by Cyclingnews.com, says in part: “I deeply regret what happened, and I apologize to the whole team and my teammates, along with my fans whom I disappointed.

“I would like to draw PARTICULAR ATTENTION to that fact that Katusha Team has nothing to do with what happened. No team member knew and could know about what I did. It was my personal decision and my responsibility.”

The young Russian, who had hoped to represent his nation in the Olympics this year, recently one the first stage of the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe race.

Galimzyanov likely faces a suspension from the Union Cycliste Internationale.

Enrico Gasparotto of Astana Pro Team rides during the Stage Seven of the 2012 Tirreno-Adriatico on March 13, 2012. (Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images)

Cycling’s “Ardennes Week,” three One-Day Classics in seven days, began Sunday with the Amstel Gold race. 260 kilometers long with 31 climbs—all short but some really steep—capped with a hilltop finish, the course was tough enough to drain the strongest riders, and it did.

Astana’s Enrico Gasparotto took the win while some of the strongest riders in cycling—Peter Sagan, Phillip Gilbert, and Oscar Freire—faded on the run to the line.

Gasparotto told the TV cameras he was motivated by his memory of the 2010 race, where he almost had second but faded just before the finish line.

“I arrived third two years ago and it was possible to arrive second, but in the last 20 meter I went too slow,” he explained. “This year I remembered that.

“I was really concentrated for today’s race  because I feel this is a race for me, perfect for me. My teammates did a good job for me; they stayed with me all day. For me, after 2005 when I won the Italian championship, it is another big victory.”

The race started with nine riders getting away 50 km. into the day, and staying away for 180 kilometers—enough to win most races. However, here they had another 30 km to go, and the peloton was too powerful. Two riders, Romain Bardet (AG2R) and Alex Howes (Garmin) tried to press on alone, but they were swallowed up nine km out.

Oscar Friere (Katusha) made a huge attack seven km from the line, and came within 50 meters of succeeding. Two-time winner Philip Gilbert took off in pursuit with two km to go, with Peter Sagan (Liquigas,), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto,) and Gasparotto in tow.

Gilbert burned out 100 meters from the finish. The other three passed him and caught Friere 50 meters out; Sagan faded in the final sprint and Gasparotto saved his final burst until the final few meters, rocketing past Vanendert to win by a length-and-a-half.

Tom Boonen of Omega Pharma-Quick Step crosses the finish line to win the 2012 Paris-Roubaix cycle race for a record-tying fourth time. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Tom Boonen continued his amazing comeback with his ninth win of the year, and it was a huge win in a huge race: Boonen won the 2012 Paris-Roubaix cycling race by 1:39, a huge margin. He is only the second rider in the race’s 117-year history to win the race four times.

Boonen attacked 53 km from the finish and rode the final hour-and-a-quarter of the race alone. He could have stayed with the leaders until the final few hundred meters and won with his powerful sprint; instead he put on a display of power and toughness which no one else could come close to matching.

“Today was one of my best days in my career,” Boonen told cyclingnews.com.

“I was not really thinking about the winning the race or matching the record. I was just fighting myself. I was taking it step by step, cobblestone by cobblestone, kilometer by kilometer. If you start a race like this and think about the whole distance then you make it harder than it is. Riding this way not something I often do but today was a perfect day to take some risk.”

“I was really thinking about my lead. With the gap at 30 seconds I was trying to take it second by second. I was trying not to push it right away to one minute, tried not to force myself. It was the best way to save my strength and put all my strength into the 50 km in front of me. I think it was the best option.”

Domination might be an overused word in sports reporting, but at times it is the only fitting description: Tom Boonen dropped the best riders in the world with seeming ease. He didn’t even leave them in his dust; the dust had settled by the time the competition arrived. The 31-year-old Belgian was a kilometer ahead of the closest pursuit when he entered the Roubaix velodrome to take his last laps and the trophy. He could have gotten off his bike and walked, and still won.

The entire peloton knew, for the final five kilometers, that they were racing for second; they probably knew 20 km from the finish, when the big Belgian had a gap of over a minute, that the race was Boonen’s.

Paris-Roubaix is one of the toughest of the One-Day Classics because of the cobblestones: 27 sections of two-hundred year-old farm roads paved with brick-sized blocks, with huge gaps between them. The pounding the bike and rider takes over the cobbles is immense, staggering; the bikes buck into the air, and the riders’ bodies ripple from the shock of each cobble.

Crashes, flats, and mechanical failures are common; the winner needs luck as well as strength to succeed. Boonen had good luck, but his strength on this day was phenomenal.

Tom Boonen Omega Pharma-Quick Step attacked alone 53 km from the finish line and no one had the legs to catch him. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Boonen chose these toughest sections to accelerate. He didn’t try to stretch his lead on the smooth sections, where any rider could be fast; Boonen pressed hardest when the road was worst, knowing that on this day at least he was the strongest man in the race.

Sébastien Turgot of Europcar took second, winning the sprint by about a millimeter over BMC’s Alessandro Ballan. Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Nicki Terpstra, who attacked with Boonen 55 km out but couldn’t match his teammate’s pace after a couple of kilometers, held on to the others to finish fifth.

“I don’t realize yet how huge is the performance that I achieved,” Turgot told cyclingnews. “I did some track and that certainly helped me in the sprint.

“Boonen was too strong. It was almost a miracle what he did, it was super nice,” Turgot said.

Britain’s Sky Procycling team made a huge effort in the race, pushing the pace early, riding down the first breakaway, and sending four riders in pursuit of Boonen. Their reward was only fourth place; Juan Antonio Flecha didn’t fare well in the final five-man sprint for second. Neither did Lars Boom; after a puncture 20 km out dropped him from the chase group briefly, the Rabobank rider fought his way back to the front, only to get dropped again in the velodrome and finished sixth.

For Tom Boonen, who lost a couple of seasons with a shattered kneecap and a broken wrist, 2012 has been a dream season. His form has been excellent, and he has nine wins to prove it, starting with victory in the Tour of San Luis in January, and continuing through the Tour of Qatar and into the Classics. With his win today he becomes the first rider to win the double-double—the two hardest One-Day Classics, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, in the same season. Boonen did it in 2005, the first year he won Paris-Roubaix, and now again in 2012.