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
GreenEdge took Goss through the twisting final kilometer with Felippo Pozzato on his wheel. Goss ran a bit wide through the final very tight left turn; Pozzato should have. Instead, the Farnese rider tried to cut inside Goss, and lost the front wheel, sliding sideways and cutting down the GreenEdge sprinter.
Rabobank’s Mark Renshaw and Sky’s Mark Cavendish were forced all the way to the right-hand barrier trying to avoid Goss and pozzato, but Moga’s Nikolas Maes also fell and took Saxo Bank’s J.J. Haedo down; Haedo crashed into Cavendish.
BMC’s Danilo Wyss barely stopped before running over Cavendish; Vacansoleil’s Tomasz Marczynski went down hard trying to avoid the bunch.
After the crash, RadioShack’s Giacomo Nizzolo had the lead, and he took off at full chat, but his legs weren’t up to 300 meters’ sprint. Damiano Caruso jumped onto his wheel, while Ventoso came from further back to latch onto Caruso. As Nizzolo slowed, Ventos came around heading for the finish, with Andrioni’s Felline on his wheel. Felline swung right and surged for the line, but too late—Ventoso took the win.
No Sprint Finish Tuesday
Stage Ten, 186 km from Civitavecchia to Assisi, is a hilly stage with a Cat 4 uphill finish. This finish will be particularly tough because it is really a double climb.
The final four kilometers start with a climb with a grade up to 15 percent, a quick descent and then the final Cat 4 which hits eleven percent in the middle and falls off to 5.6 percent. It is almost guaranteed that riders will attack here; with Joaquim Rodriguez and Paolo Tirolongo within 15 seconds of leader Ryder Hesjedal and a dozen riders within a minute of the lead, a lot of riders will be thinking of tightening up the gaps before this weekend’s big mountain stages.
This is also a stage where a breakaway might succeed. With no hope for the sprinters, a handful of riders far enough down in the GC could possibly survive, though there is a flat section in the 20 km before the final climbs where the peloton could really chase hard.
| Giro d'Italia Stage Nine | |||||
| rider | team | time | |||
| 1 | Francisco José Ventoso | Movistar | 3:39:15 | ||
| 2 | Fabio Felline | Androni Giocattoli |
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| 3 | Giacomo Nizzolo | RadioShack-Nissan |
| ||
| 4 | Damiano Caruso | Liquigas-Cannondale |
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| 5 | Daniel Schorn | NetApp |
| ||
| 6 | Alexander Kristoff | Katusha |
| ||
| 7 | Ryder Hesjedal | Garmin-Barracuda |
| ||
| 8 | Matthias Brandle | NetApp |
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| 9 | Manuel Belletti | Ag2R |
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| 10 | Daryl Impey | Orica GreenEdge | |||
| General Classification after Stage 9 | |||||
| rider | team | ||||
| 1 | Ryder Hesjedal | Garmin-Barracuda | 36:02:40 | ||
| 2 | Joaquim Rodriguez | Katusha | 0:00:09 | ||
| 3 | Paolo Tiralongo | Astana | 0:00:15 | ||
| 4 | Roman Kreuziger | Astana | 0:00:35 | ||
| 5 | Benat Intxausti | Movistar |
| ||
| 6 | Ivan Basso | Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:00:40 | ||
| 7 | Damiano Caruso | Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:00:45 | ||
| 8 | Dario Cataldo | Omega Pharma-Quickstep | 0:00:46 | ||
| 9 | Frank Schleck | RadioShack-Nissan | 0:00:48 | ||
| 10 | Eros Capecchi | Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:00:52 | ||
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