Giro: Ale-Jet Gets 4th Stage, Di Luca Seems a Lock

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | May 31st, 2007 | Trackback

peta Alessandro Petacchi had to sprint on his own from so far out today that he was still breathing heavily several minutes later during interviews, and then even still on the podium. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that blown - he clearly worked his ass off for his 4th Giro stage win today, and deserved it. Poor Paolo Bettini, who has been drooling over a Giro stage win for nearly three weeks now, got caught behind a stupid crash on the final turn (he didn’t go down, though) and wasn’t able to get back up to the front quickly enough. Perhaps tomorrow can be Bettini’s day. We can hope, at least - the cricket is fun to watch when he wins.

Today’s top ten:
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Team Milram 4.32.51 (45.739 km/h)
2 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare
3 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC
4 Thomas Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner
5 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Gerolsteiner
6 Nikolai Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System
7 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
8 Stefano Zanini (Ita) Predictor - Lotto
9 Julian Dean (NZl) Crédit Agricole
10 Hervé Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone

And the top 10 on GC:
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 82.08.26
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC 2.24
3 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 2.28
4 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 3.29
5 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Astana 3.46
6 Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 5.19
7 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 10.00
8 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System 10.25
9 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 10.39
10 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 10.55

Yesterday’s stage up the Monte Zoncolan wasn’t as exciting as I think we all hoped it would be; with Danilo Di Luca so many minutes ahead of the next few guys on GC, all he had to do was not lose minutes to any of them and he would pretty much be able to coast into Milan (since none of them are the kinds of time triallists who can take minutes back on him on Saturday). And that’s exactly what he did - he didn’t attack, but he didn’t need to. Gilberto Simoni attacked, and really looked fantastic - but didn’t have enough mountain left to put enough time on Di Luca. Damiano Cunego didn’t look great, and neither did Andy Schleck. As much as it surprises me to say this, I think this is Di Luca’s race to lose.

And I will really feel awful if he cracks on Saturday now, since I would have been the one to jinx it. (What can I say? It’s that Jewish guilt coming out full force.)