Giro: Garzelli Takes the Stage, Di Luca Limits Losses

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | May 26th, 2007 | Trackback

What looked like it was going to be just an interim stage turned into one of the more exciting days we’ve seen so far. A breakaway group containing Gilberto Simoni, Paolo Savoldelli, Paolo Bettini, Stefano Garzelli and Eddy Mazzoleni (among others) got away on the big descent, and put the hurt on Liquigas and Lampre back in the peloton, who were forced to do all the chase work on behalf of Danilo Di Luca and Marzio Bruseghin. The effort paid off, as the Liquigas team especially suffered mightily today - it’ll be interesting to see if they can bounce back and still protect Di Luca later on…

At any rate, Simoni jumped clear of the group on the last little climb coming into Bergamo, and only Garzelli could follow him. Garzelli couldn’t quite caught his wheel, and it looked like Simoni might actually have it - but Garzelli amazingly came around him in the final meters to take the stage win. Poor Bettini ended up in 3rd place yet again (and he looked like he really wanted this one, too). Di Luca did his own chasing at the end, having used up all his teammates, and he led the small group containing Bruseghin and Andy Schleck home only 38 seconds down on Garzelli.

Today’s top eight (yes, it’s a random number, it’s just what was up on the results list I was looking at when I was writing this):
1 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo
2 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
3 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quickstep-Innergetic
4 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
5 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Astana
6 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Astana
7 Ivan Parra (Col) Cofidis
8 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas

So, Di Luca keeps his maglia rosa, and the GC hasn’t changed too dramatically - but today’s hard effort might have really taken its toll on the Liquigas squad going into the hardest stages of the Giro. The biggest move on GC appears to be Simoni, who jumps from 8th to 5th. The top five now look pretty intimidating - Bruseghin especially is a bit of an unknown here. If he’s that good of a time triallist and he can stick with the big guys on climbs, he could be more of a threat than previously thought. And of course we’re all watching Schleck develop as a rider, too.

The GC now:
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas
2 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
3 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC
4 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
5 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir

There’s no time gaps up yet, but they’ll be here later along with a full race report.