Giro: Mayo’s First Giro Means His First Giro Win

By Jessica | Permalink | No Comments | June 1st, 2007 | Trackback

It’s hard to believe that the Iban Mayo who won today’s Giro stage is the same guy who once stopped alongside a mountain roadside in the Tour de France to wait ages to climb into his team car and quit the race altogether. Back then, he seemed kind of sad, as if his best days were behind him and he knew it. Today, however, he looked strong and completely in control. I like him better this way. And what makes this victory even sweeter is that this is Mayo’s first Giro. Not a bad way to mark the occasion, methinks.

Mayo had been part of a break with the likes of Stefano Garzelli, Michael Rasmussen, Alberto Losada, Giovanni Visconti and Evgeni Petrov, and then he and Losada had managed to get clear of the rest of the gang. Mayo turned on the gas and was finally able to put distance between him and Losada and he crossed the finish line alone. Visconti came in 2nd, more than 40 seconds behind him.

The top 10 today:
1 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 4.34.49
2 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Quickstep - Innergetic 0.43
3 Marco Marzano (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 1.04
4 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 1.08
5 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System
6 Mario Aerts (Bel) Predictor - Lotto 2.54
7 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) T-Mobile Team 2.58
8 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare 3.13
9 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux
10 Josep Jufre Pou (Spa) Predictor - Lotto

The conditions today were absolute shite - pouring rain at the finish and pretty wet and cold along the whole stage. Race leader Danilo Di Luca looked positively annoyed at how cold and wet he was, even bundled in his huge rain jacket. Thankfully, the peloton’s memory is long enough to recall the slip-and-slide finish of last week - they took the corners at near-granny pace and there wasn’t the finish line pile-up there could have been. Petrov crashed on the descent, but they showed him riding over the finish line so he must not have been too badly hurt.

The GC now looks like this:
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 86.46.28
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 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System 8.20
8 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 10.00
9 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 10.39
10 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 10.55

Petrov was looking for time today, as he’s not too shabby in the time-trialling department (not something that can be said about the guys in the top 5, although I suppose we really don’t know much about the young Mr. Schleck yet), but he wasn’t able to get enough time to really make a dent on the overall. Tomorrow’s TT will probably shake up the GC from the 2nd position down, but I doubt Di Luca will be letting go of that top spot.

Read the race report here.

photo from Afp

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