COMUNICATI
STAMPA DALLA CORSA
Condizioni
climatiche pessime al Giro
"Mai
provato tanto freddo":
questo è stato il primo commento rilasciato da
quasi tutti i corridori appena dopo aver tagliato il
traguardo.
C'è da capirli, visto che hanno corso la parte
finale della 13ª tappa del Giro (Alessandria-La Thuile)
sotto una pioggia fredda e penetrante, che ha reso ancora
più dura l'ascesa del Colle S.Carlo e assai insidiosa
la successiva discesa verso La Thuile.
La vittoria è andata a Leonardo Piepoli, che ha
staccato in discesa di 44" Ivan Basso (avevano scollinato
assieme per primi). Cunego non è riuscito a trovare
un passo rapido in salita ed è giunto al traguardo
in 9^ posizione, con un ritardo di 2'36": ora in
classifica il veronese è 8° a 8'58" dal
leader Basso.
Da segnalare la generosa azione di Bruseghin, in fuga
fino ai primi chilometri della salita.
Si
avvia verso la conclusione la Volta a Catalunya: nella
penultima tappa (Manlleu-Lloret de Mar) è stat
o Mugerlj (Liquigas) a tagliare per primo il traguardo,
precedendo di un solo secondo un gruppo formato da 56
corridori. La corsa è stata caratterizzata dalla
fuga di un gruppo di 30 unità, del quale facevano
parte anche i Lampre-Fondital Righi (ottimo 6° all'arrivo),
Marzano (11°) e Bono (ripreso dal plotone).
Nella classifica generale, ora guidata da Canada (Saunier
Duval), Marzano occupa il 16° posto con un distacco
di 2'29".
"Never
felt such a cold": this was the first
comment that almost all
the cyclists said after having crossed the finish line.
They were right: in fact they ran the final part of the
13th stage of Giro (Alessandria-La Thuile) under a cold
pouring rain, which made harder the Colle S.Carlo climb
and more dangerous the La Thuile downhill.
Leonardo Piepoli won the stage, with 44" on Basso
(they were together at the top of the climb). Cunego didn't
succeeded in following the head of the race during the
climb and so reached the finish line i n 9th position,
with a gap of 2'36": in the overall ranking, Damiano
is now 8th at 8'58" from the leader Basso.
Generous action by Bruseghin, who was protagonist of a
long breakaway that ended after few kilometres of the
climb.
In
the 6th stage of Volta a Catalunya (Manlleu-Lloret de
Mar), Mugerlj (Liquigas) won, preceding of only 1"
a peloton of 56 cyclists. The race was characterized by
a breakaway of 30 athletes, with also Lampre-Fondital's
Righi (6th), Marzano (11th) and Bono (caught by the bunch).
In the overall standing, Marzano is 16th with a gap of
2'29" from the new leader Canada.
Team
CSC’s Ivan Basso widened his overall lead in Saturday’s
rain-drenched climbing stage over the Italian Alps to
confirm his position as leader at the Giro d’Italia.
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Ivan
Basso e Leonardo Piepoli sulla salita
del San Carlo©Bettini
Photo
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Basso
once again revealed his superb fitness and attacked with
seven kilometers to go on the day’s lone, 10-kilometer
climb up the Colle San Carlo. Only Italian rider
Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) could follow and
Basso was content to finish safely in second place.
“I
rode well again today and that gives me satisfaction,”
Basso said. “I
was able to improve my lead. This is another positive
step, but I have to keep my feet on the ground.”
Rain
and wind pummeled the riders and Basso rode cautiously
down the slippery six- kilometer descent to the finish
line, allowing Piepoli to chase his first career
Giro victory. Basso was comfortable to lose a little
time on the tricky downhill rather than risk a fall.
“It
was too cold and the corners were dangerous, so I decided
not to risk anything,” he said. “I
got cold on the descent because I didn’t put on my
rain jacket, but I wanted to avoid any troubles. It was
another good day.”
Basso
came through second at 44 seconds back, but carved out
even more time on his overall challengers to confirm his
leadership position with a week left to go in the 21-stage
Giro.
More
importantly, Basso widened his lead by 35 seconds to Spanish
rider José Enrique Gutiérrez (Phonak)
to 3 minutes, 27 seconds. Last year’s winner Paolo
Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) finished more than
two minutes off the pace and sits third overall at 5:30
back.
Other
dangerous rivals ceded more terrain, with 2004 Giro champion
Damiano Cunego (Lampre) losing more than
two minutes and falling back to eighth overall at nearly
nine minutes off Basso’s pace.
With
Basso’s dominance, Cunego has already conceded
defeat and it looks like the other top favorites have
determined their best chances are to duke it out for the
final spots on the podium.
Team
CSC was at its best again in Saturday’s cold
and rainy stage. Michael Blaudzun and Jens Voigt helped
set a brutal pace that topped 50kph to drive the peloton
to the base of the 1,951-meter Colle San Carlo.
Iñigo Cuesta and Carlos Sastre then each
took impressive turns at the front of the fast-melting
lead bunch before Basso made his attack.
Saturday’s
216-kilometer 13th stage marked the second foray into
the mountains of this year’s Giro and the second
time that Basso was able to slice away important
time from his rivals.
Team
CSC’s sport director Scott Sunderland cautioned
it’s too early to start putting the champagne on
ice. The hardest stages of the Giro are still looming
in the Dolomites next week.
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Ivan
Basso affronta la discesa verso la Thuile
con molta cautela mentre Piepoli vola verso
il successo di tappa ©Bettini
Photo
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“When
you’re trying to win a major three-week tour, like
the Giro, the Tour or the Vuelta, you can never be too
confident. That’s a dangerous formula,”
he said. “Basso is a favorable
position. It’s better to have a lead like he does
now than just a few seconds, but we can’t let down
our guard.”
Basso
echoed that sentiment, adding that there are still eight
days of hard racing left in the race, including brutal
climbs such as the Plan de Corones on Wednesday and the
famous Mortirolo on Thursday.
“The
Giro isn’t over until Milan,” Basso
said. “I won’t even
look at the overall standings until next Saturday before
the final stage. I will never say the race is over.”
The
89th Giro continues Sunday with the 224-kilometer
climbing stage from Aosta to Domodossola.
The course dips into Switzerland and features two big
climbs before a long run down for the finish.
Team
CSC will want to keep its guard up without spending
too much energy before Tuesday’s much harder climbing
stage finishing atop Monte Bondone in stage 16.
by
Chris Brewer
Stage
13: Alessandria - La Thuile, 218 km / 135 mi
Today
was all about two things at the 2006 Giro d'Italia:
the final 17 kms, and the rain. The first part was pretty
easy to understand. The climb up to the Colle San Carlo
ski station was 10.5 km in length averaging 9.8%,
with sections of 15%. What was unknown was how the soaking
rain would impact the riders, especially on the 3 km descent
to the line in La Thiule.
But
first, the obligatory escape. 176 riders took to the line
and averaged a scalding 50 kmh / 31 mph in the first two
hours (it should be noted that back in the day when it
was primarily the Italians riding the race the Giro was
known for its long "piano" - slow - sections
leading up to the finale, but not any more with the international
flavor courtesy of the Pro Tour). Six riders finally got
down the road from the 87 km mark but the only question
was when they would be caught, not if.
The
weather up until the 158 km mark had been OK, but then
the clouds started to roll in with temperatures atop the
final summit near the freezing mark! With 50 kms left
in the stage and a light rain falling Liquigas took over
the chasing duties for Di Luca and 20 kms later
the gap was under three minutes, another 10 kms and less
than two minutes to the escape.
As
the escape hit the first part of the Colle San Carlo
they knew their time was literally numbered and started
to attack each other, a clear sign that the day was done
as the Team CSC lead peloton came charging up.
Two kms later and it was "gruppo compacto" and
now it remained to be seen who would be the first to attack
and challenge race leader Basso.
Last
year's King of the Mountains José Rujano
(SI) answered the call but the diminutive Venezuelan couldn’t
ride away from Basso and the front of the peloton.
But what he did accomplish was the expected explosion
of the main pack as only Basso, Sastre,
Gutierrez, Simoni, Piepoli, Caruso,
Scarponi could keep up with 9 kms left on the climb.
And then to answer anyone who might have doubted his race
leadership, Basso simply rode away from everyone
save for Simoni and Piepoli…
As
the rain now came steadily down Basso continued
to increase his gap to everyone save now for Piepoli.
Discovery Channel's Paolo Savoldelli marked
time with teammate Tom Danielson but on a day like
today even "Il Falco's" descending skills would
not be able to help. Over the summit and Basso
was content to carefully ride down the treacherously slick
descent and let Piepoli have his day, his main
mission of establishing his reign (in the rain) accomplished
as he put 1-2 minutes into all of his rivals.
Piepoli
would indeed get the stage win while Basso came in second
and Gutierrez third. Savoldelli would get a Top
10 finish on the day and maintain his third place GC standing,
and many now think this is how the race will end as the
time gaps start to assert themselves. But there's plenty
of uphill racing still to come, it just remains to be
seen what drama will be played out along the roads to
Milano…
Matthias
Ruß bester Gerolsteiner in La Thuile
Matthias
Ruß hat im Konzert der Großen auf der
13. Etappe des 89. Giro d'Italia lange mitgemischt. Der
Reutlinger aus dem Team Gerolsteiner heimste sich daher
prompt ein Lob seines Sportlichen Leiters ein. "Als
es im Berg richtig losging, war Matthias lange mit dabei.
Das war gut", sagte Christian Henn zur Leistung seines
Schützlings, der letztlich den 43. Platz belegte
und damit bester aus der Eifel-Equipe war. Den Tagessieg
nach den schwierigen 218 Kilometern von Alessandria nach
La Thuile, bei dem im Finale ein Berg der Ehrenkategorie
zu meistern war, holte sich der Italiener Leonardo Piepoli
(Saunier Duval) als Solist.
Bei widrigen Bedingungen - Henn: "Es hat in einer
Tour geregnet. Auf dem Pass waren es dann fünf Grad,
es lag noch Schnee" - verteidigte Ivan Basso (Italien/CSC)
das Rosa Trikot des Gesamtführenden beim Giro. Die
Gerolsteiner lenkten die Konzentration nach dem anspruchsvollen
Tageswerk derweil auf die anstehenden Aufgaben bei der
ersten dreiwöchigen Rundfahrt der ProTour-Saison.
"Es kommen noch Etappen, auf denen wir noch einmal
unsere Chance suchen wollen", erklärte Henn.
JOSE'
RUJANO SI RITIRA A 3 KM DAL TRAGUARDO "
Nella
tappa con arrivo a La Thuile Josè Rujano si
è ritirato a soli tre chilometri dall'arrivo.
Lo scalatore venezuelano, autore di un attacco all'inizio
del Colle San Carlo, è scollinato con
gli immediati inseguitori, si è staccato nella
fase di discesa fermandosi a soli tre chilometri dall'arrivo.
Nonostante le insistenze del D.S. presente sulla seconda
ammiraglia, Giovanni Ellena, Rujano ha
deciso di non ripartire abbandonando così il
Giro d'Italia.
Leonardo
Piepoli, il "Trullo Volante", figlio di
emigranti di Alberobello nato in Svizzera, coglie
la sua prima grande vittoria al Giro d'Italia.
