Stage 7

It’s down to four seconds between the reigning Tour de France champion and the young “Cobra” Ricco going into an epic weekend that features a brutal mountain stage and final time trial in Milan. This Giro could be one of the closest in memory after a week that featured a brutal uphill time trial.

Riccardo Ricco unleashed his frustrations at Emmanuele Sella and Domenico Pozzovivo when he saw that he missed the Maglia Rosa by only four seconds. Sella and Pozzovivo were defending their GC places and by that effort helped Contador pace back in. Ricco likes to talk and wear his heart on his sleeve which endears him to many Italian cycling fans. The fire is fun to watch especially when so many other cyclist tend to watch what they say and speak in metered tones.

Ricco and DiLuca attacked Contador and now look to be in contention. The next stage features some brutal climbs up the Gavia Pass and the Mortirolo. The problem is that these climbs may not be decisive enough since they are far from the finish.

Ricco and DiLuca need some more time between themselves and Contador for the final TT which favors Contador.

Rain Sicilian roads made for a slick crash filled stage. The processional pace must have been a result of the crashes and recovery from the previous two stages. Passing from Catania to Messina there were many crashes highlighting the Giro coverage. Bradley McGee is the latest early exit from a nasty crash. That is two TT expert racers in two days.

Meanwhile Liquigas had a busy day controlling the tempo as team of race leader Franco Pellizotti and later on setting a high pace for the aspiring Sprint King Daniele Bennati. Benna

Vincenzo Nibali made a brief flyer to make the locals happy. The Sicilian cyclist riding on home roads got some cheers as he attacked 9 km from the finish. The Nibali attack which was more for show since he is a hometown kid, helped to setup the Liquigas train for Bennati.

The Liquigas train will never be mistaken for Petacchi’s Milram trains since attacks were able to get off the front and only a few Liquigas men were able to stay at the front. The front was a mix of Milram, High Road and other teams. Bennati was on Zabel’s wheels and other Milram riders. Going into the final 500 meters Bennati used the Milram train meant for Zabel to launch his final attack. Zabel was well placed but could not get around Bennati.

One of the exciting aspects of the Giro are these brutal climbing circuit finishes that bring out the small Italian sprinting/climbing types. The Davide Rebellin’s Danilo Diluca’s and Paolo Bettini type of racers that can power up brutally steep climbs and sprint to win in a small pack. The new kid on the block is brash and already has a viscious nickname of ‘Il Cobra’ Ricardi Ricco powered his way to a win in Agrigento in front of Davide Rebellin to take a well deserved win.

The day showed that Team LPR is serious in helping Danilo DiLuca defend his Maglia Rosa. LPR has some good racers including Paolo Savoldelli a former Giro winner himself. After Slipstream set the pace for most of the day with big man Magnus Backstedt in the front, LPR took over when the roads started getting steeper.

Slipstream meanwhile is suffering a double whammy mojo loss of the Maglia Rosa off of Christian Vande Velde’s back by a measly one second to Franco “porno Hair” Pellizotti. And David Zabriske could not use his mustache mojo to avoid a bad crash that hurt his vertebrae. The injury is not to serious, but will take some time to recover.

The Giro is upon us once again. The funnest Grand Tour started today in Palermo, Sicily with a Team Time Trial. Twenty years after Andy Hampsten last wore the Maglia Rosa in Milan to win the 1988 Giro D’Italia witha young American 7-Eleven team Christian Vande Velde wears the Maglia at the start with a young American team.

Team Slipstream has been the team to beat in the Team Time Trials. They set an early fast time that teams such as the well oiled CSC and High Road failed to beat. The competition between CSC which was the home of Slipstream racers Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriske must have been intense as the CSC men came down and missed the time of Slipstream by only seconds. The typical hot and sunny Sicilian town presented an overcast day with some ocean breezes helping to slow down the return ride home. Several teams would clock in fast times to the half way point only to lose some time on the way back in.

Slipstream has been preparing for the TTT for over a week and made the first stage one of their main goals. Their win today was not for lack of trying as they already won the Team Time Trial at the Road America course in the Tour de Georgia just a couple of weeks ago. Recently they were training with the Giro team in Spain. So this win was not a big surprise for many who follow the team.

Team High Road had to help nurse their young revelation and Tour de Georgia winner Sistov who was having a hard time staying with the fast pace set by the team. As he dangled back other teammates were seen slowing down and encouragingS istov to stay in contact with the group. Clearly High Road has some bigger ambitions for Sistov during the Giro.

Next few stages go to the sprinters as Daniele Bennati can finally try to take the stage to himself as the next Italian sprint king as Alessandro Petacchi is home serving a one year suspension. Bennati is back into form and with a new team. He won the final stage of the Tour de Romandie. Bennati looks to square off against Mark Cavendish of Team High Road who also had a good result in Romandie with a prologue win. Robbie McEwen has been a regular winner and early abandoner of the Giro in recent years. The Bennati-Canvendish-McEwen battle should be fun to watch.

When you hear Italian cyclist speak they always talk about being calm or serene in their racing or training. It is almost like they are talking about going to a spa instead of an intense bike race. This is particularly interesting since Italians are know for their hot tempers. Up until this year Danilo DiLuca has been the poster for for serene cyclist. The Abruzzese cyclist really did not show his emotions that much until his win at Liege and the Liquigas Team Time Trial victory at the Giro.

The picture above is probably what each of the cyclist were thinking at the moment. Enrico Gasparotto forgot that Danilo was supposed to go over the line first. DiLuca was well aware of the error and looks to be screaming at the top of his lungs. One can only imagine the conversation between these two on the team bus.

Danilo DiLuca has let his anger show much more this year. Perhaps it was the poor showing in 2006 after such a successful 2005 that made Il Killer have the “Eye of the Tiger” this year. Whatever it is Danilo is showing some emotion at the finish line.

At Leige it seems as though DiLuca let out some major frustration as he crossed the finish line.

Diluca was also seen wearing a sourpuss face at the Amstel podium. No one could actually blame him though since he did a lions share of work to try and catch Schumacher and all he got for the work was third place. But that was simply good teamwork by Gerolsteiner.

Maybe DiLuca tried to do the serenity thing that all the other Italian cyclist talk about and it did not work. Everytime DiLuca would get angry he would say “Serenity Now” to remain calm. But, just as it did not work for Lloyd Braun, it did not work or DiLuca, so now we have the Ragahol “Il Killer” leading the Giro. Make sure he stays away from the sharp objects.

Ivan Basso looked like he redeemed himself yesterday with the honest admission of working with Dr. Fuentes and admitting that he is “Birillo”. But Basso has a career and palmares to think about. The Giro victory was a major milestone that was ripe to be taken away now that Basso admitted to doping.

The nine minute margin of victory over fellow OP convict “Il Bufalo” Gutierrez was impressive. So impressive that loud mouth Simoni declared that Basso was an “Extraterrestrial”. Simoni did not mean that Basso had a good friend named Eliot and had a heart that glowed. What he meant was that Basso was on something. We all owe Simoni a public apology for being so right on about Basso’s performance. So maybe Basso did offer Simoni cash in exchange for a victory. I have new respect for Simoni and hope he wins the Giro this year.

Yesterday Basso looked like he was a hero. He came out and did the courageous thing by admitting to doping. But today he looks like a weenie desperately trying to hold on to his Giro victory from last year. What Basso needs to understand is that its all or nothing. You have to come out and admit to doping and help try and prevent doping for the younger guys. Basso’s career is effectively over and he should concentrate on the next phase of life as a possible champion of anti-doping. Giving lame “I did not inhale” type excuses is insulting and takes away from the honesty of admitting to working with Fuentes in the first place.

The rift between grand tour organizers and the ProTour should help Tinkoff’s chances in the Giro. Zomegnan noted his differences with UCI president Pat McQuaid and said the two were definitely not talking after recent “Mafia” comments by the Irishman. “You could really see his soul with those remarks.”
– cyclingnews.com

This split with the UCI by not including all of the ProTour teams is a natural adjustment for the Giro D’Italia which as had its little brother status to the Tour exacerbated by the ProTour.

Italy has a wealth of smaller teams whose major goal used to be the Giro D’Italia. The ProTour has put a crimp in those plans causing smaller cycling teams to completely miss out on a major goal, while other foreign teams would simply send a B squad to get training miles.

Tinkoff Credit Systems, Aqua e Sapone, Barloworld and many other teams offer a very strong option for the Giro to pick from. These teams would send some very motivated ridres that could animate the race and have other riders that could go for the win such as Stefano Garzelli of Aqua e Sapone and Tyler Hamilton of Tinkoff.

The recent Tinkoff Credit Systems team presentation was attended by some of the biggest power brokers in Italian Cycling such as Italian national director sportif Franco Ballerini, the President of the Italian Cycling Federation Renato Di Rocco and Giro organizer Angelo Zomegnan. These are the guys you want at your team presentation if your main goal is riding in the Giro.

The only question now would be who is going to be excluded from the Giro? Unibet.com might catch a break since they recently signed Jose Rujano who placed third in 2005 Giro. Other teams such as Credit Agricole has an Italian contingent who may make the Giro a main goal. Astana have Paolo Salvodelli a two time Giro champ on their roster so that may save their bid. The cut down process to 18 teams may be interesting when you see just who exactly is going to be left off.

Ivan Basso may have sparked the latest trend in cycling of racing both the Giro and Tour de France. Basso was unable to ride the double last year due to some doping investigation, but with the Giro win in his pocket he was able to get some trophies from the adoring Italian press by the end of the year. Since then many other pros have looked at doing the double themselves. Paolo Salvodelli announced he is going for the Giro-Tour double as is Iban Mayo. Fresh into his new Sauunier Duval team kit the enigmatic Spanish cyclist is full of hope for 2007.

tuttobiciweb.com reports:
Today for the first time Iban Mayo unveiled the new look for Saunier Duval-Prodir. Mayo took the opportunity to talk with the press and announce his objectives for 2007.

“The Giro D’Italia and the Tour de France. Above all the Giro is very attractive to me. This year will be my debut on the Corsa Rosa where I will work for Gilberto Simoni.

I have had a very quiet winter where I was able to put in lots of work without any pressure. This is much like it used to be long ago. In the team I feel much more free. At the Giro I will race without pressure with the only objective being to learn from Simoni and help him with the major objective of final victory.

Director Sportif Joxean Fernández ‘Matxin’ says that Saunier Duval-Prodir has a great deal of faith in Iban Mayo.

“Seeing Mayo with the Maglia Rosa on his back? I don’t think it would be heresy. I see that he is considered one of the major talents in professional cycling today”

Interview translated from: http://www.tuttobiciweb.com/home.htm

The comments from DS Joxean Fernández ‘Matxin’ are interesting. With Mayo being given new life at Saunier Duval,could this put a strain on the relationship with Simoni? Mayo sounds like he will be a force to contend with at the Grand Tours this year. After withering under the pressure of high expectations at Euskatel Euskadi he seems to have found a good team that will keep the pressure off for some time. Mayo is one of those cyclist who needs his own space. After his breakout performances in the Tour de France in 2002 and 2003 Mayo seemed to wither under the pressure of expectations. Now with less pressure and an emotionally supporting team it is a make or break year for Mayo.

What would be interesting is if Mayo has great form during the Giro and we see a replay of the Saeco saga of 2004 where Simoni was the favorite who ended up playing support for Damiano Cunego. Cunego had the support of DS Giuseppe Martinelli much like Maxtin seems to support Mayo. If I were Simoni I’d be making sure everyone is on the same page when May rolls around.

The 2007 Giro D’Italia route was unveiled on Saturday in Milan in front of a who’s who of Italian Cycling. The new route is being described as a more “human” tour with fewer mountain stages, but also fewer time trials. The route looks to leave the Giro very much an open race up to the end. With fewer time trials and some tough mountain stages Francesco Moser called the 2007 Giro one for the climbers. Here is a list of climbs from the gazzetta.it site: The climbs

The emphasis of the 2007 Giro is for providing a close battle. After Ivan Basso’ dominant victory in 2006 the Giro organizers probably wanted t keep the race closer and provide less decisive stages. The route is tailored to the styles of most of the top Italian contenders such as Basso, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego and even Danilo DiLuca. Alessandro Petacchi is happy with more sprinters stages than last year. The manageable mountain stages will help Petacchi get to the finish in Milan as long as he does not crash like in 2006.

Uphill Time Trial
One of the time trials is a 13km uphill TT on Stage 13. This climb was last featured in 1999 which was the scene of a dominant win by Marco Pantani. At the bottom of the climb Pantani lost 40 seconds due to a chain problem. Once he was adjusted his Mercatone Uno team paced him up to the peloton. During the climb Pantani passed 50 riders on his way to the win.

Stage 13 13km. Mountain Time Trial BIELLA – SANTUARIO DI OROPA

More Pantani memories are on tap for Stage 12 from Scalenghe to Briancon which features the Cima Coppi climb of Colle di Agnello. The stage is similar to on in 2000 where Marco Pantani helped Stefano Garzelli to win the Giro overall. The stage featured Pantani surging through descents of a previous climb where he was dropped. Il Pirata caught up to the lead group and paced Garzelli.

Two of the most fearsome climbs of the Giro are the Tre Cimi di Lavaredo and the Zoncolan. Both have been featured in the past but riders such as Gilberto Simoni are nervous at tackling both climbs in one Giro.

Stage 15: Tre Cimi di Lavaredo

Stage 17: The Zoncalon is a fearsome climb.

The RAI Click website has an archive of the entire Giro D’Italia coverage as seen on RAI. Relive the domination of Ivan Basso and listen to some great Italian commentators too. The Processo alla Tappa program is also available and that is worth seeing too.

Click on “VENTUNESIMA TAPPA – 28/05″ (the 21st stage) to view the confrontation between Gilberto Simoni and Ivan Basso at the start of the final stage. Ivan Basso says to Simoni to not tell lies to which Simoni replies to Basso “you don;t exist to me any more, go away”. Forward to the 8:00 mark to view the rare moment of an emotional confrontation between cyclist. Watch Basso keeps his cool while a weasally Simoni waves his hands telling Basso to go away.

RAI Click TV

“I made some erroneous statements but I didn’t want to damage Basso’s reputation, certain things are part of the race,” said Simoni, alluding to the common practice of Tour leaders to elicit help from a breakaway companion in exchange for allowing the companion to take the stage victory unopposed.

“Simoni has denied everything. There was never any question of an agreement, even less so a sum of money,” said the rider’s lawyer Giuseppe Napoleone. “However, he was interviewed straight after the finish and he was flustered. But there was never any mention of numbers, we now want the affair to be closed, also for the sake of the Saunier-Duval team.”

All this may mean that Simoni will likely be suspended and have to miss the Tour de France. This will spare the press of Simoni’s his usual poor Tour performance excuses and complaints. No class.

Velonews

Accusations from Simoni have come out after Saturday’s Giro stage to Aprica where Ivan Basso cemented a dominating Giro win with his third stage win. The win was particularly sweet since Basso was celebrating the birth of a new son whose picture he proudly showed the world as he crossed the finish line. Life couldn’t be better for Basso. Now Sourpuss Simoni is accusing Basso of not playing fair. First, Simoni was bitter that Basso asked him to take it easy on the descent of the Mortirolo so not to take risks. Surely Simoni thought that as a reward for chilling out, Basso would give him the stage win. Sadly for SS, it was not to be since Basso has been so much stronger than anyone else this Giro. The Smiling Assasin was not in a giving mood especially since Jens Voight gave a gift to Juan Manuel Garate the day before. Team manager Bjarne Riis must have been proud of the gesture on the outside, but cycling is as much a business as it is a sport, so a Giro stage win is quite a gift. So, CSC weren’t that much in a giving mood especially as Basso was so much stronger than Simoni at this point.

Today, Simoni has upped the ante by accusing Basso of asking for cash in exhange for allowing Simoni to take the stage win. Simoni let these accusations fly in the press, while Basso and CSC chose to ignore these statements. Lets make this clear, deals are brokered in the peloton all the time. Riders discuss deals when helping a team or negotiating a stage win. This is not new. It could be an unsavory aspect to the sport, but if a deal is offered or not there is no discussion thereafter, especially in the press. Seems like Simoni is either making up the story or doing a very unsportsman like gesture and blabbing to the press about a potential deal. Either eay,this is a no class move by a rider who is no stranger to shooting off his mouth whenever things do not go his way. The 2004 Giro is a perfect example as Simoni would be throwing all types of accusations at Cunego. Even at the Tour of California, Simoni was complaining about the tougher than expected pace of the race. Simoni was also at odds with Marco Pantani throughout his career, and helps deny the Pirate a stage win in his final Giro in 2003. So, Simoni is definatley no stranger to polemics with other riders, this is simply the latest round of “who can PO Gibo”

http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/dirette/giro/real_Dsl.shtml

So what is the difference this year where Ivan Basso looks super strong? Last year Basso was a great climber and time trialer, but this year he seems to have upped the skills to another level. Mot of this has to do with taking Lance Armstrong’s playbook for Tour de France domination and running with it.
Here are the facts. Basso has increased his cadence this year. Davide Cassani of RAI points this out incessantly. Last year Basso would have been pedalling at 65 rpms up a mount climb such as Bondone. This year he is pedalling at around 85 to 95 rpms. His style on the bike is super smooth, he only gets up to accelarate and when he does he shifts up a gear. His climbing speed was further enhanced by motor pacing up climbs. Usually motor pacing is done on flat land, but this method definatley shows the results as Basso is climbing up the climbs as if he is on a motorcycle.

Next, he has a beefed up team and launches him up the climbs. Guys like Sastre, Voight, Julich etc are strong on their own, and they prove to be a fearsome force to guide Basso in the mountains. Today Jens Voight was rolling the CSC train for much of the early part of the Bondone climb. He was later releived by Carlos Sastre who set an equally bristering pace. For most of the climb until the Simoni/Piepoli attack, CSC had at least four riders at the front while the peloton was losing riders.

Finally, after years of close placings and mistakes, CSC seems to finally have their act together. Basso suffered stomach problems just when he looked to run away with the Giro last year. This year, CSC is taking no chances as the brought down their own chef.

The Girocertainy isn’t over as the Plan de Corones climb could throw a curveball to Basso and company, but each day Ivan Basso is crushing the competition at every opportunity.

The Rujano saga took one more (probably final) odd step in Saturday’s stage to La Thuile. Jose Rujano abruptly retired from the race with only 3km left in the stage to La Thuile. This was after showing some improving form when he attacked the maglia rosa group. Although he was quickly reeled in and dropped by Basso, the Venezualian looked to be getting set for the brutal final week in the Giro. After the long cold descent, Rujano was complaining of not being able to brake and decided to pack it in for the entire race. Selle Italia team boss seemed miffed at the explaination and simply called the whole deal a mystery during the Giro followup show “Processo all Tappa”. Seems as though Savio does not know much more about why Rujano called it a day only 3km before the finish. Whatever problems existed, he could simply coast his way to the finish from 3km away if there was any sort of real problem.

The Selle Italia polemics with Rujano are probably in the past now as the Venezualian climber is looking forward to joining his new team Quick-Step on June 1st. Rujano was not in the same form as last year. However, the tiny climber who “looks like a little kid on a bike” (according to Aurio Bulbarelli of RAI) will be moving on to Belgian team Quick Step where he will see what it means to be a professional bike racer from guy slike Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini. Unfortuanelty for Rujano he lost some prime chances at winning stages in the Giro as the final week was serving up opportunities that were almost tailor made for the 48kg climber. He can now watch Basso or Piepoli or others soak up the glory that could have been his.

Wladmir Belli is back in the Giro. From the looks of the standings with Simoni and Belli separated by only one place, you would think it was five years ago when Simoni’s fans were all over the Giro course and the two were fighting out for the Giro top spot. Simoni’s tifosi were so annoying that Belli had to slug one that got a little too close. Turns out that man was Simoni’s brother-in-law and the punch was a little too much for the Giro orgs tastes. So Belli was Dq’d.

Now five years later, Belli is back in the Giro riding for Selle Italia. His original job was to use his years of experience in the Giro to help guide Jose Rujano to and overall win. Selle Italia loaded up with veterans to help Rujano get through the Giro in a winning position. Now that Rujano fizzled Belli is in a top spot on GC and in great form. Belli who has stated that he will retire after the Giro was asked by David Cassani on “Processo della Tappa” if he is still going to retire after the race. He replied that it is hard when you are in great form, but now that he is 36 years old he knows that it is time to stop.

Basso’s climbing skills have matured to the level of a Lance Armstrong. No longer is the Italian simply following wheels, he is setting the pace with his CSC team and then blasting away the competition as if he just stole the US Postal Service playbook. Take a few Spanish climbers, set a very fast pace, watch your rivals flap around like fish trying to follow, crush to a pulp.

CSC had Questa and Sastre pushing the pace to a level where some frightful climbers were left looking human. The threats from Cunego and Rujano appeared breifly in the form of wet noodle attacks. They were quickly reeled in by Basso and left by the side of the road to wonder what hit them.

In the La Thuile stage, Rujano was distraught (or who knows what is up with him) enough where he dropped out of the Giro with only 3km left in today’s stage. Damiano Cunego has been overhauled so badly by Basso and crew that he is left in a daze wondering just what is going on. He can’t blame mononucleosis for his poor performance. The Lampre team that was filled with climbing specialist has been nonexistent in mountain stages. The man making the most appearances up front has been Marzo Bruseghin who is more of a passista.

Gilberto Simoni is up near the front as usual, but he owes much of that to La Thuile stage winner and now lightest man in the Giro at 50kg Leonardo Piepoli.

The climbing specialist can take solace in the fact that the “real” climbing has not begun. There are four stages in the final week of the Giro that can really turn the General Classicification upside down. The problem for Simoni and others is that they did not look very strong against Basso in the climbs. In fact the only weakness that Basso has show in the past two weeks was a cautious descent to La Thuile, where he let Piepoli go by around 40 seconds.
Rumor was that his wheels were the lighter climbing variety and with the slick roads, Basso did not want to risk everything for a few more seconds.

The Giro started this weekend and may have ended this weekend too. Ivan Basso put down a Lance Armstrong/Miguel Indurain type of performance on the first real mountin top finish of the Giro. As Carlos Sastre set a tempo reminiscent of Discovery Channel/Postal leadout of the past seven years, Basso simply clicked away as contenders drifted off the back of the group.

The first of the contenders to feel the pain was Danilo DiLuca. “The Killer” did not seem to be on form all this weekend. It was reported that DiLuca was suffering some sort of ailment on Saturday which showed. On Sunday his pace was much better, but he was one of the first top contenders to get launched off the back.

Paolo Savoldelli had a good ride, but probably lost one minute more than he would have liked. He was not going to keep up with the top mountainmen in the Giro this year, which may mean that he does not have much of a chance to repeat his win from last year.

Gilberto Simoni could not get launched by his teamate Leonardo Piepoli. The small Italian climber helped Gibo get to the top of the climb on Sunday as Basso simply rode away with the win. Simoni felt that he set a good pace and was frustrated that he could not muster any more speed. Is he getting old? Not really he placed respectably, he is just not as fast as Basso or Cunego.

Damiano Cunego may be the big challenger to Ivan Basso in the next two weeks. “Il Prinicpe” was read to pounce on a win. With 4km to go Cunego launched an attack trying to see if Basso would follow. Basso did and immediately upped the pace. Cunego burned his match and could not stay on Basso’s wheel. David Cassani-RAI Giro commentator stated that the attack was simple inexperience. He attacked too early and probably should have waited until later to attack or win the stage. I think Cunego simply miscalculated how strong Basso was in the mountains as he simply sped away from all of the competitors.

Other riders to look out for in the Giro are Jose Rujano and Jan Ullrich. Rujano and Ullrich were climbing side by side coming into Saturday’s stage. Two out of form riders with different goals. Rujano was a mystery coming into the Giro and was supposed to be a contender for the overall on a course that suits him well. The 48 kg climber is clearly not in form. He was able to claw his way back to the lead group on Sunday after which he launched an attack. The attack was gradually reeled in by Sastre which resulted in the Cunego counter attack. If the 48kg climber was all over his bike trying to get speed up the climb. He performed better than Saturday, which may mean he could chellenge for a stage win later in the Giro, his Maglia Rosa chances look slim.

Jan Ullrich looks to be improving his form each day. Der Kaiser placed respectably on Saturday’s stage and chose a more leisurly pace on Sunday. His weekend performances are not bad considering what many were saying about him earlier in the year.

Ivan Basso clearly has a tight grip on the Maglia Rosa much like he did last year early in the race. After one year of preparation and analysis of what went wrong on the Stelvio stage you can bet that Basso won’t leave much up to chance.