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Cervelo's Gerrans wins at San Luca in classic style
Menchov holds the lead as Leipheimer loses a few seconds
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Danilo Di Luca (LPR) missed a chance to jump back into the pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia in Saturday’s hilltop finish up the fiercely steep climb to the San Luca church that was tailor-made for his explosive style.
Instead of battling for a vital 20-second time bonus that might have come with a stage victory, LPR botched the chase in the 172km 14th stage and let most of a 14-man breakaway stay clear to gobble up the time bonuses.
“We pushed until the 50km mark and then I told my teammates to slow down because we couldn’t catch them,” a disappointed Di Luca said after the stage. “We spent too much energy today.”
Simon Gerrans (Cervélo TestTeam) snatched an impressive victory out of the break, 12 seconds ahead of Rubens Bertogliati (Diquigiovanni) up the steep “wall” to the San Luca church high above Bologna in only this Giro’s second successful breakaway.
2009 Giro d'Italia
- Stage 14: Campi Bisenzio to Bologna
- 172km (107 mile)
- Stage winner: Simon Gerrans (Cervelo TestTeam) in 4:16:48
- Stage winner's average speed: 40.2 kph (25.0 mph)
- GC leader: Denis Menchov (Rabobank)
- Points jersey: Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes)
- Climber's jersey: Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone)
- Team GC leader:
- Most aggressive for the day:
- Best young rider: Thomas Lovkvist (Columbia-Highroad)
- Previous stage winners/GC leaders:
- Stage 1: Team Columbia-Highroad/Cavendish
- Stage 2: Petacchi/Cavendish
- Stage 3: Petacchi/Petacchi
- Stage 4: Di Luca/Lovkvist
- Stage 5: Menchov/Di Luca
- Stage 6: Scarponi/Di Luca
- Stage 7: Boasson Hagen/Di Luca
- Stage 8: Sivtsov/Di Luca
- Stage 9: Cavendish/Di Luca
- Stage 10: Di Luca/Di Luca
- Stage 11: Cavendish/Di Luca
- Stage 12: Menchov/Menchov
- Stage 13: Cavendish/Menchov
- Up next: Stage 15
- Sunday's stage from Forlì to Faenza is a mountainous 161k (100 miles), finishing with a long downhill run-in to the finish at Faenza's Piazza del Popolo.
The main pack hit the bottom of the climb, but Gerrans was 1:04 ahead of the GC contenders with his first major victory since winning the stage to Prato Nevoso stage in last year’s Tour de France.
“The two steep pitches really surprised me. I was there for the first one and then the second one killed me,” Gerrans said. “I was looking over my shoulder, I was exhausted and I thought someone would catch me, but it turns out everyone was exhausted.”
With the time bonuses gone, the duel up the 16 percent grades still had major implications. Di Luca flailed past cheering tifosi up the intense, 2km climb, but failed to dislodge overnight leader Denis Menchov (Rabobank).
The pair finished on the same time at 11th and 13th, respectively, at 1:04 behind Gerrans, with the stubborn Menchov retaining his 34-second lead to Di Luca.
Menchov doggedly marked Di Luca’s surges and was able to turn the stage’s unfolding action to his advantage. LPR pulled nearly the entire day at the front, allowing Menchov to conserve the strength of his under-manned Rabobank team to fight another day.
“This is a special climb, one that’s perfect for an explosive rider like Danilo,” said a relieved Menchov. “It was a perfect situation for us. We had an escape group that had a good chance of arriving.”
Although he forfeited three seconds, Levi Leipheimer (Astana) also dodged a bullet and retained his grip on third overall, now 43 seconds back.
Leipheimer ─ who raced Saturday with a clear taped bandage over scrapes on his left arm ─ was worried that he might get gapped on the explosive final climb.
“That’s the first time we’ve seen LPR make a mistake,” Leipheimer said after the stage. “Much better, much better (with the break). It was good to see a break finally make it.”
Leipheimer briefly lost the wheel under the intense pace on the steepest part of the climb with about 1km to go, but he found an ally with 2006 Giro champ Ivan Basso (Liquigas). The pair clawed back and only ceded ground in the final sprint to the line.
“I just did my best today. I was afraid I would lose a few seconds. It’s not a big deal,” Leipheimer said. “I don’t want to give up seconds. I kind of expected it, that’s just what they do best, that’s definitely my weak spot.”
Earlier in the stage, Astana teammate Lance Armstrong was playing the role of helper, even at one point late in the stage rolling back to the team car to bring up fresh water bottles for Leipheimer.
“Definitely, we have a strong team. We’re fresh relative to the other guys, that’s our strength,” Leipheimer said. “Not super, good, I’m a little sore, the last couple of days I’m definitely sore from the crash.”
Gerrans loves Italy
Before the start of the stage, Gerrans was in a good mood, telling VeloNews that the team still believed that Cervélo team captain Carlos Sastre – 5th at 2:52 back – could win the Giro.
“We’re entering the most difficult part of the Giro. Carlos is feeling good. He’s fifth, so let’s see if we can’t move him up a few more spots,” Gerrans said. “What we have to do is make the race as hard as possible.”
One obvious way to make a race difficult, and put pressure on your rival teams, is to get into a breakaway. Cervélo put two, sneaking Gerrans and Irish climbing sensation Philip Deignan into the day’s 14-man move.
The peloton rolled out of Campi Bisenzio with just 181 riders, as many of the race's sprinters headed home overnight.
Besides Friday's stage winner Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad), Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) Mark Renshaw (Columbia), Cameron Meyer (Garmin) and Steve Chainel (BBox Bouygues Telecom) decided they'd had enough.
A big group of non-GC riders took off before the 20km mark and establish a four- or five-minute break they held most of the day. The break started out with 14 riders, losing one (Milram's Martin Muller), on an early climb.
Joining Gerrans and Deignan were: Chris Froome (Barloworld), Eduard Vorganov (Xacobeo Galicia), Andriy Grivko (ISD), Evgeni Petrov (Katusha), Rubens Bertogliati (S.Diquigiovanni), Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne), Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre), Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R) and Francesco Reda (Quick Step).
The break lost a handful of riders in the last 15k, but entered the final 8k with 11 riders and a two-minute gap; Di Luca's team seemed to concede that they were not going to position their boss to grab any time bonuses.
“When I heard LPR was pulling, I didn’t think things were looking too good for us,” Gerrans said. “But when I heard we still had two minutes on the last climb (with 25km to go), I thought we might have a chance. Having a teammate in the break was important. We could work together, saving my legs for the final.”
Grivko took off in the final 5km, and the three-time Ukrainian national time trial champ built a slim lead for two kilometers, but was caught at the base of the final climb to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.
Gerrans and Froome went off as the hill steepened, and Gerrans out muscled the Barloworld rider in the steeps. The winner of stage 15 at the Tour de France last year, Gerrans had time to zip up his jersey and celebrate in style.
Froome faded in the last kilometer, zig-zagging up the steepest part of the climb, and wound up sixth at 36 seconds. Bertaglioti hung on for second and Gavazzi kicked it on for third.
All eyes to Petrano
Although Sunday’s rollercoaster, 161km stage from Forli to Faenza cannot be overlooked, all the big guns are turning their attention to the 237km 16th stage from Pergola to Monte Petrano.
“Tomorrow is a tough stage but it’s not as tough as today was, so we’ve got to try and recuperate for Monday,” Di Luca said. “A big part of this Giro is going to be decided Monday.”
Monday’s punishing stage should be considered the Giro’s “queen stage.” It features two first-category climbs before the decisive, 10.4km summit finish that everyone agrees will go a long way toward crowning the eventual winner of the 92nd Giro.
“This Giro has been very fast and people are getting tired. People could crack on Petrano,” said Sastre, who’s quietly been staying with the favorites in each decisive moment. “There are other climbs, but Petrano is a stage where things will be more settled on GC. We will see who has the staying power to try to win this Giro.”
Menchov is sitting stoically in the driver’s seat and should be able to ride defensively up Petrano, following the attacks that will inevitably come from his ever-desperate rivals.
“Right now there's not a lot we can do,” Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel said before the stage. “Those 40 seconds (ed – now 43) behind Menchov are quite a lot. We will have to really wait for a bad moment of Menchov and a good moment of Levi. On the last time trial, I would say they're even. So we'll see how Menchov does and how his team does.”
On paper, Astana is stronger than Rabobank. Armstrong is obviously reaching a new level of fitness, his best since his decision to return to racing. Jani Brajkovic, Yaroslav Popovych and Chechu Rubiera will also be there for Leipheimer.
Having Menchov in the maglia rosa will only give his teammates wings, Bruyneel said.
“We are stronger. But what you always see when someone takes the leader's jersey in a big race, the motivation goes up and in the last week everybody is tired and it's more about how much you want to suffer,” Bruyneel said. “Sometimes you see teammates doing a lot better than you expect because they're super-motivated and when they look back and they see the leader's jersey there they know what they're suffering for. I think he's going to be OK with his team, but it's not the strongest team they could possibly have.”
And, finally, there’s the experience of winning a grand tour. Both Menchov and Di Luca have won major stage races, with Menchov a two-time winner of the Vuelta and Di Luca a Giro winner in 2007.
“They've both won a grand tour and Levi has been second and third, so it’s about time for him to win one,” Bruyneel concluded.
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