Giro d'Italia 2010: Stefano Garzelli the fastest on the climb to Plan de Corones (Kronplatz)

Added: tuesday 25 May 2010 at 23:54:00

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Today's individual time trial from San Vigilio di Marebbe to Plan de Corones (Kronplatz) was quite particular. Not only the 12.9 kilometers were going up but 5.3 of them were sand roads. The maximum slope was no less than 24% for an average of 8.4%.

Stefano Garzelli was the fastest in this climb where some changes in the general classification were expected. The pink jersey David Arroyo was not looking for this to be confirmed so even though he lost some time he's still strongly in pink. The big loser among the favourites was Carlos Sastre however ...
The summary of the time trial, 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010
Marco Frapporti (Colnago - CSF Inox) was the first rider to start this morning at 10.30AM and he realises the first time at 48'33".

He was supported by no less than 100,000 people standing along the road in this climb.

The riders started in three big blocks. In the first block, the best time at the finish was realised by Damien Monier (Cofidis) with 44'15". At 12.50 the Estonian rider Kalle Kriit (Cofidis) was the first rider of the second block.

In the second bloc, the best time was realised by Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas-Doimo) with 43'40" before the start of the last block of 52 riders starting with Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) at 3.10PM.

In the mean time Branislau Samoilau (Quick Step), with 43'33", Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne), with 43'04" and Stefano Garzelli with 41'28" improve the best time at the finish. The last one manages to stay on the first place and thus wins the stage with an average speed of 18.665 km/h.

The last start was for the pink jersey, David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne), at 4.28OM. At the intermediate time point, the best time was realised by Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) at 21'11", 12 seconds faster than Garzelli. At the finish however, the Australian rider had lost 54 seconds on Garzelli to finish second at 42 seconds behind the Italian.

The Formula 1 driver for Ferrari, Fernando Alonso, came to this time trial and got to follow Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) on a motor. His support was not enough however for his compatriote to realise a good time because Sastre finished 1th at 2'31" behind Garzelli. Among the favourites he's thus the rider who loses the most time in this individual effort.

Pat McQuaid, president of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), was also present in this stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010. He talked for a long time about Floyd Landis' recent allegations and about a gift from Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) the UCI had accepted, before talking about the Giro, again in a anti-doping context: The UCI is very, very happy with how the Giro has gone this year. My understand from blood testing done prior to Giro is that the results and are becoming more and more normal (...) I was pleased to see that battle on the Zoncolan between Basso and Evans. They are superb riders who are 100% clean and give a great image for our sport (...) Cycling had changed dramatically in the last three or four years and the UCI Biological Passport ensures that riders who take EPO won't get away with it any more (...) I cannot guarantee, nobody can guarantee, that this race in is 100% clean or garneted that any sport is 100% clean (...) if you look at riders winning, there are young riders like Pete Sagan and Richie Porte, the young riders are coming through with a new philosophy. Everybody recognizes that a change has happened

Behind Cadel Evans, the French rider John Gadret of the AG2R La Mondiale team takes a nice 3rd place at 54 seconds from the winner of this time trial. The cyclo-cross specialist and on the road recognised for his climber's facilities, said: I still can't believe it. When I crossed the finish line I was 2nd but I thought that other riders would get over it and finally only one did that! (Cadel Evans)
I'm very happy! I knew that this kind of climb was the one I like but I didn't expect to beat riders such as Basso (6th at 1'10"), Nibali (4th at 1'01"), Vinokourov (8th at 1'37") , ...
(...) Now I'm going to take the stages day by day just like I did since the start ... we'll see what that can lead to. As a remidner: Gadret is currently 17th in the general classification at 21'07" from David Arroyo.
The videos of the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010
> Watch Stefano Garzelli's finish and Cadel Evans' start and finish

> Watch the summary of the stage
The classification after the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010
The stage classification for the individual time trial on the Plan de Corones
Apart from Carlos Sastre the favourites are in the top 10 of this stage:

1/ Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) - 41'28"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'42"
3/ John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'54"
4/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) - +1'01"
5/ Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) - +1'07"
6/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - +1'10"
7/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - +1'36"
8/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - +1'37"
9/ Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) - +1'41"
10/ Evgeni Petrov (Katusha Team) - +1'46"
The general classification
The best young rider of this Giro d'Italia 2010, Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank), finished 17th today at 2'17" and he thus leaves his second place in the general classification to Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo). As I said yesterday, the Italian rider still has some chances to get up the first level ...

1/ David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) - 68h32'26"
2/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - +2'27"
3/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - +2'36"
4/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +3'09"
5/ Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) - +4'36"
6/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) - +4'53"
7/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - +5'12"
8/ Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) - +5'25"
9/ Robert Kiserlovski (Liquigas-Doimo) - +8'57"
10/ Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - +9'13"
Classification by points
With his second place today, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) secures even a bit more his read leader's jersey of the classification by points:

1/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 106 points
2/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - 91 points
3/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) - 78 points
4/ Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) - 74 points
5/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - 68 points
King ot the Mountain classification
Again thanks to his second place today, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), climbs up to the same level as 'Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) in the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 29 points
2/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - 25 points
3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 25 points
4/ Ludovic Turpin (AG2R La Mondiale) - 20 points
5/ Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) - 17 points
6/ Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) - 17 points
Best young rider classification
No (big) changes in the top 5 of young riders:

1/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - 68h35'02"
2/ Robert Kiserlovski (Liquigas-Doimo) - +6'21"
3/ Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) - +11'34"
4/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) - +12'40"
5/ Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Doimo) - +22'38"

Photo Stefano Garzelli (illustration of the article and stage classification) : Niklas Jakobsen ; photo submitted to the Creative Commons license
by Thomas Vergouwen
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http://www.cyclisme-roltiss-over.com/article-stefano-garzelli-le-plus-rapide-vers-plan-de-corones-kronplatz-51079021.html
| Roland TISSIER | wednesday 26 May 2010 at 7:58:29