THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Simoni punches his way to the top in Giro's final mountain stage
Saeco's Gilberto Simoni won one for himself today, punching the air to underscore the statement he had just made by launching the move that mattered during a final flurry of attacks in the Giro d’Italia’s 19th stage.
"I did not plan on going for the stage win, but when the race exploded with 3km to go and everyone was attacking, I decided to give it everything I had to win,” Simoni said. “This win was for me, not for my team or my sponsors.”
The Cascata del Toce was the longest stage of this year’s Giro, at 239km, ending with a hard climb to an awesomely powerful waterfall on the Toce river. And it came after a brutally hard race in horrendous conditions on Thursday, which saw second-placed Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola-Sidermec) and Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno) crash in the final descent, and 41 riders eliminated by the 11 percent time cut.
A 10-man breakaway took off at the 150km mark only to be caught with 15km to go. Nine kilometers later, Alessio’s Pietro Caucchioli and Fassa Bortolo’s Kim Kirchen attacked and gained 15 seconds in a kilometer. Then Pantani, much rejuvenated after his hard crash the day before, launched the first of a series of escape attempts that brought back the two breakaways. But Pantani’s freedom was short-lived as well, mainly due to the efforts of Simoni.
The relentless attacks were shelling riders like spent ammo casings, and the lead group had dwindled to 10 or so, yet Caucchioli’s teammate Franco Pellizotti had the energy to leap away after Pantani was retrieved. Then, with 3km remaining, Pantani jumped again, and once again it was Simoni, along with Frigo and a third Alessio rider, Andrea Noe, who applied the pressure.
Simoni opened a gap on his erstwhile companions and reached Pellizotti with perhaps 2.5km to go. Pellizotti hung onto the pink rocket for a while until finally succumbing; he would be caught and passed by Dario Frigo (Fassa Bortolo), Noe and Garzelli’s mountain domestique, Eddy Mazzoleni.
But nobody was going to catch Simoni, who clearly had a point to prove today – indeed, when he crossed the line for his third stage win of this year’s Giro, he looked more angry than happy.
"I never forgot that I was forced to leave last year’s Giro by the other riders," said the 31-year-old Italian, who won the Giro in 2001 before being thrown out of last year's edition after news of a positive test for cocaine.
After watching Garzelli drag out his own positive drug test through a retest before being ejected, the other riders had put pressure on Simoni and his team to leave after a single positive with no retest. But Simoni was later cleared of his charge, proving that the positive result came from Colombian candies he had eaten.
Despite this, a couple of hours after today's stage finish Simoni insisted that he is not angry and that he has put all of that behind him. "Those motivations don’t serve me; I was just doing all I could,” he said. “I was calm before this stage because I had ridden it in December. Even though I got sick a week later, I knew the course and felt confident of my abilities on the climb.”
As well he should. This was the final mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia, and Simoni now has an overall lead of more than eight minutes over runner-up Garzelli. He also is second in the King of the Mountains competition - though he is obviously the most dominating climber in the race, diminutive Colombian Fredy Gonzalez (Colombia-Selle Italia) has the lead by100 points to Simoni’s 78, thanks to attacking early on almost every mountain stage to pile on the points.
Garzelli, meanwhile, clings to second place by just two seconds after struggling to finish ninth on today’s stage. Third-placed overall Yaroslav Popovych (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) finished one spot and nine seconds ahead of Garzelli to get dangerously close to him on the GC.
As tomorrow is a flat race that should not shake up the standings, Sunday's final stage, a 33km time trial finishing in the center of Milan, promises to be a battle royale between these two.
More photos from today's stage.
Garzelli complained of pain in his left hip and leg that prevented him from being able to push as hard as he wanted to on this final mountain stage. "Tonight, my chiropractor will arrive," he said with relief. "He will restore my pelvic alignment for the time trial, which will be very hard, as Popovych is very strong."
As for his teammate Mazzoleni, he asked Garzelli if he could race his own race on the climb and had his request granted.
"I felt great," Mazzoleni said. "Too bad I only got third. Our team is fantastic, and Garzelli is a great leader. We still have the Tour de France ahead of us, and I think that we will succeed in achieving many more satisfying results there."
To see how this stage unfolded just follow this link to pull up our live update window.
Full results posted below.
