THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
A battle to the end - Rujano takes stage, Savoldelli clings to lead
Saturday’s larger-than-life battle over the gravel roads of the Colle delle Finestra was a fitting ending to what’s been an epic Giro d’Italia.
Discovery Channel’s Paolo Savoldelli saw his maglia rosa come under fire in the grueling 190km 19th stage after Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Caffita) and Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) attacked hard up the fearsome Finestra, but he clawed back to save his second Giro victory in four years with just one day left in the 88th corsa rosa.
“I don’t feel like a great Giro champion because I don’t attack and make a dramatic showing like the other Giro heroes,” said a humbled Savoldelli who was just strong enough to secure a 28-second margin to Simoni, having started the day with a lead of 2:09.
“I knew I could have lost everything today. The pace was very strong on the Finestra, but I didn’t panic and stayed within my limits."
Venezuelan climber José Rujano (Colombia-Selle Italia) emulated his hero, the late Marco Pantani, and sprang to a stage victory by attacking with 4.5km to go, signaling his arrival on the international scene.
“To win the stage in the Giro was very important for me. The Giro is a big landmark in this sport,” said Rujano, who will finish his first Giro in third overall, wearing the best climber’s jersey and packing a stage victory for good measure.
“Pantani was a big hero of mine. I wear an earring because I want to be like him. This Giro gives me great motivation for the future.”
Simoni couldn’t follow Rujano and that cost him a chance to win a third Giro.
“We went hard today with Di Luca, but Savoldelli was able to come back, so he deserves to win,” Simoni said. “I won’t win this Giro, but I am satisfied after demonstrating that I am worthy to come back and fight to the finish.”
Giro’s final push
The final 9.8km climb to Sestriere would decide the 88th Giro d’Italia in dramatic fashion.
Savoldelli crossed the mighty Finestre climb with his maglia rosa under fire. One of the best descenders in the game, Il Falco plummeted like his namesake falcon down the treacherous 6km descent, taking back 28 seconds and putting him 19 seconds back into the overall lead at the base of the climb.
After climbing solo up most of the Finestre, Savoldelli found some company as he picked up stragglers, including Juan Garate (Saunier Duval), Tajek Valjavec (Phonak) and Wim Van Huffel (Davitamon-Lotto) to make it a six-man group on the big-ring climb to Sestriere.
“I climbed the Finestre at my own pace so I wouldn’t risk blowing up,” Savoldelli said. “Then I found some allies on the road to Sestriere and that really helped save the day.”
Di Luca’s only chance for the podium was to try to blow up the race. His great work over the Finestre was in vain after intense cramps zapped him on the final run up to Sestriere.
“I felt great over the Finestre, but my legs cramped and there’s a moment when I lost Simoni,” said Di Luca, who finished third at 1:37 back. “I wanted to be on the podium in this Giro d’Italia. I made a great Giro so I am satisfied, but right now it’s a little disappointing.”
That just left Simoni and Rujano to duke it out, and they hit the 10km to-go banner with a lead of 1:37 over Savoldelli. With 6km to go, Savoldelli was recovering some lost ground and tightened his hold on the maglia rosa back to 45 seconds.
With 4.5km, Simoni poured a bottle of water on his face and pretty much doused his hopes of overall victory. Rujano chugged away to hunt for the stage victory while the two-time champion was left alone to fight his own battle against Savoldelli.
“Rujano didn’t work much on the Finestre climb when Di Luca and I were making the pace,” Simoni said. “I reached a moment when I couldn’t maintain that speed and I had to think about trying to finish strong at my own pace.”
With 2km to go, Rujano was firing on all cylinders, expanding the gap to Savoldelli to nearly two minutes, enough to throw a scare into the Italian tifosi. With the 20-second time bonus, Rujano only needed 2:41 to erase his three-minute difference to Savoldelli and pull off the upset of the century.
He slipped across the line to take the stage, just the second Venezuelan to win a stage on the Giro after Leonardo Sierra in the 1990's, but it wasn’t enough to win the Giro. Still, it capped an impressive performance for the small-budget team, which will leave the Giro with three stage victories, the best climber’s jersey and third overall.
“We’re a small team, but we made a great Giro. We could have attacked earlier on the Finestre, but Di Luca and Simoni were riding too strong. You had to wait until the opportune time,” said Colombia-Selle Italia boss Gianni Savio. “
Up the Finestre
The sun-baked peloton pushed onto the lower flanks of the Finestre, a climb impressive by any measure. The course climbed 5,550 feet in 18.5km with an average grade of 9.2 percent and the steepest ramps at the bottom with 14 percent grades.
With 7.9km to go, the asphalt disappeared and the course pushed up above the trees on a dirt road, evoking images of Giros past when racers rode in goggles with spare tires strapped across their backs.
Colombia-Selle Italia sent Rafaele Illianno to the front, an acceleration that quickly split the group. Savoldelli was immediately isolated, without teammates, and couldn’t find any allies in the bunch at 15 seconds back on the lower ramps of the climb.
“I knew I had an advantage and I used that to measure my efforts on the Finestre,” Savoldelli said. “I was careful to eat and drink enough and not have any major problems.”
The other major contenders were with Rujano and Simoni, including the surprising Di Luca, Vladimir Karpets (Illes Balears), Serguei Honchar (Domina Vacanze), Garate, Van Huffel (Davitamon-Lotto), Sven Montgomery (Gerolsteiner) and Tadej Valjavec (Phonak).
Ivan Basso (CSC), winner of two consecutive stages, initially was with the Rujano-Simoni group, but dropped back to the Savoldelli group as the gap widened to 30 seconds between the maglia rosa and the group of about 10 riders 6km up the climb.
Di Luca and Simoni set the pace at the front as they wound up the narrow, lower sections of the climb. Midway up the climb, the gap grew to 53 seconds and Savoldelli wasn’t getting any help at all.
The race leader wasn’t panicking, though. He was patiently doing his work, taking feeds and keeping a steady pace that blew all the other riders off his wheel except Vladimir Belli (Domina Vacanze) and Arturo Ardila (Davitamon-Lotto). He narrowed the gap to 41 seconds when the Simoni group hit the gravel.
Di Luca took over driving on the gravel section, leaving Simoni, Rujano and Valjavec holding on. With Di Luca and Simoni turning the screws, the gap grew from 1:11 to 1:42 with 2.5km to the summit. The leading trio was closing in on Ruslan Ivanov (Domina Vacanze), a rider who attacked just 15km into the stage.
With Simoni zeroing in on the virtual lead, Savoldelli was desperately trying to hang on. Simoni slipped into the maglia rosa – at least on the road – with 2km to go up the climb.
“Maybe it was wrong that we went so fast on the Finestre because we lost some other good riders,” Simoni said. “Rujano didn’t do anything on the Finestre because he was planning to go on Sestriere. I couldn’t go with Rujano because he didn’t work with the two of us.”
The scene was spectacular as tens of thousands of fans lined the ridges above the 2718m summit. Ardila moved up to help Savoldelli on the closing kilometers and the gap was 2:19.
Now it was time for the Falcon to fly down the harrowing 6km descent to save his Giro.
Early break in the sun
It was sunny, hot and muggy in Savigliano for the start of the decisive stage of the 88th Giro. All 154 riders signed in, including Christophe Brandt (Davitamon-Lotto) who had 15 stitches in his left leg after a high-speed brush up against the guardrails in Friday’s time trial. Domenico Pozzovivo (Panaria) was the day’s lone abandon.
Riders weren’t looking forward to the day’s festivities. Three rated climbs, including the menacing Colle delle Finestre, a brutal climb with the final 8km up dirt roads.
“I don’t know why we have to go over a goat track on the final day of the Giro,” muttered Rabobank’s Thomas Dekker.
Three riders -- Grischa Niermann (Rabobank), Mark Renshaw (FDJeux) and Ruslan Ivanov (Domina Vacanze) – decided to get a head start on the day’s suffering and slipped away early.
They built up a huge lead of nearly 20 minutes at about 50km into the stage. Ivano and Niermann topped the first passage up the Sestrieres climb with Renshaw losing contact at 6:40 back. The maglia rosa chugged through at 15:12 back, but their adventure would end on the Finestre.
From there it was all downhill to the base of the Finestre.
One more day
The 88th Giro d’Italia wraps up Sunday with the 119km 20th stage from Albese con Cassano to Milano. The start is in the hometown Fabio Casartelli and the Giro pays homage to the Italian on the 10th anniversary of his death in the 1995 Tour de France.
The course is pancake-flat as it rolls into Milano and finishes with 12 passes on a 4.8km finishing circuit. Can Erik Zabel finally win a stage, or will Alessandro Petacchi simply be too strong?
Race notes
Was this a tough race or what? Just ask Savoldelli, who held onto the maglia rosa by the skin of his teeth.
"I feel like I've aged 10 years," Savoldelli told Agence France Press. "I had to start climbing the Finestre on my own. I was lucky to be with riders who weren't against me. If I'd tried to follow Simoni's pace I'm sure I would have given up.”
Stage-winner Rujano never gave up - but he did hit the wall in the finale. "I suffered in the last couple of kilometers," he told AFP. "I didn't eat enough on the Finestre or on the descent. But I'll put that down to a lack of experience. Now I know what I did wrong, and I'll come back hoping to win the Giro."
And Di Luca? His untimely cramp means he’ll have to settle for fourth in Milan, just one step shy of the podium. "Without that happening I could have won the stage and got a podium place,” the ProTour leader told AFP. “It's a major regret, but I'm delighted with the way I've raced this Giro.”
Stage 19 results
1. Jose' Rujano Guillen (Vz), Colombia-Selle Italia, 190km in 5:49:30
2. Gilberto Simoni (I), Lampre-Caffita, 0:26
3. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 1:37
4. Juan Manuel Garate (Sp), Saunier Duval, 1:53
5. Wim Van Huffel (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 1:55
6. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), Domina Vacanze, 1:55
7. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 1:55
8. Tadej Valjavec (Slo), Phonak, 1:55
9. Ardila Cano Mauricio Alberto (Col), Davitamon-Lotto, 2:38
10. Emanuele Sella (I), Ceramica Panaria-Navigare, 5:07
11. Ivan Parra (Col), Colombia-Selle Italia, 5:14
12. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, 5:14
13. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, 6:01
14. Daniel Atienza Urendez (Sp), Cofidis, 6:01
15. Unai Osa Eizaguirre (Sp), Illes Balears, 6:40
16. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, 6:40
17. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Crédit Agricole, 6:40
18. Grischa Niermann (G), Rabobank, 7:51
19. Wladimir Belli (I), Domina Vacanze, 8:01
20. Ruslan Ivanov (MDA), Domina Vacanze, 9:02
Overall
1. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 88:01:43
2. Gilberto Simoni (I), Lampre-Caffita, at 0:28
3. Jose' Rujano Guillen (Vz), Colombia-Selle Italia, at 0:45
4. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 2:42
5. Juan Manuel Garate (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 3:11
6. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), Domina Vacanze, at 4:22
7. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, at 11:15
8. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Crédit Agricole, at 11:38
9. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, at 11:40
10. Emanuele Sella (I), Ceramica Panaria-Navigare, at 12:33
Results are posted. To see how the race developed, simply click here to bring up our Live Update Window.
