Is something on your mind?
Category: Cycling
I wasn't surprised at all that Thomas Voeckler escaped (with Phillppe Gilbert) in the last kilometers of yesterday's Giro d'Italia stage. Voeckler has been in so many escapes so it is almost unbelievable. But he had to give it another try, and that's why he escaped. In the end Philippe Gilbert was stronger than the Frenchman, but BBox Bouygues Telecom's Thomas Voeckler came in two seconds later and that is a big thing for him, of course. A victory would probably beat it all though."I said before departure that we could succeed without the Giro stage win. But rather than six escapes and a second place, I would have preferred to leave with a victory. Not for lack of trying! Today (Saturday), I need not blush, Gilbert is one of the best riders in the world in this kind of arrival." Voeckler said.
Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo) took the bunch sprint for third, seven seconds behind Gilbert.
Earlier in his career Philippe Gilbert has become the twice winner of the Classics season opener, Het Volk. Last year he won the Paris-Tours. This year he changed team from Française des Jeux to Silence-Lotto. Silence-Lotto's year has not been very good so far though, with few victories and podiums, so they surely had reasons to celebrate yesterday."I began the Giro with the ambition to win one stage," Gilbert said.
He had one more chance to take, and he had to take it if he wished to take the victory, because today's stage is a time trial and neither Gilbert nor Voeckler is time trial specialists.
"I was really tired after the mountain stages. After, I got better, then I got worse, and it was like this for close to 10 days. I said to myself that maybe it's time to go home. It was never easy for me, but I stayed in the race, and now I'm really happy I did.
"I saw on the first lap [around Anagni] it was a good moment to attack, and I attacked in the same place," Gilbert said.
Danilo di Luca, who is second in the general classification, couldn't get away from the race leader Denis Menchov so he is still behind, which means Denis Menchov will win the race unless he crashes badly. The two men finished right next to each other in 11th and 12th, respectively. The Russian happened to take two bonus seconds, so he now has a lead of 20 seconds ahead of the Italian.
"It may be the first time in professional cycling I did a sprint like that [on flat roads]," Menchov told journalists after the stage. "I don't like to fight for the bonus sprints - I prefer to fight for real time. But if someone creates a war, you have to fight the war."
I think Denis Menchov will be careful today so that he don't crash, but still ride quickly. The stage victory is not important for him, the only thing important is to stay on his bike.
"I can be calm, because I know I am strong, but the Giro is not over until you cross the finish line," said Menchov, who believes Astana's Levi Leipheimer will win tomorrow. "Tomorrow, I will ride, stay focused, and it will be not be a quiet walk. The gap is very small, and it's important to stay focused till the final line."
Danilo di Luca believes that Menchov will now win the race, as the Russian is a better time trialist.
"If I finish second in this Giro, I can be proud because I fought every kilometer of this race. I was already thinking yesterday after the Vesuvio stage that I will not win this Giro," he said. "This Giro had a very high level and we can all be proud.
"Tomorrow, anything can happen, the differences are small, it's a special course, very technical, but Menchov has shown he is strong. I had him on the ropes a little at Blockhaus, but he was able to recover and defended well at Vesuvio."
The breakaway of the day contained contained Pablo Lastras Garcia (Caisse d'Epargne), Felix Rafael Cardenas (Barloworld), Angel Gomez Gomez (Fuji-Servetto), Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R La Mondiale), Francesco De Bonis (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni), Ben Swift (Team Katusha), Anders Lund (Team Saxo Bank) and Robert Förster (Team Milram).
