As expected, the big boys came out to play last night. Keenan & McKenzie were hoping that they'd ride tempo all the way to the top of the climb, allowing Chavez to inherit the maglia rosa from Clarke in the process. That was never going to happen with Contador in the field. Contador might be one of the biggest dope fiends in the peleton, but he's also one of the most attacking riders of the last 20 years. He was never going to sit back and relax, he was always going to attack and see whether or not the others could follow.
By the time the television coverage started a breakaway of 5 riders were 10-11 minutes up the road. It's hard to get a read on the actual timings, because the Giro's GPS motorbikes keep going forwards & backwards all the time. One minute the gap is 10:45, the next it's 11:15 - and that's not because the peleton have lost 30 seconds on the road in that time. The gap came down steadily, to the point where they had around 7 minutes left at the bottom of the climb. Dave & Matt were taking bets on twitter over which of the breakaway riders would win the stage (or be the last one caught).
The breakaway splintered as soon as the climb began. Eventually Lampre's Jan Polanc went clear and soloed to victory. Sebastien Chavanel was the only other breakaway rider to cross the line ahead of the big boys - and he did so by about half a bike length, being caught on the line by the sprinting Aru/Contador/Porte.
The real interest though lay further down the road. Contador attacked with around 7km left to go on the climb. Porte & Aru quickly joined him, with Astana's Mikel Landa joining them as well. Uran didn't even bother trying to follow the attack, losing a further 28 seconds, compounding his losses from the previous day. OGE's Chavez tried to keep up with the attack, but was forced to admit defeat.
With bonus seconds on offer, the big boys sprinted the last 500m of the climb, almost catching Chavanel in the process - he was 450m out when they were at 750m, they all finished together. In the end it was Aru who finished 3rd, claiming the 4 bonus seconds on offer, but there was nothing to separate them at any stage of the climb. It was Contador who climbed into pink though, courtesy of the time gaps established during the Team Time Trial.
It's only stage 5, but this race is already down to just 3 riders - Contador, Porte & Aru. So far the only time gaps have come from the Team Time Trial and Aru's 4 second bonus last night. There have been no time gaps on the open road. There are still 4 other riders within a minute of the lead - Kreuziger (teammate of Contador), Cataldo (teammate of Aru), Chavez (OGE) and Visconti (Movistar), but the reality is that Contador, Porte & Aru have the others covered fairly comfortably. Astana clearly have the strongest team, as was shown by their dominance on stage 4, plus the presence of Landa after Contador's attack last night. Whether that's enough to get Aru over the line is another matter - Contador is a better time trial rider and a match for him in the mountains. It's going to be exciting watching these 3 riders battle it out when we get to the really big mountains.
Tonight's stage is a sprinters' paradise. There's a Cat4 climb early, but the second half of the course is flat as a pancake. Time for the likes of Greipel to shine.
By the time the television coverage started a breakaway of 5 riders were 10-11 minutes up the road. It's hard to get a read on the actual timings, because the Giro's GPS motorbikes keep going forwards & backwards all the time. One minute the gap is 10:45, the next it's 11:15 - and that's not because the peleton have lost 30 seconds on the road in that time. The gap came down steadily, to the point where they had around 7 minutes left at the bottom of the climb. Dave & Matt were taking bets on twitter over which of the breakaway riders would win the stage (or be the last one caught).
The breakaway splintered as soon as the climb began. Eventually Lampre's Jan Polanc went clear and soloed to victory. Sebastien Chavanel was the only other breakaway rider to cross the line ahead of the big boys - and he did so by about half a bike length, being caught on the line by the sprinting Aru/Contador/Porte.
The real interest though lay further down the road. Contador attacked with around 7km left to go on the climb. Porte & Aru quickly joined him, with Astana's Mikel Landa joining them as well. Uran didn't even bother trying to follow the attack, losing a further 28 seconds, compounding his losses from the previous day. OGE's Chavez tried to keep up with the attack, but was forced to admit defeat.
With bonus seconds on offer, the big boys sprinted the last 500m of the climb, almost catching Chavanel in the process - he was 450m out when they were at 750m, they all finished together. In the end it was Aru who finished 3rd, claiming the 4 bonus seconds on offer, but there was nothing to separate them at any stage of the climb. It was Contador who climbed into pink though, courtesy of the time gaps established during the Team Time Trial.
It's only stage 5, but this race is already down to just 3 riders - Contador, Porte & Aru. So far the only time gaps have come from the Team Time Trial and Aru's 4 second bonus last night. There have been no time gaps on the open road. There are still 4 other riders within a minute of the lead - Kreuziger (teammate of Contador), Cataldo (teammate of Aru), Chavez (OGE) and Visconti (Movistar), but the reality is that Contador, Porte & Aru have the others covered fairly comfortably. Astana clearly have the strongest team, as was shown by their dominance on stage 4, plus the presence of Landa after Contador's attack last night. Whether that's enough to get Aru over the line is another matter - Contador is a better time trial rider and a match for him in the mountains. It's going to be exciting watching these 3 riders battle it out when we get to the really big mountains.
Tonight's stage is a sprinters' paradise. There's a Cat4 climb early, but the second half of the course is flat as a pancake. Time for the likes of Greipel to shine.
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