Giro Stage 4: Padova to San Martino di Costrazza

[jaylew]

Guess this is why Rogers missed out on the Maglia Rosa though I'm sure he won't mind too much since it went to a teammate:

"Damn it! Almost crashed with 500m to go and lost some secs. Came to a complete stop, both feet out of the pedals. Behave yourself Mr. Cunego."

 

[BikeCentric]

Guess this is why Rogers missed out on the Maglia Rosa though I'm sure he won't mind too much since it went to a teammate:

"Damn it! Almost crashed with 500m to go and lost some secs. Came to a complete stop, both feet out of the pedals. Behave yourself Mr. Cunego."

LOL - I believe I saw Cunego pull his foot out of his pedal so that would explain what went on there.

Regardless, Mick is looking very good so the Aussies certainly have someone to cheer this go around! We'll find out just how good he's going in that long TT, if he crushes it like he does often at Worlds it will be interesting.

 

[mebiker]

MapMyRide

If you haven’t heard about it yet MapMyRide.com and VERSUS is sponsoring a free Giro Challenge with lots of prizes. Unlike other Giro/Tour events this one actually requires you to ride your bike. You can enter for a single stage or as many as you want. Three types of Challenges Distance (team), Climbing and Time. Today is the first Climbing Challenge. Check it out at: http://www.mapmyride.com/giro

 

[ukpaul]

Where Janez Brajkovic and Daniel Navarro ordered to pace Armstrong up the last climb or was it just a coincidence that they finished with him and not Levi?
I didnt see the race.

 

[Jamsque]

Brad Wiggins(??) was their top finisher. TD and DZ 10 and 20 minutes back.

I just saw this on the full results. Surely this is a mistake? I mean, I love Wiggo, and he is having a pretty good season so far (Wins in Qatar TTT and Driedaagse de Panne ITT, plus a dissapointing 2nd in the P-N prologue and a surprising 25th in Paris-Roubaix), but I am absolutely gob smacked that he came three places behind Lance Armstrong at the top of a ~700m grand tour climb.

 

[jaylew]

I just saw this on the full results. Surely this is a mistake? I mean, I love Wiggo, and he is having a pretty good season so far (Wins in Qatar TTT and Driedaagse de Panne ITT, plus a dissapointing 2nd in the P-N prologue and a surprising 25th in Paris-Roubaix), but I am absolutely gob smacked that he came three places behind Lance Armstrong at the top of a ~700m grand tour climb.

Apparently they were actually riding for him. From David Millar yesterday:

"Tomorrow is the first mountain day and we’re going to ride it for Brad and give him a go at riding full gas up the big hills, he’s lighter than he’s ever been and appears to be flying. It will be interesting to see…"

 

[Leopejo]

Where Janez Brajkovic and Daniel Navarro ordered to pace Armstrong up the last climb or was it just a coincidence that they finished with him and not Levi?
I didnt see the race.

Oh according to Chris Horner Lance suffered a mechanical:

Our only problem came when Lance suffered a mechanical going into the finish, but two of our teammates were there to look after him, they were able to limit the time losses to the line to only 15 seconds.

So what is it?

 

[Jamsque]

Apparently they were actually riding for him. From David Millar yesterday:

"Tomorrow is the first mountain day and we’re going to ride it for Brad and give him a go at riding full gas up the big hills, he’s lighter than he’s ever been and appears to be flying. It will be interesting to see…"

Well holy crap. I'll have to reserve judgement till I see how he goes tomorrow on the properly steep climbs, but that's amazing. He's only 29, you know.

Tom Danielson continues to be the most disappointing story in US pro cycling. I just looked at his palmares and all of his good results seem to have come while he was at US Postal / Disco, best he's done for Garmin is 9th overall in the ToC this year. I wonder how much longer it will be until Vaughters gives up on him.

I'm not sure I believe that Lance had a mechanical. The cameras were on him the whole damn time going up that mountain (they even cut away from Di Luca chasing down Soler to show him), and it looked to me like he just dropped off the pace when the accelerations came in the final kilometre.

 

[El Loto]

# Stage 4 done. Uphill finish. Legs weren't bad and made it almost the whole way. Came off a little at the top. Not bad for 1st big climb in..about 2 hours ago from TwitterBerry

No comment on mechanicals here.

 

[messisgod]

Oh according to Chris Horner Lance suffered a mechanical:



So what is it?

He appeared to clearly ease-up and let the group go when the acceleration for the line started.

What kind of mechanical other than slipping your chain which you would have thought we'd have seen or heard about, doesn't allow you to pedal as hard as you can?

He was clearly working near his limit on the climb and drifted further and further back as it went on, only to give it up at the very top.

 

[Anonymous]

I just saw this on the full results. Surely this is a mistake? I mean, I love Wiggo, and he is having a pretty good season so far (Wins in Qatar TTT and Driedaagse de Panne ITT, plus a dissapointing 2nd in the P-N prologue and a surprising 25th in Paris-Roubaix), but I am absolutely gob smacked that he came three places behind Lance Armstrong at the top of a ~700m grand tour climb.

thats one of the weirdest things ive ever seen.... but good on him..

 

[benpounder]

Oh according to Chris Horner Lance suffered a mechanical:

Our only problem came when Lance suffered a mechanical going into the finish...

So what is it?

From Astana's site:

"We finished with a big group and I lost 15 seconds, but that is not so much," said Armstrong. "Moreover, I needed to make an adjustment to the derailleur. Of course, it was not a very difficult climb. For Di Luca it was a perfect finish with the gradual climb. Basso, Di Luca, Garzelli and Cunego all looked very good. Tomorrow will be a better indication. It will be a long and hard day. We'll see. I don't know what to expect. I am happy
with my performance of today. This was my first big climb since retiring. I had a good feeling and no collarbone pain at all," Lance concluded.

Anyone else see him get off his bike? Perhaps what he meant was that he wanted his deraileur to shift into an imaginary 28 cog...

 

[180mmCrank]

Don't think anyone mentioned that Sastre was sitting just at the back of the lead group - he is quietly comming into form

 

[davidw]

From Lance's twitter fead ( here's the link http://www.bikechatter.com/main/foruser/1/lancearmstrong for those that ***** about me pimping my site )

"Stage 4 done. Uphill finish. Legs weren't bad and made it almost the whole way. Came off a little at the top. Not bad for 1st big climb in.."

 

[benpounder]

Should there have been time gaps???

Di Luca with the red of Garzelli under his raised right arm followed by Pellozotti and Soler. Simoni is just behind Soler under DiLuc's left arm. Behind Simoni are Leipheimer and Lovkvist (hidden). Then comes Basso, Menchov, Arroyo (hidden), Poppvych, Horner, Valjavec and Cunego (hidden), Bruseghin, and Sastre (hidden). All finished with the same time, But look at the distance between all. Seems to me from the overhead I saw this morning (havent found that shot online yet) that there could have been some time gaps handed out amongst these top 16. Seems there is 2 second gap between Di Luca and Soler (the front-on video is not very clear), which might have put Di Luca in pink. Not suggesting that he should be in pink, just found it interesting that Lovkvist is 2 seconds ahead on GC.

 

[hfer07]

Up, up, and away.

Cheers for my compatriot Mauricio Soler & Jens Voigt for their Courage & true cycling spirit--so missing nowadays.. Di Luca just seized the opportunity and banked on it-Congrats to him anyways ---The giro is getting more interesting by the day

 

[Bala Verde]

From Astana's site:

Anyone else see him get off his bike? Perhaps what he meant was that he wanted his deraileur to shift into an imaginary 28 cog...

Then perhaps he might want to reconsider his sponsorship deal with SRAM, and swap it out for campy 11 SR.

 

[slowoldman]

No time gaps. Could you imagine trying to score if you had time gaps here? You would have a nightmare scenario trying to count gaps like that throughout the race. They are just about wheel to wheel. Close enough to justify the lack of seperate scoring.

 

[slowoldman]

Di Luca with the red of Garzelli under his raised right arm followed by Pellozotti and Soler. Simoni is just behind Soler under DiLuc's left arm. Behind Simoni are Leipheimer and Lovkvist (hidden). Then comes Basso, Menchov, Arroyo (hidden), Poppvych, Horner, Valjavec and Cunego (hidden), Bruseghin, and Sastre (hidden). All finished with the same time, But look at the distance between all. Seems to me from the overhead I saw this morning (havent found that shot online yet) that there could have been some time gaps handed out amongst these top 16. Seems there is 2 second gap between Di Luca and Soler (the front-on video is not very clear), which might have put Di Luca in pink. Not suggesting that he should be in pink, just found it interesting that Lovkvist is 2 seconds ahead on GC.

No time gaps. Could you imagine trying to score if you had time gaps here? You would have a nightmare scenario trying to count gaps like that throughout the race. They are just about wheel to wheel. Close enough to justify the lack of seperate scoring.

 

[benpounder]

They are just about wheel to wheel. Close enough to justify the lack of seperate scoring.

I'm not denying it wasn't close. Seemed to me at the time via the live overhead, there were gaps between Pellozotti, Soler, and Simoni... I just dont know how big they were.

Also, I just wanted to post that photo! I love a finish where all the "Heads of State," as Paul would say, are... in the picture.

Pictures like this one:

 

[Anonymous]

I was sure LA would get dropped earlier, he looked pretty bad at the beginning of the last climb. Not bad at all.
Rock on Lance!

pretty bad.. especially for a bloke whos been out for four years...

he only finished in front of 160 other riders.... blimey..

i like lance, but i wish theyd stop showing him constantly on tv and show the front of the race for once... starting to get bored with it...

 

[ingsve]

Di Luca with the red of Garzelli under his raised right arm followed by Pellozotti and Soler. Simoni is just behind Soler under DiLuc's left arm. Behind Simoni are Leipheimer and Lovkvist (hidden). Then comes Basso, Menchov, Arroyo (hidden), Poppvych, Horner, Valjavec and Cunego (hidden), Bruseghin, and Sastre (hidden). All finished with the same time, But look at the distance between all. Seems to me from the overhead I saw this morning (havent found that shot online yet) that there could have been some time gaps handed out amongst these top 16. Seems there is 2 second gap between Di Luca and Soler (the front-on video is not very clear), which might have put Di Luca in pink. Not suggesting that he should be in pink, just found it interesting that Lovkvist is 2 seconds ahead on GC.

A 1 second gap (which is what is required for a gap to give a new time) is longer than you think. When looking at the repeats of the riders crossing the line from the overhead view it was fairly certain that there would be no time gaps between the first finishers. Compare those gaps with the gap between 16th and 17th if you can notice and you'll see that that gap was perhaps three times as wide as between Di Luca and Garzelli.

 

[ingsve]

Ingsve must be ecstatic to see his boy in the Maglia Rosa.

Yes, it's very fun for sure. As far as I've heard this is the first swedish Maglia Rosa since Gösta Pettersson won the race in 1971. Edit: Tommy Prim also held the Maglia Rosa for a stage in 1983.

Lovkvist pulled back Soler once for his team leader and then followed the main contenders to take the GC lead. Is Lovkvist gonna ride for Rogers now or will he have a free role?

Well, the idea before the start was to ride for Siutsou and see what Rogers could manage and have Lövkvist save energy for the tour.

I'm guessing tomorrow Lövkvist will hold on as good as he can. He probably won't sacrifice himself for Rogers as long as he has the jersey but at the same time they won't sacrifice Rogers for Lövkvist either. I'm guessing tomorrow will show more who has the better legs of the columbia riders.

One thing though is that unless Lövkvist collapses completely tomorrow he will probably still have the lead in the young riders competition, a lead that he most probably will hold and increase over the long time trial. It doesn't feel likely that they would just give that competition away without a fight at that point.

 

[Leopejo]

So, we all thought that yesterday's final climb was long, but absolutely not steep enough, right?

And now Ivan Basso comes and says:

"This is how the team was designed, to control these climbs," said Basso. "The climb was hard, but too short to make the selection."

Hmm?