For the second day in a row, a breakaway stayed clear of the peloton, with another unsung hero from a smaller team in the form of Matteo Priamo (CSF-Panaria) taking center stage.
Photo: Graham Watson

Unlike yesterday, the attackers had enough rope to end Franco Pellizotti’s four-day run in the pink jersey. Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) and German Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner) ended the day tied on time, but Visconti took the maglia rosa based on differences taken in the team time trial.

“Without a doubt, this is the biggest and most important day of my cycling career,” said Priamo, who won two stages at the recent Tour of Turkey. “My only chance was to try to surprise the others. If I would have waited until the final kilometer, I would have lost.”

With Priamo safely up the road to relish his victory and Visconti trading the tricolore for the pink jersey, there was chaos on one of the final turns as a police motorcycle fell and created a split in the peloton as the main pack came through more than nine minutes back.

A few riders fell and others got caught up behind the pileup, including Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Christian Vande Velde (Slipstream-Chipotle). Leipheimer lost 23 seconds and Vande Velde lost 14 to slip from one second behind Pellizotti to behind Vicenzo Nibali (Liquigas).

Astana officials were protesting to the race jury, asking that it award Leipheimer the same time as the main pack. Due to yet another long transfer to the start of Friday’s stage, the race jury said it would review footage in the morning and make a decision then.

"I don't know why they wouldn't be applying the rules because the three-kilometer rule applied in today's stage. There was an accident with a motorcycle that caused the gaps to appear," Astana sport director Sean Yates said.

"I cannot see why they're not applying the rule, and it's ridiculous that they're not. The commissaires said they're going to look at the film in the morning and make a decision. Everyone knew about the three-kilometer rule — that's why there wasn't a desperate sprint to get back on."

Just another wacky day at the 91st Giro.

Priamo zips away

Ahead of Thursday’s start, riders successfully protested to prompt race officials to reduce the distance by 33km in the hilly run from Potenza to Peschici, a sparkling white fishing village perched on a hill overlooking crystalline waters of the Adriatic Sea.

The 231km run was still the longest in this year’s Giro and produced a 12-man breakaway in the second hour of racing. In the break with Visconti and Priamo were Rene Mandri (Ag2r), Alan Perez (Euskaltel), Jose Ochoa (Diquigiovanni), Maxim Iglinsky (Astana), Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner), Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre), Daniele Nardello (Diquigiovanni), Magnus Backstedt (Slipstream-Chipotle), Jason McCartney (CSC) and Nikolai Trussov (Tinkoff).

Mandri crashed out of the break and the race in a corner at the 76km mark. His team later reported that he suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung. The remaining 11 riders soldiered on, adding to their advantage with every kilometer.

Liquigas was clearly weary of defending Pellizotti’s lead, and left the chase to others. With 45km to race, Barloworld and Saunier Duval were on the front, but the pursuit was more a question of damage control than breakaway retrieval; it’s a long way to Milan.

The final 1.3km of the stage would sort out the finishing order as well as the general classification. It climbed nearly 100 vertical meters, with a sweeping right-hander with 1km to go and a string of five corners before a right-hander with 200m to go.

McCartney was first to attack the break, but it was nothing doing. Perez ran him down, and then Priamo had a dig with just over 10km to go. Perez hopped on his wheel and the two were off to the races.

McCartney tried again, hoping to bridge, but made it only as far as no-man’s land before being reabsorbed. Then Backstedt had a go, only to fade on that final ascent as the break shattered into ones and twos.

Up front, with 600 meters to the line, Priamo was on the front, Perez behind. The two glanced over their shoulders, had a chat, and then Priamo shot away to take the stage. Perez couldn’t answer the late charge and faded to finish eight seconds back. Trusov rounded out the podium in third.

“After I attacked with 11km to go, I was confident. I knew that I could beat Perez because I am fast in a smaller sprint,” said Priamo. “I was on the point of abandoning after crashing in (stage 4), but I suffered through the next day and I felt good today. I am more than happy in what’s my first Giro experience. I never dreamed of winning a stage.”

Priamo didn’t start racing until he was 20, and he’s making his Giro debut in fine fashion.

Visconti shines in pink

The maglia rosa battle between Russ and Visconti was settled by the Italian national champion’s sprint to the line.

Russ had a 13-second margin going into the stage, but Visconti’s win on the hot-sprint midway through the stage paid off. Visconti took just enough seconds on Russ to end in a tie, but took the pink jersey based on the differences going back to the team time trial.

“There were two of us jockeying for first place in the standings. (Russ) was stuck to my back tire and at that point I was only trying to gain the margin necessary to wear the pink jersey. In the last 350 meters I gave it everything I had trying to gain as many seconds as possible. Those were the fastest 350 meters I’ve ever ridden in my life,” said Visconti.

“At the beginning of the Giro in Sicily, I was a little hung up with the excitement and I was also a little unlucky. But all that’s behind me now. After crossing the finish line I realized that a small nail had pierced my tire without causing a hole. Maybe now luck is back on my side.”

Visconti, 25, is part of a new herd of young Italian riders making their mark on the peloton. Along with riders like Vicenzo Nibali (Liquigas), Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott), Visconti presents a fresh face for Italian fans hungry for champions.

Visconti, who was raised on Sicily, won the Italian national championship last June to herald his arrival. Now in the pink, he thinks he can keep it for at least a few days.

He’ll carry more than nine minutes to Pellizotti and the other GC favorites into Friday’s first summit finish.

“I hope to defend the jersey for at least a few days, maybe even into the time trial in stage 10,” Visconti said. “I’m not so bad in the time trial, plus now I’m super-motivated to defend the jersey for all I can. The team will help me.”

It was another close call for Gerolsteiner. Following the team’s second place in Wednesday’s stage with Johannes Fröhlinger, the team falls hundredths of a second short of the pink jersey.
“Matthias rode a great race and it almost worked,” said sport director Christian Henn. “It was so close, but he gave everything. We cannot ask for more.” As a consolation prize, Russ slipped into the white jersey awarded to the best young rider.

Favorites ready for showdown

Pellizotti didn’t seem too worried about defending the pink jersey for yet another day. A four-day run in pink was plenty for the curly-haired Liquigas rider, who has larger plans for this Giro.

Friday’s first summit finish at Pescocostanzo will have a huge bearing on who will be able to ride into contention for overall spoils in the 91st Giro.

“The team worked wonderfully to protect the jersey, but today it wasn’t up to us to work at the front all day once again,” Pellizotti said. “Friday will tell us a lot. We’ll see how strong (Alberto) Contador is, but from what I’ve seen, he’ll be good. Astana is looking better than Liquigas or LPR, if you ask me.”

Contador has said that he’ll see how his legs respond in the climbing finish before he decides whether he’ll stay in the Giro to ride to win or perhaps abandon and prepare to take on the Dauphiné Libéré in June, as he had planned before race organizers offered a last-minute invite for the team to start the Giro.

The 180km seventh stage from Vasto to Pescocostanzo is the first summit finish of this climb-heavy Giro. The first half of the stage will almost surely prompt a breakaway. Hostilities open with a Cat. 3 at Valico di Macerone at 118km followed by a Cat. 1 Rionero Sanntico at 131km. That’s quickly followed by a Cat. 2 at Pietransieri with 14km to go before the final charge to the summit.

The Giro doesn’t rate climbs at the finish, simply ranking them as summit finishes. This one isn’t very long or hard, just 2.8km at an average grade of 6 percent. While the stage will be challenging enough, the final climb will likely reveal who won’t be in contention for the maglia rosa when the Giro ends June 1 in Milan.

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