Race Report: Not quite the day off that usually comes at this point in a Grand Tour, but exactly what Denis Menchov expected – a slightly nervy affair as he jousts with Danilo Di Luca for the precious bonus seconds. With that pair’s eyes on the biggest prize, Silence-Lotto finally got their names on the Giro board.
It was (again) not perfect for the sprinters today – a slightly lumpy route, not too challenging, but with a sharp little climb to be tackled twice. And it did for them on another super-quick stage, hammered through at over 45 kms/h. Of the remaining recognised sprinters, only Allan Davis survived, but he was looking for scraps thanks to a gloriously-executed late escape from Silence-Lotto’s Phillipe Gilbert.
Silence-Lotto and Philippe Gilbert are breathing some happy breaths of success this evening.
The Belgian blasted off with 1.5 kms left, dragging Thomas Voeckler with him. Yaroslav Popovych tried to go too, but exploded as the road snaked up to the finish in Anagni.
The chiefs in the peloton let them get on with it and the lead stretched to a none-too-comfortable-but-just-enough handful of seconds.
Gilbert and Voeckler ground their way slower and ever slower to the line. Gilbert had a quick glance round to see if Voeckler was closing … but when the Frenchman himself looked over his shoulder Gilbert knew he’d got it nailed. Now Silence-Lotto have been getting the sort of press that a President gets for screwing up the economy – they’ve won practically zip all year, so this stage win was a major turn-up.
One finger raised to the sky as he rolled home, it was another neatly taken win to add to the Belgian’s palmares, with the sort of finish that he has perfected. Voeckler hangs on for second place and Garzelli grabs a few more points for third to secure the mountains title – good work from the Acqua & Sapone chief.
Anthony Charteau of Caisse d’ Epargne, Marco Pinotti (Columbia-High Road), the Hungarian Bartosz Huzarski from serial-escapees ISD, and Paolo Tiralongo of the Lampre-NGC squad had jumped away with 14kms left, but couldn’t hold on despite pulling out a 20 second gap.
They went after a 10-man mini-break lead by Liquigas’ Sylvester Szmyd, had briefly flickered going through the line for the start of the closing 20-km circuit …
Brutt and Fothen share a handshake as they're gobbled up.
They went after a move from Pavel Brutt (Katusha) and Markus Fothen (Milram) faded … they had counter-attacked after the big group of the day evaporated, which included PEZ-interviewee Ben Swift (Katusha), Forster (Milram), Cardenas (Barloworld), Lund (SaxoBank), De Bonis (Diquigiovanni), Bonnafond (Ag2r), Gomez (Fuji) and Lastras of Caisse d’ Epargne …
Mmmm...pizza!
And they’d gone away after only four kilometres, but never got further than four minutes clear – LPR and Rabobank had a nervy eye on each other as there were bonus seconds on offer. Rabo’ would have been happy to see anyone but Di Luca eat them up; LPR wanted (if possible) to give their boss a chance to cut the gap ahead of tomorrow’s closing time trial from ‘mildly troubling’ to ‘ass-clenchingly worrying’.
Inside 70kms to go, and it was LPR with help from Columbia, then Silence-Lotto pulling the gap down.
Petacchi saved the sprint from absolute disaster, but Menchov had enough to get 'round Di Luca.
Sprint time with 44kms left and Menchov jumps away for the seconds! Di Luca lets him go, but Petacchi’s taking no nonsense and flies past the Russian to mop up the first spot. Di Luca gets going for third, but the Menchov sandwich lets the Russian eke out another two seconds for his overall cushion.
Everyone’s waiting for LPR to drag the field kicking and screaming to the line, but in the end, they seemed to decide that the racing was done for the day, allowing the escapes their chances.
Only one more day to go for the great duel of Di Luca - Menchov 2009.
And Gilbert took his opportunity perfectly to put a little gloss on Silence-Lotto’s fairly abject season. It’s a start, but they’ll need Cadel Evans to really do something at the Tour to rescue things completely.
Looks like Menchov has this Giro totally sewn up, but Di Luca will be hoping for some sort of alien invasion to give him a shot in the 14.4.kms TT around Rome tomorrow.
Yahoo! A win at last.
Pez will be there in glorious Technicolor, but there’s loads more to come today with Ed on the roadside! Don’t touch that dial!
Giro d’ Italia Stage 20 Results, Napoli – Anagni, 203 kms 1 Phillipe Gilbert (Bel) Silence-Lotto 4 hr 30’ 07” 2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) BBox Bouyges Telecom + 2” 3 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone + 7” 4 Allan Davis (Aus) Quickstep 5 Sebastian Hinault (Fra) Ag2r 6 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 7 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Columbia-High Road 8 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD 9 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Cervelo 10 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Cervelo all same time
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