Ramunas Navardauskas took today’s stage but first a word about Ryder Hesjedal.
Hesjedal is one of the nicest professional athletes you’ll ever meet, polite, grounded, sincere, soft spoken and likeable.
To see him languishing in the gruppetto with Cav, yesterday was really quite sad.
He was strong at Liège, paving the way for the win which took Dan Martin from ‘up and coming,’ to firmly, ‘arrived!’
Garmin’s poor TTT wasn’t a good portent for him; but the Canadian’s spirited riding next day was a good sign – or was it?
As I wrote at the time, he seemed to be trying to convince himself that all was well.
But since then it’s been all downhill – I knew he couldn’t win this year, not with Sky v. Astana bout at the top of the bill.
But I did think that a podium was possible – sadly, it’s not to be.
And with 10 stages still to go that podium is far from settled – and that can only be a good thing for the fans.
Respect is due to the Garmin squad, however for Ramunas Navardauskas’ fine stage win – Daniel Oss is a big strong boy, but the Lithuanian was stronger.
The team could have slid into the ‘Post Ryder Collapse Blues,’ but responded to their disappointment in the best possible way.
And across in California, Tyler Farrar under scored that Vaughters’ team is far from ‘on a downer’ with the stage win in Santa Barbara.
Farrar started the season strongly but hasn’t had a win – his morale will have been done no harm with this one.
And whilst the Biggest Beasts – Cav, Greipel and Kittel weren’t there, he still had to beat local fast man, Ken Hanson (Optum-Kelly) who’s US criterium champion and has Euro wins to his name in 2013; QuickStep’s classy Gianni Meersman and the inimitable Peter Sagan (Cannondale).
Not a bad job at all, Tyler, Ramunas – and Mr. Vaughters.
But back to la Bella Italia – in these days when the strongest potion which should be in the team bus fridge is ‘fat’ Coca Cola, it was inevitable that the break would go so the ‘Bigs’ could recharge their batteries.
If this was ten years ago it would have been fireworks all day – that’s the thing, you can’t have death racing every day and clean cycling.
On the subject of which, we have Mr. Jalabert, ‘summoned by the anti-doping commission of the French Senate.’
Why?
The sport was rotten, we all suspected things were bad – but maybe not as bad as the recent scandals have illustrated – but let’s move on, please.
And no Giro rant worth it’s salt could fail to mention Sky.
Uran made all the right noises at the press conference but Wiggins’ morale doesn’t seem to be that of a man headed for glory.
Although yesterday didn’t put him under too much presh and today’s stage should be for Cav – he’s hungry for that land mark 100th win.
But it’s by no means cast in stone, with riders now up to 2:39 off the pace, there are plenty of guys who Astana, BMC and Sky will be happy to see disappear up the road.
But either way, it’s good for Bradley; it gives his battered system and morale a chance to recover.
Stage 13, similarly, whilst long and lumpy at the death will be for escape artists or the sprinters and shouldn’t be too much of a handful for the GC men.
But in this Giro, you never know.
Ciao, ciao.
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Result - Giro d'Italia 2013 - Stage 11: Tarvisio - Vajont (Erto e Casso) 182km
Stage Result
2 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:01:08
3 Stefano Pirazzi (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox 0:02:59
4 Salvatore Puccio (Ita) Sky Procycling 0:03:07
5 Paul Martens (Ger) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
6 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
7 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
8 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:03:10
9 Evgeny Petrov (Rus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:03:11
10 Jackson Rodriguez (Ven) Androni Giocattoli 0:03:25
11 Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:27
12 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Katusha 0:03:30
13 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-GreenEdge 0:03:36
14 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
15 Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale 0:03:57
16 Leonardo Fabio Duque (Col) Colombia 0:04:12
17 Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano 0:04:20
18 Johan Le Bon (Fra) FDJ 0:04:40
19 Cayetano José Sarmiento Tunarrosa (Col) Cannondale Pro Cycling
20 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) Movistar Team 0:05:23
21 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) RadioShack Leopard 0:05:41
22 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
23 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
24 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2R La Mondiale
25 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox
26 Darwin Atapuma Hurtado (Col) Colombia
27 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida
28 Diego Rosa (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
29 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
30 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
31 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
32 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
33 Yury Trofimov (Rus) Katusha
34 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
35 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling
36 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling
37 Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
38 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida
39 Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (Col) Colombia
40 Robert Gesink (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
41 Francis Mourey (Fra) FDJ
42 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
43 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
44 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) Ag2R La Mondiale
45 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team
46 Tiago Machado (Por) RadioShack Leopard
47 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Lampre-Merida 0:05:48
48 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ 0:06:00
49 Jorge Azanza Soto (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
50 Jarlinson Pantano (Col) Colombia
51 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Sky Procycling
52 Hubert Dupont (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
53 Francis De Greef (Bel) Lotto Belisol
54 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Movistar Team
55 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar Team
56 Petr Ignatenko (Rus) Katusha
57 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team
58 Martijn Keizer (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:06:20
59 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Sky Procycling
60 Ben Gastauer (Lux) Ag2R La Mondiale
61 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team
62 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Movistar Team
63 Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez (Col) Androni Giocattoli
64 Fabio Felline (Ita) Androni Giocattoli 0:07:04
65 George Bennett (NZl) RadioShack Leopard 0:07:13
66 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Sky Procycling 0:07:14
67 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:08:14
68 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Astana Pro Team
69 Cristiano Salerno (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
70 Dirk Bellemakers (Ned) Lotto Belisol
71 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) RadioShack Leopard 0:08:23
72 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol 0:08:36
73 Simone Stortoni (Ita) Lampre-Merida
74 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox 0:10:01
75 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team
76 Bruno Pires (Por) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
77 Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox 0:10:32
78 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Lampre-Merida
79 Brian Bulgac (Ned) Lotto Belisol
80 Rob Ruijgh (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
81 Stef Clement (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
82 Maarten Wynants (Bel) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
83 Dominique Rollin (Can) FDJ
84 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
85 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
86 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida
87 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
88 Christian Knees (Ger) Sky Procycling
89 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Movistar Team
90 Koen De Kort (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano
91 Vicente Reynes Mimo (Spa) Lotto Belisol
92 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Movistar Team
93 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
94 Thomas Damuseau (Fra) Team Argos-Shimano
95 Marco Marcato (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
96 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Lampre-Merida
97 Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff (Swe) Astana Pro Team 0:12:00
98 Gert Dockx (Bel) Lotto Belisol 0:12:14
99 Julien Vermote (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:13:35
100 Marco Canola (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox
101 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
102 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox
103 Dalivier Ospina Navarro (Col) Colombia
104 Frederik Willems (Bel) Lotto Belisol
105 Ricardo Mestre (Por) Euskaltel-Euskadi
106 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Ag2R La Mondiale
107 Tiziano Dall’Antonia (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
108 Luca Paolini (Ita) Katusha
109 Alan Marangoni (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
110 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Team Argos-Shimano
111 Ivan Santaromita (Ita) BMC Racing Team
112 Robert Vrecer (Slo) Euskaltel-Euskadi
113 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin-Sharp
114 Jesse Sergent (NZl) RadioShack Leopard
115 Albert Timmer (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano
116 Taylor Phinney (USA) BMC Racing Team
117 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
118 Mads Christensen (Den) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
119 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Lotto Belisol
120 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
121 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
122 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
123 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
124 Michal Golas (Pol) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
125 Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre) Euskaltel-Euskadi
126 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha
127 Wilson Alexander Marentes Torres (Col) Colombia
128 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Team Argos-Shimano
129 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Garmin-Sharp
130 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp
131 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Sharp
132 Peter Stetina (USA) Garmin-Sharp
133 Robert Hunter (RSA) Garmin-Sharp
134 Bert De Backer (Bel) Team Argos-Shimano
135 Cameron Wurf (Aus) Cannondale Pro Cycling
136 Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
137 Alessandro Proni (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
138 Miguel Minguez Ayala (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
139 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
140 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
141 Rafael Andriato (Bra) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
142 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox
143 Dmitry Kozontchuk (Rus) Katusha
144 Hayden Roulston (NZl) RadioShack Leopard
145 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Katusha
146 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
147 Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge
148 Jens Mouris (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge
149 Danilo Hondo (Ger) RadioShack Leopard
150 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
151 Nelson Filipe Santos Simoes Oliveira (Por) RadioShack Leopard
152 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team
153 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
154 Murilo Antonio Fischer (Bra) FDJ
155 Grega Bole (Slo) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
156 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
157 Christian Meier (Can) Orica-GreenEdge
158 Matteo Rabottini (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
159 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
160 Svein Tuft (Can) Ori