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news
Giro d'Italia logo.jpgGiro d'Italia Stage 11: Porte in pink as huge breakaway causes seismic shift in GC
The general classification was sensationally turned on its head in the Giro d’Italia today as Richie Porte of Team Saxo Bank took the race leader’s maglia rosa from Alexandre Vinokourov after getting into a 56 man escape group that headed off the front of the peloton 20km into the day’s stage.
On a cold, wet day that is sure to rank among the most dramatic in the Giro’s 101-year history, today’s 262km stage, the longest in this year’s 93rd edition, took the race from Lucera to L’Aquila, the city in central Italy struck by an earthquake a little over a year ago, Team Katusha’s Evgeni Petrov claiming victory with an attack inside the final kilometre.
But the big news was the seismic shift in the general classification, with Vinokourov and second-placed Cadel Evans, as well as Liquigas riders Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali, taking a massive, perhaps fatal, blow to their hopes of topping the podium in Verona a week on Sunday, while Cervelo TestTeam’s Carlos Sastre, who crossed the line third, and Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins, fourth, headed back towards the top of the overall standings.
But besides Porte, the two big winners today in general classification terms were David Arroyo of Caisse d’Epargne, 1 minute 42 seconds down on the Australian, and the Croation Robert Kiserlovski of Liquigas Doimo, a further 14 seconds back. Cervelo TestTeam’s Xavier Tondo is fourth, 3 minutes 54 seconds behind Porte.
There are conflicting views about quite how a number of maglia rosa contenders – not to mention the jersey’s wearer himself – got caught out so badly by a breakaway that besides Porte contained a number of riders whose chances of a podium finish seemed to have disappeared.
One is that there was a delay in the race organisers reporting back to the main peloton the details of the escape group, meaning that it was too late for them to react. Another is that poor weather made radio communication difficult, so the composition of the escape group was not known until it was well down the road. A third is that as the rain came down early in the stage, the main peloton sat up to sort out their capes and arm warmers, heedless of the escapees speeding off ahead.
Whatever happened, the fact is that even with 200km left to run, the escape group had built a lead of a quarter of an hour over the peloton and it was clear that not only did it contain some big names, but also that it wasn’t going to get caught. In the end, the main group including Vinokourov and Evans trailed in almost 13 minutes down, leaving a general classification that looks very, very different to how it looked this morning.
Giro d'Italia Stage 11 Lucera-L'Aquila 1 PETROV Evgeni KAT 06:28:29 2 CATALDO Dario QST 00:05 3 SASTRE Carlos CTT 00:05 4 WIGGINS Bradley SKY 00:07 5 EFIMKIN Alexander ALM 00:07 6 GERDEMANN Linus MRM 00:07 7 PINEAU Jerome QST 00:07 8 ARROYO David GCE 00:07 9 TONDO Xavier CTT 00:07 10 BAKELANDTS Jan OLO 00:07 11 KISERLOVSKI Robert LIQ 00:18 12 SERPA Jose Rodolfo AND 00:18 13 PORTE Richie SAX 00:21 14 MAYOZ Iban FOT 00:23 15 VOECKLER Thomas BTL 00:23 16 ARDILA Mauricio Alberto RAB 00:26 17 MONCOUTIE David COF 00:31 18 DE GREEF Francis OLO 00:31 19 DUPONT Hubert ALM 00:41 20 CODOL Massimo ASA 00:41 Overall standings after Stage 11 1 PORTE Richie SAX 45:30:16 2 ARROYO David GCE 01:42 3 KISERLOVSKI Robert LIQ 01:56 4 TONDO Xavier CTT 03:54 5 AGNOLI Valerio LIQ 04:41 6 EFIMKIN Alexander ALM 05:16 7 GERDEMANN Linus MRM 05:34 8 SASTRE Carlos CTT 07:09 9 DIDIER Laurent SAX 07:24 10 WIGGINS Bradley SKY 08:14 11 BAKELANDTS Jan OLO 08:35 12 VINOKOUROV Alexandre AST 09:58 13 EVANS Cadel BMC 11:10 14 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQ 11:28 15 BASSO Ivan LIQ 11:49 16 PINOTTI Marco THR 12:15 17 DE GREEF Francis OLO 12:21 18 KARPETS Vladimir KAT 12:32 19 GARZELLI Stefano ASA 12:42 20 CUNEGO Damiano LAM 13:03
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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9 comments
WEll we saw robbie let Pozzatta take the stage today so "National Celebrations tonight!
Each 5km mark after 50 generally has a "full standup setup with railings,banners etc", most are a wagon with 2 or more workers but sprint & KOM setups can be several vans. This is all they do each day, set up,sleep/maintain and tear down before moving to next days location.Even the start village and arrival area rarely meet up in the 23days. Some of the personel work at both locations such as security but that is rare.
Even the media these days opt for one or the other if they do not travel on the route.
Managers of the Depart & Arrival village can be found on site the day before working off detailed "Blueprints of the area to be utilised, sometimes getting the vehicles into the drop off points is a logistical nightmare. one truck jumping the gun = chaos, rarely happens but the italian language gets electric when that happens !
Same goes for TDF & Vuelta events but the tdf being bigger rarely tries to shoehorne the "Village" into a tight area
WEll we saw robbie let Pozzatta take the stage today so "National Celebrations tonight!
Each 5km mark after 50 generally has a "full standup setup with railings,banners etc", most are a wagon with 2 or more workers but sprint & KOM setups can be several vans. This is all they do each day, set up,sleep/maintain and tear down before moving to next days location.Even the start village and arrival area rarely meet up in the 23days. Some of the personel work at both locations such as security but that is rare.
Even the media these days opt for one or the other if they do not travel on the route.
Managers of the Depart & Arrival village can be found on site the day before working off detailed "Blueprints of the area to be utilised, sometimes getting the vehicles into the drop off points is a logistical nightmare. one truck jumping the gun = chaos, rarely happens but the italian language gets electric when that happens !
Same goes for TDF & Vuelta events but the tdf being bigger rarely tries to shoehorne the "Village" into a tight area
@Decster, thanks for report, confirms my decision to return to my "Bolt hole" in Austria after being "skittled" before arrival in Novi Liguri. On bike today for "Ride of Silence" but still too painful for hard riding! Want to be in Cesenatico because of "Marco" but need to do better in tomorrow's training rides!
11 previous Giro's with occasional nasty day but this year is ridiculously cold and miserable for visitors let alone riders/racers.
Even austria has snow down to 750m & i live at 600m glad i have the rower to train on when outdoors is crap.
Dolomites are going to provide Cunego, Garzelli,Basso & Evans plenty of challenges, question is how deep can they go each day and still challenge next morning?
@Decster, thanks for report, confirms my decision to return to my "Bolt hole" in Austria after being "skittled" before arrival in Novi Liguri. On bike today for "Ride of Silence" but still too painful for hard riding! Want to be in Cesenatico because of "Marco" but need to do better in tomorrow's training rides!
11 previous Giro's with occasional nasty day but this year is ridiculously cold and miserable for visitors let alone riders/racers.
Even austria has snow down to 750m & i live at 600m glad i have the rower to train on when outdoors is crap.
Dolomites are going to provide Cunego, Garzelli,Basso & Evans plenty of challenges, question is how deep can they go each day and still challenge next morning?
my pleasure....sadly it is the only stage i will get to see, but not a bad one to see, even if it was only 45 mins from front group to end riders.
it is some set up, i was up there yesterday having a sniff around and there was no sign of the giro, nothing...they put it all up and down in a day, a real whirlwind that passes through the countryside...incredible....
the dolomites are gonna really crack the race open even more...the italians are gonna have to do something soon, as this is the race that decides their contracts for next year. this is bigger than the TdF for italians and their sponsors...
the weather was horrendous, i was standing freezing just after the climb out of Popoli at the 45km to go sign and the massive thunder and lighting storm, hailstones and cold wind kept the carabinieri, me being the only spectator, in their fiat panda rather than controlling the junction i parked up at...
but some stage....
i imagine there is lots more excitement to come...the italians are not happy that an italian has not won a stage yet..they don't count the TTT...
its a bit of an aussie giro this year..
the last guys of the race chasing the the bus were using vehicles to pace themselves, probably getting back after punctures or dropped on the climb, 2 cervelo guys well tucked in behind their team service car and a cofidis guy using an ambulance...
182 started today and the gazzetta website has only credited 171 as finishing...Robbie McEwan last place...
Well, they'll notice Richie Porte all right tomorrow... he'll be the one in pink
I bet that the top GC guys weren't worried because they could see all of their main rivals around them! Great stuff.
The Giro is far more exciting than the TdF due to some crazy stages and weather!