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News :: May 2005

12 May 2005

13 May News ...

Bettini Relegated, Cooke Crashes, Mazzanti Wins

Bettini Sprints and Cooke Crashes, photo: Quick-Step

It was quite a finish for the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia into Frosinone. Paolo Bettini, in the maglia rosa, was relegated to fourth place after some irregular sprinting. The result of the relegation gave Luca Mazzanti, who crossed the line 2nd to Bettini, the stage win.

"It's pretty clear, I was in the middle of the road and he [Bettini] pushed me toward the barrier. The television can see what happened," Cooke was unhurt but pissed. When Bettini tried to shake hands with the Australian, Cooke refused and kept his cool in front of the surrounded press. The judges stripped Bettini of the stage but did not issue a time penalty that would have put Danilo Di Luca in the maglia rosa. The victory therefore went to Luca Mazzanti (Ceramica Panaria).

The BiciRace.com experts predicted a sprinter's stage yesterday, but it was not to be. That "little bump at 4K" caused a few problems and plenty of excitement. This 88th Giro d'Italia is shaping up to be a heck of a race.

Cipollini Speaks

"I have never liked victory at all costs. I always thought that a champion should have elegance in every motion." These are the words from, now retired, Mario Cipollini. They weigh heavy with class, something that was missing in yesterday's finish.

Stage 5 for the Explosive Riders

Today the riders set off on stage 5, the longest stage (223K) of this year's Giro d'Italia. Starting from Celano, the route is horse-shoe shaped, going first south and then north to the finish in L'Aquila. The finish is only a few kilometers from Di Luca's home town of Spoltore, and "the Killer" should be a favorite. Other favorites will be the Paolo Bettini the "Tuscan Terror", Stefano Garzelli, and the red-hot Damiano Cunego.

The riders tackle 3 categorized climbs, or GPM's. The first two should not cause too much difficultly because they are early on in the stage, at 46K and 91K, the Passo del Diavolo and Valico di Monte Godi. After the 2nd category Valico di Monte Godi, at 91K, there is a long decent before the Intergiro and the feed point. Then the real action should start, the favorites will all be present on the 1st category Monte Urano.

The Monte Urano should cause a shake up, averaging 8.3% and sections of 14%. After the riders crest the top at 162K, there will be an additional 61K to the finish with two little, uncategorized, climbs. It will be a barn-burner of a stage.

Thankfully the riders will have nice weather, mostly around 20°C and clouds, with a slight chance of rain. If it does in fact rain then you can bet it will become an epic stage. Stay tuned to read the results of stage 5.

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

The Dust Devil shakes his head at Bettini's sprinting during stage 4 of the 2005 Giro d'Italia. "I must say, I’m with Cookie, that was a dirty sprint by Bettini, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the days of Djamolodine Abdoujaparov..." Read the Dust Devil's Daily Wrap, The Tuscan Terror

Giro d'Italia Classifications

Maglia Rosa: In spite of being relegated to 4th place on the day's standings for closing out Baden Cooke in the sprint, Paolo Bettini retained his overall lead in the race. His fellow countryman, Di Luca, is nipping at his heels though. Di Luca will be on home turf for stage 5 and fancies his chances for a stage win. With the bonuses for winning, Di Luca could be seeing pink at the end of the day. Top 4 currently are: Bettini, Di Luca, Luca Mazzanti and Dario Cioni
Maglia Ciclamino: Most sane people would have bet their life savings that Petacchi would be leading this competition, but it was not to be. Bettini heads this department as well, trailed by McEwen, Di Luca and Mazzanti. By default, McEwen will don the maglia ciclamino since Bettini will be in pink.
Maglia Verde: The dark green of the climbers jersey doesn't exactly match the celeste green of Cioni's team Liquigas-Bianchi colors. But hey, that's a minor detail. Trailing Cioni are Veneberg (Rabobank), Illiano (Selle Italia-Colombia) and Cioni's teammate and leader, Stefano Garzelli.
Maglia Azzurra (Intergiro): Thanks to their attacking exploits in stage 4, BiciRace.com's own Marco Pinotti (Saunier Duval-Prodir) and Cèdric Vasseur (Cofidis) gobbled up maximum Intergiro time. Sven Krauss (Gerolsteiner), who was out in no man's land in pursuit of the two, was left to pick up the crumbs. The good news, though, is that he maintained his overall lead for another day. Stefano Zanini (Quickstep) and Marco Pinotti (Saunier Duval-Prodir) trail him in second and third places respectively.
Read the complete Giro d'Italia classification break-down.
- Paco

Out of the Giro d'Italia

A couple more riders are out of the race, so update your startlist. Today we will be rolling out of Celano with out French rider Nicolas Inaudi (Cofidis). After 76K of racing in stage 4, Nicolas was involved in a crash and then retired. Also not making it for the journey is Patrick Calcagni (Liquigas-Bianchi). Patrick was working like a horse yesterday for his teammates, but was caught up in a crash that put an end to his Giro d'Italia.

Mazzanti A Winner, In a Sense

Italian Luca Mazzanti (Ceramica Panaria) did win yesterday's stage, but not in a way he would have wanted. He finished second to Bettini and was awarded the stage victory by race officials who relegated the Tuscan Terror, Paolo Bettini, to fourth.

"I'm only half happy to have won because Bettini is a friend and I'm sorry he was declassified but I think I deserved it because I was up there and did a good sprint," Mazzanti said. "I was behind Bettini and Cooke. I saw, but leave it to the judges to decide."

It was Mazzanti's third victory of the year, and a big win for the small Ceramica Panaria team. Their second win in the 2005 Giro d'Italia, after Brett Lancaster took the prologue stage in Reggio Calabria on Saturday.

Read BiciRace.com's pink pages for toe-to-knee coverage of the 88th Giro d'Italia...
Startlist, Classifications, Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Key Stages, Stages and Maps, Overall Map
Photos

11 May News ...

Chat with the Director Sportivo, "Very beautiful and "rigida"( how do you say in English?)"

Pedro Delgado Interview - "In my opinion, of the directors I know, I like Vicente Belda the most."

Robbie McEwen in Pink after stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia

Tom Danielson Interview, Before the Giro d'Italia, "We looked at Lance a lot for that stage. And if I was able to do it, then I was going to try to do it. Lance had a lot of faith in me, and kind of stressed me out a little bit..."

Joseba Beloki Interview, "I'm not a real attacking kind of rider, but to attack one needs to have both confidence and physical strength to spare."

He was often criticized by the nay-sayers for not getting over the big mountains. True, he never made it to Paris. But, he knows his talents. He got paid to win races and get publicity for his sponsors., "The End of an Era"

"Every sprint is always different. There are always things going through my mind. The main thing I do is stay concentrated on the job and trying to get in the best position possible!" - Allan Davis

Phil Zajicek ... "I've had a few problems with my health this year so being here and getting healthy and getting some quality training in has been great. Haven't dropped Heras, we were doing hill repeats on the same climb the other day though and I'm pretty sure I was going faster than him. Just kidding, he is tiny though!"