That was nuts.

[Sonarrat]

First off, all 140 riders who finished yesterday also
finished today. To have only one DNS and one DNF between the
two hardest mountain stages is amazing. Petacchi, Pollack,
Rodriguez, d'Amore, Usov, Furlan, Zanotti, and Nauduzs
should all be in Milan tomorrow.

Cunego had a lot of things he had to do with very little
margin for error. He wanted to protect his pink jersey (he
succeeded), fail to take enough mountain points to surpass
Wegmann (he succeeded), and help his team captain up onto
the podium... it is the latter position that I'm not so sure
about. He did crack Popovych, but by going with Cioni, who
was too far back on GC to challenge either him or Simoni, he
baited Gontchar and may have cost Simoni 2nd place.

It was very interesting to see Saeco's team all -behind-
Cunego, sitting on to the advantage of Simoni while keeping
Cunego in a good position to defend.

And Fassa Bortolo finally sent a couple of guys with Dario
Cioni! It was a good thing they did, because Massimo Codol
(who was working for Pantani last year) was there to give
Cioni his back wheel, literally, and big powerhouse Marzio
Bruseghin was there all day to keep him fresh. I'd say it
worked, he leapfrogged past Popovych into 4th place on GC.
Not bad considering at the same time last year, he was
outside the time limit with Petacchi.

One more thing - Alessandro Bertolini was second to last in
the Tour de France last year. What makes him think he can
climb all of a sudden??

-Sonarrat.

 

[Jeff Jones]

"Sonarrat" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> First off, all 140 riders who finished yesterday also
> finished today. To have only one DNS and one DNF between
> the two hardest mountain stages is amazing. Petacchi,
> Pollack, Rodriguez, d'Amore, Usov, Furlan, Zanotti, and
> Nauduzs should all be in Milan tomorrow.
>
They were short stages with fairly generous time cuts (20
percent). So the bus could lose 45-50 minutes or so.
Everyone easily made the cut yesterday.

> Cunego had a lot of things he had to do with very little
> margin for error. He wanted to protect his pink jersey
> (he succeeded), fail to take enough mountain points to
> surpass Wegmann (he succeeded), and help his team captain
> up onto the podium... it is the latter position that I'm
> not so sure about. He did crack Popovych, but by going
> with Cioni, who was too far back on GC to challenge
> either him or Simoni, he baited Gontchar and may have
> cost Simoni 2nd place.
>
Cunego rode very well in an uncomfortable position (although
Simoni was in the same position a few days back). The only
turn he did was to close the gap to Pellizotti and then
Cioni, so he can't be accused of riding his teammate down.
As for Gonchar, Simoni was already up the road so he didn't
really need any more motivation. If Simoni had *really*
wanted that second place (rather than the pink), then he
would have asked Cunego to jump across on one of the climbs
and help them out. That would have screwed Gonchar. But
somehow I don't think that was Simoni's objective today.

I think that not taking the mountains jersey was fairly low
on the priority list for Cunego. Wegmann, who is not what
you'd call a great climber (a smart and gutsy rider yes)
took it by the skin of his teeth in the end. But nice riding
by the German.

> It was very interesting to see Saeco's team all -behind-
> Cunego, sitting on to the advantage of Simoni while
> keeping Cunego in a good position to defend.
>
Only Mazzoleni was left with Cunego and he helped keep him
calm. After Simoni attacked, there was no more tempo work
that had to be done by Saeco.

> And Fassa Bortolo finally sent a couple of guys with Dario
> Cioni! It was a good thing they did, because Massimo Codol
> (who was working for Pantani last year) was there to give
> Cioni his back wheel, literally, and big powerhouse Marzio
> Bruseghin was there all day to keep him fresh. I'd say it
> worked, he leapfrogged past Popovych into 4th place on GC.
> Not bad considering at the same time last year, he was
> outside the time limit with Petacchi.
>
Also not bad, considering he's been busting his butt for
Petacchi in all the flat stages. I think he more than
deserved the help today, especially with two flats.
Bruseghin is an ox!

> One more thing - Alessandro Bertolini was second to last
> in the Tour de France last year. What makes him think he
> can climb all of a sudden??
>
It's the Giro. He's Italian, riding for an Italian team.
What more motivation do you need?

cheers, Jeff

 

[Warren]

In article <[email protected]>,
Sonarrat <[email protected]> wrote:
> He did crack Popovych, but by going with Cioni, who was
> too far back on GC to challenge either him or Simoni, he
> baited Gontchar and may have cost Simoni 2nd place.

Gontchar had to chase Simoni regardless of what Cunego did
because Cunego was irrelevant for Gontchar. Gontchar would
have been more worried about Cioni than Cunego because it
was Cioni (along with Simoni) who was threatening his GC
position, not Cunego.

> And Fassa Bortolo finally sent a couple of guys with Dario
> Cioni! It was a good thing they did, because Massimo Codol
> (who was working for Pantani last year) was there to give
> Cioni his back wheel, literally, and big powerhouse Marzio
> Bruseghin was there all day to keep him fresh. I'd say it
> worked, he leapfrogged past Popovych into 4th place on GC.
> Not bad considering at the same time last year, he was
> outside the time limit with Petacchi.

Cioni has better coaching now. He said he just didn't have
the legs the other day to stay with Simoni's group, but
other than that Cioni has been riding well each day,
including plenty of help for Pettachi's 8 leadouts-a bit
unusual for a guy who is now showing good GC potential.

-WG

 

[Carl Sundquist]

"warren" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:290520041752569103%[email protected]...
> In article <sonarrat-
> [email protected]>, Sonarrat
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> > He did crack Popovych, but by going with Cioni, who was
> > too far back on GC to challenge either him or Simoni, he
> > baited Gontchar and may have cost Simoni 2nd place.
>
> Gontchar had to chase Simoni regardless of what Cunego did
> because Cunego was irrelevant for Gontchar. Gontchar would
> have been more worried about Cioni than Cunego because it
> was Cioni (along with Simoni) who was threatening his GC
> position, not Cunego.
>

Having somebody 20s ahead helps with motivation and pacing.