Katusha leader surprises the other favourites with solo attack
After a quiet first half to the Giro d’Italia, without losing too much time on most of the overall favourites, Team Katusha’s captain Vladimir Karpets finally has shown himself. He broke away on the first of two 2nd category climbs in today’s stage and escaped his rivals. This was not a premeditated move by the long-haired Russian, but a decision made on the spur of the moment.
“I felt good,” he said after the stage, “so I tried to attack on the first climb. I had not planned it, but I did it.”
By the summit of the first climb he was 35 seconds clear, by the summit of the second the gap was 68 seconds, and the margin kept growing all the way to the finish in Cesenatico. “I took 2’26”,” he said, “now I have just 10 minutes in GC. So, we will see tomorrow.”
Karpets climbed to 14th place, 10’06” down on race leader Richie Porte (Saxo Bank). Perhaps more significantly though, he is now 1’04” ahead of World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and just 22 seconds behind Alexandre Vinokourov; both riders are former pink jerseys in this race and both are big favourites for the overall.
The Russian has also leapfrogged Liquigas-Doimo pair Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso, as well as Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone). Most of the riders currently in the top ten positions there by virtue of the extraordinary breakaway on stage 11. With most of them expected to fade in the mountains of the race’s third week, Karpets is now sitting pretty.