The Killer tries to strike late on stage four but is thwarted by the final flat kilometre
Danilo Di Luca (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) came within metres of taking victory in the fourht stage of the Giro d’Italia, between Policastro Bussentino and Serra San Bruno, as his fierce late attack was only closed down in the finishing straight. “The Killer” jumped clear of the peloton over the top of the final climb of the day – the Croce Ferrata, which topped out at just 6.7km to go – with Robinson Chalapud (Colombia), but a combination of the Colombian’s reluctance to work and the terrain saw Di Luca finally thwarted.
“At nine kilometres from the finish I tried, in agreement with [team manager Luca] Scinto, and I went away with a Colombian but he never came through to take a turn,” Di Luca explained.
Di Luca was the one to do all of the work in the final two kilometres of the climb, as the two riders opened up a lead of around ten seconds over the peloton, and it was the Italian that lead down the first few kilometres of the descent. Much of this was surely down to the fact that it was all that Chalapud could do to hold on to Di Luca’s wheel on the wet roads – peppered with white lines and other markings – than any deliberate decision not to work.
By the time the Colombian did come through to work though, as the roads levelled out in the last two kilometres, the bunch was almost upon them. Di Luca admitted that it wasn’t only the Colombian’s apparent lack of cooperation that cost him the victory, however.
“Above all, I thought there was less flat road between the end of the descent and the end of the stage,” he admitted. “Too bad, because with a tiny bit of cooperation from the Colombian or less flat between the end of descent and the finish, I could have made it.
“I feel good though,” he added, “and I’ll try again in the next few days, that’s for sure.”