World champion sprints to victory on the Adriatic after the coast road sees many of his rivals dropped
Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) took his second victory of the Giro d’Italia as he outsprinted the rest in the Adriatic resort of Fano at the end of stage five. The World champion, still carrying the marks he sustained as he hit the tarmac in the previous sprint stage, was one of the few top sprinters left in the peloton after a tough finish to the stage, along the rolling Strada Panoramica Adriatica.
Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), wearing the red points jersey, was just unable to come around Cavendish as they hit the line, while Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan) was the best of the rest at the end of the 209km stage that began in Modena, the birthplace of Enzo Ferrari.
There to see Cavendish’s victory was partner Peta Todd, with their five-week old baby Delilah, whom the World champion took onto the victory podium with him.
“There’s no better feeling than holding your baby in your arms,” he said. “Only thing comes close: holding your baby on the podium. It’s my first stage win with her at the race. I’m very happy. I’m very happy she’s here. I’m happy Peta’s here. I’m very proud.
“I would have loved to wear the pink jersey and my goal was the red jersey,” he admitted. “But I lost out on 20 points because of the crash on the stage to Horsens and so it’s gone. I’m disappointed but I’ll come back and try to get it next year.”
The break of the day was made up of Alessandro De Marchi (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Pier Paolo De Negri (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia), Olivier Kaisen and Brian Bulgaç (Lotto-Belisol), and escaped in the opening kilometre. De Marchi escaped the others just after the climb to Gabicce Monte after 174km, but he was finally caught by the Liquigas-Cannondale-led peloton with just under 20km to go.
The pace set by the green and blue team was enough to end the chances of a number of sprinters, including second place overall Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda), former World champion Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing), Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) and Theo Bos (Rabobank).
As the race rejoined the flat coast road, the remaining sprinters’ teams fought for supremacy, but it was Team Sky that led into the final kilometre, and led out Cavendish to perfection to take the stage.
A seemingly innocuous crash inside the final 40km saw stage one winner Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) hit the tarmac for the third time in the race, and effectively ended his chances of retaking the pink jersey as he struggled to rejoin when the hitherto flat course began to get hilly.
New race leader Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda) managed to stay in the peloton, despite losing a number of his teammates. There was a split in the peloton though, with only the first 17 riders awarded the same time as Cavendish; the Lithuanian lost five seconds , but held on to his pink jersey for another day. Time bonuses for both Goss and Cavendish put the two sprinters within range however, should either be successful on the following day’s stage.
Four men escape on the Via Aemilia and head for the coast
The almost completely flat parcours would follow the arrow-straight course of the Roman Via Aemilia – now the S9, which runs parallel to the A14 autostrada – as it passed through Bologna and Imola on the way to Rimini on the coast. It would then turn south, featuring a few small coastal headland capi towards the finish – which began with the 4th category climb to Gabicce Monte – before descending to sea level once more for the final 13km.
As usual, a break got away early, with De Negri attacking the second that the flag was dropped. De Marchi, Kaisen and Bulgaç quickly escaped and made their way up to the lone Italian in the early kilometres. Kaisen was a veteran of the stage two breakaway, and had one point in the mountains classification. While the three points available on Gabicce Monte would lift the Belgian up the standings he would not be able to oust jersey incumbent Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia); De Negri – Balloni’s teammate – was there to make sure the jersey was not threatened.
After the team time trial Bulgaç was the best placed of the quartet, starting the day in 103rd place, 1’39” behind new race leader Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda). Pretty soon though, the Dutchman would be the virtual race leader.
The quartet covered 45.1km in first hour on the almost totally flat road, and by the 62km point had opened up a lead of 6’04” over the peloton. This was as far as it was to get however, and Navardauskas’ Garmin-Barracuda team sent Alex Rasmussen and Sébastien Rosseler to the front and began to inch them back.
The lead dropped to below five minutes as the leaders entered the feedzone in Forlì, but was back up to 6’20” with 98km to go as the peloton took its mussettes and stopped for ‘comfort breaks’. As the peloton continued its unhurried pace through the Emilia Romagna countryside. At the 70km to go point it was still 5’41” however, and with 60km to go, as they approached the resort town of Rimini, it had only come down as far as 5’26”.
Garmin-Barracuda soon brought more riders to the front though, lifting the pace of the peloton and with 50km to go its deficit was down to 4’40”. FDJ-BigMat, having been lurking behind the American team for some time, sent a rider to the front to help out the chase.
The two Lotto-Belisol riders looked as though they were happy to simply roll over the Traguardo Volante sprint in Misano Adriatico, with 44.2km to go, but De Negri had other ideas. The Italian attacked from third wheel and shot across the line ahead of the others, to take maximum points. The peloton crossed the line just 3’23” behind him, with the pace now getting higher.
The Strada Panoramica Adriatica approaches but the peloton is gaining
Co-operation returned to the four-man break as they approached Cattolica, and the foot of the climb to Gabicce Monte. Garmin-Barracuda had sat up a little however, looking to the teams of the other sprinters to make more of a contribution. It was Katusha that picked up the gautlet, and the Russian team’s acceleration cut the group’s advantage to just 2’30” as is passed under the 40km to go banner. As the climb began the four riders were still working together, but the peloton’s pace saw their lead tumble.
There was a small crash in the peloton as Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Saxo Bank) rode into the back of another rider in a moment of inattention. The ripple back through the peloton saw a few more riders come down including Haedo’s teammate Manuele Boaro, and Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing).
The 21-year-old American – wearing the white jersey because Navardauskas was wearing the pink one – had now crashed in the closing kilometres of every road stage of the race so far.
As the leading four approached the top, Kaisen was dropped as De Marchi accelerated. Bulgaç attacked for the points at the top of the climb, with 35km to go, but De Negri was expecting this and jumped past him to take the line first. Kaisen followed 42 seconds later, with the peloton at just 1’11”.
De Marchi escaped on the twisting rolling road of the Strada Panoramica Adriatica, and was soon out of sight of the others. Behind him, Liquigas-Cannondale had taken over the chase; this was more to keep Ivan Basso out of trouble however, as De Marchi was still 1’05” clear as he entered the final 30km.
The pace was putting a number of sprinters into trouble though, including Farrar, Hushovd, Ferrari, Guardini and Bos. Phinney was still chasing alone, but seemed to have given up hope of making it back up to the peloton.
With 26.5km to go De Negri and Bulgaç were picked up by the Liquigas-Cannondale-led peloton, but De Marchi was still 56 seconds clear. It was tough for the green and blue team to get a rhythm going with the constant turns of the road, but the gap was down to 40 seconds as the race entered the final 25km; it continued to come down, and just inside the final 20km he was finally caught.
Astana then took over at the front in force and kept the speed high, which prevented the group of dropped sprinters from rejoining. The Kazakh team led the peloton down the twisting descent into Pesaro, leaving just the final flat 12.9km along the coast road to the finish.
Back at sea level but most of the sprinters are long gone
As they reached sea level the group of sprinters was 40 seconds back, giving them virtually no chance of making the finish. Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Cannondale) tried to escape, and was joined by Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), but they were immediately chased down by Orica-GreenEdge.
With 11km to go Team Sky, which had virtually its entire team present hit the front and began get itself organised. FDJ-BigMat also had Arnaud Démare in the peloton however, and took over from the British team as they approached the 10km banner.
Not happy with the pace set by FDJ-BigMat however, Liquigas-Cannondale took over once again, but Team Sky promptly put its entire roster onto the front and began to string the peloton out. Omega Pharma-Quick Step was lurking close to the front, with Francesco Chicchi, while Orica-GreenEdge was looking after Goss, and Rabobank was bringing Mark Renshaw forward.
Into the final five kilometres Katusha tried to take over from Team Sky, with Alexander Kristoff in tow. With 3.5km to go there was an attack from Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol), but he lasted for less than a kilometre before being calmly pulled back by Team Sky.
FDJ-BigMat was at the front as the peloton approached the final kilometre, but with the entire Team Sky train on the wheel of one rider from the French team. He pulled away just before the flamme rouge, leaving the British team to lead into the finish.
Orica-GreenEdge and Team Sky battled into the finishing straight, but it was the British team that was in the ascendancy as the line approached. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) led Cavendish into the final 200 metres, but Goss was right on the World champion’s wheel; Cavendish launched his sprint and, despite his best efforts, Goss was just unable to get around his former teammate.
Bennati beat Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Barracduda) to third, denying the South African champion the time bonuses which – with the five second gap to Navardauskas – would have seen him take the pink jersey from his teammate.