Ale-Jet seems to cut off Cavendish but Manx Missile takes over pink after extreme solo break dominates stage
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) won the opening sprint of the 2011 Giro d’Italia, taking the second stage between Alba and Parma. The Italian Ale-Jet beat Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad), by a little more than the width of his tyre, in a sprint that the Manxman initially protested about. Manuel Belletti (Colnago-CSF) was the best of the rest at the end of a stage dominated by a 215km solo break from Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto).
At 244km, stage 2 was the longest of the race; between Alba, home of the famously delicious white truffle, and Parma, home of the eponymous cured ham, and Parmesan cheese. For the gastronauts in the peloton, the course also passed through the region of Asti, home of the famous Italian sparkling wine.
Lang escapes and no one follows
After just three kilometres Lang, clearly buoyed by his team’s surprisingly strong performance in yesterday’s team time trial, escaped. Nobody went with the lanky German but, unperturbed, he set off alone and formed the breakaway of the day himself.
Presented with the task of riding the next 241km on his own, Lang set about building as big an advantage as possible. Behind him, the peloton, in the great tradition of the Giro, was still savouring its morning cappuccino and did absolutely nothing to stop him.
At the 16km point, Lang led by 4’20”, and the gap kept on growing. Finally, after 82km, and with the German’s lead up to an incredible 19’18”, the HTC-Highroad team of race leader Marco Pinotti woke up and began the lengthy task of reeling him in again.
There was plenty of time to do it though; as Lang passed through the feedzone in Casteggio, after 109km the lead had dropped to 13’50”, and at the 140km point, at Castel San Giovanni, with more than 100km still to race, Lang still had 13’25”.
HTC-Highroad was joined in the chase by men from Garmin-Cervélo, Katusha and RadioShack, stringing out the front of the peloton. With four teams working on behalf of their sprinters the lone German was surely doomed.
As the race moved into the final 100km, the lead had dropped to 12’30”.
An exhausted breakaway, but nobody wants to catch him yet
With 80km to go, with his lead dropping to close to 10 minutes, Lang was visibly tiring and his pedalling began to look laboured. Behind him though, the men from Garmin-Cervélo and HTC-Highroad were looking much fresher; Liquigas-Cannondale brought Vincenzo Nibali forward, to keep him out of danger, as the peloton negotiated the streets and roundabouts of Piacenza.
While his HTC-Highroad team was working hard on the front, Cavendish was keeping himself out of the way, right at the back of the peloton.
After 170km, with 74km still to race, Lang’s advantage had fallen to 7’35”; just 5km later though it was down to 6’20”. The German had been alone in the lead for more than 170km at this point and was visibly tiring; he continually called his team car forward for refreshment and moral support – as well as the shelter from the wind that its presence afforded – but he was now resorting to out of the saddle efforts to maintain his momentum on the long, straight, flat roads.
Lang now had less than 25km to go to the intermediate “Traguardo Volante” sprint, with the one categorised climb of the day, to Tabaino Castello, just 8km after that. With a little over 5’30” left of his enormous lead, these two prizes were surely all he could hope for now; if only he could hold out that long.
Problems for the maglia rosa; nothing he can’t handle though
At last, Lang experienced a bit of luck, as Pinotti punctured and the speed of the peloton briefly subsided as he chased back on. HTC-Columbia was all for Cavendish by now though, and the maglia rosa was given no help by his team. Luckily for the Italian, his mechanical had happened just as a number of other riders were stopping for “comfort breaks” and so he had plenty of company as he made his way to the back of the peloton.
With 56km to go, the peloton evidently decided that it didn’t want to catch Lang too soon and invite counterattacks from those with fresher legs. The gap now stabilised at just over 4’30” as the sprinters teams left the poor German to fry out front for as long as possible.
Lang though, must have had other ideas; after 195km on his own he must have been dying for the shelter of the peloton. Things began to feel even worse for the German with a little under 50km to go too, as the road began to steadily rise towards the intermediate sprint and the day’s solitary climb.
As the gradually rising road stretched out into the distance in front of him, Lang was going through all kinds of pain to keep some kind of forward momentum. The peloton behind him was still unwilling to take him in though and, as HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo dropped the pace a little more, the peloton widened as a number of other teams massed forward.
Nobody was willing to take up the pace though and Lang’s solitary Calvary was allowed to continue. He now had less than 3km to the intermediate sprint, and a little over 10km to the top of the climb, but his lead was now down to 3’31”.
Prizes for the breakaway: Just rewards for a very hard day’s work
At last Lang crossed the intermediate sprint line, with 41.9km to go, so he knew he’d finish the day with some kind of reward. Just a short time later the German passed the milestone of having been alone in the lead for 200km; he was surely wishing it could all be over.
As the peloton approached the line a few minutes behind him Pinotti punctured once more; with the pace of the bunch almost the same as that of Lang at this point though, he had little trouble catching up again.
Wouter Weylandt (Leopard Trek) sprinted for the line 2’58” behind Lang, taking a few points towards the red jersey competition, with Lang’s Omega Pharma-Lotto teammate Jan Bakelants taking third.
As the peloton hit a roundababout on the way out of town, Thomas Rohregger (Leopard Trek) and Vasili Kiryienka (Movistar) came together and went down. Neither seemed to be badly hurt, but both took a while to get going again.
As the climbing proper started, on the way up to Tabaino Castello and the only mountain points of the stage, Lang still had almost 2’30” and, although the Liquigas-Doimo team was now seizing control of the front of the peloton, it looked as though he might make it to the top before he was caught; as the slopes began in earnest, the Katusha team took over.
As he passed the sign telling him that he had 1km to go to the top, Lang still had almost two minutes ahead of a peloton that was now accelerating under the impetus of a number of different teams; as Lang’s team car was pulled from the gap the Acqua & Sapone team took over.
At last Lang crested the top of the climb, with the sure knowledge that his day of extreme solitary labour would be rewarded by the first green mountains jersey of the race. The peloton, now led by Liquigas-Cannondale once more, passed over the climb 1’24” behind him; having reached the top though, and in the knowledge that he had no chance of making it to the finish alone with 33km to go, Lang was freewheeling and soft pedalling on the gentle descent.
His last minute shouldn’t have taken long to fall, with the German continually looking over his shoulder and unclipping one foot at a time to shake out the fatigue. HTC-Highroad was back in command though, and refused to let him lay down his arms.
Caught at last, but too soon for the sprinters’ liking!
With just over 26km to go though, more through Lang’s decision than the peloton’s, the German was caught. Having been in the lead for 215km, Lang might well have made the longest break of the race on the very first stage; there would not be too many opportunities in the race for anyone to beat it.
There was an immediate attack from Leonardo Giordani (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli), who was pursued and joined by Bakelants and Michal Golas (Vacansoleil-DCM). They too were joined by Ivan Rovny (RadioShack), Ruggero Marzoli (Acqua & Sapone), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) and Daniele Righi (Lampre-ISD); with 22km to go, the group of eight riders led the peloton by 28 seconds.
Petacchi and Robbie McEwen both had men in the lead, but Cavedish and Tyler Farrar did not; HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo took up their familiar positions at the front, but with much more urgency this time.
By the 20km to go point the gap had been reduced to 22 seconds but, with eight fresh-legged escapees this time instead of one tired one, the chase was that little bit tougher for the two teams.
With 15km to go the octet still had 15 seconds, but this would surely not be enough; with 13km to go the two American teams had the peloton strung out into a long line, but had only reduced the leaders’ advantage to 11 seconds.
Suddenly the lead group was reduced to seven, as Vorganov seemed to clip a wheel in front of him and flew into the air. Luckily the Russian flew sideways and brought nobody else down; he didn’t look happy, as he gestured towards his former comrades, but he was unhurt and managed to remount and carry on.
With 10km to go the fugitives had just a handful of seconds and, on a long sweeping bend with just over 8km to go, they were in the fold once more. This time Garmin-Cervelo and HTC-Highroad had no intention of letting anyone else get away and kept the pace high.
No more breaks, the sprint is on!
With Righi now back in the peloton though, Petacchi’s Lampre-ISD team tried to take over with 7km to go, but Garmin-Cervélo wrested the lead back once more. The blue and fuchsia team tucked in behind though, and took over once more with 5km to go.
As the bunch made its way towards the centre of Parma, the Saxo Bank-SunGard and Rabobank teams took over the pacesetting, and then it was Vacansoleil-DCM’s turn. The others were never far way though, with Petacchi in fourth wheel behind teammate Danilo Hondo.
With 3km still to go, the Ale-Jet was too far forward too soon and he drifted back once more. Into the closing stages the Garmin-Cervélo team took over, with three riders shepherding Farrar into the final sprint. Despite the American team’s numbers though, in the melee that followed the final corner they found themselves swamped by the other teams.
Hondo delivered Petacchi into the last few hundred metres, before pulling over and leaving it to HTC-Highroad again.
Renshaw led with Cavendish on his wheel, but Petacchi jumped onto his and, just as the Manxman was about to open up his sprint, the Italian opened up his. Petacchi went to the right of Renshaw and Cavendish went to the left; Petacchi veered across towards Cavendish though, which caused him to check slightly.
The two rivals crossed the line side by side, with Petacchi a little more than a tyre’s width ahead; they both raised their arms as they crossed the line: Petacchi in celebration, and Cavendish in protest at what he saw as the Italian’s wayward line.
Manuel Belletti (Colnago-CSF Inox) led the rest over, ahead of Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli-CIPI).
The race commissaires looked at Petacchi’s sprint, decided that the Italian had not transgressed the rules, and awarded him the stage win. The clearly unhappy Cavendish did have the consolation of taking over the pink jersey from Pinotti though, thanks to the 12 seconds bonus he received for second place.