Manx Missile fires again to take sprint victory in Teramo
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) has proved once more that you write him off at your peril, taking a dominant sprint victory in the Giro d’Italia’s tenth stage between Termoli and Teramo. Having been beaten by Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) in their only previous encounter on stage two, the Manx Missile flew past the Ale-Jet into the closing metres to win by a clear margin at the end of the flat 159km stage.
Petacchi faded on the steep, final hundred metres and was pushed into third by Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), who had accused Cavendish of holding on to his team car on the way Mount Etna on Sunday.
“Winning in Italy is massively important for me,” said Cavendish afterwards. “It’s where I took my first ever Grand Tour stage win and I was disappointed not to win in Parma, because this is one of my favorite races, really close to my heart.”
“I suffered badly in the mountain stages, but I wanted to get through in order to keep winning here,” he added.
“We haven’t got our most experienced sprint team here, but it is still the same as its always been in terms of heart and commitment,” he said, in praise of his HTC-Highroad teammates. “They all gave it one hundred percent and I couldn’t ask more from them. We controlled the break perfectly and when we came into the finish they were all there.
“I got on Petacchi’s wheel,” he explained. “He started accelerating with 250 meters to go; I went with 150 meters to go and then I came past him for the win.”
After Sunday’s tough mountain stage to the top of Mount Etna, the race used the rest day to transfer from Sicily to Termoli, on the east coast of the Italian mainland. The stage was one that was set to suit the sprinters, as it made its way north beside the Adriatic Sea, from about mid-calf on Italy’s boot to somewhere near the back of the knee.
With nothing predictable in this race though, a gently sloping profile to the latter part of the stage was to give way to a sharp 4% gradient for the final hundred metres, giving a real chance to the race’s opportunists.
The change to the side of Italy also saw a change to the weather; the hot sunshine, which had been following the race since its start in Turin just over a week ago, had deserted the peloton; heavy rain fell on the area in the morning before the stage, but it was dry again, but overcast, as the riders lined up for the start.
An easy start sees the inevitable break get away
With much of the peloton apparently still enjoying the rest day, Pierre Cazaux (Europcar) and Fumiyuki Beppu (RadioShack) escaped inside the first kilometre. With virtually no reaction coming from the rest of the race, the two of them had opened up a gap of 2’22” over the bunch inside four kilometres; Yuriy Krivtsov (AG2R La Mondiale) had escaped soon afterwards, and was 1’30” behind Cazaux and Beppu.
Reasoning that six legs were better than four, the two leaders sat up and waited for the Ukrainian-born Frenchman, and he caught up by the 17km mark. The three riders struck out once more and by the 34km point had widened the gap to 5’35”.
This was as good as it was to get for the breakaway riders though. Stage nine winner, and race leader, Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) had already declared that he would be willing to let go of his maglia rosa, providing it was not to one of his rivals, and so his team was not lifting a finger to bring the chasers back. With so few opportunities for sprinters in the race though, the fast men were not going to pass this one up; HTC-Columbia took control of the front of the peloton, along with Garmin-Cervélo and Colnago-CSF Inox, and began to gradually chip the seconds away from the three fugitives’ advantage.
The peloton begins to toy with the fugitives
After 69km, with 100km still to race, the gap had been shortened to 3’50”, whereupon the pace of the peloton slackened off to hold it more or less static.
Either down to the determination of the breakaway trio, or to the peloton easing up, the gap began to widen again a few kilometres later. As the race left the feedzone, with 74km to go, it was back up to 4’20” and growing once more.
Quick Step and Garmin-Cervélo joined HTC-Columbia at the front of the peloton though, and the gap began to come down again once more. With so many kilometres still to race, the peloton clearly had the three riders under control.
At the intermediate “Traguardo Volante” sprint in Pescara, with 61km to go, the gap was down to 3’35”, and with just under 52km it dropped below three minutes. At 45km though, as it dropped down to 1’55”, the peloton eased up again, allowing it to stretch back out to 2’50” in the next 5km.
The gap went out to three minutes once more, with 32km to go, but this seemed to be the signal for Quick Step and HTC-Highroad to put the hammer down and it began to close once more; presumably for the final time today.
As the race turns inland the three leaders could still make it
Things could still go either way though, as the three leaders were 2’50” ahead with less than 29km to go; by using the calculation of pulling back a minute for every ten kilometres, this was going to be close.
There was a brief flurry towards the back of the peloton with just over 25km to go, as Quick Step’s Kristof Vandewalle touched a wheel and crashed. A number of riders were forced to stop and put their feet down, but everybody managed to get around the young Belgian; he rejoined the peloton a few kilometres later with a dressing on his chin.
Omega Pharma-Lotto was now on the front, lifting the pace once more; big accelerations from a number of the sprinters’ teams decimated the break’s advantage as it turned inland at Giulianova Lido, and took on the steady rise towards the finish.
Over the course of the next ten kilometres the advantage held by Cazaux, Beppu and Krivtsov fell rapidly as the three riders began to pay for their long day in front on the gradually rising road. Finally, the peloton had them in sight and they were caught with just under 12km to go.
Its all over for the break but was it caught too soon?
Once the break was caught a number of different teams began to swarm forward, but the high pace continued to stop anybody from launching any kind of attack. Liquigas-Cannondale finally took control, along with Team Sky, as the race entered a twisting, technical junction with 5km to go; despite the narrowing of the road and a number of sweeping turns, the whole peloton managed to pass through without problems.
The Liquigas-Cannondale team continued with its offensive but, if they were out to put Contador into trouble they were to be disappointed when the Spaniard’s team brought him to the front and took over themselves with just over 3km to go.
As they passed under the 3km to go banner though, David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo) flew from the pack. The British time trial specialist opened up a huge gap almost immediately, before any of the teams was able to organise themselves. HTC-Highroad came back to the front though, and steadily pulled him back, catching him up just before hen entered the final kilometre.
The sprint is on with the usual riders to the fore
Lampre-ISD led into the finishing straight for Petacchi, but suddenly Gerald Ciolek (Quick Step) burst ahead. The German sprinter had gone far too early though and he was quickly overcome by the Movistar leadout of Ventoso.
Petacchi opened up his sprint with a few hundred metres to go, but hits time Cavendish was on his wheel waiting to pounce and the Manxman quickly moved in front of the tall Italian
Cavendish had timed his sprint to perfection and, despite the steep rise with 100m to go, he held on to win by a clear margin over the others; Ventoso managed to get past Petacchi in the last few metres to take second place.
All of the overall contenders finished in the same time Cavendish, so the standings remain unchanged, with Contador leading Kanstantin Sivtsov (HTC-Highroad) by 59 seconds.