Adriano Malori rides himself into pink as Ramunas Navardauskas cracks on tough, hilly course
Miguel Angel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) escaped from a day-long breakaway to take victory in the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia, between Urbino and Porto Sant’Elpidio. The 27-year-old Colombian rode away from what was left of an eleven-man group on the final classified climb of the day, and managed to hold off a group of four chasers on the rolling roads to the coastal finish.
“I started racing when I was eight years old thanks to my father. I lived in a poor part of Bogota, which is a difficult city and so it wasn’t easy for me,” said Rubiano afterwards.
“I dreamt about wearing the pink jersey because a Colombian has never worn the pink jersey,” he explained. “Unfortunately my dream has still to come true but lets see what happens in the next few days. My plan was to go on the attack today and then stay with the race leader.
“I honestly thought the peloton would catch us but I decided to attack alone and it paid off.”
Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) outsprinted Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana) and Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp), some 1’10” behind Rubiano, while Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) led the beleaguered peloton over the line 1’51” back.
The 12 second time bonus, and the 41-second gap was enough to secure the pink jersey for Malori, in his debut Giro. Maglia rosa incumbent Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda) was struggling from the beginning on the saw-tooth profile stage, and was finally dropped by the peloton with just under 50km to go. The Lithuanian’s team made a last ditch effort to close the gap to Malori, and preserve the lead through Ryder Hesjedal, but there weren’t enough kilometres left and the Canadian finished the day in third.
Rubiano, Malori, Golas, Dyachenko and Benedetti were part of a 15-man group that escaped in the first 20km of the 210km stage. It was reduced to eleven on the early, unclassified climbs, and then to eight by the Passo della Cappella in the stage’s midsection. Finally, on the steep climb to Montegranaro, inside the final 40km, it went down to five.
Rubiano attacked close to the top and managed to open a lead of 44 seconds at the summit, which he managed to increase on his lone ride to the line.
The stage also saw the first retirements of the race so far with sprinters Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda), Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing) climbing off, along with Pablo Lastras (Movistar) who was taken to hospital after crashing out of the break.
The 2012 Giro d’Italia finally sees some proper climbing
Stage six, like the day before, began inland and set a predominantly south easterly course to the Adriatic coast; this was where the similarity ended however, with the saw-tooth profile across the March hinterland set to make things very difficult for the sprinters.
The stage was to provide the first real climbing of the race so far, with the 3rd category Cingoli, Montelupone and Montegranaro after 94.5km, 154.7km and 176.5km respectively, and the 2nd category, unsurfaced Passo della Cappella after 118km. Of these climbs, the Montegranaro was arguably the toughest with its gradients of up to 18%, and came just 33km from the finish.
With Rubiano, Malori, Golas, Dyachenko and Benedetti in the original group were Dominique Rollin (FDJ-BigMat), Jack Bauer (Garmin-Barracuda), Aleksandr Kuschynski and Gatis Smukulis (both Katusha), Pablo Lastras (Movistar), Luke Roberts (Saxo Bank) Manuel Belletti (AG2R La Mondiale), Dennis van Winden (Rabobank), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge) and mountains jersey wearer Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia).
They escaped in the first 20km of the stage, but were soon down to eleven as Belletti, van Winden, Keukeleire and Balloni were dropped. Of the eleven riders, Roberts was best placed in 25th position, just 41 seconds behind overnight leader Navardauskas; although Smukulis, Malori and Golas were also within a minute of the Lithuanian. The Australian was soon virtual maglia rosa however, and at the 51km point the group was 8’35” ahead.
Liquigas-Cannondale was one of the few teams to have missed the break, and so was leading the peloton. Having allowed it to peak at almost nine minutes the green and blue team began to bring it down as the first classified climb of the day approached.
Golas led the group over the top at Cingoli but, as Lastras pushed ahead on the Passo della Cappella, Rubiano jumped past him with just over a kilometre to go, and soloed over the top to take the lead in the mountains classification.
The group began to reform on the descent, with only Kuschynski and Rollin unable to rejoin. Lastras came down however, bringing Bauer down with him; the New Zealander was able to continue, but the Movistar rider was forced to abandon.
Liquigas-Cannondale accelerated as the peloton neared the top of the climb, and as they crossed over the top they were just 4’40” behind the leaders. Navardauskas though, who’d struggled a little over the early hills, was a further two minutes behind the peloton. As the peloton relaxed a little after the descent, with a number of riders stopping to take ‘comfort breaks’, the Lithuanian was able to rejoin.
Liquigas-Cannondale starts to put the maglia rosa in trouble as Rubiano goes solo
With 63km to go, as the eight leaders approached the Montelupone climb, their lead had gone up to 7’02”. Liquigas-Cannondale had regrouped after its brief period of refreshment though, and had now lined itself up on the front of the peloton. Rubiano attacked for the mountian points again, but Liquigas-Cannondale had cut the gap to 5’30” as it followed over the top.
Roberts took the Traguardo Volante sprint, in Morrovalle with 47.6km to go. He was now just 35 seconds behind Navardauskas overall, but the group’s advantage was falling quickly now as the kilometres out front began to tell; over the line, the peloton was just 3’59” behind.
Navardauskas was now 45 seconds back though, with a number of dropped sprinters, and was looking more, and more likely to lose his pink jersey by the end of the day.
The climb to Montegranaro went the way of the previous two, except it was Malori that accelerated as they neared the top; Rubiano, Golas, Benedetti and Dyachenko went with him, with the other three left behind. Rubiano attacked for the points again, and crossed the top alone. He was 44 seconds clear of the rest as they chased him over the top, and this time he wasn’t waiting.
Navardauskas – having successfully chased back on – was being dropped off the back once more and, as the peloton crossed the top of the climb, the gap was up a little to 4’30”. The maglia rosa was now climbing alone however, and was 3’30” behind the peloton as he rolled slowly over.
With 25km to go Rubiano was still 45 seconds clear of his four chasers; having dropped Roberts though, Malori was the new leader on the road, and with the peloton still at 4’30” behind the Colombian – and so 3’45” behind the Italian – it looked as though the 24-year-old could be heading for his first ever maglia rosa on his first ever Giro d’Italia. Golas was just a few seconds behind though, and could take it from him with time bonuses at the finish.
Colnago-CSF Inox had other ideas however, and began to increase the pace. On the last real – unclassified – climb of the day the pale blue team launched Gianluca Brambilla in pursuit of the remaining breakaways. He quickly passed the backward-drifting Smukulis and Bauer, but Roberts was able to stay with him; they were only a few seconds clear of the peloton over the top.
With 20km to go Rubiano was 1’13” ahead of the four chasers, as more attacks came from the front of the peloton. This was up to 1’22” by the 15km banner, with just a descent and the flat coast road to come. Brambilla – now alone – was 3’44” back, but the peloton was on his heels.
The stage is won but the four-way fight for pink begins
With Navardauskas now left behind, Garmin-Barracuda was now chasing hard on the front of the peloton to try to keep the maglia rosa in the team through Ryder Hesjedal. Rubiano was pulling further seconds away however and, with a likely 20-second bonus on the line – it was looking as though it could be him that took the lead.
Despite the superior numbers of the chase group, Rubiano was increasing his lead in the closing kilometres, and was 1’31” ahead with 6km to go; the peloton was still at 3’18”, but gaining on the four chasers.
After Rubiano’s lead peaked at 1’32” at 5.5km, the Malori group managed to start bringing it down again, but it was still 1’28” at the five kilometre banner. Gamin-Barracuda had its entire remaining personal on the front though, and had reduced their own deficit to less than three minutes.
As the Colombian passed under the two kilometre banner, his pursuers were passing under the three kilometre one, but were now just 1’23” back and closing. Rubiano – barring disaster had the stage – but Malori and Golas looked as though they were still to decide the maglia rosa between them; unless Garmin-Barracuda could stop them, of course.
He had little more than a minute at the flamme rouge, but the Colombian had plenty of time to celebrate his victory. He refused to look up from his bars until the final ten metres however, keeping the power down until the last minute, but then sat up and raised both arms across the line.
The four chasers – inexplicably with the peloton chasing – began to play games in the final few hundred metres, but Malori managed to outsprint Golas on the line, 1’10” behind Rubiano, to take the 12 second bonus.
The 72-strong peloton was just 41 seconds behind them as Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) took the sprint for fifth place, but this was just far back enough for Malori to take the race lead.