Australian sprint specialist Robbie McEwen won his third stage of the Giro d'Italia bike race Friday, the 11th of his career.
The Davitamon-Lotto cyclist sat on Tomas Vaitkus's wheel as the peloton raced to the finish in Forli, then drove past him in the last 100 yards to take the win. Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile) finished second, and took the overall lead from teammate Serguei Honchar.
A crash in the peloton marred the finish of the 140-mile flat Stage 6, but didn't affect the leading sprinters. The only threat to McEwen and company was a three-man breakaway that gained as much as 6 minutes on the peloton. They were pulled back in by the final 12 miles.
Overall, Giro favorite Ivan Basso sits in 5th place, 13 seconds behind, and defending champion Paolo Savoldelli is in 6th place, 22 seconds behind.
The highest ranking Americans are Bobby Julich (9th) of Team CSC and Tom Danielson (11th) of Discovery.
Something new arises in Saturday's 146-mile stage between Cesena and Saltara — mountains. The first week of the Giro bike race has been pretty much dead flat for the sprinters. Now, for most of the remainder of the three-week race, cyclists will be clawing up steep grades.
On Saturday, the climbers take on Monte Catria and Monte delle Cesane. Overall they face four medium mountain stages and four full mountain stages, as well as four mountaintop finishes.
More results at CyclingNews or VeloNews. OLN offers live video streaming of the Giro for $19.
Recent Comments