Russian Denis Menchov protected his lead over voracious rival Danilo Di Luca in the final stage time trial of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, in spite of crashing on rain-slicked streets just a kilometer from the finish.
Riding hard on the 9-mile loop around ancient Rome, Menchov slipped on the wet street and crashed. After slidding along the pavement, Menchov immediately got up and picked up his bike. His mechanic in the trailing team car quickly handed him a new bike, enabling him to cross the finish in 10th place.
In spite of the fall, Menchov put an extra 21 seconds on his margin over Italy's Di Luca, who finished the race in second place, 41 seconds behind Menchov.
Levi Leipheimer was the highest placed US rider in the Giro ... more»
With everyone watching the showdown between Denis Menchov and challenger Danilo Di Luca, Belgium's Philippe Gilbert slipped out of the lead group with less than a mile to go and won Stage 20 in Agnani on Saturday.
Menchov and Di Luca finished together in the pack. Italy's Di Luca actually lost 2 seconds in his bid to dislodge Menchov from first place.
The result means that Menchov carries a 20-second lead over Di Luca as they prepare for Sunday's final stage, a 9-mile individual time trial around the streets of Rome. Menchov, who gained the leader's pink jersey from Di Luca in the Stage 12 individual time trial, is expected to retain that lead. ... more»
Giro d'Italia race leader Denis Menchov stuck to his rival's rear wheel as Italy's Danilo Di Luca tried unsuccessfully to win back the pink jersey on Stage 19 on Friday.
Although Menchov finished in fourth place, right behind Di Luca, the Italian did gain 8 seconds on Menchov. Di Luca is now within 18 seconds with just two more stages to go in this year's bicycle race.
While that contest was brewing below, Carlos Sastre won the stage with an attack on the final climb of Mount Vesuvius. He improved his overall ranking by one rung to fourth place... more»
Italian Michele Scarponi won his second stage of this year's Giro d'Italia on Thursday in a seven-man sprint that included Americans Jason McCartney and Danny Pate.
The seven cyclists were the remnants of a breakaway of 25 bicycle racers who gained up to about 6 minutes over the peloton at one point on the 113-mile stage from Sulmona to Benevento.
Race leader Denis Menchov and chief rival Danilo Di Luca finished together in the main peloton, with Rabobank's Menchov maintaining his 26-second lead over Di Luca. No change in the standings for the other leaders, as Levi Leipheimer remained in 6th place, 4:32 back ... more»
Italy's Franco Pellizotti took a solo victory at the summit of the Blockhaus on Wednesday, while Denis Menchov coolly hung on to the leader's pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia bicycle race.
Second place Danilo Di Luca attacked Menchov with all his power on the 15-mile climb, but Menchov seemed to effortlessly stay on his rival's rear wheel. Stefano Garzelli and Ivan Basso joined that chase group that loosely crossed the finish about 42 seconds behind Pellizotti.
Lance Armstrong attempted to bridge up to Pellizotti soon after he attacked at the bottom of the 15-mile climb, but couldn't quite catch on. ... more»
Carlos Sastre exploded out of the pack on the final climb at the Giro d'Italia on Monday to win Stage 16 and bring himself closer to overall leader Denis Menchov.
Along the way, last year's Tour de France champion overtook breakaway leader Yaroslav Popovych, who appeared ready to hand his Astana team its first win of the 2009 Giro.
Team Astana suffered more disappointment as their favorite to win the Giro, American Levi Leipheimer, crossed the finish line nearly 3 minutes behind the winner and fell three places to 6th, 3:21 behind Menchov. He was pulled across the finish line at Monte Petrano by teammate Lance Armstrong ... more»
Pre-race favorite Ivan Basso staged a short-lived attack on the pink jersey Sunday, but couldn't sustain an advantage as overall leader Denis Menchov retained the top spot of the Giro d'Italia for another day.
Italian Leonardo Bertagnolli took the solo victory on Stage 15 in Faenza. The 31-year-old was the sole survivor of a 16-man breakaway pack that formed about 11 miles into the 99 mile stage.
Despite lots of drama in the rollercoaster stage that routed the peloton over five climbs, the leaders remained intact at the end of the day. At one point 3rd place cyclist Levi Leipheimer lost contact with the Menchov group, but the Astana rider was able bridge about 29 seconds back to the leaders' group.
Basso delivered much of that drama, as he attacked on the next to last climb -- Monte Casale .... more»
Once in a blue moon the cyclists in a breakaway survive to the finish. Stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday was one of those days.
Aussie Simon Gerrans and 13 other members of the peloton attacked just 8 miles into the mountainous stage to Bologna; they remained out front for the remaining 99 miles of the race.
Their only impact on the overall contest for the pink jersey was to press Danilo Di Luca's LPR Brakes team into service to close the gap. Interesting that LPR Brakes took up that role, rather than Rabobank, the team of overall leader Denis Menchov .... more»
The predominant sprinter of Giros d'Italia of the recent past once again couldn't muster the speed to overtake cycling's prevailing speedster of the present.
Team Columbia's Mark Cavendish took his third stage win of this year's Giro with Alessandro Petacchi trying desparately to pass as they crossed the finish line in Florence on Friday.
Petacchi, Ale-Jet, schooled Cavendish and his teammates early on in Stages 2 and 3 this year, but Cavendish has returned with victories in Stages 9, 11 and 13. The Brit can give some credit to Columbia teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen, who once again set up Cavendish in textbook fashion. ... more»
As promised, the Stage 12 individual time trial shook up the standings of the 2009 Giro d'Italia as Danilo Di Luca finally gave up his pink leader's jersey to Denis Menchov, left.
US cyclist Levi Leipheimer stepped up one place to 3rd overall, 40 seconds behind Menchov and just 6 seconds behind second place Di Luca.
Comeback cyclist Lance Armstrong gained more ground on Wednesday, increasing his position to 12th in the overall standings, but dropping back to 6:34 behind the leader.
Now at the mid-point of the three week bicycle race around Italy, it remains to be seen if Menchov's Rabobank team can help him protect the lead, or if Leipheimer's Astana teammates can help him whittle away at Menchov's lead ... more»
You know it ain't easy, but Mark Cavendish made it look that way again as he won a bunch sprint for Stage 11 at the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday.
US-based Team Columbia set up the Brit in textbook fashion as the peloton raced into Arenzano. Cavendish rewarded their efforts by powering across the finish line first; it was his second stage win of this year's Giro.
Danilo Di Luca remained in the pink jersey as the overall leader of the Giro after the stage, but faces a major challenge from US cyclist Levi Leipheimer in Thursday's individual time trial.
Leipheimer is an expert time trialist and is expected to do well enough in the 37-mile ITT from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore to close the 1:40 gap to Di Luca.... more»
Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca gained valuable time on his rivals at the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday as he attacked in the closing miles of the mountainous 200-mile stage 10.
The advantage that Di Luca gained over Denis Menchov, Michael Rogers and Levi Leipheimer may be the margin he needs to survive Thursday's time trial in the pink jersey.
This was Di Luca's second stage victory at the Giro. He won Stage 4 a week ago when he rocketed past Maurice Soler in the final 100 yards and has held the pink jersey ever since.
In Tuesday's victory, Di Luca attacked an elite chase group to close the gap to Franco Pellizotti on the final descent with less than 6 miles to the finish. He maintained his lead and crossed the finish line about 10 seconds ahead of Pellizotti and Menchov ... more»
With all the protesting at this year's Giro d'Italia, I feel like I've been transported back to the 1960s.
First Astana faded out most of the sponsors on their jerseys to protest not getting paid. Then on Sunday the entire peloton decided to ride en masse to protest the dangerousness of the circuit race around Milan.
The whole world was watching as the cyclists pedaled along at a leisurely 21-23 mph for lap after lap. In fact, the entire peloton stopped before completing the 4th lap, and race leader Danilo Di Luca took the microphone:
"We are going on. We wanted to stop and say thanks for your presence, but we don't feel the need to risk it anymore. The circuit is not adapted to our security."
Some cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, had been critical of the routes earlier in the week. Friday's 25-mile dangerous descent to the finish into the rain, for instance, drew criticism from Armstrong, among others ... more»
It was a long day in the saddle for the 194 cyclists who pedaled 155 miles through the mountains in northern Italy and Austria on Thursday, but Michele Scarponi is probably feeling no pain.
The Diquigiovanni cycling team member broke from the peloton with a small group early in Stage 6 and survived in the front all the way to Mayrhofen.
All the pain was felt by his breakaway companion Vasili Kiryenka, who suffered a mechanical near the finish then cramped up as he tried to catch Scarponi.
Italy's Danilo Di Luca retained the pink jersey .... more»
No one could match Russian cyclist Denis Menchov's burst of speed inside the last mile on the way to winning Stage 5's mountaintop finish at the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday.
Tuesday's stage winner Danilo Di Luca finished right behind Menchov, but an important three seconds ahead of race leader Thomas Lövkvist of Team Columbia, thereby taking over the race lead and the pink jersey.
Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner finished just 9 seconds behind Menchov, solidifying their status in top 10. The Astana teammates are 4th for Leipheimer and 8th for Horner.
The most well-known Astana team member, comeback cyclist Lance Armstrong, failed to hang on ... more»
Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca rocketed past Mauricio Soler in the final 100 yards of the first mountaintop stage of this year's Giro d'Italia on Tuesday.
The steep terrain on the 100-mile stage from Padova to San Martino di Castrozza helped defeat the early leaders of the race such as Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, and put Team Columbia's Thomas Lövkvist in the leader's pink jersey.
American Lance Armstrong, who started the day in 5th overall, stayed in the middle of a chase group all day, but was content to let the others attack in the steep final few kilometers. He finished 15 seconds behind the winner and dropped to 6th place overall. ... more»
Ugualmente Male! US cyclist Christian Vande Velde has crashed out of the Giro d'Italia bicycle race.
You'll remember from this photo that Vande Velde became the second US cyclist ever to wear the Giro's pink leader jersey last year when his team won the opening team time trial stage.
Things didn't go quite as well this year, as Garmin-Chipotle finished in second place on the Stage 1 team time trial on Saturday to Team Columbia. Then Vande Velde crashed out on Monday.
He was sitting in 8th place overall when he crashed. ... more»
Previously: If you're thinking you'll catch coverage of the Giro d'Italia on Versus -- the "all-Lance-all-the-time" network during the Tour de France -- then guess again.
Unless events change, Versus will be completely out of the picture for coverage of the Giro d'Italia, which begins Saturday and runs through May 31. That omission even includes the network's Sunday cycling show, which is in hiatus until June 7, and its website ... more»
That failed sprint up Pinos Altos in the Tour of the Gila last Sunday must have sent the message to Lance Armstrong that he's not ready to win the 3-week Giro d'Italia that starts on Saturday.
In a dramatic turnaround, the 7-time Tour de France winner announced Tuesday that he'll ride in support of Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, the 3-time winner of the Tour of California and winner of last week's Tour of the Gila.
Armstrong had said early in his comeback season that he wanted to race to win the Giro; it would be his first appearance in bike race around Italy. But a broken collarbone suffered in a crash at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon in March delayed his training ... more»
Lance Armstrong -- at 7 Tour de France championships -- will be joined by a host of cycling champions at the 2009 Giro d'Italia.
Carlos Sastre, last year's Tour de France winner, has signed on for the Giro, and Denis Menchov, winner of the Vuelta a Espana in 2005 and 2007 also announced his intention to compete.
The Team Garmin cyclists must be licking their collective chops on Saturday after learning that the 2009 Giro d'Italia opens with a team time trial in Venice.
An opening team time trial in the Giro last year put the US-based team -- then known as Team Slipstream-Chipotle -- in the leading position with Illinois-raised Christian Vande Velde in the pink jersey.
The Giro rolls across Italy (with brief visits to Austria, Switzerland and France) for 2,105 miles from May 9 -31. It finishes in Rome with a time trial, the first time the bike race has skipped Milan as the finish since 1989 ... more»
First-time Giro d'Italia competitor Lance Armstrong taped a message for the 2009 course presentation in Venice on Saturday in which he reviewed some of the challenges of next year's bike race.
The press has been saying that Armstrong is racing the Giro d'Italia in May to win, then the Tour de France in July to support his Astana teammate Alberto Contador. But on Saturday he said:
"I know there's a lot of talk about the pink jersey. I'm excited to race hard, but Ivan Basso is my favorite. .... more»
With everyone watching the showdown between Denis Menchov and challenger Danilo Di Luca, Belgium's Philippe Gilbert slipped out of the lead group with less than a mile to go and won Stage 20 in Agnani on Saturday.
Giro d'Italia race leader Denis Menchov stuck to his rival's rear wheel as Italy's Danilo Di Luca tried unsuccessfully to win back the pink jersey on Stage 19 on Friday.
Italy's Franco Pellizotti took a solo victory at the summit of the Blockhaus on Wednesday, while Denis Menchov coolly hung on to the leader's pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia bicycle race.
Carlos Sastre exploded out of the pack on the final climb at the Giro d'Italia on Monday to win Stage 16 and bring himself closer to overall leader Denis Menchov.
As promised, the Stage 12 individual time trial shook up the standings of the 2009 Giro d'Italia as Danilo Di Luca finally gave up his pink leader's jersey to Denis Menchov, left.
With all the protesting at this year's Giro d'Italia, I feel like I've been transported back to the 1960s.
Ugualmente Male! US cyclist Christian Vande Velde has crashed out of the Giro d'Italia bicycle race.
That failed sprint up Pinos Altos in the Tour of the Gila last Sunday must have sent the message to Lance Armstrong that he's not ready to win the 3-week Giro d'Italia that starts on Saturday.
The Team Garmin cyclists must be licking their collective chops on Saturday after learning that the 2009 Giro d'Italia opens with a team time trial in Venice.
