Giro d'Italia Cycling News for May 27, 2005

Edited by Jeff Jones & John Stevenson

Stage 17 wrap-up: Basso proves his worth

Ivan Basso (CSC)
Photo ©: Sirotti

Team CSC's Ivan Basso justified his decision to remain in the Giro after suffering stomach problems by winning the 17th stage atop the Colle di Tenda in Limone Piemonte. Basso attacked with 20 km to go in the company of his team-mate Frank Schleck, Dario Cioni (Liquigas), Ruben Lobato (Saunier Duval), Paolo Tiralongo (Panaria), and Giampaolo Caruso (Liberty Seguros), before leaving them all behind with 6 km left to win the stage by over a minute from Jose Rujano (Selle Italia) and Gilberto Simoni (Lampre).

Although he came to the Giro d'Italia with the ambition of winning it, Basso succumbed to stomach problems at the end of the second week, and rode himself out of the maglia rosa in last Saturday's stage to Ortisei. He was much worse in Sunday's Stelvio stage, where he lost 42 minutes and all hopes of finishing on top of the podium. But, he vowed to stay in the race to try to win a stage, and succeeded in doing so today.

"Today I proved that we meant business, when we made the decision for me to continue in this race," said Basso on team-csc.com. "I've known all along that I'm a strong climber - maybe the strongest one here. And today I wanted to win without having to sprint for it. After my bad luck, I had only one thing on my mind: to win in Limone Piemonte. I said this to Bjarne already on the Stelvio. Now I did it, and it's a big relief both for me and my team. The whole group did a tremendous job for me today, and they all deserve a big thanks."

Maglia rosa Paolo Savoldelli admitted he hadn't been able to counter when Simoni and Rujano attacked. "It was a hard stage and I couldn't go with Simoni when he accelerated but I'm pleased I didn't lose too much time," said Savoldelli. "I'm not a great climber but I think I'm defending my lead quite well. I started the Giro hoping for a top-five placing, so I have to happy with my performance."

Savoldelli is now looking to the time trial to increase his lead by enough that he has a buffer for Saturday's final mountain stage. "In theory I should be able to gain something in the time trial and then I'll try to defend whatever lead I have on Saturday," he said.

The other winners today were climbers Rujano and Simoni, who slotted themselves into third and second on GC behind Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel). Il Falco conceded 42 seconds to the two mountain goats, while Danilo Di Luca lost another minute. The gap between the top four on GC is now 1'27, and with a time trial and a very tough mountain stage to come, it's still anyone's race.

Could Jose Rujano become the first non-ProTour rider to win a ProTour stage race?

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Lampre credits Cunego

Damiano Cunego played the role of faithful super-domestique to Gilberto Simoni in stage 17, helping the Lampre-Caffita team leader to move up from third to second on general classification. "[Directeur sportif Giuseppe] Martinelli told me to lead the bunch on the Colletto del Moro climb to make selection into the bunch," said Cunego in a team statement. That reduced the peloton to 20 riders, with Simoni crossing the summit in second place behind Ivan Basso (CSC).

When a six-rider break got away on the last climb, Cunego rode tempo for Simoni until the the last 6km, when Simoni responded to an attack by Wim Van Huffel (Davitamon-Lotto), along with Rujano, and Garate. Cunego's previous assistance had left Simoni fresh enough to stay with Rujano to the finish, and the two took third and second respectively, just over a minute behind Ivan Basso. More importantly, Simoni gained 42 seconds on Savoldelli, 1:43 on Di Luca, and now looks like a serious threat to Savoldelli's maglia rosa.

"The day has been positive" said Giuseppe Martinelli. "We are now second, at less than one minute from the pink jersey. We thought the last climb would have been harder. When we reconnoitred the stage at the end of March it was impossible to see the last 15 km because of the snow. Nevertheless, now we think to the time trial."

Willo survives another day

By John Trevorrow in Limone Piemonte

For Colombia-Selle Italia's Trent Wilson, Milan is tantalisingly close, with just one more big mountain stage to survive. But today was nearly the end for Willo and 10 others as they caught the last bus up the Colle di Tenda, finishing a minute inside the time limit.

Wilson was not looking the best when we talked to him in the morning before the stage. "The whole team's got head colds except for Russ - he's got bronchitis," said Wilson. "Everyone gets sick but now we just keep getting knocked down. One minute you crash, next minute you've got sore legs, then you get a head cold."

Afterwards, he described his day, which got off to a bad start. "The pressure was on right from the start. On the first climb it split, and we ended up with about twenty in that gruppetto, including Russell and Henk. We descended and climbed again, and a few guys put the pressure on and I went with them, so we got back on. But the other guys had to chase another 40 km to get back on.

"I don't believe anyone that finish today wouldn't have had a really hard ride. The pace was on all day. We only got inside the time limit by one minute. In the last hour, we were thinking we wouldn't get in, but about 8 km out, we knew we would just get in."

Wilson's team is enjoying one of its best ever Giri d'Italia. "Jose [Rujano] is looking really good. I reckon he can pass Simoni, even beat him in the time trial. He was third in the time trial in Malaysia, and I think he'll surprise a lot of people. He could even take time out of Simoni on Saturday. It's so steep and that's when he's at his best."

Pre-stage comments

By John Trevorrow in Limone Piemonte

Michael Barry (Discovery Channel): "Yeah, a couple more tough ones to go and this is one of them. There'll be a group going up the road today, but it'll be a different group of riders. It's more of a climbing day. We're going to try to keep the race under control, obviously. We can let groups go, we just have to pay attention to who's in them and make sure they've got the right combinations up ahead."

Christian Vandevelde (CSC): "It's going to be a hard one. I'll try to keep out of trouble. Depending on Basso, we'll decide our tactics towards the end of the race."

Matt White (Cofidis): "It was a good day yesterday, but Credit chased us down. I reckon it'll be really aggressive at the start today. It's going to be bloody hot and it's real humid out there because it's so green.

"A lot of the teams have been getting crook with bronchitis and head colds. After Stuey left they put me with some guy who was crook! Bugger that, you can't put sick riders together, that's ridiculous."

Brad Wiggins (Credit Agricole): "It's not really a day for me today, but another day closer to Milan. Personally for me, it's the time trial tomorrow. It's got a bit of a hill in it, but I think I'll go okay. The morale in the team is pretty good at the moment. We're up there in the GC, which we're pretty happy about, and of course the stage win yesterday. It's been a good tour all round for us really. I've just been playing the domestique's role in these races. I just stay with Caucchioli for as long as I can."

Brett Lancaster (Panaria): Lancaster was not really looking forward to today's stage. "I'm just a little bit tired, but I'll be right. I'll see what I can do in Milan."

Brett is liking his new bike though. "It's great. It's the new model Colnago that's coming out in September. It's lighter and it's a little bit more rigid than the old one."

Rory Sutherland (Rabobank): "Yeah, it's going to be tough and the temperature's high, so it's going to be a real hot one. It's up and down all day. I'll try and get up the road in a break today, but with that ,finish it's going to be hard to stay there. I probably won't be riding for the win, probably riding just to get my name up there and do something but I'll have a go. If they rode it easy and just went up the climb, it wouldn't be so bad. But that's not going to happen.

"We've only got five riders left. We're all going out with bronchitis troubles, which are effecting everybody."

Mark Renshaw (Francaise des Jeux): "It's going to be a bloody hard stage today. And I've just heard a terrible rumour that it's not classified as a "hard" mountain stage so there's only an eight percent time cut. There's a feeling that it could go early but anything could happen, it could come back together. Eight percent will be on our minds all day. If we get into a gruppetto too early, we're going to be in trouble."

Matt Wilson (Francaise des Jeux): "Another break will go away for sure. It'll be like yesterday, get up the road into a break, and until they get sorted out, it'll be bang, bang, bang.

"It's up and down all day. It's going to be a hard day, five and half hours on the bike."

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