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It was a stage dominated by blue at the Giro today as team Astana took the opportunity to show their strength on a tough Stage 9.
The hero was Astana domestique Palo Tiralongo who managed to sneak his way into the day’s breakaway, chase down a valiant long range effort by Cannondale-Garmin’s Tom-Jelte Slagter and ultimately take the stage victory.
While Tinkof-Saxo’s Alberto Contador still holds the Maglia Rosa by 2 seconds the title of strongest team was well and truly confirmed to be the Khazak team, who now hold three of the top five general classification places as well as taking the stage win.
Team leader Fabio Aru also managed to distance Contador and third placed Richie Porte in the final uphill sprint, if only by a second.
For most of the stage however it looked like it was going to be another golden day for Cannondale-Garmin who had both Tom-Jelte Slagter and 2012 Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal in the nine man breakaway.
On the descent from the day’s biggest climb, the Colle Molella, Slagter managed to escape the lead group and maintained a minute and a half gap until the summit of the stage’s final climb, the Passo Serra, where Tiralongo managed to bridge across.
The finish line came 5km too late for Slagter who bonked massively as he tried to match Tiralongo on the slight uphill run into the finish line.
It was on the Passo Serra too that Fabio Aru attacked the main peloton.
While he was once again closely marked by Contador and Porte, the group managed to distance Rigerberto Uran, whose Giro ambitions are fading quickly.
The select trio were joined by Astana domestique Mikel Landa Meana and finished with a 40 second gap over Uran and the remainder of the peloton.
The race will now have its first rest day and the question on everyone’s lips will be, can Astana keep up this amazing effort?
While they have let Tinkoff do the pacing throughout the more sedate parts of the stage, come the business end, they have consistently been the ones pushing the pace.
Furthermore, will allowing riders such as Tiralongo or Landa go for stage wins as they have in both this stage and stage 8 eventually come back to bite them?
The modern template for a GC win is build around single mindedly pursuing the one GC goal but Astana seem to believe they are strong enough to share the glory.
As the race moves towards the real high mountains can they maintain the kind of support they have so far engineered for Aru? Only time will tell.
Tonight though they will be celebrating after a show of force rarely seen in the cycling world.
A gruelling day of mountain racing awaits us as the riders line up for Stage 9 of the 2015 Giro D’Italia. Join us on The Roar from 10:00pm for live coverage and colour commentary.
Knowing today’s stage is classified as a ‘medium mountains day’ will be of little comfort for most of the riders who will be in for a very tough day in the saddle whether they have any race ambition or not.
The stage’s constant climbs and descents leave the route profile map resembling the edge of a particularly rough saw.
Thirteen, mostly uncategorised bumps, hills, slopes and rises will take the pelton over 212km and up a whopping 4000 meters of elevation including two category 2 climbs and the category 1 Colle Molella.
The decisive moment could well come on the final category 2 climb up the Passo Serra, which starts off easily enough before pitching up to a thirteen per cent gradient over the middle kilometres.
The pass flattens out towards the summit, 12km from the finish line and then it will be a race to the bottom and the 5km slight uphill drag to the line.
A spirited breakaway could well make the escape and take the honours at the finish line in San Giorgio Del Sannio and we could see a finish like we did in Stage 4.
If a large pack can maintain the distance from the peloton someone could very well get to the top of the Passo Serra and never be seen again.
While it doesn’t look like the kind of course that could really shuffle the GC pack, the innumerable ups and downs will provide plenty of opportunities if someone wants to mess with the rest of the race leaders ahead of tomorrow’s rest day.
Second placed Fabio Aru and Astana will be the ones to watch as they look to turn the screws on an injured Alberto Contador.
The last day before a rest day always throws up some interesting moments as riders know they will have a little longer to rest their sore bodies after the stage’s end.
Nobody’s quite sure just how hurt Contador’s shoulder really is but Aru would be crazy not to at least keep testing the Spaniards slightly clipped climbing wings.
Prediction:
Today just has so many wild cards. The biggest climbs are mid stage, the punchy final pass, quick descent and flat finish certainly lend themselves to a whittled down breakaway sprint finish.
On the other hand I also think Aru will play the joker and really try to mess with the rest of the contenders.
My final pick though would be to stick with the breakaway and as a short in the dark I’ll pick the young Italian stallion Davide Formolo to repeat his Stage 4 heroics.
So join The Roar from 10:00pm AEST for our live coverage and don’t forget to leave me a comment and tell me what you think if you are following along.
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