Juan
Manuel Garate (Quick Step) has won Stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia. Garate took
the win when Jens Voigt (CSC) refused to contest the sprint at the end of the
mountainous, 224-km ride from Pordenone to Passo Di San Pellegrino. Voigt
finished second at 0:04, and Francisco Vila (Lampre) took third at 1:21. Maglia rosa Ivan Basso (CSC) has
extended his overall lead.
Juan Manuel Garate (Quick Step-Innergetic) celebrates his stage win. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.
The
hardest stage of this year’s Giro began in the sunny, fair conditions that have
greeted the riders in all of the 2006 Giro’s Italian stages. At about
70 km,
the break of the day formed when Alessandro Spezialetti and Danilo Di Luca (both
from Liquigas); Garate and Paolo Bettini (both from Quick Step); Patrice Halgand
(Credit Agricole); Emanuele Sella, Luis Laverde, and Fortunato Baliani (all from
Ceramica Panaria); Bobby Julich and Voigt (both from CSC); Joan Horrach (Caisse
d’Epargne); Johan Tschopp and Steve Zampieri (both from Phonak); Vila, Evgeny
Petrov, and Tadej Valjavec (all from Lampre); Theo Eltink (Rabobank); and Ivan
Parra (Cofidis) sallied off of the front. The break had no dangermen in it, so
the peloton did not chase.
The
escapees breasted the Category 2 Staulanza (101.3 km) climb with a lead of more
than five minutes. By the time that the fugitives reached the Passo di
Fedaia—also known as the Marmolada (135.9 km)—they led by 6:00. Julich
was dropped, but Voigt was still in the break for CSC. He took few turns because
he and Julich had been sent ahead as help for Basso when the maglia rosareached them.
Behind,
CSC began the pursuit, but Saunier Duval took over and got help from Lampre and
Ceramica Panaria. Attrition took its toll, and with nine km remaining, only
Garate, Valjavec, Vila, and Garate were all that remained of the
escape. They led the Saunier Duval-led maglia rosagroup by about 3:00. At this point, the break was 10 km up the finishing
climb.
Garate
did most of the work. He shelled Vila and Valjavec, but Voigt remained on his
wheel. With the two about to start sprinting, Voigt drew alongside the Quick
Step rider, and in Garate’s words, “He [Voigt] saw all the work Quick Step did
in the beginning of the stage and told me that he didn’t deserve to win and said
he wouldn’t sprint. What he did proved he was a great person and a great
champion.”
Garate and Voigt working hard. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.
Behind,
no such chivalry existed. With GC positions at stake, the heads of state went
all out to take time from each other. Runner-up Jose Gutierrez Cataluna (Phonak)
was dropped with 4.5
km left, but the Spaniard fought back and kept his place
on the podium. Defending champion Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) began the
day only 0:24 behind Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval), but Il Falco lost nearly two and a half
minutes to Simoni. Savoldelli has a chance to make up ground in Stage 20, but
with Simoni being the better climber of the two, expect Savoldelli to lose more
time to Simoni on the final mountain stage of this year’s
Giro.
In
the overall, Basso leads Gutierrez Cataluna by 6:07 and Simoni by 10:34. Stage
20 will provide a final opportunity for the climbers to win a stage. The 211-km
ride from Trento to Aprica will take the riders
over the Passo del Tonale, the Passo di Gavia, and the Passo del Mortirolo
before the finishing climb. Who will win? Basso? Simoni? A no-hope climber?
Check in at Roadcycling.com
and find out!
