Gasparotto on Plan de Corones: "It is impossible"

By Gregor Brown in Plan de Corones

Enrico Gasparotto prefers to race on the road, which is why didn't become a mountain biker
Photo ©: AFP

Italy's Enrico Gasparotto, six minutes back on the Giro d'Italia's stage to Plan de Corones, was not impressed with the mountain time trial on Monday, 12.9 kilometres from San Vigilio di Marebbe. He insisted that the rules of cycling need to be changed to avoid such a stage.

"It is too hard. It is not a normal day. It is impossible," were the words of 26 year-old Gasparotto to Cyclingnews after his run up to Plan de Corones. "This stage is not cycling, if it was on a mountain bike then okay. This is a ski pass, not a road for cycling."

He leveled his complaints at RCS Sport, "I would like to give [Angelo] Zomegnan a bike, tell him to come and race this."

Fortunately, unlike in 2006 when the a road stage to Plan de Corones was cancelled, the weather has tilted in the riders' favour. "It is lucky it has not rained so much these days. The road was okay, but it is not road cycling.

"We must change the rules. We do anti-doping controls -- what they want -- but this type of racing is impossible. And tomorrow, a rest day, and four-hundred kilometres. The team drives tomorrow morning, we stay here tonight."

Race Director Zomegnan noted it was a way to test the riders' limits and put on a great show for the fans.

"Have a look around," said the Italian from Erba to Cyclingnews in Plan de Corones. "This is a countryside that does not exist in the world and cycling races need to exist to show off the countryside. It is too bad there is not sunshine – [imagine] if there was sunshine today."

According to Zomegnan, the stages in the Dolomites are beautiful displays of cycling and serve to show off the sport that has been dragged through the mud. "I think that we need spectacular shows in cycling to pull ourselves out of this mediocrities. Without something spectacular it would be normal, and this is something is extra."

He noted that the riders had a chance to test the parcours, 5.3 kilometres, which are on sterrato ('gravel'). "All of the riders came here on April 30 -- Di Luca, Simoni, Riccò, Bruseghin -- and they said it was a new way of testing the athletes' limits and this is an accurate interpretation according to me. And we have to stop here, maybe the limit is here, nothing more."

Zomegnan noted that the rest day involved nearly four hours in the car from the Dolomites to Sondrio, in the Alps. "Tomorrow is a day of rest and half the distance of a transfer on the last day of the Tour de France," said Zomegnan with a smile. True, but the riders in the Tour de France took a TGV from Angoulême to Marcoussis, where as tomorrow the riders face a mountainous run in the back of a team bus.

"The Giro is like this, who wants to do it can come here and who does not can stay at home," Zomegnan concluded.

Millar not impressed with Corones circus

By Gregor Brown in Plan de Corones

David Millar doesn't mind some spectacle, but three days in a row is too much in his opinion
Photo ©: Roberto Bettini

"There is no doubt it is spectacular, but it is just a circus now," stated Britain's David Millar to Cyclingnews after his run up the Plan de Corones ski slope. The 31 year-old of Slipstream rode the 12.9-kilometre Giro d'Italia stage from San Vigilio di Marebbe in a time of 46'48", 6'22" behind winner Franco Pellizotti, but was concerned with the overall difficulties of the Italian Grand Tour.

The 91st Giro d'Italia started off in Italy's south, on the island of Sicilia, and it was marked by a first week of long transfers and sketchy roads, made worse by inclement weather. The finale of the three-week races is not letting up: the race has entered its first high-mountains stages, including three days in the Dolomites – Alpe di Pampeago, Passo Fedaia and Plan de Corones.

"Yes, definitely," Millar responded, when asked if the Plan de Corones mountain time trial stage was too much of a show. "You can do this stage one off, but not after the two mountain stages we had just done and the first week we did. It is the combination of everything that is getting to us. It is a good idea to do spectacular stuff like this, but not day in and day out, day in and day out."

Slipstream and many other teams face long drives off of the mountain passes to reach their hotels, and today, on Plan de Corones, the riders took the cable car to arrive back down at the Passo Furcia. "We got to our hotel at 8:30 last night, and that is about the norm." The US-based team is doing the four-hour transfer to Sondrio tomorrow, on the Giro d'Italia's second rest day.

Millar had a satisfactory ride. "I was using it as training, with a serious warm-up, trying to replicate it. ... You don't really see it, but it is so hard." The last time he can remember such an event was the 2003 Vuelta a España, when he raced up the Alto de Abantos.

Surprises in the mountains

Contador hangs tough, but gauntlets are down

By Bjorn Haake

Not all the mountains are behind Contador yet, but he has a good position of riding into Milano with pink on his shoulders
Photo ©: AFP

Three long days in the mountains have left their mark on the racers, and several surprises have surfaced. Last year's winner Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) started to show signs of weakness, with Alberto Contador (Astana) taking the maglia rosa of race leader. The Spaniard wasn't dominating the mountain stages, as some had feared, following his performance in last year's Tour de France. But he hung tough when the others threw down the attacks, with youngster Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval - Scott) looking to be in the best position to seriously challenge Contador, with his gap of only 41 seconds.

Then there was the amazing performance by CSF Navigare, with their new emerging climbing star, Emanuele Sella grabbing the headlines. They started out quietly, with a lacklustre performance in the team time trial, but improved to a stage win via its sprinter, Matteo Priamo.

When the mountains started for real, the green team was on the front in force. And quickly, Sella made it clear that he preferred the green jersey for the best climber in the Giro over the similar-coloured team outfit. Three amazing performances and two stage wins and a second place later, he looked solid in the mountains classification. Especially on the rainy day up to the Passo Fedaia/Marmolada the team was incredible, with Fortunato Baliani, Mexican Julio Pérez and Domenico Pozzovivo providing excellent assistance to Sella.

Of note was also the unexpected performance of Belgian Jurgen Van Den Broeck. The Silence - Lotto rider showed his climbing prowess and impressed in both weekend stages, staying with the climbing masters and producing a solid time trial to the Plan de Corones. The move to Italy had paid off, as he could get some good vertical training in.

Read the full rest day wrap-up.

Gerolsteiner: From nine to two

By Susan Westemeyer

Johannes Fröhlinger is one of two riders left for the team. He and Sven Krauss will try to not repeat Lotto's one-man arrival in the 2003 Giro
Photo ©: Roberto Bettini

Gerolsteiner started out with the regular nine riders in the Giro d'Italia, but by the second rest day, it was down to two. Having this miniature team allowed the management to send home a number of soigneurs and mechanics as well.

The little team isn't giving up, though. "I can remember Lotto once ended the Giro – in 2003 – with only one rider," spokesman Jörg Grünefeld told Cyclingnews. "We will do it better and fight on with Sven [Krauss] and Johannes [Fröhlinger] until Milano."

The race was going reasonably well for the team. It didn't bring in any of the hoped-for stage wins, but, with the exception of the team time trial and individual time trial, placed a rider in the top ten in every stage up through the 12th stage.

Before the Giro, sports director Christian Henn had said optimistically, "Maybe one of our younger riders will have the luck to be in a successful escape group." Matthias Russ, 24, had that good luck, by getting in the escape group in stage six, which came to the finish 11 minutes ahead of the peloton. But he also had the bad luck to be tied in time for first place overall with Giovanni Visconti, who took over the maglia rosa based on his better finishing time in the opening team time trial.

It was on the 11th stage that things started falling apart. The first to go was Andrea Moletta, who was withdrawn from the race when his father was involved in a doping investigation. In that same stage, Volker Ordowski had to retire with health problems, bringing the team down to seven.

The 14th stage was the first big mountain stage, and Davide Rebellin and Robert Förster did not start. Rebellin was paying the price for his long, successful Spring Classics season, and Förster decided he could find more sprinter-friendly training for the upcoming Tour de France elsewhere. Oscar Gatto dropped out shortly after the stage started, exhausted.

That left four German youngsters, ranging in age from 22 to 25. But on the very next stage, Russ had to drop out with a combination of stomach problems and a cold. Fothen didn't survive the mountain time trial on Monday. His combination of a bad day and a mechanical underway put him last on the stage, with his time of 53'48 missing the cut-off for the time limit by some three minutes.

That left only Johannes Fröhlinger (22) and Sven Krauss (25) to represent the team. The team also carried out a planned change of directeurs sportifs and the two are now accompanied by the team's youngest sports director, Christian Wegmann, 32.

Posted by fyxomatosis on 28 May 2008

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