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Fantastic Day in the Mountains
What an unbelievable day at Sestriere as the 2000 Giro d'Italia reached it's
climax. The Linda McCartney Foods Cycling Team will surely now, barring
disasters, finish six riders in Milan tomorrow. But the real excitement at
this ski-station is reserved for the Italians today, as Stefano Garzelli
stole the pink jersey from Francesco Casagrande in the very last few miles of
competitive racing.
Casagrande, who has worn the maglia rosa for almost two weeks with such
poise, was finally undone by Marco Pantani's teammate, Garzelli. Garzelli has
attacked the Vini Caldirola rider continually in the mountains this week and
last, but every time, the pink jersey responded. But today, the mountain time
trial changed everything.
Going into the day trailing his rival by a matter of seconds, Garzelli came
up with the ride of his life, covering the climbs of Montgenevre and
Sestriere 1'52" quicker than his rival. It will take a miracle for Casagrande
to overturn a deficit of nearly a minute and a half in tomorrow's flat dash
from Turin to Milan. That stage is traditionally a procession until late in
the day, when opportunists and sprinters will go all out for stage victory,
but time gains are virtually unheard of. Races like the Tour of Italy are won
and lost in the mountains. Casagrande left the finish a broken man, victory
in his country's marvellous tour torn from his grasp, his face red with
effort, his eyes red with tears.
Sean Yates on the other hand was ecstatic. "We should be safe now," beamed
the Linda McCartney manager. "The non-believers thought we would get a
kicking here. First it was 'you'll never get a ride in the Giro', then
'you've got no chance of winning a stage' and 'your boys will be straight out
the back when it gets to the mountains.' Now we have proved to everybody what
a good side we are, and how much potential there is here."
Ride of the day came from Max Sciandri, who despite not being anything like a
specialist in a mountain time-trial, caught the Farm Frites rider who started
two minutes in front of him. This meant that the team jumped up a notch, and
Sean's car will be one rung higher than Farm Frites in the convoy tomorrow.
"It was great," said Julian Clark, who was a passenger in Sean's Renault
today. "They've been having trouble with their cars all week. When Max caught
him and we followed him through, I shouted across to Teun Van Vliet (Farm
Frites manager) 'thank God we won't have to breathe in your black diesel
smoke again tomorrow!' "
Ciaran Power showed that despite his tiredness he has come through the
mountains well, and there was no flirtation with the time limit today!
All eyes on Milan - can the Linda McCartney team get amongst them one more
time? Report by John Deering |
