Elia Viviani's lack of strength on the small climbs could prevent him winning the maglia ciclamino
Yesterday was earmarked as a boring, straight forward stage for a bunch sprint. It turned out to be anything but. As Sam Bennett left the rest of the field spluttering in his rooster tail on the soaking wet circuit at Imola, Elia Viviani was 145th and nine minutes behind. All thanks to bad weather and a small climb.
Flash back to 25th March this year, as Viviani sat hunched on the side of the road, sobbing, as a Quick-Step sougneur draped a jacket over his shoulders after narrowly losing to world champion Peter Sagan at Gent-Wevelgem. It wasn't so much of a huge surprise given the calibre of sprinters in the field, but with Quick-Step's dominance to that point in Belgian one-day races, you could empathise with the Italian for letting down a team that is set up primarily for success in the classics. As Team Sky is for Grand Tours.
So when the start list was announced for the 101st Giro d'Italia and Viviani was the only big name fast man, every man, woman, child and their dog would have put all their chips on the former Sky sprinter cruising to the Giro's ciclamino points jersey. It would serve as somewhat of a reprieve to replicate the achievement of new team mate, Fernando Gaviria, from 12 months before.
It all started so well. Easy wins on stage two and three after the dullest tourism adverts ever through the desert of Israel and it was all going to script. Fast forward three challenging Sicilian stages and the sprinters were set for another showdown in Praia a Mare.
The conversation on podcasts, newspapers and TV was dominated by how can Bennett beat Viviani with the enhancement of a monstrously strong Quick-Step lead-out with his main lead-out man, Rudiger Selig, abandoning due to illness. It was suggested by Sean Kelly on Eurosport - who had a young Bennett on his An Post cycling team in Ireland many years ago - that his former student should sit on the wheel of Viviani until the final moment and use pure power to surge past in the last 100 metres. It happened exactly as the commentator has prophesied.
Two stages and a rest day later, and we witnessed the epic capitulation of Esteban Chaves on the first climb of the day. Viviani was in that group too, and while the stage to Gualdo Tadino had initially been pencilled in as a breakaway day - and of course it was Matej Mohoric who won the day with a breakaway - Sam Bennett shocked everyone claiming third place in a very reduced sprint.
Pundits and viewers alike were confident that Viviani would win most of the flat stages, but no one had envisaged that Bennett would pick up podium places and points on the much harder lumpy stages as the Quick-Step man languished with the other sprinters in the gruppetto.
The signs were there on stage four to Caltagirone as Bennett attacked the general classification contenders on the 13% incline in the final 750 metres. He collapsed to 44th place on the stage, but he showed his capability to grind up climbs.
After a punchy finish into Osimo, it was assumed we would have two quiet transitional days before tackling the mighty Monte Zoncolan on Saturday. The profile of stage 12 didn't look too problematic, but in hindsight, the category four Tre Monti climb just seven kilometres from the finish at Imola was similar to that of the Poggio in Milan-Sanremo. Not excessively steep - 10% in places - but enough to sort out the versatile sprinters from the one dimensional.
The atrocious weather into Imola certainly didn't help matters. Side winds swirled, the heavens opened and the rain lashed down so violently on a scale that can only be described as biblical that TV pictures were intermittent for a good few minutes. It was at this point in the race that carnage ensued and Viviani lost his vice-like grip on the ciclamino jersey. Lead-out trains lost their men, general classification riders found themselves a handful of seconds behind the maglia rosa, and none of this was helped by the technical, roundabout-laden route into the home of Ferrari.
Tim Wellens stuck the boot in, attacking on the approach to the circuit. The finish definitely suited a man of his qualities. The pace then throttled up again to chase the Belgian and the likes of Jens Debusschere and Mads Pedersen - both of whom got great results in the spring classics and had been in sprinting contention in previous stages - were spat out the back.
After holding his own with the puncheurs and gingerly negotiating the descent of Tre Monti, Bennett launched his sprint hundreds of metres earlier than usual and closed down the fizzled attack of Matej Mohoric and Carlos Betancur for the stage win. Viviani - who it was reported had suffered from communication issues as his team drove on without him - was left to consolidate.
His 66 point lead was slashed to 22 with stage 13 to look ahead to - a similar finish with the category four Montello climb in the last 30km. It's not as steep as Tre Monti and summits a good 20km before the finish, giving Viviani more of a chance to recover, but it may serve as another reference point as to his form heading into the final week.
Stage 17 is akin to stage 10: lumpy but with a flat finish. There's an uncategorised ascent right out of the gate and another two climbs along the parcours. The last 50km is flat but the peloton may have been greatly reduced before then. This stage could prove vital to deciding the destination of the ciclamino jersey, if Viviani struggles again while Bennett continues to prove his resilience.
Including today, there are only three potential sprints left. With Bennett so close on points and equal on wins with Viviani, we may actually get a far more open race for the ciclamino jersey that we had initially anticipated.
It would be brutally disappointing if Viviani can't win the sprinter's jersey of his home Grand Tour while all of his main rivals are sunning themselves across the Atlantic in California.
 |
| Sam Bennett claims his second victory of the 2018 Giro d'Italia with jersey holder Elia Viviani minutes behind Photo credit: cyclingnews.com |
So when the start list was announced for the 101st Giro d'Italia and Viviani was the only big name fast man, every man, woman, child and their dog would have put all their chips on the former Sky sprinter cruising to the Giro's ciclamino points jersey. It would serve as somewhat of a reprieve to replicate the achievement of new team mate, Fernando Gaviria, from 12 months before.
It all started so well. Easy wins on stage two and three after the dullest tourism adverts ever through the desert of Israel and it was all going to script. Fast forward three challenging Sicilian stages and the sprinters were set for another showdown in Praia a Mare.
The conversation on podcasts, newspapers and TV was dominated by how can Bennett beat Viviani with the enhancement of a monstrously strong Quick-Step lead-out with his main lead-out man, Rudiger Selig, abandoning due to illness. It was suggested by Sean Kelly on Eurosport - who had a young Bennett on his An Post cycling team in Ireland many years ago - that his former student should sit on the wheel of Viviani until the final moment and use pure power to surge past in the last 100 metres. It happened exactly as the commentator has prophesied.
Two stages and a rest day later, and we witnessed the epic capitulation of Esteban Chaves on the first climb of the day. Viviani was in that group too, and while the stage to Gualdo Tadino had initially been pencilled in as a breakaway day - and of course it was Matej Mohoric who won the day with a breakaway - Sam Bennett shocked everyone claiming third place in a very reduced sprint.
Pundits and viewers alike were confident that Viviani would win most of the flat stages, but no one had envisaged that Bennett would pick up podium places and points on the much harder lumpy stages as the Quick-Step man languished with the other sprinters in the gruppetto.
The signs were there on stage four to Caltagirone as Bennett attacked the general classification contenders on the 13% incline in the final 750 metres. He collapsed to 44th place on the stage, but he showed his capability to grind up climbs.
After a punchy finish into Osimo, it was assumed we would have two quiet transitional days before tackling the mighty Monte Zoncolan on Saturday. The profile of stage 12 didn't look too problematic, but in hindsight, the category four Tre Monti climb just seven kilometres from the finish at Imola was similar to that of the Poggio in Milan-Sanremo. Not excessively steep - 10% in places - but enough to sort out the versatile sprinters from the one dimensional.
The atrocious weather into Imola certainly didn't help matters. Side winds swirled, the heavens opened and the rain lashed down so violently on a scale that can only be described as biblical that TV pictures were intermittent for a good few minutes. It was at this point in the race that carnage ensued and Viviani lost his vice-like grip on the ciclamino jersey. Lead-out trains lost their men, general classification riders found themselves a handful of seconds behind the maglia rosa, and none of this was helped by the technical, roundabout-laden route into the home of Ferrari.
Tim Wellens stuck the boot in, attacking on the approach to the circuit. The finish definitely suited a man of his qualities. The pace then throttled up again to chase the Belgian and the likes of Jens Debusschere and Mads Pedersen - both of whom got great results in the spring classics and had been in sprinting contention in previous stages - were spat out the back.
After holding his own with the puncheurs and gingerly negotiating the descent of Tre Monti, Bennett launched his sprint hundreds of metres earlier than usual and closed down the fizzled attack of Matej Mohoric and Carlos Betancur for the stage win. Viviani - who it was reported had suffered from communication issues as his team drove on without him - was left to consolidate.
His 66 point lead was slashed to 22 with stage 13 to look ahead to - a similar finish with the category four Montello climb in the last 30km. It's not as steep as Tre Monti and summits a good 20km before the finish, giving Viviani more of a chance to recover, but it may serve as another reference point as to his form heading into the final week.
Stage 17 is akin to stage 10: lumpy but with a flat finish. There's an uncategorised ascent right out of the gate and another two climbs along the parcours. The last 50km is flat but the peloton may have been greatly reduced before then. This stage could prove vital to deciding the destination of the ciclamino jersey, if Viviani struggles again while Bennett continues to prove his resilience.
Including today, there are only three potential sprints left. With Bennett so close on points and equal on wins with Viviani, we may actually get a far more open race for the ciclamino jersey that we had initially anticipated.
It would be brutally disappointing if Viviani can't win the sprinter's jersey of his home Grand Tour while all of his main rivals are sunning themselves across the Atlantic in California.
Comments
Post a Comment