May 30, 2008

"Tomorrow I will go on the attack..."

VeloNews

Alberto Contador (Astana) might be wishing he was back at the beach after fending off relentless attacks from Danilo Di Luca (LRP) and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) in Friday’s wild 19th stage that saw him retain his maglia rosa by the narrowest of margins. Contador saw his grip on the pink jersey whittled down to four seconds to Riccò and 21 seconds to Di Luca and looks vulnerable going into Saturday’s epic stage over the Gavia and the Mortirolo. “It was a very hard and long stage. The stage was longer than what it said on paper,” said Contador. “The team deserves a ‘10’ for what they did today. Compliments to Di Luca and Riccò today after making beautiful attacks, which makes for an interesting Giro. I kept the maglia rosa, but I’m not going to obsess on Riccò or Di Luca. Like I said yesterday, I’m not afraid of anything in this Giro.”



Vasil Kiryienka attacked out of the day’s winning breakaway on the Presolana and held a 4:36 winning margin to an amazing Di Luca to win Tinkoff’s second stage of this Giro, but the real fireworks were coming from behind. The Giro’s final summit finish delivered sparks as tempers flared up as fast as the attacks in the 238km stage that was actually 10 kilometers longer than indicated in the race book. Contador was under the gun when Di Luca and LPR teammate Paolo Savoldelli attacked on the descent off the Cat. 1 Passo del Vivione with 50km to go. Di Luca then attacked alone up the final two climbs to take a 12-second time bonus to claw from sixth at 2:18 to third at 21 seconds back. “The team rode brilliantly today. Thanks especially to Savoldelli, who did a great job. Never doubt Di Luca, because Di Luca never gives up,” said ‘the Killer,’ reverting to third person. “I thought I could take the maglia rosa, but what’s important is that I pulled myself back into contention. Like I’ve been saying, this Giro isn’t over until the final kilometer in the Milan time trial.” Riccò waited until 4km to go on the Monte Pora to surge away from the struggling Contador in an elite, eight-man group that didn’t include two-time winner Gilberto Simoni (Diquigiovanni-Androni). “The Cobra” was looking to erase a 41-second gap and snatch the pink jersey, but Contador found some unexpected friends in Emanuele Sella (CSF-Navigare) and Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), who both chased late to defend their GC positions. After finishing fifth at 5:44 back, Riccò was livid at the line when realized he missed the jersey by four seconds. “What I’d like to ask Sella and (Domenico) Pozzovivo is if they thought they would win the Giro? Contador always finds someone like that who helps him. No one ever helps me,” said Riccò, who unleashed an angry Italian curse at the summit. “They should have stayed on Contador’s wheel and let him pull. People have been saying that Contador is stronger than me on the climbs, but as far as I can remember, I’ve dropped him on every summit finish. Tomorrow I will go on the attack again and I just hope (CSF-Navigare) isn’t working behind me.” Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre) settled into fourth at two minutes back with Pellizotti nudging into fifth at 2:05 back as Simoni tumbled out of the top-three after losing nearly six minutes to the favorites.