The “future of Italian sprinting” bests Mark Cavendish in a straight dash for the line
After enduring a torrid debut Giro d’Italia, with first week crashes and struggling through the mountains, Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) confirmed his talent with victory in the eighteenth stage, between San Vito di Cadore and Vedelago. The 22-year-old, who is regarded by most as the future of Italian sprinting, launched his move from fourth wheel, as World champion Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) was being led into the finishing straight by teammate Geraint Thomas.
Guardini came around the two Team Sky riders and, by the time Cavendish was up to full speed, he was more than a length clear, and this was how they hit the line.
In third place was stage eleven winner Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), just ahead of South African champion Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Barracuda).
“I’m still very young and I’ve got to develop a lot as a rider,” said Guardini afterwards. “I’ve really suffered on the climbs in this Giro d’Italia but 198 riders started the Giro and now there’s only 168 left. That proves something.”
The 22-year-old, who took a record equalling eleven victories in his debut professional season last year, crashed at least twice in the opening Danish stages of the race - and even came down in the team time trial - but has persisted in the race despite finishing at the back in every hilly stage, and dead last in the previous day’s mountain epic.
“During the first week of the Giro d’Italia I didn’t believe in myself enough,” he explained. “I’d been struggling in the sprints and things hadn’t been going my way. I knew this sprint was the last chance I had. I knew it suited me because it was so flat. I knew my chance was today or that I’d have to wait until next year. I knew I could beat Cavendish but I knew I had to jump first and by doing that today, I’ve realised what I can do.
“The difference between winning this sprint and winning one after 250km of racing all comes down to experience. A few years ago Cavendish struggled on the climbs and he’s amazing, as he proved by winning Milano-Sanremo at the first attempt and at my age. I think I’m a similar kind of sprinter as Cavendish but my idol was Robbie McEwen who retired a few days ago.
“Milano-Sanremo is the race of my dreams but I know I’ve still got to work a lot to have a chance to win it,” he concluded. “Milano-Sanremo is a long term goal.”
The flat stage was unusually characterised by two separate breakway groups. The first of which was made up of Pier Paolo Di Negri (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia), Angelo Pagani (Colnago-CSF Inox), Stef Clement (Rabobank), and Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank), and escaped in the first few kilometres. They managed to get 3’05” ahead of the peloton in the very fast first hour of the race, but were closed down and caught shortly before the Traguardo Volante sprint, with 65km to go, as Team Sky launched Cavendish over the line.
The second group escaped almost immediately after the sprint, and featured the two most aggressive riders of the race, in Olivier Kaisen (Lotto-Belisol) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM), along with Mickaël Delage (FDJ-BigMat), and Clement again. They were kept under much tighter control, and only allowed just under a minute, before Team Sky and Omega Pharma-Quick Step began to gradually reel them in.
Delage attacked alone with 14km to go, shortly before the others were picked up, and he was joined by a counterattack from Kaisen’s stage 12 winning Lotto-Belisol teammate Lars Bak. The two of them stubbornly persisted for a few kilometres, but were finally caught with 3.6km to go.
Saxo Bank led into the closing kilometres, only for Team Sky to take over after they passed under the flamme rouge. Thomas led Cavendish into the finishing straight, but Ferrari and Guardini were lurking behind them, and the latter launched his sprint before Cavendish could and won an emotional debut Grand Tour stage.
With the entire peloton finishing together, the general classification remains the same, with Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha) holding the Maglia Rosa as the race headed back towards the mountains.
One last day for the sprinters before the mountains and Milan
After putting them through a Dolomiti Calvary the day before, where most of them finished almost 40 minutes behind stage winner Rodríguez, the sprinters were to be treated to a stage for the final time in this year’s Giro. From the shadow of the previous day’s climbs, the day’s parcours would follow the valley of the Piave river, down to the Veneto plain, where it would finish just a few kilometres west of the city of Treviso.
Unlike some of the previous sprinters’ stages, the finish in Vedelago would come at the end of a five kilometre straight. Other than a few light kinks in the final kilometre, there were no obstacles to a flat out dash for the line.
Di Negri, Pagani, Clement and Boara escaped after just three kilometres. Clement was the best placed of the quartet overall, but he was more than an hour and a half down on Maglia Rosa Rodríguez, and so the group was allowed to ride away without resistance from the peloton.
Pagani was the only first time fugitive in the group, with the other three having featured in numerous attacks; Clement and Boaro as recently as stage 16, when they had lost out to Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) on the final climb to the finish. With a predominantly downhill parcours, the race covered 50.9km in the first hour; by which time the break was 3’05” ahead as it arrived in the town of Ponte nelle Alpi.
Team Sky was looking to secure as many points as possible for Cavendish in the red jersey classification though - before the race hit the final mountain stages, where he was highly unlikely to score - and so Ian Stannard was drumming out the tempo for the British team. He was pulling the break back so that Cavendish could go for Traguardo Volante sprint, in Cesiomaggiore with 65km to go, where there were up to six points on offer.
The peloton was just ten seconds behind as the roads began to rise towards the Traguardo Volante, but the four riders were refusing to surrender. Keizer attacked as the speed of the peloton dropped - the Dutchman was just 27km behind Kaisen in the Premio della Fuga classification, and seemed anxious to make them up.
This wasn’t the time for Keizer to do so however, and he wasn’t able to reach the leaders; despite a last ditch effort from Clement, they were caught with 65.5km to go. Geraint Thomas led Cavendish towards the line, but Alessandro Spezialetti (Lampre-ISD) was clinging to the World champion’s wheel; the Italian tried to spoil the Sky party, but Cavendish easily came around him to take the line. Scarponi led the peloton over the line in fourth place however, to keep his points total ticking over.
Cavendish now led Rodríguez by 118 points to 109 in the red jersey standings but, with so many mountains to come, the World champion would still need to win the stage to have much of a chance of taking it to Milan.
With the Traguardo Volante done we have breakaway part two
With the sprint out of the way the counterattacks began, with the descent providing a springboard for Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) to pull a group clear. With the Australian were Lotto-Belisol teammate Kaisen - out to cement his Fuga classification lead - Sandy Casar (FDJ-BigMat), Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuala), Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas-Cannondale), and Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing).
Team Sky was not in the mood for letting another break get far however, and kept the pace high on the front of the peloton. There were too many by names in the group too, and Katusha came forward in case Team Sky should need assistance, but the five were back in the peloton with 55km to go.
Kaisen was not to be held though, and immediately went again. Keizer jumped away in pursuit of his homonymic rival, with Delage, and Clement again; the peloton relaxed a little, and they were allowed to get away.
After two hours, the average speed was still almost 49kph.
Team Sky allowed the new quartet to open up a gap of almost a minute by the 45km to go banner, but this was as long a leash as the British team would allow. Along with help from Omega Pharma-Quick Step, whose sprinter Francesco Chicchi was one of the few other fast men left in the race, they gradually began to chip away at this advantage.
Having closed them down to just 30 seconds, the peloton allowed the leaders to extend their lead to just over a minute with 25km to go. As the peloton sped up though, this quickly began to come down again but, with just over 20km to go, there was drama for the Lampre-ISD team, as fourth place overall Michele Scarponi punctured; the entire blue-fuchsia team dropped back to pace the defending champion back up and, although Team Sky and Omega Pharma-Quick Step were busy with their chase, the peloton eased a little to allow them back on.
Delage goes alone, and Bak joins him for the ride, but there’s no denying the sprinters
With 15km to go, the gap was just 16 seconds, and a kilometre later - with it down to just ten - Delage jumped away on his own, and the others were caught shortly afterwards. This was Bak’s cue to attack though, and the Danish stage winner made his way up to the lone Frenchman. With ten kilometres to go they were just six seconds ahead however, and seemed to have little chance of survival.
Bak’s power pulled this out to a dozen seconds as they entered the final eight kilometres, but it was never going to last and the peloton had them in sight as they hit the completely straight run the the finish.
With 3.6km to go the two riders finally sat up and the sprinters teams began to organise their lead out trains.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step was leading down the left hand gutter, but Saxo Bank pulled ahead up the middle and took over from the Belgian team. The Danish team led in to the final kilometre, but Bernhard Eisel pulled Thomas and Cavendish into the finishing straight, and the Welshman took over as the line approached.
Ferrari and Guardini were both lurking behind Cavendish however and, just as the World champion was opening up his sprint on Thomas’ left, Guardini jumped around his right. He was quickly alongside the Manx Missile and overtaking him as he struggled to get up to speed.
As he hit the line, the Farnese Vini-Selle Italia rider was a length clear and raised both arms in elation with his biggest ever victory. Behind him Cavendish was just able to hold off the attentions of both Ferrari and Hunter, as they sprinted side by side on the opposite side of the road.