The chaos created by yesterday’s 56-man breakaway wasn’t confined to just the overall classification and the race for the pink jersey. The group that was refered to as the peloton, containing then race leader Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), actually only contained 30 riders; smaller than the group that it had been chasing. An even larger group finished 39’30” behind stage winner Evegeni Petrov (Katusha) but the one containing the sprinters, numbering 51 riders in all, came in 46’31” back.
The time limit set for the stage was 39 minutes meaning that these 51 tardy riders could technically be sent home. Thankfully for all of them though, it is highly unusual for this many riders to be eliminated all at once, and they have found safety in numbers. The Giro d’Italia race jury has allowed them to continue in the race, but not without delivering a slapped wrist in the form of a 25 point reduction in the red jersey competition.
For most riders in the group this punishment will not be an issue, but for the sprinters chasing the jersey it could be a big deal. American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) still leads the competition, but with his points tally cut from 84 points to 59 he only leads World champion Cadel Evans by 7 points. Perhaps more importantly, he now only leads stage 9 winner Matt Goss (HTC-Columbia), who was in the lead group and so had no penalty, by 12 points.
The race to see who will wear the red jersey in Verona is now wide open once more.