Pink jersey David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) is in confident mood heading into tomorrow’s mountain time trial on the Plan de Corones after paying it a visit on the rest day. The 12.9km climb rises 1086m at an average gradient of 8.4%, but the last 5.3km is an unsurfaced gravel road that features sections of 24%. After yesterday’s stage to Monte Zoncolan Arroyo’s lead over many of the pre-race favourites has been slashed, and the Spaniard is in no doubt how hard those riders will try to beat him.
“The climb for tomorrow has some steep parts, especially at the end,” he said. “Anyway, I felt quite well during the training and I hope to give my best. This time trial is the start of the last part of the Giro and I am completely sure that the riders who are behind in overall are going to fight until the last day”
Arroyo is largely in his current position thanks to his being part of the 56 rider break on stage 11 to L’Aquila. Prior to that day he had lost time in both the stage 1 individual and stage 3 team time trials; most tellingly though, he lost almost a minute to the favourites on stage 8 to Monte Terminillo, two minutes to them on stage 14 to Asolo that crossed Monte Grappa, and on yesterday’s stage to Monte Zoncolan he lost a further 3’50” to Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo).
With his lead over Basso, who is now the big favourite for overall victory, now reduced to 3’33”, Arroyo needs to do much better to hold onto his pink jersey.