Mike Friedman was a little surprised but happy to pull on the yellow jersey. Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Mike Friedman (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) sprinted to second place at the Nature Valley Grand Prix Cannon Falls Road Race Thursday night out of a break of 16 riders. The effort put Friedman in the yellow jersey, and showed the veteran rider is on good form, despite a less than ideal start to his season.

After spending his early season working in the leadout train for Ken Hanson at several European races, Friedman got sick while racing at the Joe Martin Stage Race.  Finding himself in a hole, Friedman dropped out of the Tour of the Gila, skipped the Amgen Tour of California, and went back to his home in Golden, Colorado, to get himself back on track.

“This was the worst that I’ve been at the beginning of the year,” said Friedman. “Sometimes cycling has those ups and downs. You have to learn how to stay calm, know you’re not a crappy rider, and try to get out of it.”

For Friedman that meant taking a few days off and then getting back to having fun and serious training. “You just go home and collect yourself and make sure you relax, recover, and make sure you start training again,” said Friedman who likes to go off-road adventuring on Colorado’s dirt fire roads. “I take the mountain-road bike, a mountain bike with road bars, and I just go out and ride for hours. It’s pretty rad.”

Prior to turning professional in 2007 with Slipstream, Friedman was primarily known for his success on the track. He rode for the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and has contemplated a return to the boards, depending on what events make it into the Rio Games. “If they do the omnium, I should try,” said Friedman. “I have the ability to do it but it would be a matter of seeing what USA Cycling will support.”

With two children, aged four and six, a full time return to European racing is an interesting, but challenging prospect for Friedman. “That would be fantastic, to get back to Europe, but I would have to have a fantastic race at [the USA Pro Challenge] and basically do something unbelievable there to get a contract back in Europe,” Friedman said. “It’s something I would consider, but I’ve got a family now, and that would be a big thing to change.”

Friedman enjoys the lifestyle of a professional cyclist, and is far from packing it in, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think about life after racing.

“I have a lot of interests. It could be anything from teaching, going back to school, starting my own little business, there are a lot of different things,” he said. “It’s going to be a transition because you get used to living a certain way with this lifestyle. You have freedom and choice over what you do on a daily basis, and that’s going to be the biggest change for me.”

For the fun loving, and adventurous Friedman, that kind of freedom meant exploring the Home Depot and Goodwill stores located next to his race hotel in Minneapolis before the road race in Cannon Falls.

Though not generally thought of as a GC rider, Friedman has performed well in past stage races, including an overall win at the 2010 Tour de Korea. His sprinting ability, and ability to recover quickly, has moved him into the race lead at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.  Given how well the entire Optum squad is riding, with three riders in the top five GC, a victory — if not for Friedman, then for the team — is within reach.

The overall win is a major goal for the Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies team, whose primary sponsor is located in Minneapolis. “Racing’s not over, but we are happy to be back in the yellow jersey,” said Friedman after the Cannon Falls Road Race. “We are going to do our best to represent it, and then we are going to race our asses off.”

Shelley Olds secured valuable bonus seconds on the mid-race sprints. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com

CANNON FALLS, MN (VN) — Tibco’s Shelley Olds sprinted to within 10 seconds of the race lead Wednesday night at the Nature Valley Grand Prix St. Paul Downtown Criterium. Olds was caught behind Carmen Small (Specialized-lululemon) who crashed in the final corner of the race. Olds managed to recover and sprint for third, and while she was rewarded with the most aggressive rider’s jersey for her efforts, she did not collect the valued 12-second time bonus for the winner.

Olds found herself in a similar position on Thursday night at the Cannon Falls Road Race, where she tried to close a gap to race winner Jade Wilcoxson (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) in the final 100m. Olds was disappointed to miss the win, but moved into third on the general classification.

A former winner of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, Olds knows the race well. “I missed it last year, and it’s one of my favorite races. This race is truly a stage race and it’s not won in one day. We have a whole week ahead of us of with various kinds of races that are each challenging in their own way,” said Olds who excels on short steep climbs and sprint finishes. “It ends, of course, in Stillwater, and that can change everything on the last day.”

Olds’ season has gotten off to a rough start due to a bout of pneumonia, and dental work related to a crash she suffered when competing on the World Cup track circuit several years ago. Factor in her transcontinental travel schedule, and it’s been a slightly slower build up than she is used to.

With these factors in mind, Olds wasn’t expecting much when she lined up for the U.S. national road race championship in Chattanooga two weeks ago. Olds treated the race more as a scouting mission for future attempts at the title. “It wasn’t my goal this year, but now that I’ve seen the course I know what it is, and I know how to prepare for it,” said Olds about the Chattanooga course. “I know that I’m capable of being there at the end. It was a little disappointing that I didn’t have the preparation going into it. I really liked the course, I love the circuits on the end, the climb is great to mix it up, and Chattanooga is a really cool city.”

The last two years Olds has made her home base in L’Estartit, located 40km outside of Girona, Spain. Olds’ beachside apartment, and the Mediterranean climate, affords her the luxury of year-round riding and a diversity of training routes. In addition, Olds can easily travel to races around Europe, honing her skills and collecting valued UCI points needed to qualify for future Olympic and world championship teams.

Olds credits the move to Spain for her success in 2012, which saw her narrowly miss a medal at the 2012 Olympic games. “When you don’t put yourself in that environment, with the constant stimulus of racing against the best girls in the world, racing on the hardest courses, racing with two hundred riders, bad weather, and hilly, flat and narrow roads, you name it — if you don’t go and race in that, and learn how to be successful, then you never will be.”

Olds’ current focus is on helping her TIBCO squad take back the NRC team title. After the Nature Valley Grand Prix, they will be heading to Italy for the Giro Rosa, at the end of June. Olds will shoot for wins while the team rides in support of its GC contender, Claudia Hausler. Joining Hausler and Olds at the Giro Rosa will be Chantal Blaak, Jasmin Glaesser, Joanne Kiesanowski, and Lauren Stephens.

While Olds fulfilled one her lifelong dreams when she appeared in the 2012 London Olympics, her narrow miss increased her appetite for a medal. She is now looking at races like the 2013 world road championships, in Tuscany, as a model for what might appear in the Rio 2016 games.

“Last year was primarily focused on the London course, and now I have reason to build my training around climbing, which is what I am doing for the next four years,” said Olds as she laid out her future plans.  “I’m naturally a sprinter, but I’m focused on it now, and I believe you can do anything you put your mind to. “

Tom Zirbel was unable to repeat his national championship ride, finishing second. Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Longtime Nature Valley Grand Prix (NVGP) race director David LaPorte is continuously experimenting with different programs and race rules to make his event accessible for both fans and racers.

The race’s innovation streak has led to popular programs, like the Kowalksi’s Market Collegiate All Stars and the Nature Valley Pro Chase, which have become major goals for amateur riders.

One race directive that has met with mixed reviews among riders and directors is the race’s ‘Merckx-style’ time trial, which adheres to USA Cycling rule 1M1(h), banning time trial-specific equipment.

Rule 1M1(h) reads: “Time trial events may restrict the competitors to mass-start bicycles in one or more classes, provided that the restriction is stated in the race announcement and technical guide. This includes time trials in stage races.”

Under the ruling, both aero bars and disc wheels are forbidden, while the helmets and frames used in the time trial must be used in all subsequent stages.

It is a disappointing rule for TT specialists, such as national champion Tom Zirbel (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), who would like to demonstrate their talent on the best equipment.

“It’s fun to do something different, but we invest a lot in our time trial bikes so I would like to have the fastest equipment out here,” said Zirbel after placing second in the St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial on Tuesday. “This is one of the biggest races in the country so you should expect to use your best equipment.”

Managers of pro cycling teams spend a lot of time putting together equipment sponsorships, and it can be frustrating when their aerodynamic advantages cannot be showcased.

“From a team point of view we do a lot of work to get sponsors for all of our equipment, and that includes time trial equipment,” said Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategy women’s team director Rachel Heal. “When we go to events like this where we are not allowed to use it, our sponsors who provide the equipment suffer.”

For small teams and individual riders, traveling with one bike, let alone two, is a costly endeavor. Airline handling fees can range anywhere from $50 to $150 each way. Rates can climb even higher if a rider is charged an overweight or oversized cargo fee. Larger teams get around airline fees by having drivers, often times the hardworking team mechanic, who drive the team vehicle from race to race. Without a team car, riders traveling long distances must seek their own, often costly, arrangements.

Vanderkitten director Jono Coulter has worked on different sized teams, as both rider and staff, and is sympathetic with plight of smaller teams.

“We believe it makes it an even playing field for the smaller teams that cannot bring their equipment across the country in the middle of the year,” said Coulter whose squad is based out of Northern California and races a full schedule across the U.S. “We would bring our aero bikes if required, but it definitely does make it easier for us at this race.”

John Barron takes time off of his day job in printing to direct the Kowalksi’s Market Collegiate All Stars. A big part of Barron’s job is to coordinate with riders, who are all full-time students, and manage a small staff that is taking vacation days to support the team.

Taking the time trial bikes out of the equation relieves a lot of pressure on Barron’s staff. “For us it’s better the way it is [at Nature Valley], which is no aero bikes, because we have a limited budget,” said Barron. “We have a rented passenger van and if each racer has two bikes, it’s twelve bikes, and that’s a strain on the mechanic and crew.”

Though many amateur racers do own TT bikes, the cost of traveling with them can be daunting. The top amateur jersey holder, Katie Hall, bought a TT bike the weekend before she arrived but was happy to leave it at home. “I just purchased a time trial bike two days ago,” said Hall after her first NRC Crit. “[Not bringing it] made traveling a million times easier, and for that I’m pretty thankful.”

The winner of the St. Paul Downtown Criterium most aggressive rider jersey, Jared Barrilleaux (Cal Giant-Specialized), rode professionally for Jittery Joe’s and now fulfills a mentor role on California Giant. Barrilleaux also owns a TT bike, but was excited at the purity of a Merckx-style event.

“It was great to get out of the specific time trial position that a lot of people train in,” said Barrilleaux. “You can get into breakaway mode, get as aero as you can be on your road bike, and just go with little else to think about other than just pushing your limits.”

Even without aero equipment, results did not vary much from expected. National TT champions Carmen Small (Specialized-lululemon) and Zirbel still landed on the podium at Tuesday’s St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial without the aid of their aero setups.

Professional road champion Freddie Rodriguez (Jelly Belly-Kenda) speculated the Merckx-style time trial might be a true test of the best rider. “It evens everybody’s level out. It’s really about who has more power,” said Rodriguez. “It’s a perfect event to see who really is the strongest and not the most aero.”

Former teammates and adversaries Jonathan Vaughters and Lance Armstrong, pictured before the 1999 Tour de France, have rekindled their relationship over discussions of the doping culture in cycling. Photo: AFP

Stripped Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and Garmin-Sharp team manager Jonathan Vaughters, former teammates who have spent the past decade at odds over the issue of doping in pro cycling, have renewed their long-strained relationship.

After years of racing alongside each other, beginning as juniors, Armstrong and Vaughters rode as teammates at the U.S. Postal Service team in 1998 and 1999.

Since then, the two men have spent most of the past 14 years on different sides of the doping issue, with Armstrong, and his inner circle, perfecting the science of performance-enhancing drug use — and profiting the most from it — while Vaughters launched a development team, which morphed into the Garmin squad, centered around the ethos of clean sport.

Like Frankie Andreu before him, Vaughters came clean about his drug use at U.S. Postal Service prior to Armstrong’s televised confession to Oprah Winfrey in January. Andreu admitted to doping in a September 2006 New York Times article. Vaughters, who confessed anonymously in that 2006 Times story, finally acknowledged his own drug use in an editorial, which ran in the Times in August 2012.

Along with three active Garmin riders who told the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency they had doped while members of Armstrong’s teams, Vaughters provided sworn testimony to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that he had doped as a member of the Postal Service squad. That testimony, combined with others’, resulted in a lifetime ban for Armstrong, and ultimately to his televised confession.

So it came as a surprise to Twitter users to see the two using the social media platform to have a very friendly, and very public, conversation last weekend.

After Vaughters posted a joke about sneaking the sedative Rufinol into his own drink, Armstrong, who has 3 million Twitter followers, replied, “Let us know how that goes.”

When asked about Armstrong’s comment by another Twitter user, Vaughters replied, “Nothing to see here, just two fallen angels discussing what lies beneath,” quickly followed by, “Honestly, we probably get along better now than we have in 20 years. Weird, I know.”

Armstrong quickly replied, “Dude, shhh, don’t tell anybody that!” His reply was a very public acknowledgment that, after years of defiance, which included disparaging those who spoke out against doping in cycling (including Vaughters), the disgraced Tour champ is now openly engaging with those he formerly viewed as enemies.

Both men spoke with VeloNews about their improbable reunion of sorts.

The culture of doping as common ground

Armstrong said he had initially reached out to Vaughters after reading an opinion piece he had written, posted on Cyclingnews.com, which stated that it was wrong to blame Armstrong for the culture of doping in cycling. “The fact of the matter is that it is our entire fault. We, the people who make up the world of professional cycling, are to blame,” Vaughters wrote.

“I reached out to him and thanked him for his op-ed he wrote on Cyclingnews,” Armstrong said. “I felt it was a thorough, thoughtful, and accurate account of our generation.”

Over time, the two became conversational, with the focus centered around what contribution Armstrong might be able to offer in the push to salvage pro cycling, which has seemingly bottomed out in the wake of the USADA report on the sport’s biggest star and the doping practices that brought him seven straight Tour victories, from 1999 through 2005.

“We talk here and there,” Vaughters said. “At the end of the day, I think Lance has got a lot of things to say, which could clarify a whole lot. In terms of the full download on what went on in that era of cycling, he could be big part of the solution, if he chooses to be.

“We keep in contact, and I encourage that,” he added. “I don’t think he minds, partly because I don’t throw the blame on him. I’m a little bit older than a lot of the guys who were caught up in [doping], and I think Lance and I both realize — when he and I went to race in Europe in 1994, a few years earlier for Lance, the culture of doping was well in place. He probably needs a few people in his life that realize that he wasn’t the guy who started doping, he’s a guy who got caught up in it, in a big way, but the system was very much in place by the time he got there. He could now help change things.”

Armstrong, who in February turned down a USADA offer to reveal what he knew about doping in order to reduce his lifetime ban, said that it was time for the sport of cycling to confront the reality of its troubled past, head on.

“It’s maybe not accurate to say that me and JV are having a dialogue on how to clean up the sport, per se, as we agree that cycling today is cleaner than it has been in decades, but we are trying to have, for all of us, a rational and civilized conversation, to close the chapter and help the sport move forward” Armstrong said. “Right now, a lot of what is being written, and thrown around, is not rational. I think JV shares the idea of a truth and reconciliation, which is the only way forward — although, unfortunately, I don’t believe it is going to happen.”

Both Vaughters and Armstrong said they felt that those who were in positions of authority during Armstrong’s reign have tried to lay the blame for the sport’s ills during the Wild West doping heyday of the 1990s and 2000s on Armstrong’s shoulders.

“When you read [former Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc] making nasty statements against Lance, or Pat McQuaid saying Lance has no place in cycling … I was a witness in the USADA reasoned decision, but I didn’t say anything negative about Lance, specifically, I told them about my experiences during my career in pro cycling,” Vaughters said.

“I think it’s inappropriate for anyone who was involved to take swings at Lance. The information inside the sport was available and ready for anyone to listen to, so it’s a little bit ridiculous to shield yourself and your own image and lay it on Lance. The leadership of the sport needs to take responsibility and say, ‘Yes, behind closed doors, we knew what was up, and we failed to prevent it.’ There needs to be clear and drastic changes to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Instead you get rhetoric that just blames one person. It’s unfair, the perception that Lance is the one that started the [doping] arms race. He may have perfected it, and he went way too far in defending his position, and he hurt a lot of people in process, but the culture was in place before he ever raced in Europe.”

Armstrong echoed Vaughters sentiments, saying that the nonstop barrage of partial confessionals, such as this week’s opaque admission from Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, combined with the inconsistent zero-tolerance policies in place at teams like Sky and Orica-GreenEdge, are only damaging the sport by fostering omertà and creating an untenable environment.

“I think me and JV both share a desire to make a truth and reconciliation commission a reality, though it’s something that many do not want to happen,” Armstrong said. “My contribution, as is his I think, is total transparency and honesty. Let’s learn from our mistakes and help the sport move forward. As it stands today, one man has been lynched, a dozen others, like Vaughters, have been seriously vilified, and hundred, maybe thousands, have been let off scot-free. Despite some, who might be reveling in this, it will not help our sport move forward.”

Forgiving an adversary

At the peak of Armstrong’s power, Vaughters said he had to be careful when it came to the Texan, as Armstrong had the unique authority to influence those who might be inclined to back the team. At one point, Vaughters said Armstrong sent e-mails to Slipstream Sports financial backer Doug Ellis, recommending that Ellis change the management of the team — namely, Vaughters.

Yet Vaughters said that he was able to forgive his former adversary in the name of finding common ground for creating solutions for the sport.

“The future of the sport for me is far more important than any pride issue I have over any scrap I got into with Lance five years ago,” Vaughters said. “That overshadows it by 1000 percent. To me, it’s never as black and white as a person is all good, or all bad. Anyone is forgivable. Lance did some nasty things to me over the years, without a doubt, but if he wants to talk about how to create solutions in cycling, I’m not going to turn that away.

“There aren’t many people that have all the information of what went down, of how it went down, and in order for those things to be corrected … if [Armstrong] is ostracized, there is no incentive, or reason, for him to provide information on how to fix the things he took advantage of,” Vaughters added. “If he’s pushed to the outside, he’s never going to do that. If I can help facilitate him clarifying all of this stuff, stuff that’s just dangling out there, on what really did go on with … a whole host of things, really … I’m going to try to do that.

“If Lance chooses to, he can have a very positive contribution,” Vaughters said. “He can be part of the solution, but people need to start understanding this needs to be tackled from a cultural level, not the finger-pointing level. He’s sort of struggling with that choice. I’m trying to be objective, and encouraging.”

Ryder Hesjedal lost time in the finale of Sunday's stage. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

FIRENZE, Italy (VN) — For the second consecutive stage, defending champion Ryder Hesjedal lost time to the Giro d’Italia’s main GC contenders, this time on the race’s first real day of climbing, ending in the historic city of Firenze (Florence).

On a 170km route that delivered four categorized climbs through the Appennine Mountains and saw the peloton soaked by a major rainstorm, the Garmin-Sharp team leader fell into difficulty late in the race, ultimately losing more than a minute to his rivals and dropping from sixth overall to 11th, 3:11 behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali of Astana.

Much of Sunday’s hilly course followed roads that will be used for the world road race championships in Tuscany later this year. After dropping off the back and regaining contact on the day’s penultimate climb, the Cat. 3 Vetta le Croci, it was on the day’s final climb — the Fiesole climb that will be ridden 10 times on a 16.6km circuit at road worlds — that Hesjedal lost contact with the leaders.

With teammate Tom Danielson shepherding him up and over the Fiesole, Hesjedal crossed the finish line 1:06 behind a group containing Nibali, Cadel Evans (BMC), Robert Gesink (Blanco), Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida).

That Hesjedal would lose contact with the race leaders came as a shock; an hour earlier he’d asked teammate David Millar to go to the front to help Astana drive the pace after Wiggins had lost contact on the wet descent of the Vetta le Croci. And earlier in this Giro, Hesjedal was on the attack; on the Sella di Catona on stage 3, he twice broke off the front, creating a split in an already diminished front group and causing panic among team leaders and domestiques alike.

On Sunday Hesjedal crossed the finish line pale and gaunt, turning away requests from Italian TV for post-stage interviews. Hours later, following a shower and meal, he spoke with VeloNews by phone from the Garmin team bus.

“It was a tough day, again, one day after a tough time trial,” Hesjedal said. “We’ve been getting hit with these bad conditions, and I just had a few bad moments on those last two short climbs.

“I felt fine on the longer climbs. One the last long climb (the Cat. 1 Vallombrosa) Astana was riding a hard tempo, and you could see the havoc on the descent. Then it came down to a small group, and there was interest there for people to ride, but I couldn’t get any power out of my legs on the short climbs.”

Hesjedal attributed his difficulty to a combination of factors, including the cold, and what he referred to as “TT butt.”

“The day after a time trial, your glutes and piriformis are just destroyed,” he said. “It just kind of shuts down the lower part of your body.

“When the race is on like that, on those short climbs, with the last climb being downhill to finish, it’s not ideal to have a bad patch, and I just couldn’t get that raw power into my legs. I had to do my own tempo.

“It was nice to have Tom (Danielson) there, he did a good job of helping me limit the damage, but it’s tough when you have 40 guys riding to the final, and you’re chasing for seven or eight kilometers. It’s not the end of the world, I just had a bad moment. If it had happened on a 10km climb to the finish, my Giro would be over.”

After Hesjedal lost contact and slipped further down the GC rankings, Garmin team manager Jonathan Vaughters took to Twitter, writing, “Well, on to plan B in the Giro. Rest on the rest day, then figure out how to liven up the race for the second half.”

Asked what “Plan B” might entail, Hesjedal said he wasn’t aware of a back-up plan for the team.

“You’ll have to ask [Vaughters],” he said. “I’m still less than two minutes off the podium. This is the Giro. It’s been nine brutal days. I’m here to race and give it my best. I hope we’re not forgetting who won the race last year. By no means is it an easy feat to pull that off again, but I’m here. I’m trying.

“I will try to rebound from today, and rely on the fact that I know I have my best performances in the latter part of a three-week race. There are still two weeks to race. There is plenty of opportunity to climb back.

“Certainly Nibali is showing that he has no weakness, he is in the driver’s seat, but that position also comes with responsibility, and work. The podium is not that far off. There is still a lot of racing to be done, and still opportunities for other guys to have bad days. By no means is the race over.”

Robert Gesink following his victory at the 2012 Amgen tour. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com

FIRENZE, Italy (VN) — One year ago, Robert Gesink quietly arrived to the start of the Amgen Tour of California unheralded as a pre-race favorite. He kept tabs with the top GC contenders, rode a strong time trial, and then won the race in the mountains, taking the biggest win of his pro career.

A year later, the Dutch rider may be following the same script at the Giro d’Italia.

While Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) were hailed as the riders to watch for this Giro’s overall win, Gesink (Blanco) has again quietly kept up with the leaders, and again delivered a strong TT performance; next up, the mountains.

After eight stages of racing, Gesink sits third overall, 1:15 behind Nibali and 36 seconds behind Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), but ahead of Wiggins and Hesjedal.

For a rider who has yet to reach the podium at a grand tour — he finished fifth at the 2010 Tour de France, and has been in the top 10 at the Vuelta three times — Gesink now sits in the best position of his career following a strong stage-8 time trial performance over a hilly, technical course.

He finished 11th on the stage, yielding 1:12 to the best-placed GC rider on the day, Wiggins. He finished behind Wiggins, Nibali, Evans and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida), and ahead of Hesjedal.

“For me it was just a really good first week. Everything went according to plan,” Gesink said. “It was a difficult time trial. I had a good ride and gained some time on some, lost some time on some others, but at the end, I’m really satisfied with as far as we’ve come. But still, you look in the race book, and you see so many hard stages in a row. We haven’t done any real mountains yet. So far, so good.”

And with the Italy’s high mountains ahead, the 6-foot-2, 155-pound Dutch climber finds the Giro delving deeper into his preferred terrain.

Asked if he believes the upcoming climbing stages will work to his advantage, Gesink answered: “Normally, yes. And I did a good time trial, so the shape must be good. First though, I’m looking forward to the rest day, because it’s been a very tough Giro.

“If you look at a map of Italy, we’ve done almost all of Italy in a little more than a week. A lot of transfers, some days we were doing 150km in the car after the race still. It makes the Giro really tough, but it’s the same for the whole peloton.”

Though he didn’t come to the Giro with the clearly stated objective of winning the race, Gesink is now in position to fight for a podium finish, and maybe more. However, he said his approach would be to simply assess each stage as it comes.

“If it’s possible in the end, then, of course, winning is the objective, but I can’t look that far ahead yet,” Gesink said. “First, like always, I look at a grand tour stage by stage. You never know what can happen.

“Look at the day in the rain [stage 7], where Wiggins lost time. No one expected it to be that hard. I expected a tough day, but not that. If you start skipping ahead, mentally, for me personally, it doesn’t work like that. I just look at it day by day, and if I get better in the mountains, then I think there is a lot that is possible, but for now I think I can be really satisfied with the place I’m at.”

Asked to assess the race’s GC favorites after eight stages, Gesink acknowledged that race leader Nibali is in the driver’s seat.

“Nibali for sure, he’s looking really good,” Gesink said. “Evans is also looking better than I expected, and Wiggins showed himself in the time trial, again, to be really strong.

“It will be a nice fight, I think. Hesjedal is really racing. He’s trying to score bonus time wherever he can, he’s riding really aggressively.”

And though time trials haven’t historically been Gesink’s strength, the one remaining TT at the Giro is an all-uphill affair — 20.6km, with a 6 percent average gradient.

“It’s really, really difficult,” Gesink said. “First I have to see how it really goes in the mountains, compared to the other guys, but I can be confident if I look at how I was riding the last few days.”

If Gesink were to step off the final podium in Breschia wearing the maglia rosa, it would clearly be the biggest win of his career. At the moment, that doesn’t change the fact that, as the Amgen Tour of California kicks off on Sunday, he’s not there to defend his title.

“It’s strange, because I’d love to be there. It was one of the best races I’ve done in my career, and one of the best experiences, as a person and as a rider,” he said. “But that’s cycling. There are more goals in the season, for the team. We’re looking for a sponsor, and we want to show ourselves.

“We came here with a team, with a plan, an idea, and it happens the Tour of California is at the same time.”

Alex Dowsett, draped in the Union Jack, celebrates his victory in the Giro's stage-8 time trial. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

SALTARA, Italy (VN) — When Movistar rider Alex Dowsett was diagnosed with hemophilia at 18 months, doctors from Great Britain’s National Health Service told his parents that swimming would be the best way for their son to keep the condition at bay and stay healthy.

Twenty-three years later, Dowsett won his first grand-tour stage, a 54.8km time trial at the Giro d’Italia, the biggest victory of his career. At the winner’s press conference, he credited his rare bleeding disorder for his success.

“In a roundabout way, if not for my hemophilia, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Dowsett said. “I was like a fish, swimming five or times a week, and I think because of the fitness I built up, it made me fast on the bike.”

On Saturday in Saltara, Dowsett pulled off the unthinkable, beating compatriot — and former Team Sky teammate — Bradley Wiggins in a grand-tour time trial.

Dowsett’s winning margin was just 10 seconds, a difference Wiggins would have likely overcome if not for a puncture and bike change during the first half of the race. That was beside the point for Dowsett, whose victory helped ease the sting of teammate Beñat Intxausti’s losing the maglia rosa to Italian Vincenzo Nibali.

The stage win came as vindication for Dowsett, a young British rider who, cast aside at Britain’s top pro team, made the unlikely move to the Spanish Movistar squad over the off-season — in part to have an opportunity at the sport’s biggest events.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Sky, I learned a heck of a lot,” Dowsett said. “I’ve often said that for my first two years, as a neo-pro, Sky was the best place for me.

“But I wasn’t getting the rides at big races, and I saw where Sky’s ambitions were going. I didn’t see opportunities, and a key thing I was told was that it was due to my lack of experience.

“Movistar was keen to have me on board, but the real factor was they wanted to put me into big races. They showed faith in me, and I’m massively grateful. This week they rested me as much as they could, coming into the time trial. They had faith in me, so I am glad to be able to repay them with this stage win.”

Dowsett came into cycling through Britain’s singular national obsession with time trials. As a junior he was invited into British Cycling’s Olympic Development Program, and then its prestigious U23 Academy. His skills against the clock didn’t translate into the team pursuit, so he stuck with road time trials. After spending 2010 with Trek-Livestrong, he made the jump to Sky in 2011.

“I think I’m fundamentally a TT specialist,” Dowsett said. “Time trials are a side of the sport I have always loved, both the purity of it, and the technology.”

During his pro career, Dowsett has had promising results, such as the British national TT championship, in 2011 and 2012, and eighth at the 2012 world time trial championship. However, his Giro stage win eclipses everything, and he now ranks among the sport’s best.

“I work hard at it, day in and day out, but I wasn’t expecting to win today, given how much climbing there was, and also how technical it was,” Dowsett said. “I was in two minds. I thought it was not dissimilar to [TT] worlds last year, where I did a fairly good ride. I also knew there are a lot of climbers here who can also time trial, so I wasn’t sure how it would play out. I would have been content with a top-10 finish.”

Dowsett rolled out early, three hours before the main GC contenders. After posting the fastest time of the day, he sat in the hot seat at the finish line and waited. And waited.

“The wait was horrible,” Dowsett said. “There were three standout moments. One, when [Astana’s Tanel] Kangert came in very close to my time [third on the stage, at 0:14]. Two, when I was up on Wiggins at the split, although I knew he’d finish strongly. And three, with Nibali, when I knew the reverse would happen; I knew he’d be good in the first section, but hopefully I would have the edge on him on the flat power sections; luckily for me, that was the case.”

After the race Wiggins was quick to congratulate Dowsett on his win, as were other high-profile names from the peloton, such as Taylor Phinney, a former teammate at Trek-Livestrong, and Mark Cavendish, with whom Dowsett trains in Great Britain.

Best of all, though Dowsett had his mother, father and sister at the finish line to celebrate his big moment. And in his own way, winning was his thanks to his family for encouraging him to stay active in the face of his potentially dangerous blood condition.

“If my parents hadn’t looked after me, I don’t think I’d be here [at the stage winner’s press conference] right now,” Dowsett said. “I want to send a message out to young hemophiliacs, because it’s a common misconception that if your kids are hemophiliacs, you should wrap them in cotton wool. It’s not the case.”

Instead, on Saturday in Saltara, Dowsett was wrapped in a Union Jack, atop the winner’s podium, celebrating the biggest win of his young career.

Bradley Wiggins managed second on Saturday despite a puncture, but the stage-18 climbing contest could be close between him and new race leader Vincenzo Nibali. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

SALTARA, Italy (VN) — After a hilly and technical stage-8 time trial, the general classification of the Giro d’Italia began to take shape Saturday, with a few major surprises among the overall contenders.

Bradley Wiggins had hoped to both win the stage and take the race lead, but the Sky captain was unable to do either.

A puncture and bike change, just 17 minutes into his 76-minute effort, proved to be the critical difference between Wiggins and stage winner Alex Dowsett (Movistar), who finished just 10 seconds ahead of Wiggins.

More importantly, Wiggins was unable to distance himself as he’d hoped from his major GC rivals, taking back only 11 seconds on Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali, who emerged as the day’s biggest winner, and the new race leader.

Instead of winning, or taking pink, Wiggins now faces an uphill battle, figuratively and literally, as the race heads towards the mountains and one final test against the clock, an uphill time trial on stage 18.

Nibali, however, is in the maglia rosa — and in control. The Sicilian, who crashed out of the lead in 2010 and finished third, looked sharp on Saturday and has shown that he’s come to this Giro to win.

“I prepared all winter for this time trial,” Nibali said, adding that his team would fight to defend his maglia rosa all the way to Breschia on May 26. “I have the maglia rosa sooner than I had expected. But I never take anything for granted. I know all the GC riders will fight until the end.”

Though Wiggins is the best in the sport against the clock, given Nibali’s improved time trialing and his unquestionable climbing ability, the 20.6km climb on stage 18 could be too close to call between the two; to win the Giro, Wiggins must attack in the mountains to take time out of Nibali.

The GC looks to now be a battle among six team leaders. Of those riders, defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) was perhaps the day’s biggest loser, finishing 2:13 behind Wiggins, 2:02 behind Nibali, and 1:44 behind Cadel Evans.

In addition to Wiggins and Evans, also leapfrogging Hesjedal on GC was Italian Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) and Dutch rider Robert Gesink (Blanco); the defending champion, who finished 18th on the stage, now sits sixth overall, 2:05 behind Nibali.

Yet Hesjedal said he was satisfied with his ride, and not overly concerned about dropping to sixth among the race’s key GC favorites.

“It was a tough day, but if you look at the guys in front of me, everyone is world class,” Hesjedal said. “It’s still early in the race. I’m happy with where I am. I respect everyone in front of me. I think the rides of the day belonged to Nibali and Scarponi, and being Italian, it’s good for them, it’s their home tour. It’s going to be a tough battle.”

Gesink, who has largely sat under the radar in this race, moved into third overall, 1:15 behind Nibali. He posted on Twitter that he was pleased with his ride: “A good day in today’s Giro time trial, finishing 11th, moving up to third in the classification. So far we’re going perfect!”

Evans now sits second overall, 29 seconds behind Nibali and 46 ahead of Gesink. The BMC rider announced he would race the Giro only a month ago, but over the past eight stages, the 2011 Tour champion has shown that he came to Italy to fight for the podium.

“Overall, it’s shaping up pretty well,” Evans said. “Things are finally starting to come together now. On the classification, I think I am looking fairly well. I think it’s a good position to be in at this point. I think the Giro changes a bit from here on in.”

With Nibali looking strong, and Evans the only rider within one minute on the classification, the rest of the top-six race favorites must now attack when the race hits the mountains on Tuesday.

“I think I’ve shown that I’m not afraid to attack and push the race, but you don’t have to attack to beat someone — people can have a bad day,” Hesjedal said. “There’s a lot of racing to go.

“Nibali put himself in a strong position, he showed that today, but to be a minute and half off the podium, I’m happy with that. I know I get better as these long races go on, so I’m looking forward to the last half of the race.”

Perhaps Wiggins put it best when he said, succinctly, “It’s going to be a hell of a race for the next two weeks.”

Bradley Wiggins saw his time trial and GC hopes slide out on the descent from San Silvestro on Friday. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

PESCARA, Italy (VN) — The general classification of the Giro d’Italia slid out of control Friday in Pescara after Sky’s Bradley Wiggins crossed the finish line almost 90 seconds behind his main rivals following a dangerous, crash-marred descent from San Silvestro in the rain.

Wiggins was already in difficulty over the top of the climb, and after his crash, on a wet right-hand turn inside seven kilometers from the finish, he visibly lost his confidence, navigating turns with the uneasy caution of a shaken rider who has lost faith in the road surface.

The Tour de France champion was far from the only rider to crash in the finale on a series of slick, wet descents; Astana’s GC leader Vincenzo Nibali also slid out at high speed inside the final 10km. However, while Nibali quickly remounted and jumped into chase group, Wiggins never truly switched back into race mode. He was seen after the finish icing his right knee.

The impact of Wiggins’ crash was felt instantly, on the classification, and will be understood further after Saturday’s critical 54.8km time trial. He slipped from sixth overall, tied on time with defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) and three seconds behind Nibali, to 23rd, 1:27 behind Nibali and 1:24 behind Hesjedal.

On Friday morning, Wiggins was widely viewed as a favorite to win Saturday’s TT stage, and to take the maglia rosa. After his crash and time loss, both goals have been compromised. The Sky captain will no doubt feel the effects of the fall during his race against the clock; a stage win is far from guaranteed for the Olympic time trial champion, and assuming the race lead seems even less probable.

Given that Hesjedal won last year’s Giro by 15 seconds, Wiggins’ time loss can only be seen as a major blow in his bid to become a Tour and Giro champion.

Sky boss Dave Brailsford called Friday’s stage a setback, but said that Wiggins was not injured: “Ultimately, when you have difficult conditions like these and hard racing, this type of thing can happen. It’s a setback, but Brad’s still very much in the hunt. We’ve now got to take each day as it comes, focus on fully recovering tonight and hitting the time trial hard tomorrow. We’ll see where we are tomorrow night and take stock of the situation then.”

Other than Wiggins, all of the major GC contenders — Nibali, Hesjedal, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), Robert Gesink (Blanco), Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) — finished on the same time.

“Today was a very important finish, but there are still two weeks of racing left to this Giro, and a lot can happen,” Nibali said.

And while that’s true, a lot has already happened, particularly on Friday to the Tour de France champion.

Light rain fell outside the Team Sky bus Friday night in the coastal resort town of Gabbice Mare, where the stage 8 time trial begins. The weather forecast calls for a 60-percent chance of rain, turning to thunderstorms in the afternoon, meaning plenty more can, and will, happen on Saturday.

Adam Hansen came up a big-time winner in the breakaway lottery at the Giro d'italia on Friday. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

PESCARA, Italy (VN) — When he crossed the finish line alone and in the rain at the Giro d’Italia on Friday, Adam Hansen had done more than win the stage — he’d carved out a little slice of cycling history.

Riding for the Belgian squad Lotto-Belisol, the brawny 31-year-old Australian — he turns 32 on Saturday — rode with panache, driving a six-man breakaway over a hilly course profile, going clear with 20 kilometers remaining, and holding off a chasing group of overall favorites to take a dramatic solo victory.

The win came as just dessert for the muscle-bound rider who has spent his career humbly churning over his pedals in the shadows as a domestique.

“This is the biggest win of my life,” Hansen said at the finish. “It’s a very special day. Tomorrow is my birthday, and this is a good present for myself. This means a lot to me; I was very emotional when I crossed the line. I never thought this would ever happen.”

A former computer programmer — he even gave advanced database lectures at his university — Hansen came into pro cycling through triathlon.

“I started as a runner, and then got into triathlon,” Hansen said. “The swim and run were my best disciplines, so I focused more on my cycling. I came to Austria to ride for an amateur team. My year in Austria was enjoyable, I found I really loved cycling, and I never turned back.”

After four seasons with amateur Austrian teams, Hansen joined T-Mobile in 2007, riding under manager Bob Stapleton and sport directors Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm. In all, he spent four years with the team, riding in support of team leaders such as Mark Cavendish and Michael Rogers. He left the team for the Lotto squad in 2011.

Though he’s not historically been a winner, during his career Hansen has become a bit of a sentimental fan favorite, both for his humble, low-key personality and his hardman accomplishments, such as finishing all three grand tours in 2012.

He’s also known for having a laugh on social media — like when he posted photos of a skeleton in a Lotto-Belisol team kit on Twitter during a December team camp — and for his custom carbon race shoes, which he molded and designed himself.

Lotto-Belisol came to the Giro without a specified GC rider or sprinter, opening the door to opportunists. On a difficult stage with four categorized climbs, 8,500 feet of elevation gain in the final 50km, and countless uncategorized climbs before that, Hansen made it into the day’s breakaway alongside five other riders. That, he said, was the hardest part of his day.

“Today, on profile, looked like breakaway stage,” Hansen said. “The stages before, we were not really jumping to get into a break and I was hoping it was going to be today. I was very motivated this morning; I even shaved my head to be ready for it. It was always the idea today to be in the break, but it’s very difficult, with a lot of fighting at the start. People don’t realize that the hardest part of the race is to get into the break. Once it’s sorted, it’s almost like a lottery, if it stays, or comes back.”

As the stage progressed and the group’s lead over the peloton stretched out to seven minutes, Hansen said he began to believe they might have a chance to stay clear and fight it out for the stage win. However, as the time gap began to fall back down, particularly when Vini Fantini-Selle Italia began to up the tempo in hopes of setting up local favorite Danilo Di Luca, Hansen said he feared his time off the front of the race was short.

Believing that Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) appeared to be the strongest of his breakaway companions, Hansen said he began formalizing a plan to get to the finish line alone. The 6-foot, 170-pound strongman had his work cut out for him, first against the 5-foot-4, 110-pound Italian climber, and later, navigating the wet, treacherous descent that took down several GC favorites.

“I knew Sella was strongest, and I don’t think he would have expected me to challenge him on the climbs, so I started trying to crack him mentally,” Hansen said. “I think it was more of a shock for him, and I was surprised that he suffered on a few of the climbs. Even in the last 10km, with the time gaps I had been given, I was never so sure, I never believed, I always thought it would come back. Then, when I heard it was 2:30 with 6km to go, I thought, ‘It’s really happening. This time I’m bringing it home.’ It really is a lottery.”

On Friday, riding with panache on a team sponsored by the Belgian national lottery, Hansen, the eternal underdog, came up a winner.

“It’s very nice,” he said. “You work, and work, and work, and then you finally get one back. I appreciate it very much, this win.”

Saturday's stage 8 is hardly a typical time trial, with plenty of undulation and a steep finishing ramp that will test everyone in the field. Photo: VeloNews.com

Margherita di Savoia, Italy (VN) — The top GC contenders of the Giro d’Italia are anticipating a difficult and decisive day in the saddle on Saturday, the race’s first individual time trial, a hilly 54.8km trek from Gabice Mara to Saltara.

It’s a stage bound to create time gaps in the general classification and produce a new race leader.

The Giro’s official race book — affectionately know as the “Garibaldi,” in homage to the Italian national hero — outlines the first 24km of the TT course as “climb, false flat and descent, continuous left and right bends with no straight sections worthy of note.”

“After about 12 straight and mostly flat kilometers the final climb begins. The final 3km after Calcinelli (time check) are very slightly uphill. The final 400m are steep (gradients of around 13% for the final tens of meters). The finish line is on a 200m straight.”

All eyes will look toward Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins, the Olympic TT champion and winner of both of the Tour’s time trials last July. Wiggins led Sky to a team time trial victory last weekend on the island of Ischia, and is heavily favored for the stage win.

Heading into Friday’s stage 7, Wiggins sat sixth overall, 34 seconds down on race leader Luca Paolini of Katusha. In the virtual GC of pre-race favorites, Wiggins sits three seconds behind Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), is tied with defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), and is eight seconds ahead of Cadel Evans (BMC Racing).

Given the compact nature of the GC, assuming there are not major GC changes on Friday’s hilly stage 7, it’s likely the winner of the TT will also take over the maglia rosa. Many are imagining that will be Wiggins, which would present a similar scenario to last year’s Tour, when Wiggins took the yellow jersey on stage 7, cemented his lead in the stage 9 time trial, and held it for two weeks, all the way to Paris. It must be said, however, that Wiggins’ form against the clock is a bit of an unknown; he hasn’t raced a proper TT since last summer’s London Olympics.

“Wiggins is the favorite for the time trial, for sure, he’s the best time trial rider here at the Giro,” Nibali said. “The idea is to lose as little as possible Saturday because we have to keep in contact for the mountains. The Giro is long, he can have his great days, but there may be days where he’s not so hot, and that’s where I’ll take advantage of him.”

Nibali continued: “I’m more of a climber than a time trial rider. I’m always trying to get better and better in the mountains, because with my weight, I have a chance there. I’m able to defend myself well. I’ve had good rides. I’m even able to win in one-day tests. I’ve trained for those mountains, but also for the time trials, trying not to miss out on any critical point. It’s normal, though, when you’re lightweight that it’s hard to go strong in the time trials. On the flats, Wiggins is heavier and he’s able to push bigger gears.”

The Sky leader told VeloNews that he previewed the time trial course a few weeks before the start of the Giro, and described it as “seriously tough.”

“I’ve ridden it once, a few weeks ago, and we drove over it on Saturday as well, of course,” Wiggins said. “It’s tough — seriously tough. I rode it on a time trial bike and it took me an hour and 50 minutes. It’s up and down, and long. I’d guess times like 1:15 or 1:20 for the winner. It’s a real solid course.”

Asked if there could be major time differences between the top riders, Wiggins said it was likely. “It’s one of those courses where you have to be good from the start to the finish. The last kilometer finishes at 16 percent.”

Like Wiggins, Hesjedal has made a trip to Gabice Mara, specifically to recon the TT route.

“It will be a tough test. It’s a very demanding TT after a long first week,” Hesjedal said. “The GC will become more clear after. For me, I am focused on the best ride I can do and will asses after that. There is still a lot of racing in this Giro beyond that point. It took me 1:45 to pre-ride going pretty good. It’s going to hurt.”

Evans, on the other hand, has not previewed Saturday’s course.

“From what I understand, it is a really hard time trial” Evans said. “Not only is it long, but there is really not much flat involved. It’s going to be pretty tough. It’s going to be long, at 55km, but also long in time because it’s not on particularly fast roads, and with the gradient, it’s not going to be a real fast time trial. I had a bit of a look at the maps and so on. [It's] undulating and winding and then one or two quite steep climbs.”

Evans added that he didn’t necessarily view Wiggins as the favorite, due to the course’s profile.

“If you look at his time trials in the stage races he did last year, you would consider [Wiggins the favorite],” Evans said. “But it’s not a perfect time trial [route] for him. He is probably more suited to a flatter, faster time trial. But if he comes around with the form he had at Tour of Romandie last year, on a hilly time trial, of course he could make some big time gains. It’s a bit hard to judge.”

And even if Wiggins does take the race lead on Saturday, there’s no guarantee he will hold it for two weeks, all the way to Breschia, as he did at the Tour last year.

This Giro offers several significant climbs, including the 149km 15th stage from Cesana Torinese to Col du Galibier that has two monster ascents — Mont Cenis and the Télégraphe —packed into the stage before hitting the giant of the Alps at Galibier. The 203km 20th stage from Silandro to the Tre Cime in the Dolomites features five major climbs, with the Tre Cime summit hitting 12 percent over the final three kilometers. This stage is so hard and so demanding that nothing will be secured until the pink jersey is across the line.

How much Saturday’s TT plays into the GC standings at that point won’t be known for another two weeks. But right now, it will factor in as the most important stage of the first week.

Mark Cavendish praised his Omega Pharma team after his second stage win in six days at the Giro d'Italia. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

MARGHERITA DI SAVOIA, Italy (VN) — After months of speculation and scrutiny over the cohesion of his leadout train, sprint ace Mark Cavendish praised the efforts of his Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates following his stage 6 win at the Giro d’Italia on Thursday, calling the team’s efforts “100-percent brilliant.”

Omega Pharma’s flawless leadout execution was a sign that Cavendish and his new Belgian teammates are finally finding their collective groove.

The outspoken Manxman, who joined the Belgian squad after spending 2012 sharing team resources with GC star Bradley Wiggins at Sky, has run hot and cold over his team’s support in the sprints this year.

Though Thursday’s stage win was his ninth victory of the season, he’s also complained publicly about his leadout train — at Tirreno-Adricatico in March, and again after failing to win Scheldeprijs in early April.

With classics star Tom Boonen injured and uncertain to ride the Tour de France, there was recent speculation that Omega Pharma would attempt to sign recently retired Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi to provide a reliable leadout for Cavendish — a complicated issue Cavendish brushed off at a pre-Giro press conference.

After Thursday’s stage 6 win, his second of this Giro, perhaps Cavendish can put that idea behind him.

On a short, flat stage that was destined for a field sprint, two Australians, Jack Bobridge (Blanco) and Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) broke free of the peloton after 15 kilometers and opened up a maximum advantage of 6:25. Behind, the sprint squads of Cavendish, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ), and race leader Luca Paolini (Katusha) kept the leaders within reach. Omega Pharma’s Serge Pauwels and Gianluca Brambilla rode at the front on a day marked by coastal crosswinds.

“It was 100-percent beautiful today, and not just the leadout — from the beginning,” said Cavendish. “Bobridge and Wurf were two strong guys to have in the breakaway today. We had Serge Pauwels and Gianluca Brambilla pulling from the beginning and we were going strong — really, really well — and they kept going until the last kilometers.

“Then Jérôme Pineau, Michal Golas, Iljo Keisse, and Matteo Trentin took over, and even Julien Vermote came up after getting dropped. He’s a young guy and he really rode today. These guys rode until their legs couldn’t go anymore.”

A massive crash occurred with 32km remaining, holding up nearly half the peloton, including Sky’s GC favorite Bradley Wiggins.

Chaos reigned as riders untangled their bikes and assessed their wounds — among those hurt were mountains classification leader Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge) — while up ahead, the majority of the peloton’s top sprinters had emerged unscathed.

The gap between the two groups opened up to nearly one minute before there was a group decision to ease off the pace, allowing the chase group back on. Led by his Sky teammates, Wiggins caught back on with 6km to go, and even took a massive pull, from 4km out, until safely within the critical 3km to go point, sure not to repeat the mistake from stage 4 that saw the Sky leader lose 17 seconds on the overall.

Sky manager Dave Brailsford had kind words for Cavendish after the stage, saying that the former world champion was not only the best sprinter in the sport, but that he had also displayed world-class sportsmanship by asking his team to slow down in the wake of the late-race crash that split the peloton.

“I think the story today is not just about Cavendish winning, but also about his sportsmanship,” Brailsford said. “You saw two sides of Cav today, and that’s what makes him a great champion. You saw the fact that he is the best sprinter in the world, beyond doubt, but also he is also one of the fairest guys in the peloton. And I think for him, the team, [manager] Brian Holm, they deserve a lot of credit today for recognizing a situation and demonstrating fair play. That’s what it’s all about.”

However, Cavendish said that Brailsford was, perhaps, giving him too much credit.

“Everyone slowed down,” Cavendish said. “We were up there. The other teams were riding, but they weren’t going full gas. I’ll stick up for every team out there, that they weren’t going full gas. There was talk about carrying on riding, but that was it. I don’t think anyone is waiting for me in that situation, I’ll tell you that. I lost the pink jersey in 2009 because of that. But no one was pulling. It didn’t speed up; it slowed down. If it had sped up for a sprint, there’s no way they would have gotten back on. I’ll stick my neck out for all the other teams: no one went full gas after the crash.”

In the final kilometer, Cavendish had Belgians Iljo Keisse and Gert Steegmans guiding him through the field-sprint chaos, and toward the finish line. When Cavendish came around Steegmans with 125 meters to go, it was abundantly clear that everyone else was racing for second place.

“With the crash it made everybody nervous,” said Cavendish. “All the GC teams were there with even less than 3km to go, like BMC Racing Team and Sky, as well as the sprint teams. It was real, real chaos. I just tried to follow Gert Steegmans. He found my territory and then they timed it perfectly. There was always going to be a team that went too early with a headwind finish. My guys waited, waited, they were patient and they hit it at exactly the right time. They just went fast, fast, fast and they launched me perfectly and I was able to go to the line. I was really happy with it. Gert Steegmans showed today that when he’s at his best, he’s nearly the best leadout man there’s ever been.”

John Degenkolb landed his sixth, and perhaps most difficult, grand tour stage win on Wednesday at the Giro d'Italia. Photo: Luk Benies | AFP

MATERA, Italy (VN) — In early August 2012, German John Degenkolb had never won a stage of a grand tour. Fast forward to early May 2013, and he’s won six.

After winning five stages at the Vuelta a España last summer, the 24-year-old Argos-Shimano strongman added to his grand tour tally Wednesday in Matera with a well-timed — and well-positioned — uphill sprint.

The 2012 UCI Europe Tour champion — who finished in the top 10 last year at Milano-Sanremo, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), E3 Harelebeke, and the road world championship — specifically targeted the Wednesday’s difficult finale, and avoided a late-race crash to add perhaps his biggest victory to his growing palmares.

“I was just behind the crash and it was pretty slippery, it was wet, and they just went too fast into the second-to-last corner,” Degenkolb said. “Luckily I had a small gap behind them and could still brake and come around that crash. I had to pull out of my pedals, and then just accelerated.

“I saw that one guy from Bardiani Valvole [Marco Canola] made it through the corner, so I sprinted up to him, and then I looked back and saw Elia Viviani (Cannondale) behind me, and I thought, ‘now it’s time to gamble,’ and I went all in. I had to give everything I had to make it. I did a sprint of almost one kilometer. It was really hard. I was really suffering. I think at the end I probably had a lactate of 35. It was really hard — really, really, hard.”

The stocky German is less of a traditional field sprinter, and more of a strongman capable of overpowering riders at the end of a difficult stage. Asked to put Wednesday’s victory in context, Degenkolb said his 2013 season had been a bit of a struggle after an amazing run last year and a breakout neo-pro season with HTC-Highroad in 2011.

“This is a pretty important victory for me,” Degenkolb said. “Last year, when I was winning stages at the Vuelta, we were in the flow. If it’s running, it’s running, you are winning and your self-confidence just grows. I won five stages, and sometimes I still can’t believe it.

“Then this year has not exactly gone how we planned. I was preparing pretty good for the classics, my shape was not bad, but the weather was special this year for the spring classics, it was so cold. I had to stop Tirreno-Adriatico due to muscle problems, and in the end, it turned out to be not a perfect spring classics season. I stopped after Roubaix, had a break, and started training again. It was really nice to train at home. I had three weeks at home, and that gave me some energy back after a hard and cold classics season. Now I am happy to be back in business.”

Degenkolb’s past is unusual for a professional cyclist. He took up cycling in 1997, the year German Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France. After graduating from high school he started a police education, which he undertook for six years. “I still have police status,” Degenkolb said. “Just the basic qualification, two blue stars.”

As soon as he finished his police service, Degenkolb turned pro with HTC-Highroad. In his rookie season, he won two stages at the Critérium du Dauphiné as well as stages at Volta ao Algarve and Three Days of West Flanders.

Along with teammate Marcel Kittel, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), and Wednesday’s third-place finisher Paul Martens (Blanco), Degenkolb is part of the new generation of German riders, pedaling out from under the shadow of scandal that saw German stars like Ullrich, Erik Zabel, and Stefan Schumacher all admit to doping during cycling’s darkest period.

In July, he hopes to start his first Tour, 16 years after Ullrich’s seminal moment for German cycling.

“I think it’s really important to German cycling that the new generation is having victories,” He said. “When you see Tony Martin and Marcel Kittel and the new generation, we’re all good friends and we have a big responsibility to make cycling clean and transparent again. For us, it’s really important to do a good job. We want to be idols for the generation beneath us, and to do a better job than the generation before us. I feel very responsible, and I hope this shows that we have now a new cycling generation. It’s not like 15 years ago. It’s changed.”

More than anything, Degenkolb said his stage win came as a relief, leading an entire team that has pinned its Giro d’Italia hopes upon his shoulders.

“For a sprinter or a classics rider, every month, every week, that you don’t win, it’s not a nice feeling,” he said. “You are always waiting and waiting. I’m really happy that I have proven that I am a captain again, and to give back to my teammates that what they give to me.”

Officials claim Bradley Wiggins was behind the front group when a crash delayed a portion of the peloton. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

COSENZA, Italy (VN) — Sky leader Bradley Wiggins was philosophical on Wednesday about the Giro d’Italia race jury’s decision on Tuesday to score his finishing time 17 seconds behind the front group during a wet and dangerous stage 4 finish in Serra San Bruno.

Ordinarily, a rider is given the same time as the group with which he was riding if a crash inside the final three kilometers impedes his ability to finish. UCI officials ruled that Wiggins had been gapped off the front group prior to the final 3km marker, and that he had not been impeded by a crash inside the final 3km.

Given that Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) won last year’s Giro by just 15 seconds, it’s a decision that could ultimately have major consequences on the general classification when the race finishes in Breschia on May 26.

Wiggins said he believed he was inside 3km to go when the gap formed, but that he accepted the race jury’s decision.

“We were inside 3km, there was a crash, and it just caused a bit of a gap,” Wiggins told VeloNews at the start of stage 5 in Cosenza. “That was it, really. We came out of a roundabout at 3km to go and there were already gaps forming. It was wet, and when you are sprinting out of a roundabout, and guys are still coming into it, there are going to be actual gaps.

“It’s just an interpretation of the rule. It is what it is, now. There’s no point in moaning about it. It’s partly my own fault. I guess I could have been further in front. We came over that climb, and I just kind of slipped back a bit, because of the spray, and it was quite a fast downhill. I’d rather lose 17 seconds through slipping back than a mass pileup in one of the corners on a run-in like that. Sometimes you gamble and it pays off if you’re in the front, but fortunately we’re all still compact and together, and it’s not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things in Breschia. I think it’s difficult for the judges, because they take it as they see it. That’s just the way it is.”

Wiggins took 25 seconds over Hesjedal in the stage 2 team time trial, but has since seen that advantage erased. Hesjedal took back eight seconds with a third-place time bonus at the stage 3 finish in Marina di Ascea, and the remaining 17 seconds at the finish line in Serra San Bruno, making it a GC reset between the two; Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali holds a three-second lead over Wiggins and Hesjedal, with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) another eight seconds down.

At the start line in Cosenza, Hesjedal said Wiggins’ time loss was part of racing.

“It was a tricky final, pretty sketchy at the end, and everyone decides their own risks,” Hesjedal said. “Maybe we can look back at it at the end of the race and have a more definitive opinion. Every stage is tricky. You could see it was pretty strung out. That’s what happens.”

Wiggins said he wasn’t surprised by Hesjedal’s aggressive riding in stage 3, which saw the Canadian attack twice on the Cat. 3 Sella di Catona. The two were teammates at Garmin in 2009, and know each other well.

“It was no surprise, really,” Wiggins said. “Ryder is here to win the race. That’s his style, he rides aggressively, and I think he showed everyone straight away that he’s in great shape.”

In general terms, Wiggins said he was feeling good after four days of racing — “really good.”

“It was a good couple of first days,” Wiggins said. “It was a relief we got that stage with the big downhill [stage 3] out of the way. I managed to stay in the front group without crashing. Physically, on the climbs, I’ve felt great. We’ve got a few days until that first time trial, which should produce the first real gaps on the GC, so I’m just really looking forward to Saturday.”

When the peloton passed Danilo Di Luca and Enrico Battaglin took a win in Serra San Bruno, the Giro d'Italia collectively sighed in relief. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

SERRA SAN BRUNO, Italy (VN) — The Giro d’Italia was spared a potential awkward moment on Tuesday when 23-year-old Enrico Battaglin, of the UCI Pro Continental team Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox, won stage 4 into Serra San Bruno, finishing ahead of Fabio Felline (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) and Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) for an all-Italian sweep of the day’s top spots.

Just moments earlier, it appeared as though Italian Danilo Di Luca, of Vini Fantini-Selle Italia, might take the stage win. The rider known as “The Killer” launched an audacious attack on the second and final rated climb and drove to the finish line with young rider Robinson Chalapud (Colombia). The pair pushed over the summit with nearly 20 seconds on the main group, but they were caught with 600 meters to go.

In the chaos that followed, across wet and slippery stone slabs, Battaglin timed his sprint to perfection to upset the sport’s biggest names, including race leader Luca Paolini (Katusha).

An underdog had won, and perhaps equally important, Di Luca had not.

Had Di Luca won, it would have forced the Giro, and the sport of pro cycling, to take yet another long look in the mirror, and open another examination of the ghosts of its past, and those still haunting the present.

Di Luca, 37, won the Giro in 2007, and finished second overall in 2009. He also served suspensions during both of those seasons — in 2007, for prior involvement with Italian doping doctor Carlo Santuccione, and in 2009, when he tested positive for using the blood-booster CERA during that year’s Giro.

Di Luca also delivered a urine sample during his 2007 Giro victory that reportedly recorded the hormone levels of a small child, dubbed “pipi degli angeli” (angel’s pee), a sign of the use of masking agents. However he ultimately was cleared for that offense, with Italian Olympic Committee anti-doping officials admitting there was “not a sufficient degree of probability” for a doping conviction. He was able to keep his 2007 Giro title, though he was stripped of his 2009 second-place finish.

“He punched the Giro d’Italia in the stomach in 2007 and almost did it again in 2009,” former Giro d’Italia race director Angelo Zomegnan famously said on Italian television.

After serving a suspension, Di Luca returned in 2011 with Katusha, riding for no salary. He rode last year with Acqua & Sapone, and only opened his 2013 campaign after signing with Vini Fantini in late April.

By comparison, Battaglin is an unheralded young rider, a distant nephew of Giovanni Battaglin, the 1981 Giro and Vuelta champion. He won the prestigious Coppa Sabatini in 2011, as a stagiaire, beating another disgraced doper, Davide Rebellin, who was returning after being stripped of his 2008 Olympic silver medal for using CERA.

Last year, in his first full season as a professional, Battaglin completed his first Giro d’Italia. On Tuesday he became a Giro stage winner with his second pro win. His joy at the finish line was palpable.

“In 2011, after I had won everything as an amateur, I started my pro career winning,” Battaglin said Tuesday. “Perhaps I thought it was easier than it really is. I may have paid for that last year. This year, I was determined to show that I’m a good rider. I worked hard in the winter and I’m starting to reap the rewards.”

Di Luca is far from the only rider at the Giro with a doping scandal on his record. Race leader Paolini is no stranger to controversy; he was implicated in a long-running drug trafficking case, Operation Athena, that also involved Ivan Basso’s sister, Elisa. However, Paolini has never served a suspension.

Team leaders Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) and Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocatolli-Venezuela) have both served doping suspensions. Ivan Basso (Cannondale), who pulled out of the race two days before it started, has won the Giro twice, once before a doping suspension, and once after.

And the Garmin-Sharp team of defending champion Ryder Hesjedal has four riders in the race who have served suspensions.

The critical difference, however, is that Garmin’s riders have acknowledged, and apologized for, their transgressions; Basso has as well, to a degree. Scarponi, Pellizotti, Paolini, and Di Luca have not.

More importantly, though, it’s important for the sport that new names, those without checkered pasts, come to the fore and shift the focus away from their embattled predecessors — riders such as Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing), Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge), Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale), Fabio Aru (Astana), and John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano).

Just as it’s naïve to think that doping in cycling is a thing of the past, it’s also unrealistic to wish that the riders who contributed to the damage the sport now faces would just fade away. Rebellin won a race in Poland just last week; Spaniard Francisco Mancebo, who was heavily implicated in Operación Puerto, continues to race in North America, most recently winning the queen stage at the Silver City’s Tour of the Gila on Sunday.

Whether or not these riders, or Di Luca, are now respecting anti-doping rules they disregarded in the past is impossible to know. Performances, by and large, are more believable than they were even five years ago. Times are slower, attacks are less dramatic, and time gaps are closer. While his move was bold, that Di Luca was unable to hold his attack on Tuesday is encouraging.

The day when the pro peloton is clear of suspicion will likely never materialize. However, the day when the peloton is clear of riders with controversial pasts may be only a few years away. Until then, it’s understandable that many will prefer to cheer for the underdog — the rider with a clean record and the possibility of a clean slate.

Sometimes he may even win.

Double Aussie champion Luke Durbridge said the Orica TTT experiment, which involved rotating just three riders early, failed on Sunday at the Giro d'Italia. Photo: Neal Rogers | VeloNews.com

SERRA SAN BRUNO, Italy (VN) — Orica-GreenEdge rider Luke Durbridge is quietly enjoying his first grand tour at the Giro d’Italia, with an eye towards Saturday’s 54-kilometer stage 8 time trial.

The 22-year-old Durbridge is a phenom — the first Australian to sport both the national road and time trial jerseys simultaneously — and was the winner of French stage race Circuit de la Sarthe in his neo-pro season last year.

Now, in his second pro season, he’s getting his first taste of a grand tour.

“It’s a big race, the Giro, so everything is just that much bigger than any other race,” Durbridge said, “and that much longer, too.”

At 6-foot-2 and 172 pounds, Durbridge is a specialist against the clock, a former under-23 world TT champion and a member of Australia’s world champion team pursuit squad.

Given Orica’s strength against the clock, particularly in Durbridge and Canadian national TT champion Svein Tuft, the team had a shot at a top finish in Sunday’s stage 2 team time trial. Instead, Orica finished ninth, 28 seconds off Sky’s winning pace. Durbridge said the team had tried a new tactic for the hilly and technical 17.4km course that ultimately didn’t pan out.

“We’re a team time trial sort of team, but the course didn’t suit our style of riders,” he said. “We’re big, power guys, and the course was quite hilly. We tried a bit of a different tactic; we had three guys swapping off at the start, and then the other guys were meant to take over. We were playing with a few ideas. It didn’t go to plan, but, hey, you have to try these new ideas to know if they work or not. It obviously didn’t work in our favor.

“I think our best-case scenario was top five. I don’t think we were going to finish on top of Sky or Movistar. I would have liked to have done better, but now we know, okay, maybe that wasn’t the best idea, and we can go back to the drawing board and for the next team time trial, we can come up with a better plan.”

His biggest career result thus far was his winning the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné prologue, though Durbridge is not necessarily expecting to pull off a similar feat this weekend on a much longer course and against riders like Tuft, Bradley Wiggins (Sky), or Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing).

“Every time trial I do, I have a go at, but also, ok, it’s 55km, it’s stage 8, probably the longest I’ve ever raced in a row, so I’m going to be up against it in the sense that I don’t know where I am going to sit. I’m going into the unknown,” Durbridge said. “I look forward to it, I’m going to give it my best shot, but you just don’t know, on the day, when you rock up to the time trial, how your legs are going to react. But that’s the plan, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Durbridge said competing in his first grand tour wearing the Australian national champion’s jersey was a thrill and an honor.

“For sure, any time you pull on the national champion’s jersey, at any race, is great, but to pull it on at the Giro, at a grand tour, is even a little bit more special,” he said. “Especially being an Australian on an Australian team. I’m proud to be wearing the jersey.”

Asked if he had come to Italy with the intention of finishing his first grand tour, Durbridge said he hoped to, but that he would take it as it comes.

“I’ve spoken with the directors. We’re just going to play it day by day,” he said. “We thought maybe two weeks, and then see how my form is going, and how I’m recovering. For me personally, I’d love to finish the race. That’s my mental aspect, but we’ll just play it by ear.”

Christian Vande Velde said he nearly retired from pro cycling after last season, but he's back in the peloton to help teammate Ryder Hesjedal in his Giro defense. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

SERRA SAN BRUNO, Italy (VN) — In August 2012, moments after winning the USA Pro Challenge and eight weeks before beginning a six-month offseason suspension, American Christian Vande Velde was faced with a major life decision — end his career on a high note, or continue on in the inevitable aftermath of his sworn testimony to USADA, in which he admitted to doping during his time with the U.S. Postal Service team.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t think about just stopping today,” Vande Velde said in Denver on August 26. “Every athlete wants to go out on top, and I don’t think it comes too much better than this.”

But Vande Velde didn’t stop. Instead, the 36-year-old Garmin-Sharp veteran opted to continue on with his racing career, weathering an offseason storm of criticism leveled at him and his teammates, Dave Zabriskie and Tom Danielson, for effectively dodging punishment after admitting to doping earlier in their careers. All three riders served six-month suspensions, beginning September 1, 2012, and ending March 1, 2013 — essentially pro cycling’s offseason.

The ensuing controversy — Oprah Winfrey brought up Vande Velde’s testimony in her televised interview with Lance Armstrong — and the mandated time away from his team made for an uneasy winter.

Vande Velde, the son of Olympic track cyclist John Vande Velde, kept a low profile, granting only one interview about his past transgressions, telling ESPN’s Bonnie Ford in March, “I did bad things in the past. I was part of a bad culture in the sport. But I was also one of the first people to say, ‘Enough.’… I know what I did and didn’t do, and I told the truth. Nothing’s good enough, really. I can’t please everybody. As long as the people close to me and my team are happy and have confidence in me, that’s all that matters. That’s what I keep telling myself.”

Things didn’t get any easier when he returned to the pro peloton. Vande Velde moved back to Girona, Spain, his European base for nearly 15 years — only this time he was without his wife and two daughters, who are now based in their hometown in Illinois, near Chicago. He crashed out of his first race back, the Volta a Catalunya, after tangling with a TV motorcycle, resulting in a painful broken finger that required surgery.

Instead of going out on top, Vande Velde was injured, embattled, far from race fit, and far from his family. He admits there were moments after that injury when he second-guessed his decision to continue with his racing career.

“There were definitely times, when I was all by myself, thinking about how easy it would be to just to pack it in after breaking my hand,” Vande Velde told VeloNews. “I just had to tough it out.”

Now Vande Velde is back, at the Giro d’Italia, his 20th grand tour start, riding alongside defending champion Ryder Hesjedal, one of his closest friends in the sport. “It’s been a tumultuous spring, so I’m just happy to be here, on the start line, healthy and happy,” he said in Naples over the weekend.

The Giro is a race the Vande Velde has often said he has a “love-hate relationship” with.

He wore the maglia rosa for one stage, a career highlight, after his Slipstream-Chipotle team won the team time trial in 2008. However in both 2009 and 2010 he exited the Giro on the third stage, after race-ending crashes. The 2009 crash was particularly serious — his front wheel was taken out on a descent and he flipped over his bike, sustaining five broken vertebrae, a broken pelvis, and broken ribs. In 2010 Vande Velde again abandoned the Giro, this time with a broken shoulder.

After a year away, in 2012 Vande Velde was Hesjedal’s chief lieutenant in the mountains, helping to deliver his friend to overall victory for the biggest win the Garmin team has had since both men helped get it off the ground in 2008.

“It’s an honor to be back, with number one on your team, going to the team presentation with the pink jersey,” Vande Velde said. “It’s a huge honor. I never expected to be on a winning team, with Garmin, here at the Giro. To come back and try to do it again is really cool.”

Vande Velde also played an integral role last year when Garmin won the team time trial, which proved pivotal to Hesjedal’s success. The team didn’t fare quite as well on Sunday, finishing seventh, 25 seconds behind Team Sky, after 17.4km of racing.

“It was a good ride for the team, but it was a big hit losing David Millar very early where he would usually be a staple until the end,” Vande Velde said. “But given the fact that he crashed pretty hard [on stage 1 in Naples], we are happy he was in good enough shape to contribute at all. Apart from that we were good, but not great. For our résumé it wasn’t up to our standard, but we did the best we could with the tools that we had. Ryder is in great shape and the team will only get better.”

Hesjedal showed his fitness, and determination, on stage 3, attacking twice on the day’s final climb, the Cat. 3 Sella di Catona.

“I think the team is a little stronger than last year, and we have higher expectations, but I think the biggest difference is Ryder himself,” Vande Velde said. “He’s more ready than we was in the first week last year. Where that will take him, I don’t know, but he’s definitely more prepared. But I also think it will be a different race than it was last year.”

As for Vande Velde, he admits that he has “a ways to go,” but said that he has no regrets about returning to the pro peloton after the most complicated period of his professional career.

“Now that I’m back in the team and getting into the groove of things, I’m starting to feel the flow,” he said. “I know that my family is happy and safe home in Chicago, and I can relax and get on with things. It took a lot to get here, but now I’m happy I made the decision to push on. Yeah, there were many sleepless nights, wondering what am I doing? And why am I doing this? But I’m happy I did it.”

Ryder Hesjedal and Charly Wegelius say they'll continue to attack the Giro d'Italia to Breschia. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

MARINA DI ASCEA, Italy (VN) — Defending Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) brought the race to the racers Monday in stage 3, attacking multiple times in the final 30 kilometers, and causing disruption among the race’s GC favorites.

The stage 3 profile offered up two distinctive climbs — the Cat. 2 San Mauro Cilento and the Cat. 3 Sella di Catona — and the narrow, winding descent from the second bottomed out 900 meters from the finish line.

Hesjedal first attacked at the start of the second pitch on the di Catona climb, far from the finish, and opened a small gap; after he’d been reeled in, he followed a move by Astana’s Valerio Agnoli on the descent, creating a split in an already diminished front group and causing panic among team leaders and domestiques alike.

Luca Paolini (Katusha) joined Hesjedal and Agnoli, and after they were brought back, Paolini countered an acceleration by Rigoberto Urán (Sky) to solo away for the stage win.

Though the Garmin rider wasn’t ultimately able to ride clear of rivals such as Bradley Wiggins (Sky), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), or Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), Hesjedal had made a clear statement — that he is here to defend his 2012 title.

“I wasn’t necessarily trying to take time, but I was trying to be at the front,” Hesjedal said. “I was trying to stay out of trouble, to go on the offensive a little bit, keep the pressure on, and when you do that, you open up more opportunities for yourself.”

And though he didn’t carve out much real estate on his rivals — save for his third-place time bonus at the finish — the chaos of the final climb did come with advantages for the Canadian.

While Hesjedal pushed the pace at the front, GC outsider Carlos Betancur (Ag2r La Mondiale) crashed and lost time. A number of riders went down on the technical descents late in the race, but Hesjedal was safe, by virtue of his positioning, and even avoided a crash at the front that all but erased Michele Scarponi’s (Lampre-Merida) hopes for the GC.

The Canadian took third on the stage, behind Paolini and Evans, clawing back eight seconds of bonus time to cut his gap to Wiggins to 17 seconds. It’s still a greater deficit than the one Hesjedal held over Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha) in Milan last year, and with the 54.8km individual time trial looming on Saturday, it’s likely Garmin will continue to look for opportunities where the team can find them.

“We had a plan; we spoke about it last night with the riders,” said Garmin director Charly Wegelius. “On a stage like that, you could conceivably spend the same amount of kilojoules chasing after somebody else and trying to correct other people’s mistakes. In that case, you might as well take the initiative yourself. Then you have a clear road in front of you. If you make a mistake, it’s your own, and obviously you’ll spend some energy. [In this case] you’re spending energy to gain something, rather than to get back to zero, you know? It was a matter of taking control of your own destiny.”

Wegelius acknowledged that Garmin had shown its cards, and could be expected to attack early and often during this Giro d’Italia.

“I think it’s quite obvious that Bradley Wiggins is a highly quoted favorite, and the time trial isn’t that far off, so we have to take the chances that we can,” Wegelius said. “Let’s look at last year’s Giro; it was won by 16 seconds, so you don’t win these races with big panache displays, but by sneaking things in here and there. I think that’s the best way to do it. There are 21 stages, and every one of them has to be raced.”

Asked if the effort had taken too much from him this early in the race, Hesjedal was defiant.

“I think you could see in my sprint that I was just fine at the end of day, and all day,” Hesjedal said. “I’m not worried about what other people might think [of the tactic]. Everyone said I couldn’t win the Giro last year, and they got that wrong, I’m just happy with my day. The team was fine, and we’re here to race, to do what we feel we need to do to win.”

Team Sky had every reason to celebrate after winning the team time trial at the 2013 Giro d'Italia. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

ISOLA D’ISCHIA, Italy (VN) — Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins delivered the first blow in the battle to win the Giro d’Italia with a perfect performance from Team Sky in Sunday’s 17.4km team time trial.

Sky ruled the day on the island of Ischia and put significant time into its rivals over an untested short and technical course that had riders and team directors wondering what sort of time gaps might be expected.

In the end, the differences between GC contenders were significant. Wiggins put 14 seconds into Vincenzo Nibali (Astana); 22 seconds into Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida); 25 seconds into defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp); 28 seconds into Robert Gesink (Blanco); and 37 seconds into Cadel Evans (BMC Racing).

Given that Hesjedal won last year’s Giro by only 15 seconds, Sky had reason to celebrate with sparkling wine, both on the podium and during its team dinner. Not only had the British squad won a major team time trial, but Wiggins also emerged from the Giro’s first real test confident that his team is the strongest in the race — particularly after winning a second consecutive TTT to match its victory at Tirreno-Adriatico in March.

While Sky’s 23-year-old Salvatore Puccio rode his way into the maglia rosa, his time in the leader’s jersey will likely be short-lived. With time bonuses available on every finish line, and a much bigger objective on the horizon, Sky won’t burn any extra energy trying to preserve Puccio’s time in pink.

“No way,” Puccio said. “For sure our goal is to race at Brad’s side, from today until Brescia.”

Wiggins now sits second overall, tied on time with Puccio. As for his GC rivals, they could only acknowledge his team’s superiority on Ischia.

“Fourteen seconds is a good distance, but this is only the second stage,” Nibali said. “The rest of the Giro is ahead of us, and it’s anybody’s guess what can happen. We have to wait and see.”

Garmin’s Christian Vande Velde said his team had been “good, but not great,” adding, “We lacked a little bit of that sharpness and flow. For our résumé, it wasn’t up to our standard, but we did the best we could with the tools that we had. Ryder is in great shape, and the team will only get better.”

As for Evans, he’s lost grand tours by a slimmer margin than he lost to Wiggins on Sunday.

“Thirty-seven seconds is a little bit below what I had hoped or expected, but that’s the way it is,” the BMC rider said. “The guys put in everything.”

As many of Wiggins’ rivals correctly stated, there is still plenty of Giro to be raced. However, as all of his rivals also know, Wiggins drew first blood.

Argos-Shimano hopes to earn John Degenkolb his sixth grand tour stage win at the 2013 Giro. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com

NAPLES, Italy (VN) — After winning five stages at last year’s Vuelta a España, German John Degenkolb comes to his first Giro d’Italia with one objective in mind — winning stages.

After a 2012 season that included top-10 finishes at Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, E3 Harelebeke, and the world road championship, the 24-year-old Argos-Shimano rider hasn’t yet won a race in 2013, though he finished a respectable ninth at Flanders and took fourth at the May 1 Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt.

Degenkolb didn’t factor in Saturday’s stage 1 sprint finale in Naples, derailed by a crash in the final 1500 meters that split the front of the race. Regardless, the short, flat circuit in Naples wasn’t ideal for the stocky German, who is less of a traditional field sprinter and more of a strongman capable of overpowering riders at the end of a difficult stage.

“There are a lot of other guys here who are the top field sprinters, but I think I can do some good things on the harder stages where not the whole field comes to the finish line,” Degenkolb said. “I hope there I can have some nice results. I’m really excited to race here in Italy. I’ve twice done the Vuelta, and I’m really happy to take part here.”

Degenkolb said he is eyeing stages 3, 5, 7 and 9; the closing 10km of stage 9 traces portions of the route of the world championship course the peloton will see in September.

Asked about his fitness coming into the Giro, Degenkolb said he was on his way back up, after taking a break following a demanding spring classics campaign.

“I think I am building up right now,” he said. “I had a short break after Paris-Roubaix, and restarted the training at home in Frankfurt, and raced in my home race [on May 1]. I hope that my shape is getting better and better from stage to stage.”

The overall winner of the 2012 UCI European Tour, Degenkolb hopes to race at the Tour de France as well — an ambitious race schedule for a 24-year-old to tackle the classics, the Giro and the Tour in one season.

“It’s a tough program, but I am excited for it,” he said. “We’re now at WorldTour level, and we want to compete at the highest level, of course.”

And should he falter, Degenkolb said he’s not the only card Argos-Shimano can play in Italy.

“I want to win a stage, that’s my personal goal as well as the team’s goal,” Degenkolb said. “Of course we also have other riders, like Luka Mezgec, or a really young guy, Tobias Ludvigsson, who can probably go in a group and try to fight for a stage there. We are quite confident.”