Russian Denis Menchov of Rabobank won the centenary edition of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, with relative ease, beating out 2nd place Danilo DiLuca by 20 seconds on the final individual time trial into Rome despite a crash in the closing kilometer on the slick, wet cobbles leading to the finish line. Overall, his lead over the plucky Italian was 41 seconds, but in reality it wasn't nearly that close. Menchov pulled away from the pack at the top of the mountain on the decisive 5th stage and then won the first time trial stage outright to give him the pink jersey. After that, he simply defended every attack -- and DiLuca attacked relentlessly, but at no point did he ever put Menchov under pressure. Rabobank has been criticized for years for coming up small in major races despite a big budget, but they came up big this year, or at least Menchov did -- he had little to no support on the mountains and still got the job done against the likes of DiLuca, Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre, and third place Franco Pellizotti. Perhaps now the stain of the Chicken is finally gone for Team Rabobank.
Menchov has actually fashioned himself an impressive career in big stage races, as this is now his third Grand Tour victory (to go along with 2 Vuelta d'Espana victories) and he has at least a couple top 5 finishes in the Tour de France. He may not be able to climb the largest mountains of the Tour with Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, but in these smaller mountains of the Giro, he was very impressive. Equally impressive was DiLuca's effort, as he came here to win and did everything in his power to do so. And if it weren't for Menchov's lightning quick change of bikes after his crash on Sunday, crowd favorite DiLuca may have brought home his second Giro title. Sadly, it was not to be, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. On almost every closing mountain in the final week, DiLuca launched attack after attack on Menchov but just couldn't quite shake him. In reality, Menchov probably could have sped away from the Italian if he wanted to, but he didn't need to, and so it provided for some very exciting racing in the final week. This is the first time I've watched the Giro in its entirety -- it was the first time it's been available for viewing here in America, I think -- and I have to admit that it wasn't nearly as thrilling a race as the Tour de France (or some of the spring classics on Versus this year, FWIW), but DiLuca made it interesting in the end and turned it into some exciting viewing.
Liquigas' Pellizotti finished in third, just 1:39 behind, and he was probably the most impressive in the highest mountains of this Giro, but he wasted the first two weeks working for teammate Ivan Basso and couldn't recover the time he lost. Basso was a disappointment, but ended in 5th, which is actually not so bad considering the two years he spent in the cycling wilderness after his drug-related suspension. Another bonus from this race is that there were no outrageous performances that screamed "he's doping" from any of the riders, so maybe we're finally getting some clean racing. Of course, I think the Giro's standards are a bit lower than the Tour's, so we'll probably have to wait until July to find out for sure. Finishing a few seconds ahead of Basso in 4th was defending Tour champion Carlos Sastre in his first year with the Cervelo Test Team and he won two of the biggest mountain stages of the final week, but he cracked badly on the Blockhaus on Wednesday and fell too far behind to compete for the podium.
American Levi Leipheimer may have been the biggest disappointment of the race, finishing a distant 6th after coming in as the co-favorite with Basso. Levi was in perfect position before the first time trial, and finished a strong second to Menchov, but he had nothing in the final week in the mountains and lost major time. Levi was never a great mountain racer, but he can usually follow wheels, especially on these relatively gentler slopes, just not this year. He said beforehand that his training was still geared up for the Tour in July, so perhaps that's why, but with Astana teammates Contador and Armstrong also ready to race in July, I don't think that was necessarily wise. And although Levi has had a wonderful career, he's never won a Grand Tour. And he may have just lost his best shot.
As for Armstrong, he clearly wasn't yet in shape only weeks removed from a broken collarbone, and after three years away from competitive racing. He finished in 12th and showed flashes in the final week of being able to climb with the leaders of the race, but ultimately, we'll have to hope he rounds into form by July. Nobody's seen Contador in some time and there's so many questions with Astana and financing that it's tough to even know if they'll be at the Tour de France, but you have to think that the Contador/Lance conundrum will be the talk of July, as I think both teammates will be racing for themselves and not in support of each other. Of course, Contador could switch teams if Astana loses its license, which would make the race more wide open, and Astana far from distinguished themselves at the Giro, so maybe they're not nearly as dominant as we all thought. It should be exciting either way, though. And I have to think Menchov will be right up there fighting for a podium spot too -- he was clearly on the best form of anyone in this race. Plus, Cadel Evans will be back at the Tour (he skipped the Giro), along with Saxo Bank's two-headed attack of Frank and Andy Schleck (Saxo basically skipped the Giro too). And let's not forget the defending Tour champion, Sastre, who will go for the repeat. Should be some really exciting racing ahead.
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