The Story of the Giro d'Italia

by Carol McGann

  The reordered General Classification: 1. Danilo Di Luca

  2. Ivan Basso @ 9 seconds

  3. Paolo Savoldelli @ 35 seconds

  4. Damiano Cunego @ 1 minute 15 seconds

  5. Dario David Cioni @ 1 minute 27 seconds

  Finally Petacchi got one. After a flawless lead out from what was by now a team under a lot of pressure, the man who the year before had won flat Giro stages at will took the victory in Ravenna.

  The first stage after the rest day took the race to Rossano Veneto for another McEwen victory and another NAS raid. Even though nothing was turned up, the riders threatened the race organization with a strike. There was no strike.

  The race made a short transfer to Marostica, where the eleventh stage started, the stage that Simoni said marked the beginning of the real Giro.

  The General Classification was still tight with barely more than two minutes separating the top ten riders. Stage eleven featured four ascents, the last of which was a hilltop finish at Zoldo Alto (the Dolomiti Stars ski station).

  The action began on the thirteen-kilometer Passo Duran, the penultimate climb. Early on Lampre started going unpleasantly fast. As the peloton was being shattered by his team’s efforts, Simoni made a hard dig and few riders could hold his wheel. Neither Cunego (who seemed to be riding with legs of wood) nor Garzelli could follow him. Survivors of Simoni’s move kept the pace hot, wanting to make sure the two former Giro winners were well and truly gone.

  And then Basso gave a hard acceleration of his own, taking Simoni, Savoldelli, Di Luca and José Rujano along for company as he raced for the mountain’s summit. As Basso kept pouring it on, only Simoni could match his speed. Near the top the other three rejoined Basso and Simoni.

  On the challenging descent Savoldelli took off. As the final ascent began, first Basso and then Simoni made it up to Il Falco. Basso didn’t want to take the others with him, and just hammered away, eventually dropping Simoni. Basso was unconcerned about winning the stage, he was doing all he could to gain time on the dropped riders. Strangely, he seemed to be riding as if Savoldelli weren’t a threat. Savoldelli was able to hang on to Basso and beat him in the sprint while Simoni and Di Luca came in 21 and 61 seconds later. Basso was now the maglia rosa while Cunego’s and Garzelli’s Classification hopes were in tatters.

  The General Classification was now thus: 1. Ivan Basso

  2. Paolo Savoldelli @ 18 seconds

  3. Danilo Di Luca @ 1 minute 4 seconds

  4. Gilberto Simoni @ 2 minutes 27 seconds

  16. Damiano Cunego @ 7 minutes 20 seconds

  17. Stefano Garzelli @ 7 minutes 40 seconds

  Stage thirteen was the queen stage, making the riders go over five major passes: Costalunga, Sella, Gardena, Erbe and Pontives. Starting in Mezzocorona, it went up the Brenner Pass and then headed east for the Gruppo Sella. Garzelli didn’t start, having decided that the effect of a crash in stage seven left him too injured to race.

  In the first kilometers a break of a few good riders that eventually grew to twenty went away and stayed away, although it would be whittled to a final eight as the mountains took their toll, with Colombian Ivan Parra finishing alone. Admirable though this was, it wasn’t the real race. None of the breakaway riders were contention for the Overall, although Juan Manuel Gárate, who came in second that day, should not have been ignored. Back in the peloton, Basso’s CSC team rode a hard tempo to keep the break from getting out of hand.

  The action started on the narrow ascent of the Passo delle Erbe, where the peloton started to fall apart and Cunego and Simoni escaped. Basso’s gregari did the chasing for their team leader; Di Luca, and Savoldelli were glad for the shelter and help. The maglia rosa group caught the fleeing Lampre boys, setting things up for the drama of the final climb. Given the short distance from the crest of the Pontives to the finish line in Ortisei, it was almost a hilltop finish.

  Midway up the climb, the always aggressive Simoni exploded off the front with Savoldelli for company. Basso had shown no aggression the whole day and hadn’t marked any of the major attacks. This time, he couldn’t go with what was obviously the day’s, and perhaps the Giro’s pivotal move. Savoldelli was having another superb day and left Simoni seven seconds behind. The race lead changed hands as Basso, suffering from stomach problems, lost almost a minute. Savoldelli was the Giro’s leader.

  Stage fourteen had 50 kilometers of climbing, including the south face of the Stelvio sandwiched between the Frassineto and the Foscagno climbs. This was the ninth time the Giro had ascended the Stelvio since it was introduced in 1953.

  Stage thirteen winner Ivan Parra got into a breakaway and the peloton never saw him again. Back with the Pink Jersey group, Ivan Basso was still being tortured with gut trouble and after the Frassineto, CSC gregario Giovanni Lombardi asked Savoldelli to slow things down because Basso had to stop.

  Basso lost contact with the leaders half way up the Stelvio and from that point, suffered what he called his own “Calvary” and lost over 40 minutes. The entire CSC team went to Basso’s aid and led him up the snow-covered mountain.

  Savoldelli was again completely isolated with no teammates to help him chase or even bring him food and water. Di Luca gave Savoldelli some of his own supplies.

  There was a final short climb of the Passo d’Eira before a short descent into the finish city of Livigno. Simoni, ever active, attacked and Savoldelli, suffering from cramps, had to let him and Di Luca go, costing him 28 seconds. Savoldelli was still the leader, but his lead over Di Luca was only 25 seconds.

  So far this had been a superb race with almost no piano riding.

  That piano day did come with stage sixteen, the first stage after the second rest day, the riders were facing both the second time trial and the Alps and were in no mood to exhaust themselves.

  Stage seventeen with its hilltop finish at Limone Piemonte was exactly the sort of stage they were saving themselves for. Basso had recovered and was looking good, and on the flatter road between the final climbs he escaped with teammate Frank Schleck. No longer posing a Classification threat, he was allowed to ride away. Basso, with Schleck’s generous help, caught all of the earlier breakaways and soloed in for a redemptive win.

  Further back, Simoni and José Rujano left Savoldelli behind on the final climb and stung him for 42 seconds. Going into the time trial, the General Classification looked like this:

  1. Paolo Savoldelli

  2. Gilberto Simoni @ 58 seconds

  3. José Rujano @ 1 minute 24 seconds

  4. Danilo Di Luca @ 1 minute 36 seconds

  The Turin 34-kilometer time trial gave Savoldelli some breathing room. While Basso won the stage, Savoldelli, coming in fourth, did better than any of the other Classification riders, even beating time trial specialist Serguei Gontchar.

  That left the penultimate stage with its climbing challenge, the never before used Colle delle Finestre, placed between two ascents to Sestriere. This stage was one of the greatest bike races ever. This day the riders threw caution to the wind and rode until they could barely turn the pedals.

  The first ascent to Sestriere was done at high speed, but the contenders were still together at the top and were still grouped as they began the Finestre. The Finestre is not only long and steep, the final 8 kilometers are what the Italians call strade bianche, or white, unpaved roads. In the Giro, normally the hardest climbs are called Category One. Because of the Finestre’s staggering difficulty, it was labeled categoria speciale.

  Photo of the Finestre

  Rujano’s teammate Rafael Iliano attacked as the Finestre started to bite and it was over for all but twelve riders with both Basso and Savoldelli missing this train. The pace up the Finestre was so hard that even before the unpaved portion was reached it was down to just three: Rujano, Di Luca and Simoni. Simoni had said that he would do everything he could to
win the Giro on this stage and he was certainly fulfilling his promise. About two minutes behind this trio was Savoldelli who was again without teammates.

  On the descent Savoldelli caught several riders who had dropped him. While the Simoni group remained well clear, Savoldelli was still ahead of the shattered remnants of what might be called the peloton.

  Early on the second ascent to Sestriere, which at about five percent is not nearly as stiff as the Finestre, Di Luca couldn’t stay with Simoni and Rujano. Cramps made each pedal stroke a misery. A few kilometers later Simoni also cramped and had to watch Rujano slowly ride away from him and win the stage.

  Not one to give up, Savoldelli was able to close in on the trio and at the end he was 1 minute 29 seconds behind Simoni and therefore the winner of the 2005 Giro.

  Savoldelli rode about as perfect a race as could be imagined. He was with a team that did him almost no good while a determined and well-supported Gilberto Simoni hammered him day after day.

  In interviews after the Giro, Savoldelli said that he had ridden Giri with less support in the past, noting that in 2002 his Index-Alexia team seemed more devoted to sprinter Ivan Quaranta and when he came in second in 1999, his Saeco team was first and foremost Cipollini’s lead-out train.

  Final 2005 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel): 91 hours 25 minutes 51 seconds

  2. Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Caffita) @ 28 seconds

  3. José Rujano (Colombia-Selle Italia) @ 45 seconds

  4. Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) @ 2 minutes 42 seconds

  5. Juan Manuel Gárate (Saunier Duval-Prodir) @ 3 minutes 11 seconds

  Climbers’ Competition: 1. José Rujano (Selle Italia-Colombia): 143 points

  2. Ivan Parra (Selle Italia-Colombia): 57

  3. Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Caffita): 45

  Points Competition: 1. Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic): 162 points

  2. Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo): 154

  3. Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi): 136

  2006. The 2006 route featured five hilltop finishes, making it a climbers’ race. Starting outside of Italy for the eighth time, the riders would spend four stages in the Walloon section of Belgium, home to hundreds of thousands of Belgians of Italian descent whose forefathers had migrated to the area to work Belgium’s coal mines. After a transfer to Italy for the first team time trial since 1989, the Giro would work its way down the Adriatic coast as far south as northern Puglia before another transfer north to Tuscany. At stage thirteen, the final week of hard stages that were intended to decide the race’s outcome would begin with the ascent of the Colle San Carlo in Piedmont. To keep the drama building, the last-but-one stage had 4,000 meters of vertical ascension that included the Gavia Pass. Originally the final day was to have a split stage with a time trial up the Ghisallo followed by the race into downtown Milan. UCI rules forbade Grand Tours’ having split stages and after some fussing on the part of the Giro organization, just the usual promenade into Milan was scheduled.

  This looked to be a Giro that would be beyond Savoldelli and his tactic of minimizing losses on the ascents and making up time on the descents and time trials. The two favorites were Basso and Di Luca, with Basso’s climbing abilities making him the stronger entry. Basso, who took second in the 2005 Tour, had been the only rider to consistently stay with Lance Armstrong in the Tour’s toughest climbs. He announced that he was again planning on attempting the Giro/Tour double, so confident was he of both his own abilities and those of his team (CSC was probably the strongest squad entered).

  Savoldelli abandoned the Tour of Romandie with stomach problems, but showed no sign of weakness as the Giro began with the stage one individual time trial that went through the industrial city of Seraing. Savoldelli’s power and outstanding bike handling skills left Basso, Di Luca and Cunego about 20 seconds behind as he took the first Pink Jersey of the year.

  Savoldelli had to yield his lead to Stefan Schumacher when the German gapped the field on the uphill finish in stage three, winning the stage, the time bonus and the Pink Jersey.

  When the four crash-filled Belgian stages finished with all of the Classification contenders still uninjured, the Giro transferred to Italy for the team time trial, and the General Classification stood thus:

  1. Stefan Schumacher

  2. Paolo Savoldelli @ 13 seconds

  3. Davide Rebellin @ 23 seconds

  4. José Gutiérrez @ 29 seconds

  5. José Luis Rubiera @ 31 seconds

  The flat stage five 35-kilometer team time trial went from Piacenza to Cremona and the riders were awarded their actual time trial times. The result of the ever-improving Giro field was a new record speed of 56.86 kilometers per hour. Basso’s CSC team won the stage. T-Mobile, with chrono specialists Jan Ullrich, Michael Rogers and Serguei Gontchar, was only one second slower, giving the overall lead to Gontchar.

  Stage seven, 236 kilometers, was the year’s longest stage. But it was more than just long: it was over the hilly roads of Le Marche. The riders would be going either up or down the entire stage. Belgian Rik Verbrugghe escaped from a break in the closing kilometers and took a solo win in Saltara. On the steep ascent to the line Savoldelli jumped away for second place and the twelve-second time bonus, good enough to put him within 6 seconds of Gontchar. Di Luca, not looking good and unable to stay with the leaders as they raced up to the finish, lost 16 seconds.

  So far, with the exception of Di Luca’s small time loss, the Giro contenders were all relatively close together in time and none had yet shown what he could do. Stage eight clarified the situation. Starting with a flat run down the Adriatic coast it turned into the hills for a hilltop finish at Maielletta, a 27-kilometer ascent with a section of ten-percent gradient. With about eight kilometers to go Gontchar was dropped. A kilometer further up the hill Savoldelli had to let go. Then Di Luca was dropped.

  With a little over four kilometers to the summit Cunego made his move. Only Basso could hold the Little Prince’s wheel. Then Basso jumped and was gone for good. Cunego lost 30 seconds, Simoni 75 seconds, Di Luca 92, and Savoldelli 2 minutes 20 seconds. Gontchar came in 14 seconds after Savoldelli, making it unlikely he would regain the lead.

  The General Classification: 1. Ivan Basso

  2. José Gutiérrez @ 1 minute 34 seconds

  3. Damiano Cunego @ 1 minute 48 seconds

  4. Paolo Savoldelli @ 2 minutes 35 seconds

  5. Serguei Gontchar @ 2 minutes 43 seconds

  The next two stages that continued down the Adriatic coast didn’t change the standings. And with that came the first rest day and a transfer north to Tuscany for the stage eleven 50-kilometer individual time trial. Starting in Pontedera it headed west along the Arno River to the historic center of Pisa followed by a straight shot back to the finish.

  And who should win the stage? Jan Ullrich! The same man who a few days before had been unceremoniously shelled on the Maieletta and had lost over sixteen minutes on that stage alone, crushed the crème of the cycling world with a fabulous ride. Basso could only come within 28 seconds of the talented German who was now looking pretty good for the Tour. The others? There was no good news for them. Savoldelli lost about 50 seconds to Basso and Simoni almost four minutes. Cunego was caught and passed by Basso, losing more than five minutes.

  With the high mountains still several days away, Basso looked to be completely in charge with second place José Gutiérrez already 2 minutes 48 seconds behind.

  Stage thirteen took the riders into the Piedmontese Alps. In the first kilometers, with CSC battering away at the front and spending watts as if this were the Giro’s final day, the peloton was quickly whittled down to fifteen riders. The effects of the high speeds on the steep mountain were dramatic. Savoldelli then Cunego and Di Luca were dropped. As the road reared up to its full f
ifteen percent, Basso made his move and only Simoni’s gregario Leonardo Piepoli, who had already received permission from his team to go for a stage win, held his wheel.

  The weather had gone from warm sun to near freezing rain as Basso and Piepoli crested the Colle San Carlo together. Piepoli took off like a fiend, fearlessly racing down the dangerous, wet and twisty roads for his victory. Basso, an indifferent descender, took his time and came into La Thuile 44 seconds later. Simoni and Gutiérrez, who chased aggressively, finished 35 seconds after Basso.

  The General Classification gaps had grown: 1. Ivan Basso

  2. José Gutiérrez @ 3 minutes 27 seconds

  3. Paolo Savoldelli @ 5 minutes 30 seconds

  4. Wladimir Belli @ 7 minutes 35 seconds

  5. Gilberto Simoni @ 8 minutes 0 seconds

  Basso and Piepoli had put on a jaw-dropping performance. Michele Ferrari calculated Basso’s average rate of vertical ascent (called VAM by sports physiologists) on the Colle San Carlo to be about 2,000 meters per hour. Any VAM over 1,800 should cause at least a raised eyebrow. The San Carlo is steep and a racer’s rate of ascent gets higher on steeper climbs, but 2,000 is a big number and it had some wondering where the ability to perform like this had come from.

  Rujano climbed off his bike a few kilometers from the finish line, complaining that he didn’t feel good. It later turned out to be a ploy for more money from his team. After his wonderful performance in the 2005 Giro, Rujano had demanded a sharply increased salary and the freedom to move to a new, richer and more powerful team, which had been previously granted if he would merely finish the 2006 Giro with his old team. Rujano, who was riding for savvy team manager Gianni Savio, would never again rise to the heights that he did in 2005. Years later Rujano voiced regret over this episode and rejoined Savio.