Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Giro d'Italia: Danilo Di Luca wins stage 10 [+ Armstrong VIDEO]


Lance -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com
Dailypeloton: Pellizotti outsprints Menchov and Sastre for second place at about 10".

Arroyo comes in fifth, with Soler driving the next group across the line for spot number six.

Basso (7th), Leipheimer (8th), Rodriguez (9th) and Rogers (10th) made the stage top ten complete.

Danilo Di Luca extended his overall lead on Denis Menchov to a minute and 20 seconds.

SHOOT: Seems like Armstrong come in just after the top 10 riders. Armstrong in Twitter this morning said: "I hear Ironman legend Dave Scott had a nasty crash yesterday. Wishing him well. He was one of my idols growing up."

1631 CEST Less than seven to go. Di Luca is coming down fast; he's about to catch Pellizotti. But Sastre, Menchov, Arroyo, Leipheimer, Soler and Basso are coming next.

Franco and Danilo are together. Sastre, Menchov, Arroyo will join them in a moment. Basso and Levi stay about ten seconds down. Gibo, Rogers, Armstrong and Joaquin Rodriguez are a little more behind.

1633 CEST Sastre, Menchov, Arroyo chased the two Italians down. Five on the front as they take on a last "wall" of 600 metres. But Di Luca cranks up the pace again with Sastre, Arroyo, struggling a bit.

DANILO ATTACKS! Di Luca opens some gap. Only Carlos Sastre, no more struggling, tries to counter, but in vain.

1635 CEST Under 3 km. to go. Danilo is flying high. Pelizzotti, Menchov and Sastre are sitting six seconds down. Basso and Levi are further behind.

Two kilometres left now. The "Basso Group" are trailing Danilo by 25 seconds. The man in the Maglia is giving yet another display of his usual grinta.

blog it

SHOOT: The time trial stage later this week should change the standings a lot:

In preparing for the Giro, Basso spent an almost unheard of 100 miles on his time-trial bike one day.

"Time trialing is the area I lost the most in when I was (banned)," he said. "You need to race to keep up your time-trialing form."

Leipheimer and Menchov are expected to gain significant time on the likes of Di Luca and Basso in the race against the clock. The stage is highly technical, with several steep downhill sections, and Basso struggles going downhill.

No comments: