Emanuele Sella broke away to win the 224 kilometres long 20th and penultimate stage of the Giro d’Italia. 143
riders took off from Rovetta this morning the stage finished in Tirano. The riders had to climb the Gavia,
Mortirolo and Aprica. For the 27-year old Italian rider of the CSF-Navigare team, winner of the mountain classification of
this years Giro d'Italia it was the third stage win in this Giro, after he already won in Pampeago and Marmolada.
In his career, Sella now have 9 wins in his career. In the 2004 Giro he had already won a stage in Cesena. Veteran
Gilberto Simoni came in second, 1:04 behind stage winner Sella. Caisse d'Epargne's Joaquin Rodriguez came in third.
The Spanish National Road Champion lost 1:22 on Sella.
The group with the overall favourites– without Danilo Di Luca, who was dropped earlier in the race – arrived 1:30
after Sella. Riccò was the first rider of that group who crossed the line and finished 4th. Alberto Contador was always near
the 'Cobra' and finished fifth. Jürgen Van de Broeck (Silence - Lotto) and Domenico Pozzovivo (CSF - Navigare) crashed
near the line, but were classified with the same time as Riccò.
Alberto Contador held onto the 'Maglia Rosa' with a lead of 4 seconds on Saunier Duval's young gun Riccò. Danilo Di
Luca (LPR) lost his third position in the overall. Di Luca crossed the line together with Karpets, 5:27 behind stage
winner Sella and is now almost 4 minutesbehind overall leader Contador. Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre) has joined the Giro’s
podium. Bruseghin is now third, 2 minutes behind Contador. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) is fourth overall, 2:05; Sella
is fifth at 2:35. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) is sixth at 2:47, defending champ Di Luca is now seventh at 4:18. Gilberto Simoni
is 10th at 6:40.
Todays stage started without any attacks in the first 70 kilometres. LPR's Gabriele Bosisio and a few
other riders tried to break away, but without success. High Road's Kanstantsin Siutsou abandoned shortly after Bosisio's
attempt. Meanwhile, Contador lost an important teammate. Andreas Klöden abandoned due to fever.
As the riders started to climb the legendary
Gavia pass Perez Cuapio (CSF - Navigare) attacked and climbed faster than the other 141 riders who were still in the race. Cuapio
was the first who reached the top of the Gavia, which was the Cima Coppi (that's how the Italians call the highest point
of the race) of this years Giro d'Italia. Fotunato Baliani (CSF - Navigare) and Antonio Colom (Astana) were the next
wo riders who passed the summit of the gavia. Colom was the one who set the pace on the descent. The bunch were 5
minutes behind escapee Cuapio. The LPR (for Di Luca) and Diquigiovanni (for Simoni) teams pulled the most.
After the Gavia the Mortirolo climb was on the menue. Perez Cuapio, Baliani and Colom broke away. They had
a lead of 3:20 on the group with all favourites and a little bit later Colom continued solo. Colom was the first rider who
passed the most difficult climb of this years Giro. Baliani, Sella, Riccò, Contador, Pozzovivo, and Rodriguez were 38
seconds behind him. Simoni and Menchov were 53 seconds behind Colom. Bruseghin and Van den Broeck lost 1:08, Pellizotti
and Valjavec (AG2R) were 1:36 behind and Di Luca already lost 2:10 at the top of the Mortirolo. Colom was caught
on the descent and the overall favourites regrouped, except for Di Luca, who was following 1 minute behind.
At the start of the Aprica climb Emanuele Sella took off. Simoni and Rodriguez started a counter attack,
while Di Luca failed to rejoin the group with Contador, Riccò and other overall favourites. This situation more or less remained
frozen until the finish line.
Tomorrow the 91st edition of the Giro d'Italia will end with stage 21. The first Grand Tour of
the 2008 season will end with an individual time trial of 28.5 kilometres on a flat route from Cesano Maderno to
Milano. The finish line will be on the Corso Venezia. It’s been five years since the Giro has ended with a time
trial: in 2003 Sergej Gonchar won the stage, and Gilberto Simoni won the Giro. This time, the finish should be favourable
to Contador, on paper he is stronger than Riccò at time trials. The last non-Italian to win the Giro was Pavel Tonkov in 1996.
The last, and only Spanish rider to win the Giro d'Italia was Miguel Indurain (in 1992 and in 1993).
