Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli) won the 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia between Brescia and Aprica. On another mammoth day in the mountains the Italians went on the offensive once more to seize back the race from its Spanish leader. Scarponi outsprinted his two breakaway companions, the Liquigas-Doimo pair of Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali, at the end of the tough 195km mountain stage.
A fast start to the stage prevented a breakaway from getting away until the 46th kilometre. A group consisting of Jan Bakelandts (OmegaPharma-Lotto), Francesco Failli (Acqua & Sapone), Branislau Samoilau (Quick Step), Luca Mazzanti (Katusha), Yuriy Krivtsov (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli), William Bonnet (Bbox Bouyges Telecom), Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) and Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) was allowed to get away and quickly built up their advantage.
The Liquigas-Doimo led peloton allowed the nine riders to get an advantage of 8’48” by the 86th kilometre, as they approached the first of two climbs to Aprica. The group managed to stay together on the ascent, but the pacesetting by Liquigas-Doimo had eaten into their lead. As they crossed the finish line for the first time they were just 5’05” ahead. Vladimir Karpets (Katusha) had attacked on the climb and went over the line 20 seconds ahead of the peloton.
As the group started the much tougher climb of Trivigno it began to splinter with some riders unable to match the pace of the others. Karpets was reabsorbed by the peloton as Liquigas-Doimo applied further pressure; soon afterwards Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone), the winner of Tuesday’s Plan de Corones time trial, attacked. Up ahead, Failli dropped off the lead group and waited for Garzelli.
By the time the breakaway group arrived at the summit of Trivigno it was reduced to just Duque, Samoilau and Rodriguez, with the Acqua & Sapone due in hot pursuit. As the fearsome climb of the Mortirolo began they caught the leaders and Garzelli set off on his own.
As the peloton arrived on the climb the Liquigas-Doimo team continued to force the pace until there was just Nibali leading Basso, with Scarponi and Evans behind them. Next on the road were Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam), John Gadret (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), with race leader David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) visibly struggling behind them.
Basso soon took the front and increased the pace once more, putting Evans into trouble and the World champion dropped back to join Sastre, Gadret and Vinokourov. The three up front soon caught up with Garzelli, who stayed with them for a few hundred metres before being dropped. As the groups neared the top Vinokourov, who had appeared to be struggling further down the climb, attacked in pursuit of Basso, Nibali and Scarponi.
Over the top of the climb the leading trio were 55 seconds ahead of Vinokourov, 1’43” ahead of Evans and 1’55” ahead of Arroyo; this meant that Basso was now less than 30 seconds away from the maglia rosa.
A light rain had begun to fall on the climb, but as the leaders tackled the steep winding descent it began to fall harder making the going treacherous. Nibali, who’d displayed his descending prowess on stage 14, was forced to sit up and wait for his far more tentative team leader on a number of occasions. Behind them Evans almost left the road into some campervans, but Vinokourov and Arroyo were flying down the mountain.
Incredibly, as they approached the bottom of the descent Arroyo, who’d already caught and passed Evans, Gadret and Sastre, caught up with Vinokourov. At 15km to go, just before they began the climb up to the finish in Aprica the pair was just 39 seconds behind, with the other three at 47 seconds.
Arroyo and Vinokourov were soon caught by Evans, Gadret and Sastre making five riders in pursuit of three. With three Italians at the head of the race though, with two of them on the same team, the gap began to rise once more. Basso and Nibali were working hard together, and managed to persuade Scarponi that it would be worth his while to help. Of the five chasers behind, only Arroyo and Evans had any real incentive to work and so the group lacked cohesion.
With 10km to go the gap had risen to 1’08”; by the 5km mark it had risen to 2 minutes, and it was to keep on rising all the way to the line.
As they approached the finish, the two Liquigas-Doimo riders kept the pace as high as they could to maximise the time gained on Arroyo and Evans. As Scarponi kicked for the line, neither of the others attempted to stop him and he took the stage by a few lengths.
Vinokourov led the chasers over the line 3’05” back followed by Gadret, with Evans and Arroyo a further second behind them.
Basso began the day just 2’27 behind the Arroyo and so with the time taken on the stage, plus 12 bonus seconds on the line, he takes the race lead 51 seconds ahead of the Spaniard. Nibali jumps from 6th to 3rd, while Scarponi rises from 8th to 4th.
Result stage 19
1. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
2. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
4. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Astana @ 3’05”
5. John Gadret (Fra) AG2R-La Mondiale
6. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team @ 3’06”
7. David Arroyo (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
8. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam
9. Branislau Samoilau (Blr) Quick Step@ 5’27”
10. Marco Pinotti (Ita) HTC-Columbia
Standings after stage 19
1. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2. David Arroyo (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne @ 51s
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 2’30”
4. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli @ 2’49”
5. Cadel Evans (Aus) @ 4’00”