Saxo Bank-SunGard enjoyed mixed fortunes on yesterday’s fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia, which crossed a number of sections of Tuscany’s iconic Strade Bianche between Piompino and Orvieto. Tour de France winner Alberto Contador managed to keep out of trouble during the stage and finished in seventh place, in the first group behind Rabobank’s stage winner Pieter Weening.
Richie Porte, who led the race for three days last year and ended the race in seventh place in the white, young rider’s jersey, was not so lucky though, the Australian came down in a crash with Chris Butler (BMC Racing) and Ivan Rovny (RadioShack) and, although he was able to continue, he lost 18’49” on the stage.
Just as on stage 3 of last year’s Tour de France, which crossed the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, the Spanish mountain specialist showed that he can cope with dangerous surfaces, where others like him can struggle.
“It was quite a dangerous course today,” said Contador after the stage finish. “Nibali attacked on the first dirt track section but was on the descent and I did not want to take any risks there. We have caught him anyway and I felt strong throughout the course. On the last climb, I simply focused on not losing a second.
“I had everything more or less under control," he concluded.
Porte’s crash and loss of time effectively puts an end to his hopes of a repeat of last year’s feat; he is now ineligible for the young rider’s classification anyway, but in the pink jersey standings he has slumped to 144th overall, 19’13” behind new leader Weening.
“It was just one of those unfortunate accidents where the front wheel just disappeared and the next second I was on the ground looking for the bike,” he explained. “The encounter with the asphalt took great a lot of skin off my arms and legs but I'll be good and ready for another fight tomorrow.
“The morale on the team is good and despite we're representing a few different countries the communication is flowing across the dinner table,” he added. “We have the best rider in the world on our team so we better be confident.”
Today’s rolling stage, which heads south from Orvieto and skirts around Rome, the Italian capital, on its way to another hilltop finish in Fiuggi, should offer Porte a little time to recover from his crash before the race hits the mountains tomorrow.