Basso prevails on the Zoncolan

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The real favourites for overall success at the Giro d'Italia declared their intentions and showed their real form, as the weeklong fight for the pink jersey, that will last all of the final week, began in earnest at the summit of Monte Zoncolan.

The first round went to Ivan Basso of Liquigas-Doimo, who dropped all his rivals on the steep and painful slopes of the Zoncolan. World champion Cadel Evans (BMC) was the last to crack and they finished one-two on the stage after distancing all the other contenders.

Thanks to his huge effort, Basso gained time on everyone and skyrocketed up to third overall. David Arroyo of Caisse d'Epargne fought to hang onto the maglia rosa but Basso now has him in his sights. Arroyo was on his own for much of the final climb, but hung on come in 11th, at 3:50. He kept the pink jersey, even extending his lead over Richie Porte (Saxo Bank) but Basso is now only 3:33 behind the Spaniard.

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The victory crowns Basso's return after the shame of a doping suspension. "It's a great day for me, the best day since my comeback,” Basso said. "I'm really happy for what I've done. I've got to thank the team, they were really fantastic how they pulled for over 100km."

"It was hard but when you're on a climb like the Zoncolan, you don’t think about anything except fighting it with total concentration."

The Italian was the story of the day, as he doggedly ground his way up the monstrous climb, slowly dropping his rivals one by one. Asked if he can win the Giro, Basso said: "I want to enjoy this victory first and recover of the rest day, then we'll see, because there's still a lot of suffering to come."

The long and winding road

The dreaded Monte Zoncolan hosted a Giro finish for the third time in the race's history, with the peloton going up the west side for the first time, getting a taste of the 11.9% average gradient on the 10.1km of climbing.

And yet, none of the time gaps between the favourites were really all that great considering the difficulty of the climb.  It really was an individual battle against gravity. There was only 3:20 behind winner Basso and eighth-placed Marco Pinotti (HTC-Columbia), with the biggest gap the 1:19 between second and third, Evans and Scarponi.

A look at the top stage finishers sees the expected contenders gradually rising up the classification. Arroyo still has the pink jersey but the final decision on who will win the Giro is not clear. Basso is the strongest on the climbs but a number of riders could still win the Giro in Verona next Sunday and many are in good position, including Carlos Sastre of Cervelo TestTeam, who once again proved himself to a fighter. He was dropped early on the climb, but came back strongly to finish sixth on the stage, only 2:44 down on the day.

The only big overall loser was Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky). He came in 104th at 25:32 and slipped down the overall standings.

A quiet start

After numerous days of racing in the rain, the weather co-operated again on Sunday, and the field set out from Mestre, near Venice in warm sunshine. Two more sprinters decided not to torture themselves in the mountains, with Robbie McEwen (Katusha) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) both failing to start.

The first 70 kilometres of the stage were pretty flat, and six riders used that to get away and open a substantial lead. Ludovic Turpin (AG2R), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni), Guillaume Le Floch (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Nico Sijmens (Cofidis), Jérome Pineau (Quick Step) and Francesco Reda (Quick Step) took off about 18km into the day, and quickly built up a lead which maxed out at 14:20 minutes.

But as the road then gradually went up and the first climbs of the day kicked in, the gap started to come down. Liquigas was at the head of the field and relentlessly drove things along. Everyone went smoothly up the day's first climb, the Sella Chianzutanis, a 10.65km long climb, with an average gradient of 5.4% and a maximum of 9%.

That was followed by the Passo Duron, a 4,45km long climb, with an average gradient of 9.5% and a maximum of 18%. That put the pain in riders' legs and the peloton started falling apart, as Liquigas-Doimo was also doing its best to decimate the field.

The peloton had dwindled to a favourites' group of about 25 by the time it hit the top, with Wiggins said to be about a minute behind. The group grew again on the descent, with Wiggins and Xavier Tondo (Cervelo), third overall, both getting back on, while the five remaining leaders crested the day's third climb with a lead of about three and a half minutes.

From there it was only a short dash and a brief moment for the riders to catch their breath before the climb to the summit of Monte Zoncolan. The 10.1km climb has an average gradient of 11,9%, with the maximum gradient reaching up to 22%. It was going to hurt and the rider's knew it, many of them fitting compact chain rings and lowest gears of 34x28 or even 34x29.

Up, up and away

The five in the leading group started the Zoncolan with a 3:20 gap. The favourites' group was still about 35 strong as it started the pursuit.

The climb started out gently but didn't stay that way long. The fans were not gentle either, with one reaching over the barrier and smacking Lampre rider Daniele Righi on the head.

The gap to the break fell quickly and the field started shedding riders as soon as the climb began to hurt. Le Floch was unable to stay up with the lead group and was the first to fall back.

Scarponi was the first to accelerate amongst the leaders, creating a front group, but then Basso picked up the tempo even more, and only Scarponi, Evans and Marco Pinotti (HTC-Columbia) were able to go with him. Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) did his best to chase the four escapees but lost ground and he was soon joined by Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Alexander Efimkin (AG2R) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), while Pinotti fell back from the Evans group as gradient began to really hurt the riders. Arroyo could watch the others pull away from him. Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) had dropped back earlier, but then working his way up with a controlled ride.

With 6 km still to go and heading into the 22% section, Basso picked up the tempo yet again, and although Evans went with him, Scarponi could not hold on. They soon caught and passed Turpin, the last of the escapees and were now fighting for the stage victory as well as trying to gain time

Basso tried to drop Evans on the hairpin curves, but the World Champion fought his way back every time, using his power out of the saddle, while Basso spun a seemingly lower gear sat comfortably in the saddle.

Vinokourov managed to lose his companions and was striking off for the front on his own but he was eventually passed by Cunego, who was motoring smoothly along at his own pace.

With 3.7 km to go, Basso once again tried to drop Evans and it worked this time. Evans was unable to stay with the Italian and on the 20% gradient, Basso was able to pull away. The Australian had cracked, while the Liquigas rider just kept on going, gaining time with every pedal stroke.

Arroyo was now on his own, having lost his final teammate Arnold Jeannesson. Yet the time gaps were not so great and the Spaniard knew he still had a good chance to hold on to the coveted jersey maglia rosa.

With about 2.5km to go, Evans dug deep and tried to make up some of the lost seconds on Basso. It wasn't to be, though, and he fell further behind as Basso got a cheer from the huge crowd at the summit of the climb. Three tunnels in the final kilometre provided Basso and all of the riders with a respite from the fans lining the road and literally covering the mountainside.

Basso steadily took the last turns into the football-stadium atmosphere, packed by thousands of fans, to took his first individual Giro stage win since 2006. Evans ground his way to second, 1:18 later, with Scarponi third at about 1:30. Cunego was less than two minutes down, and Vinokourov was not far behind him.

Basso won the first round and looked strong but he had knocked out any of his rivals. There is still another week of racing to go in this Giro and still other mountain finishes to climb before we know who will emerge as the final maglia rosa.