Cyclingnews

May 26, Stage 17: Brunico - Pejo Terme 173km

Monier finally gets first pro win in Pejo Terme

By:

Les Clarke

Published:

May 26, 2010, 15:09,

Updated:

May 26, 2010, 17:55

Better late than never for Cofidis rider

Photos

While the big guns shone on the slopes of Plan de Corones yesterday, today's 173km stage was a fruitful hunting ground for a relative unknown 27-year-old from Clermont-Ferrant, France, as Cofidis rider Damien Monier prevailed on what was arguably the most controlled stage of this year's Giro.

Monier was the strongest survivor of a 19-rider break that spent 125km off the front of the peloton, his toils rewarded with a smack of pink lipstick on the podium and a well-deserved swig of champagne that must have tasted so sweet after such an effort on what proved to be a relatively tough day in the saddle.

He was forced to work hard for the win by the likes of Danilo Hondo (who happened to be climbing very well today), Rabobank's Steven Kruijswijk and Omega Pharma-Lotto rider Daniel Moreno, who finished second, third and fourth respectively.

The win is Cofidis' first at this year's Giro although Monier, who is in his eighth year as a professional rider, said the squad's barren run hasn't been for a lack of trying. "We're [Cofidis riders] in the breaks [at this Giro] and we had to take the opportunity," he said after the stage. "This is a great win for the team."

The victory is also Monier's first as a professional during the fourth Grand Tour of his career, having ridden the 2008 Giro plus the 2007 and '09 editions of the Vuelta a España. His best result hitherto at the Giro had been 26th during the '08 edition, although coincidentally he equalled that on yesterday's Plan de Corones TT.

Meanwhile, behind the Frenchman the major general classification contenders spent most of the day admiring each other as Caisse d'Epargne and Liquigas-Doimo provided the peloton with a relative armchair ride from Brunico to Pejo Terme, the two squads protecting overall leader David Arroyo and second-placed Ivan Basso respectively.

'Cause you gotta have faith, faith, faith...

After a solid performance in yesterday's Plan de Corones uphill time trial that kept him in the maglia rosa for another day, David Arroyo's race leadership meant the Caisse d'Epargne squad did much of the pace making today. The boys in black (the Spanish ones, not the British) were taking a leaf from George Michael's songbook and keeping the faith on the front of the peloton.

Up ahead, 19 escapees got away with 125km remaining and had opened up a gap of 11:26 as the bunch hit the day's main climb, the Passo delle Palade. It was a significant group that included Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing), Alexander Efimkin (AG2R-La Mondiale), Carlos Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli) and Roman Kireyev (Astana), plus stage five protagonist Yukiya Arashiro (BBox Bouygues Telecom).

They had Andrei Amador (Caisse d'Epargne), Ignatus Konovalovas (Cervélo), Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Monier and Simone Stortoni (Colnago-CSF Inox) for company, plus Hondo and teammate Marco Marzano, Moreno, Kruijswijk and Team Sky's Steven Cummings, while Vicente Reynes (HTC-Columbia), Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Markus Fothen (Milram) and Nicki Sorensen (Saxo Bank) all had invites to the party up front.

Halfway up the Palade the gap had dropped a couple of notches to 9:27, although it remained a fairly big buffer given the size of the group. With the Caisse-led peloton keeping an eye on who posed a threat (and apparently none were detected) the gap decreased further to 8:49 with 68km remaining.

But as the break hit the long, gradual climb up to Peio Terme the gap had swung back up to 9:11 and continued to grow, reaching 9:41 when the 19 men had 34km left to race. From this point onwards the big bunch made no real inroads on the break's advantage, content to take a rest after yesterday's toils and let the guys up front fight for the day's line honours.

Squabbles for the scraps

It wouldn't be a break with Mikhail Ignatiev present if the Russian didn't hit out with an attack and he obliged with 28km to go, putting 14 seconds into the break, although it was fairly timid by his standards.

Eight kilometres later Nicki Sørensen had had enough of leaving the Russian off the front of the group and instigated a call to arms, to which his breakaway companions responded. It set off a series of counter attacks as the opportunists realised their time had come and were lining up for a slice of the action.

And with sprinters such as Duque and Hondo plus the speedy Cummings, it was going to take a brave effort to hold off these fast men who possess quite a kick, so when Daniel Moreno went with just 14km remaining, he made sure it was hard, fast and he wasn't looking back.

Chased by Hondo, Kruijswijk and Monier, the former Caisse d'Epargne rider managed to accumulate a 20-second lead in two kilometres... but would it be enough?

A kilometre later that question was answered, and as Moreno was reabsorbed by the trio of Hondo, Kruijswijk and Monier the aforementioned Cummings tried his luck on a search mission for the missing Spaniard. He found him in 'no man's land' with six kilometres remaining but by then the leading three had put more than 30 seconds into the escape group.

And with the last 9.5km coming at an average gradient of 4.2 percent it wasn't an ideal finale for Hondo, although it wasn't unfeasible that the German, who had looked strong throughout the previous 20km, could prevail. But just as looked like the Lampre veteran was in with a fighting chance, Monier flew the coop with three kilometres to go, a reaction from his German and Dutch rivals not quickly forthcoming.

In reality the Frenchman was the best-credentialed of the three riders to take victory given the moderately challenging finish and so it was, the Cofidis rider sealing the deal in the final kilometre as he was afforded the pleasure of a victory salute, his first as a professional.

The peloton finished 9:52 in arrears of the shattered break, with a little bit of forcing from Basso's teammates over the final three kilometres, on a day that will serve riders well heading into the final four days of tough racing.

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