Pozzovivo prevails in Brenzone

Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox) won a dramatic stage in the Giro del Trentino, distancing himself from all of the overall contenders on the final climb of the day, and putting himself in the leader’s jersey. It marked a significant turnaround from yesterday’s stage when the Italian was dropped and looked out of contention for the overall win.

The stage was destined to end in battle between the pure climbers due to the brutally steep Punta Veleno ascent topping out 2.5km from the finish and at the foot of the hors catégorie climb it was a mixture of Lampre-ISD and Liquigas-Cannondale who shared most of the work. Racing onto the early slopes of the 8.5km climb all bets were suddenly off when Liquigas’s duo of Ivan Basso and Valerio Agnoli plus Danilo Di Luca (Acqua & Sapone) followed a race motorbike through a wrong turn. As the average gradient of the climb is a leg-breaking 15 percent all three would have struggled to match the pocket-rocket, pint-sized climbers but in the confusion and hesitation the dynamic of the race changed with Liquigas-Cannondale drifting from the front.

The Androni Giocattoli team was briefly present with Jackson Rodriguez setting the pace but it was Pozzovivo who took charge. Sitting 1:03 down on GC behind race leader Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) the Italian knew he had to make early inroads. Frank was always likely to struggle but Pozzovivo also had to claw back time on Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD), Roman Kreuziger (Astana Pro Team) and Carlos Betancur (Acqua & Sapone).

The latter was easy enough, the Acqua & Sapone Colombian slipping back almost immediately after Pozzovivo’s initial acceleration. Lampre-ISD appeared to implode too, with Michele Scarponi also throwing in the towel.

José Rujano (Androni Giocattoli), Cunego, Pozzovivo, Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas-Cannondale), and Kreuziger had the bit between their teeth, with Frank searching around for the safety and security of teammate Marco Pinotti’s back wheel.

Rujano, never a rider to be counted on for consistency, blew first, with the leading four initially distancing themselves from the diminutive Venezuelan.

Pozzovivo took his cue, stamping away on some of the harder sections of the climb where the road's gradient increased to 20 percent to leave the rest gasping. Szmyd and Kreuziger kept tabs, with Cunego fighting to stay in contact, but the race was far from over as Pozzovivo held only a 10 meter gap for what seemed like an eternity.

Kreuziger was the next to crack, with Cunego sitting third on the road behind Pozzovivo and the impressive Szmyd.

Rujano briefly picked up Kreuziger but the Astana leader was only company for a short time before the Androni climber accelerated away, even dropping Cunego, before cracking again before the summit.

Up ahead, though, Pozzovivo was riding away to both the stage win and the overall lead, extending his margin second by second on a climb Cunego had called "worse than the Zoncolan". The race didn't finish at the Punta Veleno summit, however, and the Colnago-CSF Inox rider still had a short, tricky descent plus a false flat ascent to the finish in Brenzone. The 29-year-old Italian made quick work of the closing kilometres and punched his fist in the air as he crossed the line for his first win of the 2012 season.

"Today is a great day for me, I managed to keep calm and keep up the pace I wanted," said Pozzovivo. "The [final] climb was so hard that I had to use the 34x29 and only in view of the GPM I switched to the 34x27. With the team we were able to control the situation and when I attacked I immediately made a difference."

Szmyd was second over the line, 23 seconds down, but with Kreuziger struggling all eyes were on Cunego’s time. The Italian was over a minute behind at the top of the climb and with bonus seconds at the finish and only 50 seconds on Pozzovivo before the start of the stage it was unlikely that the Lampre leader’s better descending skills would be enough.

And so it proved, with Cunego home in third, 1:12 down on the winner and 25 seconds behind Pozzovivo in GC. Szmyd moved into third overall at 49 seconds with Kreuziger now in fourth one second behind the Pole. Overnight leader Mathias Frank dropped to fifth at 1:42 with one stage remaining.

The Giro del Trentino concludes tomorrow with another mountain finish as the 177.5km stage ends atop the category 1 Passo Pordoi. "It's a different slope and the team will have to work on the stretch of plain before the Pordoi" said Pozzovivo. "Surely there will be attacks and Kreuziger especially scares me. I'm fine and I'm ready to do battle."

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