SBS finally came to the party and showed stage 9 of the Giro live (well from 11:25pm onwards missing more than the first half of the race) SBS picked up the broadcast as the race started to heat up, a break was up the road and were starting to look as though they may just have a chance to take the stage, maybe!
The last 18km or so of todays stage went up the side of the currently “waiting to explode” volcanoe Mt Etna. The final climb was the hardest of the day after the peleton took in a different route over the mountain early in the stage (Riding twice over a smoking volcanoe – epic!)
The break was down to 3 men on the last climb with the favourites bunch a few minutes back, a couple of solo breaks, including a strong break by what looked like a muscular skinny midget from Argentina named José Rujano Guillen who looked perfectly suited to smashing out tempo on a steep mountain climb.
It was the race favourite Alberto CUNTODOR who took the initiative and smashed the Bejuses out of the other favourites with a big ring attack that left everyone searching for answers. Scarfacedpony answered the call and managed to get onto Cuntodor’s wheel before pistelero attacked again and basically blew scarface backwards into the peleton.
From there it was a formality as Cuntodor set a decent tempo over the final 3km with José Guillen holding on for dear life before Alberto got bored and took off for home also leaving the Midget argentinian searching wondering where Cuntodor was keeping his MOTOR.
In the end Cuntodor was far far to strong for anyone else in the field who were made to look like B grade Neo Pro’s in comparison. It will be very very hard to see anyone coming near Alberto over the next couple of weeks and in my opinion he will end up winning the tour by 3 or 4 minutes if not a lot more.
Why would Alberto attack so early in the tour? I think he may be trying to get an unassailable lead before the final week’s riding where he can sit back and take it easy, saving his legs for the Tour De France. Either that or he just got bored and decided today was a good day to make everyone else look lame.
I dont much like the guy but you have to admire his final dominant climb over Mt Etna today! Brilliant – reminded me of Marco Pantani
STAGE 9 HIGHLIGHTS (sorry cant find a decent highlight package that will let me embed the video into a post)
Image Care of RCS
STAGE RESULTS
| 1 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard | 4:54:09 | |
| 2 | José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Androni Giocattoli | 0:00:03 | |
| 3 | Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone | 0:00:50 | |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | ||
| 5 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana | ||
| 6 | David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team | ||
| 7 | Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Highroad | ||
| 8 | Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi | 0:00:59 | |
| 9 | John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:01:07 | |
| 10 | Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | ||
| 11 | Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Team Garmin-Cervelo | ||
| 12 | Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD | ||
| 13 | Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Movistar Team | ||
| 14 | Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | ||
| 15 | Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Androni Giocattoli | ||
| 16 | Jesús Hernandez Blazquez (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard | 0:01:13 | |
| 17 | Francesco Masciarelli (Ita) Pro Team Astana | 0:01:22 | |
| 18 | Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quickstep Cycling Team | 0:01:30 | |
| 19 | Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre – ISD | 0:01:45 | |
| 20 | Emanuele Sella (Ita) Androni Giocattoli | 0:02:09 |
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 9
| 1 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard | 33:03:51 | |
| 2 | Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Highroad | 0:00:59 | |
| 3 | Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:01:19 | |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:01:21 | |
| 5 | Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD | 0:01:28 | |
| 6 | David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:01:37 | |
| 7 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana | 0:01:41 | |
| 8 | Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Androni Giocattoli | 0:01:47 | |
| 9 | Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quickstep Cycling Team | 0:02:21 | |
| 10 | Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | ||
| 11 | Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi | ||
| 12 | Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Movistar Team | 0:02:30 | |
| 13 | Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone | 0:02:39 | |
| 14 | Francesco Masciarelli (Ita) Pro Team Astana | 0:02:49 | |
| 15 | John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:02:55 | |
| 16 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:02:56 | |
| 17 | Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:02:57 | |
| 18 | Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Pro Team Astana | 0:03:15 | |
| 19 | Emanuele Sella (Ita) Androni Giocattoli | 0:03:17 | |
| 20 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Geox-TMC | 0:03:18 |
KOM
| 1 | Filippo Savini (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox | 16 | pts |
| 2 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard | 15 | |
| 3 | Bart De Clercq (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 11 | |
| 4 | Martin Kohler (Swi) BMC Racing Team | 10 | |
| 5 | Federico Canuti (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox | 9 | |
| 6 | José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Androni Giocattoli | 9 | |
| 7 | Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team | 9 | |
| 8 | Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox | 8 | |
| 9 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana | 8 | |
| 10 | Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone | 8 |
POINTS
| 1 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard | 65 | pts |
| 2 | Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre – ISD | 64 | |
| 3 | Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 53 | |
| 4 | Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD | 42 | |
| 5 | Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Androni Giocattoli | 42 | |
| 6 | Oscar Gatto (Ita) Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli | 37 | |
| 7 | Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone | 37 | |
| 8 | Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Movistar Team | 36 | |
| 9 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 36 | |
| 10 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana | 34 |
SPRINTS
| 1 | Jan Bakelants (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 10 | pts |
| 2 | Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Movistar Team | 5 | |
| 3 | Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale | 5 | |
| 4 | Martin Kohler (Swi) BMC Racing Team | 5 | |
| 5 | Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Quickstep Cycling Team | 5 | |
| 6 | Sebastian Lang (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 5 | |
| 7 | Mirko Selvaggi (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | 5 | |
| 8 | Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Saxo Bank Sungard | 5 | |
| 9 | Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli | 4 | |
| 10 | Marco Marzano (Ita) Lampre – ISD | 4 |
YOUNG RIDER
| 1 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana | 33:05:32 | |
| 2 | Francesco Masciarelli (Ita) Pro Team Astana | 0:01:08 | |
| 3 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:01:15 | |
| 4 | Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Pro Team Astana | 0:01:34 | |
| 5 | Jan Bakelants (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 0:04:10 | |
| 6 | Kevin Seeldraeyers (Bel) Quickstep Cycling Team | 0:04:22 | |
| 7 | Peter Stetina (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:15:04 | |
| 8 | Stefano Pirazzi (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox | 0:16:05 | |
| 9 | Cayetano José Sarmiento Tunarrosa (Col) Acqua & Sapone | 0:17:06 | |
| 10 | Marcel Wyss (Swi) Geox-TMC | 0:19:56 |
TEAMS
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