The 5th stage of the Giro d’Italia -- Tour of Italy -- passed through Barga this afternoon in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd lining through the roads around the city as the athletes sped on their way along the 152km stretch from La Spezia to Abetone.
The main road up to Abetone from the bottom of the valley is 17km -- a long climb -- it appears to go on forever, and will come as an unpleasant shock to riders who have up until this point only had to deal with far shorter climbs.
The gradient is equally relentless, ramping up to seven per cent after 4.5km and staying that way for the entire climb, barring the final 3km. By that point, the riders will be so exhausted they’re unlikely to feel any difference.
-- source
With victory at the Giro d’Italia 2014, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) became the first Colombian to win the race, but decided not to return to defend his title in 2015 as he concentrates on the Tour de France later on in July.
In his absence, the favourite for the race is undoubtedly Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), who already has six Grand Tour overall victories to his name.
The Giro d’Italia -- Tour of Italy is an annual stage race bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries.
The race was first organised in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport; however it is currently run by RCS Sport.
The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909, except when it was stopped for the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world.
Androni-Giacattoli’s Serghei Tvetcov had done everything right in the first 100km of stage five in the Giro d’Italia – he got himself in the five man breakaway and was working hard on the front.
But on the winding descent from Barga, with 52km remaining to the finish up in Abetone, the Romanian went a little off piste, taking a right turn when the road actually swept round to the left.
It looks as if the rider realised his mistake as he sped towards a safety barrier on the corner, but couldn’t do anything about it. Eventually he ended up on the grass, unclipping rather uncomfortably and quickly getting back on the right path.
His unstylish dismount resulted in him breaking his left shoe in some way, with the Androni-Giacattoli mechanic forced to hang out of the team car and apply wrap some electrical tape around the offending area.
Fortunately, Tvetcov was able to make it back to his breakawy partners, who held a lead of over nine minutes with 35km remaining. -- source
Stage 5 Results
SLO 1 POLANC, Jan (LAMPRE -- MERIDA) 4:09:18
FRA 2 CHAVANEL, Sylvain (IAM CYCLING) + 1:31
ITA 3 ARU, Fabio (ASTANA)
ESP 4 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF -- SAXO)
AUS 5 PORTE, Richie (SKY)
ESP 6 LANDA MEANA, Mikel (ASTANA) + 1:44
ITA 7 CATALDO, Dario (ASTANA) + 1:53
RUS 8 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA)
ITA 9 CARUSO, Damiano (BMC RACING)
COL 10 ATAPUMA HURTADO, Darwin (BMC RACING)