2014 Giro d'Italia Stage 11 Results & Recap
Stage 11 of the 2014 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo) won stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia with a daring attack on the final descent to win ahead of the chasing peloton in Savona. The 34-year-old finished 10 second clear of the pack with Simon Geschke (Team Giant-Shimano) and Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani-CSF) taking second and third, respectively.
The win marked Rogers’ first success since his return to the sport following his positive test for Clenbuterol last autumn. The Australian had spent several months on the sidelines trying to clear his name before the UCI eventually absolved the rider and he made his 2014 racing debut at Liège - Bastogne - Liège.
The Giro d’Italia was meant to give Rogers valuable racing time between now and the Tour de France but when the GC contenders began to watch each other on the final secondary category climb before the finish in today's stage Rogers seized the opportunity.
Attacking with gusto he quickly established a 40 second lead on the technical descent to Savona. Giant-Shimano and Trek Factory Racing mustered a chase but Cadel Evans and his BMC teammates crucially only came to the front to keep the pace steady rather than electric. This move, coupled with Rogers’s own ability to ride solo, gave the Australian all he needed. And for Evans he retained his overall lead and perhaps made another ally in Tinkoff-Saxo, something that could be crucial in the days ahead with Rafal Majka sitting in third overall.
"It was a great opportunity for me and I was able to take advantage of it. It was a spur of the moment decision. I saw on top of the climb that all the contenders of the GC were looking at each other, and the possibility opened up and I took it,” Rogers told the press after his win.
The breakaway league
All eyes were on the breakaway this morning. With the time trial tomorrow all the overall contenders were willing to sit back, while the two categorised climbs effectively ended the sprinters’ hopes before they had even begun. Considering that only one long break had succeeded all race it was little wonder that so many riders tried to escape into the move of the day.
It led to a frantic opening phase of race action with move after move zipping clear before an inevitable catch would be made.
There was worse news for Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEdge) and Fabian Wegmann (Garmin-Sharp), who both crashed out; the Australian with a suspected broken collar bone and the Garmin rider with a serious leg injury.
Eventually a break succeeded, and 14 riders forged clear with the peloton exhausted. Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani), Moreno Moser (Cannondale), Francis Mourey (FDJ), Jan Polanc (Lampre), Yonathan Monsalve (Nero Sottoli), Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar), Romain Sicard (Europcar), Björn Thurau (Europcar), Georg Preidler (Giant-Shimano), Daniel Moreno (Katusha), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Phililp Deignan (Sky), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo) had 30 seconds after 86 kilometres of racing and Mourey the closest threat to Evans at nearly eight minutes down.
The script was written and one from 14 would eventually climb onto the podium. Only Gianni Savio had different ideas and the man who has seen plenty of Giro scripts burn to ashes in the past set about cracking the whip and ordering his men to chase. How dare they not make the move of the day, was his rationale, and with 100 kilometres to go the leaders had less than five-minutes over the peloton.
Even a crash in the bunch and some questioning from the race leader himself couldn’t persuade Androni to ease up, and with 53 kilometres to go the gap had dropped to a morale sapping 2:15.
Final climb, final hopes dashed
What should have been a launch pad for a possible stage victory turned out to be a race of survival and little more with Bongiorno the first to attack from the break as they reached the lower slopes of the final climb. Roche countered with Moreno but Arredondo who had won maximum points on the first climb and who leads the competition was on the march once again.
In the big ring he jumped from the bunch, brushing past the remnants of the break as he soloed to the head of the race. Only Preidler could give chase as Roche and the rest of the break began to slip backwards and into the clutches of the BMC led peloton.
Franco Pellizotti managed a brief move to somewhat justify Androni’s earlier workload, but even when the Italian linked up with a move that included Pierre Rolland the bunch were closing. Arredondo managed to hold on and win the points atop the climb but containment seemed to be the order of the day for BMC and Omega Pharma led on the descent.
Rogers had his own script, or rather one with annotations and alternations from the morning and with Savio’s men exiting stage right and the set clear for a final act, the Australian moved centre stage, under the spotlight, and hung on for the applause. There’s even a remote chance of a possible encore in tomorrow’s individual time trial.
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