After yesterday we should have all probably expected it. The best rider in cycling was hungry for a big win, and would not be denied a second time. In fact, he wanted to win so much that he not only took stage 9 but put a massive gap between himself and his nearest chasers and really grabbed this race by the horns.
The day started like any other with an early breakaway, but just as the field hit Mt Etna with under 7 km to go, Contador made his move and blew the entire race apart. Scarponi desperately tried to follow, but was soon dropped. Jose Rujano was the only man able to stick with Contador, but he was no threat to the GC so Contador was content to drag him until the finish.
Contador had no problem cruising for the stage victory, but even more importantly he distanced himself quite a bit to his nearest rivals.50 seconds on Nibali, Kreuzinger, and Sivtsov
1:07 on Le Mevel and Scarponi
2:16 on Menchov and 2:21 on Rodriguez
Is it game over? Well, as a pseudo-media source that wants to have people continue to watch the Giro I'm inclined to say no...but yea, probably. Unless Contador encounters a problem of some sort I can't see anyone really catching him at this point. With Menchov essentially out of the picture it would take probably 2 determined efforts by either Nibali or Scarponi to make up the time, and although they are certainly capable of bringing the pain, I just can't see Contador dropping that much time.
No comments:
Post a Comment