Giro: Weening Takes the Day

In a day that was all about trying to return to competition, Pieter Weening stole everyone's thunder with a clever attack followed by timely patience.

Weening chased down solo rider Martin Kohler with just under 10 km to go to essentially steal the stage away from the Swiss rider who had managed to stay out front for most of the day. He had managed to fight off the terrain and the dust, but just could not overcome Weening chasing him down as the kilometers counted down.

If there is one thing to define this stage, most riders would tell you it was the dust. It made breathing, navigating, and focusing very difficult (especially on the strade bianche) and disrupted the efforts of many of the riders.

Among those claimed by the stage was David Millar, who really had a rough day. He was caught up in an incident going for an intermediate sprint, but managed to recover only to get dropped from the main field, ending his time in pink and any title hopes he may have had. There was an even scarier moment as the race drew towards a close.

Weening's Rabobank teammate Tom Slagter suffered a hard crash that was very similar looking to the tragic accident that claimed the life of Wouter Weylandt just 2 days earlier, but fortunately Slagter was able to bounce back. He abandoned the race, but appears relatively unharmed. Many of the other race contenders (Contador, Scarponi, Menchov, Rodriguez among them) grouped together at the end and finished just 8 seconds behind Weening, well within striking distance.

Pieter should enjoy his time in pink while it lasts, because surely he won't keep it for long. Tomorrow's finish should allow for a bit of separation in the field again, and it may be another good day for a breakaway. The leaders are still somewhat content marking each other, but Scarponi's late attack today shows that they will soon be ramping up their efforts and trying to gain the early advantage after the first week of racing.