Giro d’Italia Stage 13 – Flat, Fast & Perfect for Team Columbia-Highroad

Mark Cavendish pulls another trick out of the hat and wins todays stage. He did it today differently than his other two wins in the Giro d’Italia so far. Mark was back in the pack something like 6-7 riders deep. Usually he’s right up front and right behind his teammates. Today however, he was not. At least not until the end when Edvald Boasson Hagen and Mark Renshaw drove the killer to the front. This happened in the last 50 seconds of the stage. Talk about playing the game on the edge!

I have located the finish of the stage over at YouTube and loaded it up here. Unless you understand Italian, go ahead and turn down you speakers. Or, leave them up and listen to the language, you just might learn something:

Todays general classification did not change so you won’t be seeing the stats for that below. I will however show todays stage results. I was informed yesterday that I spelled Denis with two N’s. Sorry about the typo, I must have been excited about something and fat fingered the keyboard. Speaking of Denis Menchov, he still thinks he can hold on to the jersey all the way into Rome. Fat chance Denis!

Levi and Danilo will have something to say about that. In my opinion, Levi’s team Astana is much stronger than Danilo Di Luca’s team LPR. If you look at the stats for each of the teams, you clearly see that Astana is well suited for the remainder of the tour. Three tough mountain stages will prove Levi is up to the task. Now the real Giro d’Italia will begin. Wouldn’t you want to have Lance Armstrong as your super domestique? I know I sure would…

That’s it for tonight! Here’s todays results:

Giro d'Italia Stage 13 Results

By the way, Lance finished the stage in 94th place in the pack. Of course, like I said Earlier, the General Classification did not change, so no stats on that today. See you tomorrow – Go Team Astana (Or whatever your name will be)!

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Giro d’Italia/Tour of Italy 2009 Stage 12 – Go Levi & Lance!

Today was the test of all test in the Giro d’Italia! A 60 km time-trial that would surely kick just about anyones ass! Todays stage was everything you could ever want in a professional bike race. I managed to get a hold of a video on Levi Leipheimer, Lance Armstrong, Dennis Menchov and even a little bit of footage on Danilo Di Luca:

Lance Armstrong really is coming into form from this race. I could only imagine how well he’d be doing right now if he hadn’t crashed and broke his collar bone a while back. Of course, I wasn’t to surprised at Dennis Menchov and his performance today. The three mountain stages coming up will tell us a little more about how well to form he really is. Danilo Di Luca Fell back a little and lost the pink jersey today which also didn’t surprise me. Over confident people like that will inevitably fall.

What did surprise me today is that Levi didn’t win the stage! I am hoping that he will kick ass on the mountain stages coming up and take the pink jersey from Dennis Menchov. It sure would be nice to see an American take both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour De France. Let’s check out the carnage after todays stage. I sure do like where Levi is now sitting in the General classification. 3rd ain’t to shabby and only 40 seconds down from the leader. Lance Armstrong moved up to 12th overall and is only 6:34 behind the race leader. Not bad for a guy who is coming out of a 3 year retirement and is 37 years old.

OVERALL STAGE RESULTS AND GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

Stage 12 Results

Lance Armstrong at 2:26 behind the stage winner is phenomenal. Good job today Lance and keep climbing that ladder to the top!

General Classification After Stage 12

One last thing to note about the video above. Lance really looked like he is riding into great form. You can start to see he’s beginning to dance on the peddles in a form that only Lance can do best. Count his revolutions and you’ll see what I mean. Up hill at approximately 95 revolutions per minute. Its hard to count when the video cuts out the way that it normally does in the trees, but I managed to catch a section that allowed me to count it out.

What did you think about todays stage? CrankyBike.Com wants to know. Leave me a comment! Until tomorrow – Keep Crankin’…

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Giro d’Italia / Tour of Italy 2009 – Stage 10 – Climb of Pra’ Martino

Todays race was quite the spectacle since the Giro took the day off yesterday and the fiasco on Sunday. I’m still a little tweaked over the outcome. But that still doesn’t stop me from watching and writing about the Giro d’Italia. So, today I thought, why not show some video footage I discovered on YouTube. Your in for a treat today as I have two very important parts of the race for viewing. Here is the first one – Pra’ Martino…

What a great part of the race to get on CrankyBike.com! I hope to be able to bring you more videos as the race progresses. If you watch the beginning of the video, you can see just in the background, Lance pumping away on the cranks. If you know anything about Lance, if you see his peddle style, you’ll know what kind of shape he is in. The way he is looking now tells me he will be a force of reckoning in the Tour De France. Next video is the final kilometers of the stage. Enjoy!

All that’s left is to show you the results of Stage 10:

Stage 10 Results

And Finally…

General Classification after Stage 10

It was a great day for Astana in my opinion. Lance moved up from 25th to 18th. I’d like to see him place in the top 15. When we get to the time trial, I think we are going to see Levi fly and Lance is going to tap it out for an even higher finish come the day we show up in Rome! That’s it from CrankyBike…

I forgot to mention that I was trying to set up the site to do a live feed. I didn’t quite work out the way that I’d hoped it would. That’s Ok. We will have it ready by the close of the Giro and will be ready for the great show coming up in July.

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Petacchi Takes Stage 2 – He’s Back…

Alessandro Petacchi took first in todays stage of the Giro De Italia. I guess its true that Mark Cavendish can be beaten!

Alessandro Petacchi

Below is the top 10 from todays stage race:

1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) LPR Brakes – Farnese Vini 3.43.07 (41.951 km/h)
2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia – Highroad
3 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Katusha
4 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step
5 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Slipstream
6 Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD
7 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C.
8 Davide Vigano (Ita) Fuji-Servetto
9 Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C.
10 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step

My favorites:

42 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
97 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana
37 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin – Slipstream
53 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas
119 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana

That’s just a few of the ones I like!

General classification after stage 2

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia – Highroad 4.04.43
2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia – Highroad 0.14
3 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia – Highroad
4 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia – Highroad
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Columbia – Highroad
6 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Slipstream 0.16
7 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) LPR Brakes – Farnese Vini
8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin – Slipstream 0.20
9 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream
10 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0.27

Levi is in 18th and 40 seconds behind the leaders jersey. Overall, I’m ecstatic over the results so far.
The fact that Lance is up there in the top 10 is incredible. It gives me the indication that he is going to absolutely fly in the Tour De France!

If you want much more information, head over to CyclingNews.Com!
Enjoy!

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