It’s great to see how all of the town deck themselves out in pink to celebrate the Giro, but it’s been wonderful to see so many remembrances of Wouter Weylandt who died while racing in the Giro. This particular one was done in post-it notes on a garage door.
Wouter Weylandt 1984-2011
Fans clubs have been turning up to celebrate many of the Italians on the pro-continental teams.
It was yet another rain soaked day at the Giro. I didn’t even bother to get out my regular camera and instead used my waterproof one that I usually only save for the beach!
Tom Stamsnijder of Giant Alpecin
All but the last 20 or so cyclists will set off individually at one minute intervals. Here Bert De Backer and Jussi Veikkanen approach the finish line just about equal even though De Backer started nearly 2 minutes ahead of Veikkanen.
Bert De Backer and Jussi Veikkanen finish side by side. Are those grimaces or smiles?
Predictably, Greipel, Boonen, and Matthews abandoned the race overnight. From here on out, there’s not much point for the sprinters to kill themselves hauling their bulky bodies over enormous mountains. Just a handful of the fast men have decided to stick around.
Moreno Hofland of Lotto Jumbo
Elia Viviani of Team Sky wearing the red kit of the sprint leader
Luka Mezgec won the final stage of the 2014 Giro in Milan
For a good chunk of the riders today, the goal was simply to limit their loses or to conserve energy to help their leaders in the upcoming mountain stages.
Alan Marongoni
Caleb Fairly
Kevin Reza
Janier Acevedo
American TT specialist Chad Haga was too fast for me and my camera, slotting into 2nd place provisionally behind Luke Durbridge and ultimately finishing 19th on the stage
Tobias Ludvigsson
Vasil Kiryienka, the stone faced Belarusian of Team Sky, thundered up and down the course, setting new best times at every intermediate time check and landed himself in the hot seat with the overall fastest time of 1:17:52. With many of the stage favorites and GC contenders yet to finish, he waited to see if his time would hold up.
Kiryienka averaged 45.771kph over the 59.4k course
Brent Bookwalkter
Adam Hansen
Jesus Herrada
French TT champion, Sylvain Chavanel
Simon Clarke
Benat Intxausti in the blue KOM kit
Diego Ulissi
Carlos Betancur has ridden aggressively in the Giro
I was cheering for Ryder Hesjedal and kind of forgot to take a decent photo
Amael Moinard
Richie Porte’s goal of landing on the top step in Milan never seems to have gotten off the ground and the Aussie TT champion bled more time today
There was huge support for Davide Formolo on the road today as the Italian rider borrowed the best young rider kit from race leader Fabio Aru
Costa Rica’s Andrey Amador has enjoyed a great Giro so far and today leapfrogged in the GC from 8th to 3rd place after a strong TT
Colombian TT champion Rigoberto Uran went from 6th to 4th on GC after stage 14
With just a few riders still out on the road, Kiryienka’s victory was pretty much wrapped up. Contador, while riding strongly, wasn’t going to touch Kiryienka’s time, though he was succeeding in his primary objective of putting time into Fabio Aru.
Alberto Contador managed to pass Mikel Landa who had set out 3 minutes ahead of the Spaniard
Landa, one of Aru’s right hand men, slid from 3rd to 7th in GC after a mediocre TT
Aru started the TT with 19 seconds advantage on Contador. When the rising Italian star crossed the finish line, he had lost the maglia rosa and 2:28 to Contador.
Fabio Aru in the maglia rosa
Today was a painful day for Aru, but the Giro isn’t over yet. With a series of demanding mountain stages still to go, Tinkoff and Astana are sure to continue their tug-of-war all the way to Milan.