Giro d'Italia 2008 - Stage Fourteen

The 2008 Giro d'Italia started from Palermo, southern Italy on May 10 and is held over 21 stages until June 1.

Stage 14 - May 24 Erona - Alpe Di Pampeago/Val Di Fiemme 195km

The peloton tackled the first day in the Dolomites with the specialist climbers coming to the fore and Emanuele Sella coming home alone to win atop of Alpe de Pampeago - more

Denis Menchov (Rabobank) attacked the group containing many of the race favourites. Behind him came Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval), Danilo Di Luca (LPR) , Alberto Contador, Andreas Klöden and Levi Leipheimer, all Astana, whilst Gabriele Bosisio (LPR) takes over the pink jersey.

Lampre

Marzio Bruseghin said - "My legs were hard because of the cold, I was not in a perfect condition. So, when the best riders began the last climb at full speed, I preferred to keep my pace: it was the right decision".

Mircoze Lorenzetto had to abandon after a fall in the first part of the stage.

Erik Zabel remained with teammates Marco Velo and Matej Jurco in the main field riding near race leader Giovanni Visconti, who wore the leader's pink jersey for his QuickStep team. But as the race went on, the trio were unable to hold the high pace.

We assume Zabel is looking to see how many of the younger sprinters fade in the mountains?

Rabobank very much believe that Denis Menchov was the moral winner on the stage.

Up to this point menchov has kept quiet not only in action but also words to the press, but on this stage it was his pace that saw cracks appear in some of the favourites.

Rabobank say that Menchov showed that he is on schedule for the Tour de France, but more importantly, on schedule for a good Giro.

Team boss Erik Breukink said - "This is promising, but it already looked promising before based on the way he was riding. At the moment there really is no one that rises above the rest. The differences are small. In the end today as well. Whether Denis could have broken away earlier if he was doing so well? No, that is up to his intuition. It was already heavy enough, and he could only keep one tempo. With regard to the others, I think that Mauricio rode exceptionally well. And it is very praiseworthy and important that Dmitriy's performances are becoming increasingly better with the final week just around the corner. The others just had a fine finish."

Sprinter, Graeme Brown mean while pulled out of the race when the climbing started.

It was not such a good day for Ricardo Ricco - ""I didn´t sleep well last night because I have a slight cold. This is why I couldn´t stand out today, but I did well. I hope the weather´s fine tomorrow so that I can do everything to get to the top. Today I had breathing troubles in the last climb, which affected my performance, but my place on the GC is fine, I think."

Christian Vande Velde showed good form and placed 16th on the stage, all though this only moved him up one place in the overall classification to 15th, he is now only three minutes down in overall time. Only five minutes separate the top 20 riders.

“Super ride today by Christian with 4,500 meters of climbing!” said Directeur Sportif Matt White.

“Unfortunately Pat McCarty had to pull out today due to bronchitis. He will be missed and has been a great teammate here.”

Vasil Kiryenka placed second on the stage and drew praise from his DS - "We are in seventh heaven after what he did today. It was such a difficult stage and an important one."

Stage winner Matteo Priamo who was involved in two ugly falls has a broken right elbow.

Sports director Kim Andersen.said of the day - "Jens (Voight) was up front for a long time and showed great strength and generally speaking I definitely think our effort today was good. The climb towards the finish line was extremely steep and Gustav Larsson fell a bit short. There's no doubt he's better on the long less steep climbs. Chris and Nicki Sorensen did well also until Menchov split the favorite's group and when the pace increased they couldn't keep up. It's been a tremendously tough race so far and it's no wonder all the riders are feeling a bit worn out now."

Click on Map to enlarge

The second day in the Dolomites and once more there will be two races - the first for the stage and the second for overall race victory.

Six serious climbs await the riders - probably the most spectacular mountains in the Giro d'Italia featuring the Passo Pordoi, Passo San Pellegrino, Passo Giau, Passo Falzarego and Passo Fedeia.