2010 Giro d'Italia, Stage 14 Results

Asolo, May 22: Another unpredictable day in which the pink jersey moved onto the shoulders of yet another rider.

For the third consecutive day a stage has been won by an Italian, this time by Vincenzo Nibali. Nibali, Basso, Scarponi and Evans were in the first group to cross the KoM Monte Grappa. Raining at the summit Nibali attacked on the descent on wet roads and had a half a minute advantage over the three by the time he reached the flat section of the course. He time trialed the last 15 km to victory. Cadel Evans on Nibali's descending: "He was a beast in the downhill."

"I feel gratified after my fall at Montalcino," said Nibali. "We proved that we could get control back of the race. Agnoli and Szmyd kept up a hellish pace. Ivan took a flight 500 meters from the finish line that made it perfectly clear to everyone that he's really in great shape. Personally, I am very happy and tomorrow will bring even more answers."

David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) is now the wearer of the pink jersey. Richie Porte, who was in pink at the start of the stage, struggled on Monte Grappa and crossed 4'45" back is now in 2nd place. Arroyo knows he is in for a difficult day tomorrow saying, "I'm ready to defend this jersey up on Zoncolan. I was there in 2007 (the year Simoni won), so I know that it's going to be a really challenging stage. A gigantic effort. Who will be the first to try? It doesn't really matter, everybody will attack me."

Alexandre Vinokourov believes taking the pink jersey away from Arroyo will be difficult saying, "Taking the pink jersey from Arroyo is not going to be easy because he won't be losing more than a minute or two."

With Scarponi and Evans having to do the chasing of Nibali, Basso was able to sit in and conserve some energy for tomorrow's very hard stage which will have several KoMs and includes the finish on Zoncolan (10 km at 12% and certain points at 22%).

Today's top 10:
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 4:57:51
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo -0:00:23
3 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
5 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:01:34
6 Branislau Samoilau (Blr) Quick Step 0:02:25
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank
8 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
9 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram
10 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team HTC - Columbia

Top 20: on GC after stage 14 (starting to look more as expected):
1 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 61:22:54
2 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Saxo Bank -0:00:39
3 Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:02:12
4 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Liquigas-Doimo 0:02:35
5 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 0:03:52
6 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:05:27
7 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:06:32
8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:06:51
9 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:07:15
10 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:07:26
11 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:07:43
12 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli 0:09:02
13 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team HTC - Columbia 0:10:23
14 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 0:10:45
15 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini 0:11:11
16 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:12:27
17 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quick Step 0:14:11
18 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank 0:14:21
19 Alexander Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale 0:14:26
20 Jan Bakelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:17:45

Photos (by Bettini)

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