2012 Tirreno-Adriatico, Stage 5 Results

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas Cannondale) won the 5th stage of Tirreno–Adriatico, Martinsicuro to Prati di Tivo, 196 km. He became the first Italian to win a stage in this edition after stage victories by Australia's GreenEdge, England's Mark Cavendish, Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen and Slovakia's Peter Sagan.

Finishing 2nd and 3rd were Roman Kreuziger (Astana Pro Team) and Christopher Horner (RadioShack Nissan Trek). Horner retained the Maglia Azzurra of race leader but has a slim GC margin now leading Kreuziger by only 5 seconds and Nibali by 12 seconds.

Nibali attacked his small lead group of companions with 4 km to the finish. Horner had to do some quick decision making, "In the final kilometers when Nibali went, I had to decide which card to play since there were so many bonus seconds available on the line. If I chased Nibali too hard but faded at the end, Kreuziger would have gained more seconds than just the bonus seconds, so I decided to give away something to Nibali to better protect the jersey.”

After the stage Nibali expressed his feelings about losing yesterday's stage in Chieti, "I worked off my anger over Chieti on the bike. Poor Sagan. He was so upset over what had happened that even during the race he kept on asking me if I was angry with him".

"The time trial on Tuesday against Horner and Kreuziger will be a great battle," said Nibali. "I am in great shape and I am very optimistic but 12 seconds is a lot to recover."

Chris Horner is also thinking about the time trial on Tuesday, "Kreuziger and I are very close in the standings, it will be a really good battle in the time trial on Tuesday. I think the victory will go to one of us. I have to concentrate on going strong for 9 km."

For the readers that are interested in performance statistics: Nibali took 38 minutes 53 seconds to complete the final climb of 14.6 km (coming at the end of a 196 km stage) at an average speed of 22.53 km/h. His VAMM (average ascent speed) over an ascent of 1030 metees was 1589 meters/hour, for an average power of 370 watts, which means around 5.6 watt/kg. The average gradient was 7%.

MARTINSICURO – PRATI DI TIVO
Top three results:
Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas Cannondale) in 5h 46’ 33”
Roman Kreuziger (Astana Pro Team) a 16”
Christopher Horner (RadioShack Nissan Trek) s.t

Top 10 GC:
1 Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack-Nissan 24:48:39
2 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Astana Pro Team 0:00:05
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:12
4 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:45
5 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:00:47
6 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:48
7 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 0:01:00
8 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:10
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Colnago - CSF Inox 0:01:17
10 Cameron Meyer (Aus) GreenEdge Cycling Team 0:01:23

Maglia Azzurra – Classifica generale (GC): Christopher Horner (RadioShack Nissan Trek)
Maglia Bianca – Classifica giovani (Young Rider): Cameron Meyer (GreenEdge Cycling Team)
Maglia Rossa – Classifica a punti Points): Peter Sagan (Liquigas Cannondale)
Maglia Verde – Classifica GPM (KOM): Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago – CSF Inox)

Tomorrow's, Monday, stage should not upset the GC standings:


Trivia: today's Prati di Tivo was the finish of a stage in the 1975 Giro d'Italia, the stage winner was Giovanni Battaglin.

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