Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca gained valuable time on his rivals at the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday as he attacked in the closing miles of the mountainous 200-mile stage 10.
The advantage that Di Luca gained over Denis Menchov, Michael Rogers and Levi Leipheimer may be the margin he needs to survive Thursday's time trial in the pink jersey.
This was Di Luca's second stage victory at the Giro. He won Stage 4 a week ago when he rocketed past Maurice Soler in the final 100 yards and has held the pink jersey ever since.
In Tuesday's victory, Di Luca attacked an elite chase group to close the gap to Franco Pellizotti on the final descent with less than 6 miles to the finish. He maintained his lead and crossed the finish line about 10 seconds ahead of Pellizotti and Menchov.
Di Luca needed to put some distance between himself and his rivals as a 36-mile individual time trial is scheduled for Thursday. While Leipheimer is strong in the mountains, he can make his mark in the time trials. The American now sits 1-minute-40 behind Di Luca in the overall standings in fourth place.
Second place is held by Menchov (1:20 behind) and Rogers is in third (1:33 behind).
In addition to Di Luca, you gotta say Lance Armstrong put in a great performance on Tuesday. Suffering last week and dropping back to 25th, he improved his position to 18th. He talked about Di Luca on Twitter:
“Very long (6.5 hrs) and tough. DiLuca showed he deserves the pink jersey – impressive ride. …”
Meanwhile, Leipheimer was hard on himself, and pointed to Armstrong's success:
“Not happy with myself right now, felt great but made one little mistake towards the bottom of the descent & lost 2” too much, unforgiving!!
“The entire team is riding really well, anyone notice who's getting their old form back?”
The Top 10:
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) LPR Brakes – Farnese Vini
2 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank, 1.20
3 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia – Highroad, 1.33
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana, 1.40
5 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas, 1.53
6 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team, 1.54
7 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas, 2.03
8 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia – Highroad, 2.12
9 David Arroyo (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 2.35
10 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli, 2.58
11 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana, 3:24
18 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana, 5.28
Free stuff
Wednesday's Stage 11 is a fairly flat route between Torino and Genova with a small climb near the finish. You can see the stage on live videostream at Universal Sports.
[By the way, Universal Sports is offering prizes for lucky viewers in the final 12 stages of the Giro. We're talking T-shirts, team jerseys, caps, shoes, and some geeky equipment. I'm told that details will appear shortly at the Universal Sports cycling page.]
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