Category: Giro d'Italia

As promised, the Stage 12 individual time trial shook up the standings of the 2009 Giro d'Italia as Danilo Di Luca finally gave up his pink leader's jersey to Denis Menchov, left.

US cyclist Levi Leipheimer stepped up one place to 3rd overall, 40 seconds behind Menchov and just 6 seconds behind second place Di Luca.

Comeback cyclist Lance Armstrong gained more ground on Wednesday, increasing his position to 12th in the overall standings, but dropping back to 6:34 behind the leader.

Now at the mid-point of the three week bicycle race around Italy, it remains to be seen if Menchov's Rabobank team can help him protect the lead, or if Leipheimer's Astana teammates can help him whittle away at Menchov's lead …

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You know it ain't easy, but Mark Cavendish made it look that way again as he won a bunch sprint for Stage 11 at the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday.

US-based Team Columbia set up the Brit in textbook fashion as the peloton raced into Arenzano.  Cavendish rewarded their efforts by powering across the finish line first; it was his second stage win of this year's Giro.

Danilo Di Luca remained in the pink jersey as the overall leader of the Giro after the stage, but faces a major challenge from US cyclist Levi Leipheimer in Thursday's individual time trial.

Leipheimer is an expert time trialist and is expected to do well enough in the 37-mile ITT from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore to close the 1:40 gap to Di Luca….

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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 …

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With all the protesting at this year's Giro d'Italia, I feel like I've been transported back to the 1960s.

First Astana faded out most of the sponsors on their jerseys to protest not getting paid. Then on Sunday the entire peloton decided to ride en masse to protest the dangerousness of the circuit race around Milan.

The whole world was watching as the cyclists pedaled along at a leisurely 21-23 mph for lap after lap. In fact, the entire peloton stopped before completing the 4th lap, and race leader Danilo Di Luca took the microphone:

“We are going on. We wanted to stop and say thanks for your presence, but we don't feel the need to risk it anymore. The circuit is not adapted to our security.”

Some cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, had been critical of the routes earlier in the week. Friday's 25-mile dangerous descent to the finish into the rain, for instance, drew criticism from Armstrong, among others …

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It was a long day in the saddle for the 194 cyclists who pedaled 155 miles through the mountains in northern Italy and Austria on Thursday, but Michele Scarponi is probably feeling no pain.

The Diquigiovanni cycling team member broke from the peloton with a small group early in Stage 6 and survived in the front all the way to Mayrhofen.

All the pain was felt by his breakaway companion Vasili Kiryenka, who suffered a mechanical near the finish then cramped up as he tried to catch Scarponi.

Italy's Danilo Di Luca retained the pink jersey ….

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No one could match Russian cyclist Denis Menchov's burst of speed inside the last mile on the way to winning Stage 5's mountaintop finish at the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday.

Tuesday's stage winner Danilo Di Luca finished right behind Menchov, but an important three seconds ahead of race leader Thomas Lövkvist of Team Columbia, thereby taking over the race lead and the pink jersey.

Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner finished just 9 seconds behind Menchov, solidifying their status in top 10. The Astana teammates are 4th for Leipheimer and 8th for Horner.

The most well-known Astana team member, comeback cyclist Lance Armstrong, failed to hang on …

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Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca rocketed past Mauricio Soler in the final 100 yards of the first mountaintop stage of this year's Giro d'Italia on Tuesday.

The steep terrain on the 100-mile stage from Padova to San Martino di Castrozza helped defeat the early leaders of the race such as Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, and put Team Columbia's Thomas Lövkvist in the leader's pink jersey.

American Lance Armstrong, who started the day in 5th overall, stayed in the middle of a chase group all day, but was content to let the others attack in the steep final few kilometers. He finished 15 seconds behind the winner and dropped to 6th place overall. …

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Ugualmente Male! US cyclist Christian Vande Velde has crashed out of the Giro d'Italia bicycle race.

You'll remember from this photo that Vande Velde became the second US cyclist ever to wear the Giro's pink leader jersey last year when his team won the opening team time trial stage.

Things didn't go quite as well this year, as Garmin-Chipotle finished in second place on the Stage 1 team time trial on Saturday to Team Columbia. Then Vande Velde crashed out on Monday.

He was sitting in 8th place overall when he crashed. …

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Update: Universal Sports comes to the rescue!

The sports programmer will offer Giro d'Italia coverage on a live webcast and a slightly delayed TV broadcast beginning Saturday.

See the Universal Sports Cycling Dashboard for more information as it develops. Apparently the deal was just inked earlier Thursday.

Previously: If you're thinking you'll catch coverage of the Giro d'Italia on Versus — the “all-Lance-all-the-time” network during the Tour de France — then guess again.

Unless events change, Versus will be completely out of the picture for coverage of the Giro d'Italia, which begins Saturday and runs through May 31. That omission even includes the network's Sunday cycling show, which is in hiatus until June 7, and its website …

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