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BAGNERES-DE-BIGORRE, France—When Riccardo Ricco gets
into the mountains in the Tour de France, he rides a
natural high.
Ricco, a
24-year-old Italian, underlined his climbing prowess on
Sunday with his second-stage victory in three mountain
stages.
The
rider nicknamed “The Cobra” struck when his rivals
appeared most vulnerable, bolting out of the pack in the
steepest part of the final ascent on the 224-kilometer
(139.2-mile) ride from Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
“Let’s
say that this is really my turf, my domain,” Ricco said.
“I went all-out to the finish....I was really fast
today.”
Despite
beginning the ninth stage with a sore right knee from a
crash on Saturday, Ricco breezed past a few breakaway
riders and finished 64 seconds ahead of his closest
challenger—Vladimir Efimkov of Russia—and 77 ahead of
race leader Kim Kirchen, Cadel Evans and most of the
other would-be title contenders.
The
Italian whittled his deficit to Kirchen to 2:35 from
3:52, and rose to 21st overall from 27th.
Ricco
was regarded only as an outside shot for overall victory
before the three-week race. He said he wasn’t even
originally scheduled to race in the Tour—and had to
convince his Saunier Duval team manager to let him take
part.
Now,
along with his victory in Stage 6 last Thursday in the
Massif Central range, competitors are taking note.
“If
Ricco rides the way he did today, he is dangerous,” said
Bjarne Riis, owner of Team CSC.
Spanish
contender Alejandro Valverde said Ricco “is someone we
should all be keeping an eye on.”
But that
spotlight has included suspicion about what he says is
his naturally high hematocrit level—the volume of red
blood cells. High hematocrit levels can suggest use of
the banned blood booster EPO, but do not confirm it.
Ricco
said he has had high levels “ever since I was little,”
adding, “I hope soon that everybody will stop speaking
about that.”
Cuts and bruises
CADEL
Evans will wake up with a sore head and cuts over his
body, then Monday’s two huge mountain climbs will reveal
how bad was the Australian’s crash in the Tour de
France.
A
spectator’s bag apparently caught in Evans’s front wheel
and he tumbled over his handlebars, cracking his helmet
and scraping skin off his shoulder, elbow, knee and
thigh on Sunday’s ninth stage—in which Italian rider
Ricco clinched victory with a solo breakaway and Kim
Kirchen of Luxembourg keep the race leader’s yellow
jersey.
No
riders could catch Ricco, not least Evans, who was
mopped up and bandaged by the Tour doctor. Not the ideal
preparation for a Tour favorite ahead of Monday’s 10th
Stage, and its two famed mountain passes—the Tourmalet
and the Hautacam—that are so testing they are beyond
classification.
The
Silence-Lotto team was optimistic after medical checks
revealed 31-year-old Evans, runner-up at the Tour last
year, did not break any bones.
“He
immediately assured us that it was OK and that it was
not something really bad,” said Marc Sargeant, Lotto’s
team director. “He was the first to say, ‘It’s OK,
guys’. He’s one of the best riders in this Tour, I’m
pretty sure of that.”
Still,
the accident read like an open invitation for his rivals
to attack on Monday—not least Alejandro Valverde, who
will look to close a gap of 66 seconds on second-placed
Evans.
Valverde,
seemingly recovered from a crash of his own on Stage 5,
was satisfied with his effort on Sunday ahead of the
Tourmalet and Hautacam.
“I could
check that I felt good and obviously this is very
important for tomorrow’s stage,” he said. “I hope the
good weather stays with us...because otherwise the
descent down Tourmalet could be even harder than the
ascent.”
The
Tourmalet looks excruciating at the best of times, let
alone when riding with injury. It winds upward for 17.7
km (11 miles) at a gradient of 7.5 percent. After an
exhilarating descent of 36 km (22 miles), Stage 10
finishes with another whopping climb for 14.4 km (9
miles) up Hautacam.
“Tomorrow is important,” said Team CSC director Bjarne
Riis, a Tour winner in 1996. “Tomorrow is the day if you
want to do something.”
With
Evans likely to be in great discomfort, Riis senses an
attack could gain time on Evans and pressure Valverde.
Team CSC
leader Carlos Sastre is in 10th place overall—22 seconds
behind Valverde—and brothers Frank and Andy Schleck of
Luxembourg are just behind in 11th and 12th,
respectively.
With so
many attacks likely, Kirchen could finally lose the
yellow jersey he has worn since winning a time trial on
Stage 4.
“We are
punching above our weight right now,” said Bob
Stapleton, Kirchen’s sporting director on Team Columbia.
“We built a team to suit our athletes and that has
turned out better than we could have hoped for.”
Following Monday’s stage, riders get a rest day, before
another mountainous route on Wednesday. AP |
