Italian Marzio Bruseghin of the Lampre team was given widespread congratulations from the Tour of Italy peloton after winning the 13th stage, a hilly, 12,6km time trial at Oropa, Italy, on Friday.
Bruseghin, wearing the Italian champion’s time-trial jersey, finished the climb from Biella to the Oropa Sanctuary in a time of 28 minutes and 55 seconds, beating compatriot Leonardo Piepoli of the Saunier Duval team by just one second.
However, on another day intended to give the general-classification contenders a chance to impress, it was race leader Danilo di Luca, of Liquigas, who shone brightest.
Di Luca, not considered a time-trial strongman, finished in third place at only eight seconds adrift and pushed at least two of his rivals for the pink jersey, former winners Gilberto Simoni and Damiano Cunego, further down the general classification.
Spurred on by his pink jersey, Di Luca was the best of the riders considered true contenders for overall victory in Milan, which will come following the testing mountains stages this weekend. He finished 32 seconds ahead of Luxemburg’s Andy Schleck, 30 seconds ahead of Lampre’s Cunego and 58 seconds ahead of Simoni, also of Saunier Duval.
He now leads Bruseghin by 55 seconds in the general classification with Schleck in third place at 1:57.
Di Luca said Bruseghin was simply unbeatable on the day, but as he looks forward to his date with destiny he acknowledged he will face some tough tests of his own. ”I’m really happy with the time trial I did. I wasn’t aiming for a stage win, but I ended up taking time off Schleck, Cunego and Simoni,” he said. ”I’m confident. I think the most difficult stage will be on Sunday when we head to Trois Cimes de Lavaredo.”
Bruseghin, who spent many years helping Italian sprint star Alessandro Petacchi line up victories, was delighted by the fact that his peers endorsed his stage win.
”It’s great to see that so many people are happy that I won today,” said Bruseghin, the owner of 17 asses, one of which he has named ”Alessandro” in honour of former teammate Petacchi.
Simoni, the previous winner of two pink jerseys, admitted the previous day’s efforts — when he had to counter a Di Luca attack before his rival beat him to the finish line of stage 12 — had taken a costly toll on his legs.
”I gave everything I could, but I haven’t recuperated enough from the stage into Briancon,” said the Italian, who is now more than three minutes behind Di Luca and will likely have to launch attacks in the mountains to have any hopes of overall victory.
”I was honestly hoping for better today. The deficits don’t mean anything, even though Di Luca is saying that he’s feeling fine at the moment.”
Saturday’s stage is over 192km between Cantu and Bergamo and notably features the San Marco pass, which is reached after climbing 26km at an average gradient of 6,6%. — Sapa-AFP