Giro Donne/Giro d'Italia Femminile 2009

[Legs]

1 ARNDT Judith (GER) - Team Columbia Highroad Woman 3:26'20
2 HAUSLER Claudia (GER) - Cervelo Test Team 3:26'20
3 BRANDLI Nicole (SUI) - Bigla Cycling Team 3:26'23
4 ABBOTT Mara (USA) - Team Columbia Highroad Woman 3:26'34
5 WORRACK Trixi (GER) - Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 3:31'38
6 LUPERINI Fabiana (ITA) - Selle Italia Ghezzi 3:31'42
7 RYAN Carla (AUS) - Cervelo Test Team 3:31'49
8 POOLEY Emma (GBR) - Cervelo Test Team 3:32'04
9 BUBNENKOVA Svetlana (RUS) - Fenixs 3:34'15
10 PUCINSKAITE Edita (LTU) - Gauss Rdz Ormu Colnago 3:34'17

http://www.girodonne.it/portale/classifica2009/6tappa_generale.pdf

Emma's now out of GC contention, will be supporting Haeusler from now on. Lizzie maintains a slim lead over Berlato for the U23 classification.

 

[Skip Madness]

Nah, it was Skip wot did the cursing...

When I posted that I was operating under the impression that she wouldn't have been riding at the front for the entire race previously!

Sadly, a day like this was overdue after Pooley's strong season. Today was one of those stages where if leaders get clear than huge time gaps can open up.

Interesting to see Armitstead and Berlato coming in virtually together again. They seem to have been holding hands throughout this race. I am not sure whether one is following the other or if they have become best friends.

What a next couple of days we have. Judith Arndt will strongly fancy her chances at tomorrow's shallow mountain-top finish. Pooley's not the only one who has had a long season; Häusler will be starting to feel her campaign catching up with her, too. Mara Abbott is also far from out of contention.

Here's a thought - suppose that come Sunday morning Arndt is still in second but within ten seconds of Häusler - do you reckon we would see Ina Teutenberg leading her out for the sprint for the time bonus?

Another thing (which I will look up in a minute) - has anyone ever done the Tour de l'Aude-Giro d'Italia double in the same season? Luperini in the late nineties? Because Häusler may be on the brink of it. EDIT - looked it up. Fabiana Luperini did indeed achieve it in 1998, and Catherine Marsal got there first in 1990. Anyone know how long the Tour de l'Aude was back then? Anyway, if Häusler does manage it she will be one year younger than Luperini was when she did.

Good ride by Nicole Brändli today, rescued her Giro a bit.

The GC for anyone who hasn't seen it:

Claudia Häusler...15:50'43"
Judith Arndt..........+ 12"
Mara Abbott...........+ 38"
Nicole Brändli......+ 2'33"
Everyone else.......STUFFED

By the way, for anyone who hasn't got Eurosport, I have uploaded the British National Championships women's road race to YouTube in three parts: one, two and three.

 

[resal1]

Skip, thanks for doing a fantastic job on the results and analysis. I agree with your analysis and would suggest that they will even be going for bonuses during the stages as well. Sort of brings back memories of the fight Cooke had for the Geelong Tour in 2007. Emma has done brilliantly. I thought the section in CW today did not do her achievements justice by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Skip Madness]

Provisional stage 7 results from Cicloweb - time gaps not yet up.

01 Claudia Häusler
02 Judith Arndt
03 Mara Abbott

GC is the same.

01 Claudia Häusler
02 Judith Arndt
03 Mara Abbott

 

[Legs]

Haeusler, Ardnt, Abbott on today's stage.

edit: Snap!

 

[Skip Madness]

Hehe.

Häusler took it by one second over Arndt, six seconds over Abbott and ten seconds over Brändli. Pooley came in 52 seconds down. Armitstead and Berlato came in together again. Noemi Cantele didn't take to the start today - I don't know why.

Häusler's lead over Arndt has increased to 17 second thanks to time bonuses, and she now leads Abbott by 50 seconds. If Arndt or Abbott have anything left then it's all going to have to go into the climb of Molinara now. Armitstead still leads Berlato by 43 seconds in the young riders' classification. Her white jersey should be safe unless Berlato breaks the habit of this Giro.

 

[Skip Madness]

This isn't related to the Giro, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it - at the Tour Feminin-Ceskeho Svycarska, Emma Trott has won today's stage.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

As Skip says, Pooley is just playing super-domestique now. Can Hausler hang on?

 

[Skip Madness]

Trixi Worrack won today's stage with a gap of more than a minute. Cicloweb is reporting that Arndt has slipped out of the top three, with Häusler remaining in pink, Mara Abbott in second and Nicole Brändli now occupying third. The full results should be interesting...

 

[Skip Madness]

Unfortunately Judith Arndt's fall down the classification was actually worse than that - she crashed out. Hopefully it isn't too serious. It must have been all of a couple of months that she has recovered from her previous injury.

It doesn't sound like Häusler had any problems dealing with today. Tomorrow she will become the youngest rider to achieve victory in the Giro and Aude in the same year. After a slow start like last year - where she also lost a notable gap on Monte Serra - she came good and this time had the strength to see it out through today's final test. There hasn't been any suggestion that she has been in trouble once since assuming the race leadership.

Is this the next few years, then? Are we going to have to start taking bets on who is going to come second whenever Claudia takes to the line in a major stage race? Because at her age she will probably still get stronger over the next few years. But the good news is that Mara Abbott is the same age and is displaying great strength in the hills. The question is whether Häusler has been riding within herself to hold Abbott off. Either way, Abbott should go much further than this result. Second place on GC and victory in the mountains competition mark a sensational Giro.

And speaking of young riders improving - at 20, Lizzie Armitstead's excellent 16th place and imminent victory in the young rider classification (she pulled out a handful of seconds over the also-impressive Elena Berlato) bodes very well coming on the back of her second-place in the Aude's young rider standings. Like Bradley Wiggins, she is displaying many more attributes on the road than other riders who have conquered the track.

Arndt's withdrawal puts Emma Pooley into fourth. Maybe she would have been a couple of spots lower were it not for Arndt and Neben's departures, but three days in pink were just reward for a great ride. There is a question mark over whether she has the capacity to challenge for a race of this duration and difficulty, and she's going to find it tough to get a chance to answer them while Häusler rides in the same colours.

While Nicole Brändli showed admirable fortitude after a demoralising start, the at-times feeble performances of Pucinskaite, Luperini and Ljungskog all suggest that their chances of victories in future Giri have passed. On the other hand, Carla Ryan is very much heading in the right direction, and gives an indication of the frightening depth within the Cervélo squad. Tatiana Guderzo deserves praise for another strong ride. It looks as though the new generation are putting their seniors to the sword.

I believe that Häusler's lead in the points can't realistically be lost tomorrow, so the sprinters will have to console themselves with one more battle in what has been an incredibly lean Giro for them.

 

[resal1]

Thanks once again Skip for the update. Any news on the seriousness of the injury to Arndt ? This year's Giro was a parcours well suited to the climbers. It is not always the case. I cannot remember the sprinters having such a lean time.

I am still a bit worried about Vision 1 and Cooke. Your comments about Hausler bring that into persepctive. Cooke is just 18 months older than Hausler and yet her Giro win was in 2004. Cervelo and Highroad obviously have the budget and squads to be able to go to the races. The rest seem to have to pick and choose. Cervelo under Lacambre seem to be more succesful than its forerunner Univega were, under Campana. We saw at the Boucle how Cervelo were able to deal with Vos, who was basically the single threat to their dominance. Cooke is in a similar position to Vos and perhaps it made sense for DSB and Vision 1 not to even show at the Giro. It would be interesting to know the dynamic within Cervelo regarding the support for an Emma win, prior to the start. Certainly that video clip of the Boucle of 2007 seemed to show that Dopman was going flat out for the win against her team-mate Cooke. Was Dopman connected to Campana in some way ?

Both Cooke and Vos need more effective/stronger squads around them if they are to challenge for the longer stage races.

 

[Skip Madness]

Thanks once again Skip for the update. Any news on the seriousness of the injury to Arndt ?

She has broken her upper arm. It is not yet apparent how long she will be out for, but her chances in Mendrisio are jeopardised considerably.

 

[Skip Madness]

One other thing - when I started last year's thread, I presumed there wasn't the interest in this race to make it worthwhile posting and analysing results every day. The result was a thread with two replies. I know that this year's thread has largely been dominated by three of us drinking too much lemonade and running round the play pen getting excited about toys we aren't even allowed to play with, but I think it's great that everyone who has contributed anything to this thread has seen last year's three-post footnote turn into five whole pages of drivel. It might not be gargantuan compared to many threads on here, but go and find me a similar thread on the Cycling News forums. One doesn't exist.

What I'm trying to say is group hug.

 

[Will1985]

It is probably significant that there was no British presence last year.

 

[Legs]

Re: Arndt's crash, that's a real shame, I could have imagined Judith challenging Haeusler right to the end otherwise.

I think Will's right - the Brit interest has (for me at least) really lifted the excitement of the racing this year.

Thank you all very much - especially Skip - for the insight and updates you've given in the last week or so. As you say, this has been by far the best online resource for women's cycling chat, at a time of year when you would expect it to be completely drowned out by the TdF.

Cheers,
- Tim