June 21, 2006

Simoni and Piepoli on the podium

Simoni and Piepoli, on the podium.

Stage 16 of the Giro, from Rovato to Trento - Monte Bondone, was great for Gilberto Simoni, since this is his homeland and hundreds of fans went to Monte Bondone to cheer him on. Gibo lived up to their expectations. He followed extraordinary pink jersey wearer Ivan Basso (CSC) on his way to the podium, putting up a nice fight and coming in 2nd. SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR´s performance was impressive: Rubén Lobato made every effort in the peloton to catch the breakaways´ wheel, and Leonardo Piepoli and Gibo´s teamwork proved effective on their ascent in Monte Bondone. Piepoli moved to the front and started lifting the pace. His forcing thinned the bunch further down to ten. When Simoni realized that the Savoldelli group was getting closer, he told Piepoli to move up front and pick up the pace again. Piepoli followed orders, which resulted in the speed ballooning again. Helped in this way by his teammate, Gibo attacked but both Basso and Gutiérrez (Phonak) appeared to be up to the task. In fact, only Basso was, since after closing down on Gibo once, Gutiérrez had to give up. At last, Basso forced the pace. The Maglia Rosa sped off on his own, took a few dozen metres out of Gibo, and then widened the gap. Simoni did everything he could to get the "home win" he wanted and needed, but Basso was simply superb. Gritting his teeth, Gibo tried to save second place, and succeeded. As a result of SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR's good team work, Piepoli snatched third place from Gutiérrez, also taking the relative bonus seconds away from him. SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR led the stage Super Team classification today. Although the top step is an Ivan Basso thing only, Gibo has more and more chances to figure on the Giro podium for the umpteenth time in his career. The fight for the 2nd and 3rd places is still open.