Giro Donne – Stage 6

tehy are just coming over the cat 1 climb at Rionero, one by one

Even after watching it I’m not sure what Cervelo were up to, not what exactly happened. But tonight Emma Pooley is out of pink and out of contention, while her teammate Claudia Hausler leads Judith Arndt by just 12 seconds.

The weather was beautiful at the start. Here for Flatbagger and the other Aussies is the national team enjoying the sun. Every team lines up like this before the crowd every day at the signing in, so you are Fassa Bortolo or Team System Data you can’t easily hide the fact that there aren’t as many of you now as there were on Friday. From tomorrow Australia too will be one down after Chloe Hosking failed to finish.

Four riders broke away on the first climb to Rionero Sannitico, Trixi Worrack (not much else to aim for now after the loss of her team leader), Kristin Armstrong, Linda Villumsen and Susanne Ljungskog. None had any chance of nabbing the green jersey, but, as points over the climbs only go to the first five it’s easy to block for a teammate.

Then as they climbed the second cat 1 of the day, Prato Gentile, Pooley started to fall off the back of the group of five leaders, while Mara Abbott sprinted ahead to claim the GPM points. She’s now pretty much a dead cert for the green jersey.

And then RAI cut away and picked up the race again on the third climb, about 70km ahead. Four of those five, Judith Arndt, Mara Abbott, Nicole Brandli and Claudia Hausler were together, about two minutes ahead of a second group of four consisting of Pooley, teammate (ha ha ha) Carla Ryan, Trixi Worrack and Fabiana Luperini.

The leaders

The chasers

I’d guess that either Emma Pooley fell off her bike again, or she lost touch on the long descent and was caught up. Maybe she needs to spend the winter training with Salvodelli.

In the front group they were working as you would expect, Mara Abbott on the front most of the time protecting her captain, Hausler doing a few half-hearted pulls when she dropped off, Arndt and Brandli waiting for the finish. Behind them though, who knows what was happening. Luperini and Worrack are no threat to the GC, so surely Ryan and Pooley would be working to catch up. Yet almost every single shot of them showed Pooey on the front and Ryan sitting at the back. The one exception was when the road wiggled a bit passing through a little village and Pooley popped off the back again.

At the finale, a short uphill sprint, Arndt just beat Hausler over the line so gained a few bonus seconds if no actual time, and Brandli took third.

Five minutes or so later the other three girls that Emma Pooley had been towing for most of the day finally stuck their heads into the wind to beat her to the line. Here’s the top ten:

1 63 GER19760723 ARNDT Judith (GER) 1976 TCW Team Columbia Highroad Woman 3:26’20 10
2 14 GER19851117 HAUSLER Claudia (GER) 1985 CWT Cervelo Test Team 3:26’20 0 6
3 161 SUI19790618 BRANDLI Nicole (SUI) 1979 BCT Bigla Cycling Team 3:26’23 3 4
4 61 USA19851114 ABBOTT Mara (USA) 1985 TCW Team Columbia Highroad Woman 3:26’34 14
5 88 GER19810928 WORRACK Trixi (GER) 1981 NUR Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 3:31’38 5’18
6 1 ITA19740114 LUPERINI Fabiana (ITA) 1974 MSI Selle Italia Ghezzi 3:31’42 5’22
7 16 AUS19850921 RYAN Carla (AUS) 1985 CWT Cervelo Test Team 3:31’49 5’29
8 15 GBR19821003 POOLEY Emma (GBR) 1982 CWT Cervelo Test Team 3:32’04 5’44
9 21 RUS19730201 BUBNENKOVA Svetlana (RUS) 1973 FEN Fenixs 3:34’15 7’55
10 136 LTU19751127 PUCINSKAITE Edita (LTU) 1975 GAU Gauss Rdz Ormu Colnago 3:34’17 7’57

The jersey holders. I still don’t understand why Lotto Belisol don’t have a sponsor’s sticker on the front of the white jersey. Do the teams have to bring it themselves and they forgot?

And the current GC

teh only info I have found on this is on the timekeepers’ site, and it’s not totally up to date, but here goes.

Official Maglia Ciclamino after yesterday’s stage:

1 63 ARNDT JUDITH Team Columbia Highroad Woman 28
2 162 CANTELE NOEMI Bigla Cycling Team 26
3 15 POOLEY EMMA Cervelo Test Team 26
4 66 TEUTENBERG INA YOKO Team Columbia Highroad Woman 25
5 61 ABBOTT MARA Team Columbia Highroad Woman 23
6 136 PUCINSKAITE EDITA Gauss Rdz Ormu Colnago 21
7 144 BRONZINI GIORGIA Safi Pasta Zara Titanedi 20
8 14 HAUSLER CLAUDIA Cervelo Test Team 17
9 21 BUBNENKOVA SVETLANA Fenixs 15
10 1 LUPERINI FABIANA Selle Italia Ghezzi 13
11 18 WILD KIRSTEN Cervelo Test Team 12
12 11 ARMSTRONG KRISTIN Cervelo Test Team 12

Top ten home every day score 15 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1

Probable top 6

1 63 ARNDT JUDITH Team Columbia Highroad Woman 43
2 61 ABBOTT MARA Team Columbia Highroad Woman 31
3 15 POOLEY EMMA Cervelo Test Team 30
4 14 HAUSLER CLAUDIA Cervelo Test Team 29
5 162 CANTELE NOEMI Bigla Cycling Team 26
6 66 TEUTENBERG INA YOKO Team Columbia Highroad Woman 25

Official Green Jersey yesterday

1 61 ABBOTT MARA Team Columbia Highroad Woman 19
2 15 POOLEY EMMA Cervelo Test Team 15
3 161 BRANDLI NICOLE Bigla Cycling Team 12
4 14 HAUSLER CLAUDIA Cervelo Test Team 9
5 1 LUPERINI FABIANA Selle Italia Ghezzi 6
6 144 BRONZINI GIORGIA Safi Pasta Zara Titanedi 5
7 162 CANTELE NOEMI Bigla Cycling Team 4
8 63 ARNDT JUDITH Team Columbia Highroad Woman 3
9 163 HOHL JENNIFER Bigla Cycling Team 3
10 66 TEUTENBERG INA YOKO Team Columbia Highroad Woman 2
11 21 BUBNENKOVA SVETLANA Fenixs 1
12 6 CORNEO SIGRID Selle Italia Ghezzi 1

Abbott got 12 points and Pooley 4 over the second big climb. Brandli and Hausler are probably in second and third now.

descents