You have got to love something different in the big tours.  We seen it once a few years ago in the Tour de France on Alp D’Huez and seen it again yesterday in the Giro — A mountain time-trial.  Lance Armstrong won that TT up the Alp back then and yesterday in the 12.9km ride up Plan de Corones on roads touching a 24 percent gradient it was Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas.

The Italian beat out fellow Italian’s Emanuele Sella by 6 seconds and Gilberto Simoni by 17 seconds. Overall leader Alberto Contador came in 22 seconds back.

Other challenger Danilo Di Luca lost 1.45 while the ride of the day in the Brit/Irish category went to Irish man Philip Deignan who went up the climb just 3.28 off the pace.

Philip had a very tough day in the mountains dropping him well down the overall but that climb pulled him back up a little into a respectable 74th place 1hr 27.50 back and one place ahead of veteran Erik Zabel.  He is still the best placed out of all the British/Irish riders.

Overall Contador keeps his lead by 41 seconds on Ricco while stage winner Pellizotti comes in 5th just 2.05 back.  Theres a long way to go but Contador has got to be confident.

Category: Pro Road Racing » Philip Deignan, The Giro |

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