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91st Giro d'Italia - Stage 10 ITT Live Part 2
All the riders are on the course... Italian TT Champ Pinotti sets the time to beat!

Stage 10: Pesaro - Urbino 39.4 km ITT
Vladimir Gusev is making it to the finish. 58'46". HE HAS THE BEST TIME!!

It took long, but someone toppled Tony Martin. Bruseghin comes atop the Colbortolo ascent. WITH-THE-BEST-TIME: 33'09". Fans and donkeys, rejoice! Marzio did better than Marco by 8 seconds! Bruseghin made up for the 20-second deficit after 9 nine kilomtres.

Good news for Contador fans: he's got the fifth best time after 9 kms. Even better news for Nibali's fans: the Sicilian has got the SECOND best time at the opening check. Contador checked the route this morning along Astana's DS Alain Gallopin.

Kloeden is about to get to the second time check. Riccò had a decent performance in the first, flat part of the route. He lost "only" 38 seconds to Pinotti. But Gibo Simoni did better than him in this section. We'll see what Riccò will do when the things get vertical.

1621 CEST - Marco Pinotti to the finish: 57'17" What a time! He beat Gusev by 01 minute and 29 seconds! Pinotti crushed the Russian. "I did fine, and enjoyed some tailwind, but the best riders have yet to come" were his very first after-race comments. And one of the best riders is Andreas Kolden for sure: 33'01" at the km. 23 check. The German improved Bruseghin's time by 8 seconds, and Pinotti's by 16 seconds. Now the man is flying!

Like fellow South-American Rujano, Colombia's Juan Mauricio Soler is not having much of an impact todasy: his time 01h01'25". That's the 42nd time to the finish thus far. He lost over 4 mins to Pinotti. Menchov and Pinotti have got almost the same time at km. 32. But Bruseghin set a better time than both of them. Di Luca was losing some 35"at the first check. Riccardo Riccó fell while still in the flat section, but got quickly back in the saddle.

Riccò hit the tarmac at a turn around km. 18 and ended up on the green grass of a nearby meadow, resulting in a time loss of 15 seconds or so. Jurgen Van den Broek set the second best time to the finish.

And Savoldelli set a good 32'25" atop the Corbordolo . As a further sign of his great performance thus far Gibo Simoni gained over four minutes on Morris Possoni.

1636 CEST - Nibali at the second time check: 33'50". Not good. Levi to the finish: 57'42" (3rd at 25"). Gibo to the finish. 57'43". Just behind Leipheimer. Simoni had a surprisingly good performance against the clock today.

Kloeden and Bruseghin have got the SAME time at the 32 kilometre check. Marzio gets to the finish too, and he beat Pinotti by 36 SECONDS! Bruseghin established the best time by far!! And gained over eight seconds on Kloeden between the second and third check.

Alberto Contador had the third best time at the second check instead: 33'13". He sits a dozen seconds behind Kloeden but just 04" down on current race leader Marzio Bruseghin.

Riccardo Riccò by the km. 23 check ... he sets 34'36", losing 01'35" to Kloeden. It could have been worse. Especially after that fall, and that turn ... which claimed another victim: news came through that also Emanuele Sella fell exactly where the same Riccò had done earlier ... same point, same accident.

1645 CEST - Andreas Kloeden near the line. 800M to go ... 600m ... 500... He takes on a last, steep cobbled section and here he comes ... The German clocked 57 minutes and 01 second. That's time number two!!

MARZIO BRUSEGHIN holds on to his leadership, and by a good margon - 20 seconds - too!!!

Good news GC-wise for the German instead: Danilo Di Luca was losing 01'39" to Kloeden at the second time check (km. 23). His gap was about the same as Riccó, but Il Cobra also fell in the first part of the route. Gustav Larsson to the finish line: 57'40". The Swede did perhaps worse than expected.

Contador made it to the km. 32 check and ... bettered Bruseghin's time by TEN seconds!! But Bruseghin had a helluva finish to the stage, gaining some 20 seconds on Kloeden, so there's still hope for the Italian.

Paolo Savoldelli had chain problems in the last 300 metres!! It happened when his switched from 53 to 39. And forced him to change his bike! Resulting in an unwelcome time losses.

1654 CEST - Giovanni Visconti is putting in a good defense of his Maglia Rosa. The Sicilian had the 12th best time by km. 23, losing just 47" to mighty Andreas Kloeden. Ricco's deficit was 01'40" at the latest check. Nibali to the finish: he clocked 57'35". The sixth time thus far. Better than Larsson.

Di Luca looks heavy on his bike. He's having a poor day in the saddle. And in the meantime, the Gods rain made their comeback to the Giro. Not to the dismay of Marzio Bruseghin.

1658 CEST - Contador comes and .... and ... sets the best time to the finish! NOPE HE DOESN'T - 56'49" Eight seconds behind Bruseghin!! Also Contador lost plenty of time to the Italian, who is now darn close to stage victory, in the last few miles.

Italians are doing fine GC-wise too, with Visconti gaining about 2 minutes over Mathias Russ so far today.
Gabriele Bosisio set the seventh best time after 32 kilometres, gaining about a minute ... over his team leader Danilo Di Luca.

Paolo Savoldelli: "Thankfully I was not fighting it out over stage victory at that points, or that chain accident would have upset me much, much more".

1704 CEST - 400m to go for Riccardo Riccò. 300m ... 200m ... here he comes. 58 minutes 45 seconds. 02'04" down on Bruseghin. 14th time thus far. Basically he went as expected, losing just about two minutes to Contador. And it could have been much more satisfying without that darn turn ...

Green-clad Emanuele Sella will be next to the finish. He fell like Riccò, but did worse than him, and lost about three minutes to the stage winner.

Danilo Di Luca crossed the line: 58'52". 17th time. He lost 02'11" to Bruseghin, over a minute to Simoni, and some seconds to Riccò and Pellizotti. Leipheimer is still in the top ten spots at the moment. With Gibo Simoni currently 10th.

1714 CEST - In spite of everything, Di Luca didn't sound too disappointed with his performance: "Contador and Simoni went fast today. Perhaps the rest day took some toll on me, but it's fine anyway".

Visconti has caught and passed Matthias Russ. 800m to go for the overall leader of the race. 400 ... 300 ... just one more effort and ... here he comes... His time is good. Worse than Bruseghin by just 65 seconds. Giovanni Visconti has made the top 15 spots today. He took 12th in the stage but didn't sound that surprised "I knew that I can do fine in the ITT, I like ITTs".

1717 CEST - So, MARZIO BRUSEGHIN is the winner!!

With Alberto Contador in second place. Giovanni Visconti increased his overall advantage over second placed Matthias Russ to 03'31". Gabriele Bosisio stays in spot number three overall while Contador's and Bruseghin's outstanding performances put the guys in 4th and 5th place respectively.

How did Contador do that with a fracture in his arm? Just how can you get as aerodynamic as possible with that? An unbelievable ride, and take that as literally as you want to. Ricco might say that Contador faked the seriousness of his injury.

Riccardo Riccò lost his smile today, and after the stage repeated that: "If I had not fallen, I would have lost just about one minute or so to Contador, and it would have been a good performance".

Top Ten Results
Stage 10: Pesaro - Urbino ITT
39.4 km - 56:41 - 41.705 km/h
1 BRUSEGHIN Marzio ITA LAM 56:41 0:00
2 CONTADOR Alberto ESP AST 56:49 0:08
3 KLODEN Andreas GER AST 57:01 0:20
4 PINOTTI Marco ITA THR 57:17 0:36
5 SAVOLDELLI Paolo ITA LPR 57:25 0:44
6 MENCHOV Denis RUS RAB 57:27 0:46
7 NIBALI Vincenzo ITA LIQ 57:35 0:54
8 LARSSON Gustav Erik SWE CSC 57:40 0:59
9 LEIPHEIMER Levi USA AST 57:42 1:01
10 SIMONI Gilberto ITA SDA 57:43 1:02

Lampre's DS Giuseppe Saronni was a bit polemical after the stage "I read things like: "Where is Lampre this year?" in the press today. Well, I think we just gave them a good response".

Alessandro Petacchi now interviewed. Looking very serious and thoughtful the recently sanctioned rider will answer questions regarding his recent penalty:

Alessandro Petacchi is now being interviewed. Looking very serious and thoughtful, the recently sanctioned Milram rider will answer questions by Italian journalists regarding his recent penalty:

"I think cycling has changed a lot lately. Unfortunately we have had plenty of problems over the past few years, and many are paying the price. I think I'm paying because of an unfair justice system. But you know, you just can't fix such things in just a minute. It's not so easy. I'm confused, but I have never, never thought about calling it a day however".

"The difference between my case and Piepoli's? Don't ask me, just ask WADA and the UCI. I've got nothing against Piepoli and all, but both of us got a medical certificate, both clearly telling how much Salbumatol we could take; both of us went over the limit, but we were treated differently, and I think the way Piepoli was treated was fair. Mine wasn't".

Asked if WADA wanted to give a strong signal in the Olympic year Petacchi said: "Well, everything is possible. But I can't tell. I don't know. What I know is that my samples were sent to Barcelona along with Leonardo's ... and then we saw the result. I can think everything (could have happened). But I don't want to think of anything now".

We will be back with a full transcript of the interview in a separate article here. For now the General Classification...

General Classification after stage 10
1 VISCONTI Giovanni ITA QST 43:12:02 0:00
2 RUSS Matthias GER GST 43:15:33 3:31
3 BOSISIO Gabriele ITA LPR 43:17:52 5:50
4 CONTADOR Alberto ESP AST 43:19:01 6:59
5 BRUSEGHIN Marzio ITA LAM 43:19:54 7:52
6 KLODEN Andreas GER AST 43:19:56 7:54
7 NIBALI Vincenzo ITA LIQ 43:20:06 8:04
8 SAVOLDELLI Paolo ITA LPR 43:20:11 8:09
9 RICCO' Riccardo ITA SDV 43:20:34 8:32
10 DI LUCA Danilo ITA LPR 43:20:35 8:33
11 LARSSON Gustav Erik SWE CSC 43:20:35 8:33
12 MENCHOV Denis RUS RAB 43:20:59 8:57
13 SIMONI Gilberto ITA SDA 43:21:12 9:10
14 LEIPHEIMER Levi USA AST 43:21:12 9:10
15 PELLIZOTTI Franco ITA LIQ 43:21:17 9:15

Our two Young Guns, Giovanni Visconti and Matthias Russ cling to the top spots with Visconti to enjoy a few more days in the race leadership with over 3 minutes gap on nearest rival Russ; and a solid six minutes on the pre race favorites.

Thanks for joining us for stage 10 live coverage, this ends our live coverage. Join us tomorrow for stage 11: Urbania - Cesena 199 km a medium mountains stage with four categorized climbs the Cat 2 - 645 meter San Marino (68.5 km), 1358 meter Cat 1 Monte Carpegnia, 655 meter Cat 2 Perticara (138.7 km) and final Category 2 climb the 245 meter Sorrivalli (170 km) with only 20 rolling kilometers to the finish in Cesena. A day of opportunity for those seeking climbing points to gain on Emmanuele Sella... and the leaders to try to close the gaps to their rivals perhaps.

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