Italian Michele Scarponi saved his overall lead at Tirreno-Adriatico today in Macerata, Italy, but by a hair. He lost ground in the finale metres, blaming Australian Michael Rogers for the time loss to Stefano Garzelli.
"It's one thing to lose a race if you don't have the strength," Scarponi said, "but it's another if it is the mistake of another."
Russian Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) won the stage after escaping in the last eight kilometres from an escape group with Sky's Thomas Löfkvist. Behind, though, the general classification favourites were watching each other ahead of the final ramp to Macerata's Piazza della Libertà.
Alessandro Ballan pulled for BMC team-mate Cadel Evans. Evans, only 14 seconds back in the classification watched Scarponi and Garzelli, at 10 seconds back. Garzelli and Evans dropped the blue jersey leader, attacking on the narrow streets in the final 500 metres. Scarponi, though, claims he was distanced because of Rogers.
"Rogers let the gap open," Scarponi continued. "He went into the last corner with too much speed, braked and nearly took me out. Hah, maybe Garzelli paid off Rogers!"
Rogers only suffered from unfamiliarity with the final corner and was likely not plotting against Scarponi. In the three previous circuits, the riders skirted around the piazza on different roads.
Evans and Garzelli only took two seconds on Scarponi, but with time bonus, Evans at 12 seconds back and Garzelli two.
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Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) will likely help team Androni's Scarponi win his second Tirreno in-a-row tomorrow. He and the other sprinters face the last stage and the last chance for a win prior to Milan-San Remo in four days times.
"An escape will likely go and eat up the bonuses," said Scarponi. "Then it will be the time for the sprinters, but if Garzelli goes I can handle him."
"It's not over," Garzelli responded. "Two seconds is nothing."
Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.
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