After the summary of the 3 Irish stages of the Tour of Italy 2014, velowire.com now looks back on the first week of the Giro d'Italia 2014 on this second rest day of the Italian race.

Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) arrived in Italy with the pink jersey on his shoulders and the Australian rider managed to keep this precious leader's jersey of the general classification until the start of the first mountain stage last Saturday. Since the finish of that stage, his compatriot Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) wears this jersey and he thus still has to defend it for 12 stages starting tomorrow.

4/ Tuesday 12 May 2014 - Giovinazzo > Bari - 112 km

Once the riders arrived in the south of Italy and after the rest day, an extremely short stage was waiting for them in the Giro d'Italia 2014. It lasted much longer however than expected ...

The day after his birthday, Marcel Kittel (Team Giant-Shimano), who had been successful in the two stages in line in Ireland, had to leave the roads of the Giro d'Italia 2014 with fever:

So, the Giro got me earlier then I thought. Absolutely disappointed that I have to leave this beautiful race today because of a fever. :'(((

— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) May 13, 2014

A big chance thus for the other sprinters in this Italian Grand Tour, especially since several stages of this first week in Italy seemed to be promised to riders like them.

The rain which the riders saw all the way long during their stay in Ireland didn't follow them in Italy during the rest/transfer day. However, on Tuesday, during the 4th stage (the first one in Italy), the rain came back and it continued to follow the race for a few days. During this short stage, almost half of the distance took place on a 8.3 kilometer long circuit which the riders had to do 8 times. Not surprisingly (as we've seen later on with the different crashes), the riders thought that the rain would make the roads slippery and thus dangerous. Therefore, the whole peloton decided to stop rolling and ask the organisor and the UCI commissaires that the time for the classification would be taken on the forelast crossing of the finish line, so the leaders of the different teams wouldn't have to follow the sprinters battling for the stage victory.

When they got what they wanted, the last 5 laps took place normally and the Orica-GreenEDGE team of Michael Matthews took control of the race. Except for the intermediate sprint, which was won by Elia Viviani (Cannondale), that's what we saw until the end of the stage.

Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) who hoped, just like Viviani and the other sprinters, to take advantage of the absence of Marcel Kittel, got behind the peloton at about ten kilometers from the finish because of a mechanical problem. Once back in the peloton, the French rider managed however -despite the omnipresence of Giant-Shimano riders- to win the sprint, which was a first since Bouhanni never won a stage in a Grand Tour before!

The classification of the 4th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the top 10 of this fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 2h22'06" 2/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) 3/ Tom Veelers (Team Giant-Shimano) 4/ Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) 5/ Elia Vivivani (Cannondale) 6/ Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) 7/ Kenny de Haes (Lotto-Belisol) 8/ Luka Mezgec (Team Giant-Shimano) 9/ Bert de Backer (Team Giant-Shimano) 10/ Francesco Chicchi (Neri Sottoli)

#Grazie ! pic.twitter.com/naWRZ2bYoL — Equipe FDJ.fr (@EquipeFDJ) May 13, 2014

The video summary of the 4th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find a video summary of the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

5/ Wednesday 13 May 2014 - Taranto > Viggiano - 203 km

The 5th stage was the first with an uphill finish. Rapidly after the start a group of 11 riders got away from the peloton, with Elia Viviani (Cannondale), Ben Swift (Team Sky), Tyler Farrar and Fabian Wegmann (Garmin-Sharp), Miguel Angel Rubiano (Colombia), Tony Hurel and Bjorn Thurau (Europcar), Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli), Yonathan Monsalve (Neri Sottoli), Kenny Dehaes and Tosh van der Sande (Lotto-Belisol). Their gap was around 4 minutes for a long time, before it dropped back thanks to the efforts of the Orica-GreenEDGE team, relayed by the BMC team.

In the 25 last kilometers a first group of 7 riders was taken back, followed by 3 other about 5 kilometers further, in the first climb towards Viggiano, and only Bjorn Thurau stayed ahead. The rain then made its comeback and the descent followed by the second climb thus became dangerous and this led to several crashes, while Thurau was taken back by the peloton.

In the circuit around the finish city, Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) tried a solo adventure while Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar) desperately tried to catch up with him. At 3 kilometers from the finish, Brambilla still had a 18 seconds gap but just before the last kilometer sign the Italian rider was taken back and while the Katusha team reacts to almost every attack in the climb towards the finish, Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida)'s attack pretty much came as a surprise and the Italian rider thus took his second stage victory in the Giro d'Italia, after the mountain stage he won in 2011 on a flat finish which ended in a sprint.

The classification of the 5th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you can find the top 10 of this fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

1/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - 5h12'39" 2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'01" 3/ Julian David Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) 4/ Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 5/ Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) 6/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) 7/ Joaquim Rodriguez (Team Katusha) 8/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) 9/ Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) 10/ Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team)

Amazing victory for Diego Ulissi In Viggiano! Bravo! Fantasica vittoria di Diego Ulissi a Viggiano! Bravo! #giro pic.twitter.com/66xM92UnhD — Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 14, 2014

The video summary of the 5th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the video summary of the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

6/ Thursday 15 May 2014 - Sassano > Montecassino - 247 257 km

Because of recent landslide, the race route of this stage was slightly modified and became the longest stages of this Giro d'Italia 2014 with its 257 kilometers.

Again, this long day started under the sun and ended in the rain, which definitely decided to follow the Giro this year. This day's breakaway showed Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocattoli), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF), Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli) and Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) ahead of the peloton and they created a gap up to a maximum of 14 minutes!

At 12 kilometers from the finish, their adventure comes to an end and again, the rain led to several crashes. At the foot of the final climb, several riders were on the ground or stuck behind the riders who crashed. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) comes out of this situation as a winner because the Australian rider was one of the riders who were not in the crash and he arrived among the first on top, while most other candidates for the general classification were blocked behind. In this group, we also found the pink jersey, Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), who managed to keep up the pace, as well as Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol), who's more used to the hilly terrain. The battle for the sprint was between those two riders and Matthews was the one who surprised himself by crossing the finish line first!

The classification of the 6th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the top 10 of this sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

1/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 6h37'01" 2/ Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol) 3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) 4/ Matteo Rabottini (Neri Sottoli) 5/ Ivan Santaromita (Orica-GreenEDGE) - +0'13" 6/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) - +0'23" 7/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'49" 8/ Mauro Finetto (Neri Sottoli) 9/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) 10/ Fabio Duarte (Colombia)

The moment @blingmatthews conquered Montecassino in Maglia Rosa! #giro pic.twitter.com/3LlNL3waXa — Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 15, 2014

The video summary of the 6th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you can find the video summary of the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

7/ Friday 16 May 2014 - Frosino > Foligno - 211 km

The stage on Friday saw a breakaway with Robinson Chalapud (Colombia), Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF) and again Bjorn Thurau (Europcar), none of them being a threat for the general classification. The breakaway group could thus extend its gap up to 9 minutes but the Orica-GreenEDGE team continued to control the race to prevent Matthews to lose the pink jersey before the mountaineous weekend.

Helped by the other sprinters teams, the Orica-GreenEDGE team saw its strategy work out and the breakaway was taken back by the peloton and a bunch sprint would thus end off the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014. In this sprint, Nacer Bouhanni was not the best placed rider but the sprinter of the FDJ.fr team managed to find a tiny gap between Luka Mezgec (Team Giant-Shimano) and the advertising panels on the right of the road, which allowed him to go on to victory, his second stage victory in a Grand Tour and in this Giro!

The classification of the 7th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the top 10 of this seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 5h16'05" 2/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) 3/ Luka Mezgec (Team Giant-Shimano) 4/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) 5/ Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) 6/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) 7/ Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani CSF) 8/ Boy van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing) 9/ Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo) 10/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale)

#GrazieNacer #Giro pic.twitter.com/OGiqp0r6WS — Equipe FDJ.fr (@EquipeFDJ) May 17, 2014

The video summary of the 7th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the video summary of the seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

8/ Saturday 17 May 2014 - Foligno > Montecopiolo - 179 km

After the second stage win by Nacer Bouhanni the day before, this first real mountain stage would give Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) the opportunity to also take his second stage victory in this Giro d'Italia 2014.

Indeed, when the last survivor of this day's breakaway, Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing), was joined by Pierre Rolland (Europcar) in the last climb of this stage, the rider of the Trek team payed his efforts since the start of the stage and Rolland thus seemed to go on towards the stage victory. Alone in the last 2 kilometers, Pierre Rolland could not resist to some of the favourites coming back however and at 350 meters from the finish line, he thus saw his chances for the stage victory fly away because, after a first attack by Dani Moreno (Team Katusha), followed by Robert Kiserlovski (Trek Factory racing) and Diego Ulissi, the rider was taken back and in the end, Ulissi "sprinted" towards the finish line to take his second stage victory in this Giro d'Italia 2014.

The classification of the 8th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you can find the top 10 of this eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

1/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - 4h47'47" 2/ Robert Kiserlovski (Trek Factory Racing) 3/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'06" 4/ Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) 5/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'08" 6/ Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 7/ Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) 8/ Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) - +0'14" 9/ Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) - +0'17" 10/ Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) - +0'20"

This is the moment @DiegoUlissi won in Montecopiolo! #giro pic.twitter.com/E4bptdDn5N — Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 17, 2014

The video summary of the 8th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the video summary of the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

9/ Sunday 18 May 2014 - Lugo > Sestola - 172 km

The first two thirds of this 9th stage were pretty much flat and thus allowed a group of 14 riders to get away from the peloton after about 50 kilometers in the race, setting up a gap up to 8 minutes.

From this group, Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) attacked at 19 kilometers from the finish, at the foot of the final climb. He got company from Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar) and the two riders collaborated together to get up the climb towards Sestola. In the last 500 meters their poker game started and Davide Malacarne ended up in front, zig-zagging on the road, almost coming to an halt. At 100 meters from the finish line, Pieter Weening finally launched his attack and Malacarne couldd only observe how the Dutch rider won this second mountain stage!

Behind them, Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) did a good job for the general classification. Indeed, the Italian rider attacked in the final part of the climb and even though he didn't manage to get back on the two breakaway riders, he took back 26 seconds on the other favourites, in addition to the bonus seconds he took by ending the stage at the 3rd place.

The classification of the 9th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you can find the top 10 of this ninth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

1/ Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 4h25'51" 2/ Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar) 3/ Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'42" 4/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - +1'08" 5/ Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 6/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) 7/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) 8/ Dario Cataldo (Team Sky) 9/ Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) 10/ Fabio Duarte (Colombia)

CONGRATS to ORICA-GreenEDGE cyclist Pieter Weening & on his STAGE NINE WIN at Giro d'Italia!!! pic.twitter.com/NF4pqkiH6r — BolleSA (@BolleSA) May 19, 2014

The video summary of the 9th stage of the Tour of Italy 2014

Hereunder you'll find the video summary of the ninth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2014:

The classifications of the Tour of Italy 2014 after 9 stages

After these 9 stages, the classifications of the Giro d'Italia 2014 are as follows:

The general classification

After these 9 stages, the general classification starts to show the first real differences, with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) in the lead and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) who climbs up to the 4th place at 1'20" behind the Australian rider.

Here's the top 10 of the general classification of the Giro d'Italia 2014 after 9 stages:

1/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 38h49'34"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'57"
3/ Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) - +1'10"
4/ Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) - +1'20"
5/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) - +1'31"
6/ Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) - +1'39"
7/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - +1'43"
8/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +1'44"
9/ Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) - +1'45"
10/ Robert Kiserlovski (Trek Factory Racing) - +1'49"

Points classification

Now Marcel Kittel (Team Giant-Shimano) left the Giro, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) s'est imposé comme le vrai sprinteur de ce Giro d'Italia 2014 :

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 166 points
2/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) - 150 points
3/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale) - 139 points
4/ Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) - 121 points
5/ Ben Swift (Team Sky) - 92 points

King of the Mountains classification

Mainly thanks to his presence in the breakaway (alone at the end) during the 8th stage on Saturday, Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) took the lead in the KOM classification:

1/ Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) - 47 points
2/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - 39 points
3/ Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani CSF) - 26 points
4/ Robert Kiserlovski (Trek Factory Racing) - 20 points
5/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 15 points
6/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - 15 points

Best young riders classification

Here's the top 5 of the young riders classification. The 6th rider in this classification, Georg Preidler (Team Giant-Shimano), is already 10'33" behind and it is thus well possible that the victory in this classification will be decided among those 5 riders:

1/ Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) - 38h50'44"
2/ Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) - +0'29"
3/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - +0'33"
4/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'34"
5/ Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) - +0'35"

What's next in the Tour of Italy 2014

If you'd like to know the details of the race route of the next stages of the Giro d'Italia 2014, you can read the article The Tour of Italy 2014 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth and all details.

source photos article illustration: RCS Sport - © Gian Mattia D'Alberto for Michael Matthews / Fabio Ferrari for Cadel Evans - LaPresse

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2014

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