Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicolas Roche and Ivan Rovny were on the front line during today’s 252 kilometer long 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia as they took part of the breakaway containing 14 riders. It was a long flat course but with a rather mountainous finale and the peloton kept the escapees on a short leash. But the Tinkoff-Saxo boys were uncontrollable today!

 

With 34 kilometers to go, the escapees had no more than 30 seconds advantage and Nicolas Roche launched an attack from the break on the first part of the climb before the descent to the finish line. Dani Moreno (Katusha), Francisco Bongiorno (Bardiani) and Georg Preidler (Giant-Shimano) joined the French Irishman. Soon Julian Arredondo (Trek) bridged the gap and went straight past the quartet but Roche managed to hang on to the Trek-rider. But not for long. Roche simply cracked climbing the final slope and watched Arredondo and Preidler disappear in the distance. Behind, BMC worked tirelessly to drag the escapees back in.

 

With 23 kilometers to go, the pack was all together but it didn’t last long before Tinkoff-Saxo’s Michael Rogers launched an attack which looked extremely promising but the peloton kept coming closer from behind. However, on the final two kilometers, Rogers had another gear to push and he powered away to take a beautiful stage win in Savona ten seconds ahead of the speeding peloton.

"It was one of the hardest rides of my life, for sure," he said. "At the top of the climb, I realized that most guys in the group were GC contenders and this was the time to jump. So I went.

 

"From then on, it was all about keeping my head down, pedaling away and I guess I was a little lucky that the GC guys were probably looking at each other, hesitating a bit. That only meant that I had the golden opportunity to celebrate the stage win a few hundred meters from the finish line.

 

"Look, I’ve always loved time trials, but I made it to the top of the tree and, to be honest, I wanted to try my hand in 3-week stage races. I didn’t succeed and, in a sense, I regret letting the time trials go. I lost a lot of weight and strength. At my age, in recent years, it’s difficult to get it back. Sometimes I manage it, and in short stage races, I can get results.

 

"I haven’t seen it [tomorrow's time trial]. Tomorrow morning we’ll go and look in the car. From what I understand, it’s very hard. There are 15 kms at a gradient of 3-4 %, then it rolls up and down. I think it’s a route for a rider with legs. It’s been a nervous, difficult Giro for the peloton, with some hard stages and bad weather, and the peloton is very tired.

 

"I know [Cadel] well. Being Australians, we grew together as amateurs. Cadel has always been a classy rider. The first part of his career was on a mountain bike and sometimes he came to find us in the Under-23 Australian team. We were happy when he did, because he won races, and we made some money out of it [laughs].

 

"He’s always been mentally strong, with lots of heart. He has a very strong team, they’re riding well, and he has a great directeur sportif in Valerio Piva, who has lots of experience and is very intelligent. I think they use the team very well. They know their strengths, and Cadel’s experience in 3-week races is almost unrivalled.”

 

Obviously DS, Lars Michaelsen was a very happy man after the stage:

 

"We truly insisted making that crucial break throughout the entire stage," he said. "First with Ivan and Nico, later with Nico again and eventually, Michael took matters into his own hands and put the icing on the cake after a very fast and thrilling stage. We have had our eyes on this stage for some time and that makes the stage win taste even sweeter that we actually completed the plan."

 

Teammate, Rafal Majka is still third overall while Cadel Evans (BMC) retained the leader's jersey.