Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) confirmed that he is an excellent climber in the making when he won today's big mountain stage of the Giro del Trentino in solo fashion. The young Italian launched a brave move early on the final climb and held off a select group of favourites to take the stage win and move himself into second overall behind new race leader Cadel Evans (BMC).

 

In his first professional season, Edoardo Zardini gave several indications that he has the skills to become one of the next great Italian climbers and especially his performance in the Giro dell'Emilia at the end of the year drew some attention. Today he got his big breakthrough when he took a surprising solo win on the first big mountain stage of the Giro del Trentino.

 

Instead of waiting for the race favourites, he attacked early on the climb when he joined a move that also included his Bardiani teammate Stefano Pirazzi, Jacques Janse van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka), Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) and later also Mikel Landa (Astana). While Bradley Wiggins led the chase for Sky in the peloton, the group opened up a big gap that reached more than 30 seconds at one point.

 

Caruso and Van Rensburg were the first to get dropped before Zardini launched his solo attack. All his former companions were caught but he continued to press on.

 

Behind, the war between the race favourites started when Fabio Aru (Astana), Cadel Evans (BMC), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r), and Fabio Duarte (Colombia) escaped. The quartet was joined by Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) and started to get closer to the lone leader.

 

However, it was all too late and the young Italian held on to take the win, even with a big 19-second margin over the riders that had been expected to battle it out for the win. Niemiec beat Duarte in the sprint for 2nd while Evans rolled across the line in 4th.

 

There was a consolation for the Australian though as the result was enough to elevate him from 2nd into the overall lead as his teammate Daniel Oss much as expected had been unable to keep up with the climbers. Zardini, however, moves into 2nd, just 9 seconds behind Evans and may be poised for a top result in one of the most prestigious Italian races.

 

He will get a chance to take the lead when the race continues with another very mountainous affair. The third stage is up and down all day but has no big, long climbs. However, it ends with a short 2.4km climb to the finish that has a brutal 11.7% average gradient.

 

A tough summit finish

After yesterday's opening team time trial, the Giro del Trentino headed into the terrain that characterizes the race, as the second stage took the riders over 164.5km from Limone sul Garda to a mountaintop finish at the climb of San Giacomo di Brentonico. The first part of the stage was entirely flat but at the midpoint the riders went up the category 2 climb of Vigolo Vattaro from two different directions. The stage ended with the final 14.4km ascent that had an average gradient of 6.9% and was set to give the first real indication of the climbing hierarchy in the mountainous race.

 

The race took off under a sunny sky but one rider was absent from the start line. Having been one of the driving forces in the team time trial for Bardiani, Marco Canola never made it to the start in Limone sul Garda, leaving the Italian team with just 7 riders in the race.

 

A fast start

The start to the stage was a very animated affair as a lot of riders wanted to make it into the early break. The first group to get a significant advantage was a 4-rider move that got clear at the 13km mark but the BMC team of race leader Daniel Oss brought it back.

 

At the 20km mark, the peloton was still together but Movistar were particularly active at this point of the race. However, the Spanish team failed to make it into the move that seemed to be the right one when Emanuele Sella (Androni) and Cesare Benedetti (NetApp) opened a 20-second gap.

 

The break takes off

The peloton refused to slow down though and as Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida) and Duber Quintero (Colombia) tried to bridge across, it all got back together after 30km of racing. Moments later, the elastic finally snapped when Leonardo Duque (Colombia), Adrian Honkisz (CCC) and Giorgio Checchinel (Neri Sottoli) took off.

 

The trio were 20 seconds ahead at the 34km mark and now the peloton seemed to be content with the situation. 4km further up the road, they were already 3.15 ahead and the gap had reached 8.57 when Duque beat Honkisz and Cecchinel and the intermediate sprint after 58km of racing.

 

BMC have things under control

BMC had now taken control of the peloton and they brought the gap down to 5.46 at the 74km mark. As they hit the Vigolo Vattaro climb for the first time, however, they slowed down and allowed the gap to grow back up to 6.25 when Cecchinel beat Honkisz and Duque at the KOM sprint.

 

After the climb, BMC again started to up the pace and they had the gap down to 5.40 at the 100km mark. At the bottom of the Vigolo Vattaro climb, it was down to 5.00 and this time they didn't slow down in the uphill section.

 

It starts to rain

It had started to rain when Honkisz beat Cecchinel and Duque in the KOM sprint at the top but this did not ease up. With 36km to go, the escapees were only 3.00 ahead and it seemed that their time in the spotlight would come to an end before the final climb.

 

Surprisingly, the peloton slowed down a bit and so the gap was back up to 4.15 when 27km remained. That was as much as they would get though as BMC were now getting some assistance from Cannondale in their chase effort.

 

Ag2r lead the peloton onto the climb

At the bottom of the final climb, the gap was down to 1.15 and on the lower slopes, it was the Ag2r team of 2012 winner Pozzovivo that set the pace. The peloton immediately started to splinter, with white jersey holder Rick Zabel being one of the first to fall off.

 

As the gap was down to 16 seconds, Van Rensburg made his first unsuccessful attempt but BMC was setting a hard tempo that made it difficult to escape. They brought back the early escapees and so things were back together with 10km to go.

 

Teklehaimanot takes off

MTN-Qhubeka were very active and they launched Daniel Teklehaimanot up the road. The Eritrean was joined by Cristian Salerno (Cannondale) and they got a gap of a few seconds.

 

Oss now lost contact with the peloton while Teklehaimanot fell back to the peloton. A little later, it was also over for Salerno but MTN continued their attacking racing when the 70-rider peloton passed the 10km to go sign.

 

Zardini makes his move

The South African team had Van Rensburg in the quartet that took off and he was joined by Zardini, Pirazzi, and Caruso in a promising move. Landa also made the junction and the quintet were quickly 14 seconds ahead.

 

Team Sky took over the pace-setting with Wiggins while Caruso and Van Rensburg fell off the pace in the front group. Caruso was the first to get caught and a little later it was also over for Van Rensburg.

 

Zardini takes off on his own

Wiggins kept the gap stable at around 15 seconds for some time but gradually started to lose a bit of ground. When the gap was 20 seconds, Zardini attacked on his own and passed the 5km to go sign as the lone leader.

 

Zardini was now 16 seconds ahead of his chasers and 32 seconds ahead of the 40-rider peloton that caught Pirazzi soon after. With 4km to go, Wiggins finally swung off and fell off the pace while Ivan Basso (Cannondale) also lost contact.

 

Astana lead the chase

With 3km to go, the peloton was 40 seconds behind and had now caught Landa. With the Basque back in the fold, Astana took over the pace-setting and brought the gap down to 33 seconds.

 

With 2km to go, Aru, Pozzovivo, Evans and Duarte escaped and they passed the flamme rouge with an 18-second deficit. Inside the final kilometre, Niemiec joined them while Pozzovivo was now struggling.

 

Despite their hard efforts, however, they were unable to catch Zardini who took an impressive solo win. Niemiec led Duarte and Evans across the line 19 seconds later while Pozzovivo and Aru both lost a few seconds in the end.