Alberto Contador wins the Giro on the day in which he risked losing him, cornered first by Landa's razor blows, then by the explosive exuberance of Aru, author of an extraordinary encore at the Sestrière finish line. The Spaniard had never been seen to lose his wheels cleanly to his rivals as happened yesterday on the terrible hairpin bends of Passo delle Finestre, as soon as the asphalt gave way to a dirt road from another era. Until then it seemed like we were witnessing the usual script of the high mountain stages: once again Aru and Landa, thanks to the admirable strength of Astana, had isolated the pink jersey which was soon left without any more teammates. In recent days Contador alone was enough and he was advancing to keep the two young roosters of the Kazakh battleship at bay, also giving lessons in great cycling such as on the Mortirolo. Yesterday, too, at Landa's sudden lunge, the Pistolero immediately tried to follow him, but then – here's the whole new scenario – he planted himself on the pedals as if he had suddenly lost all power. The Basque, grimpeur of absolute value, flew off in pursuit of the Russian Zakarin. Aru stayed with Contador for a few hundred meters. But it didn't take him long to understand that the red reserve warning light had come on for the Spaniard and he immediately clicked, creating an increasingly unfillable void. The Giro was experiencing a completely unexpected finale with the pink jersey not even able to tag along with Hesjedal, Kruijswijk and Uran, the three most eager to set off in pursuit of Aru. “The great tours are won by overcoming the dark days”, Pistolerto will say at the finish line. But two kilometers from the summit, when the hairpin bends became more and more suffocating, alone against everyone in that majestic amphitheater that is Colle delle Finestre, for the Spanish champion the situation was turning for the worse. The Contador del Mortirolo was just a memory. He suffered to the point of not even keeping up with Kangert, who is not a climber.
On the hill, Cima Coppi of this Giro, Landa preceded an exhausted Zakarin. Less than a minute later Aru's squad passed. Contador's delay was approaching two minutes. In the descent to Pragelato, before the start of the final ascent of Sestrière, the gaps remained unchanged also because Landa didn't have a change from the Russian who no longer had a watt of energy in his body; he got angry with Aru, for the same reason, Uran too in the small group of immediate pursuers but the Sardinian for team reasons kept close behind the others. In this waltz of requests and crossed refusals, Contador benefited from it who was unable to accelerate but who took courage realizing that he had only lost the stage, but not the Giro.
Even in the Astana flagship they sensed, perhaps a little late, that Landa and Aru together could have broken the bank, given the decidedly negative day for the pink jersey. So they decided to stop Landa, who reluctantly obeyed, because he was flying towards a probable set after having planted a drifting Zakarin. Aru meanwhile had engaged the fourth putting a strain on the resistance of Uran, Hesjedal and Kruijswijk. Despite this tactical mess in Astana, Contador lost more ground but not so much as to make him lose his temper, aware that an acceleration to shorten the gap could be lethal.
While Landa's morale dropped under the pedals, Aru climbed into the chair, with a competitive vigor and explosiveness that sent the crowd crowded on the Sestrière climb into a frenzy. A royal ride that gave rivals no chance. A triumph, 24 hours after that of Cervinia, which further raises the bar of the value of a rider destined to be a top player in world cycling. at 18” came second, like the day before yesterday, Ryder Hesjedal, author of a splendid finish in this Giro which now sees him enter the top five. Still third at 24” – as in Cervinia – a rediscovered Uran who preceded a disheartened Landa who, after the finish, will shed bitter tears for that imposed stop. Fifth Kruijswijk at 34”.
Then keep an eye on the stopwatch waiting for Contador, who finished sixth at 2'25. An unexpected blow but the Pistolero crossed the finish line waving his fist as if he had finished first. The Giro was in the safe, but the crisis on the Colle delle Finestre insinuates some doubts about the "one-two mission", that is to conquer the Tour after the Giro, realizing an exploit that was only successful for a very few greats of the past. Even his patron, Oleg Tinkov who followed him to the Giro becoming enthusiastic about his deeds, would also like him at the Vuelta in August. As if what awaits him at the end of June in France wasn't enough when Contador will face Nibali, Froome and Quintana for a stellar challenge in which Vinokourov, team manager of Astana, would like Aru to participate as well. "Just to gain experience", added the old Vino who now has the pleasant but not easy task of managing and combining Nibali's leadership in the same team with the growing and legitimate ambitions of Aru but also of Landa, yesterday's sacrifice in Sestrière which, by not winning the stage, also narrowly missed the conquest of the blue jersey of leader of the climbers left on the shoulders of Giovanni Visconti.
