Never let a fellow countryman give you a wheel, even if he's a generous friend in life when the shirt he's wearing is from a different team. Here is Richie Porte's psychodrama explodes in the easiest stage of the Giro on paper, all flat as a billiard table. No crashes, just a puncture in the final tussle which becomes a defeat on arrival for someone who until yesterday was among the great favorites of the Giro and who today, when the Giro heads towards Imola, finds himself dropped from third to 12th place in the standings general with a gap of 3'09” from the pink jersey always on the shoulders of Alberto Contador.
A cursed afternoon in the Romagna heat for the Tasmanian of Team Sky which sees the group of Contador and Aru speeding off like a train, at over 55 km per hour, with the teams of sprinters like Greipel and Modolo chasing a quartet of fugitives in view of the finish line. There is no more time for fair play, even if one wanted to. Porte sets foot on the ground with only 6km to go and is in despair as the seconds feel like minutes.
In the confusion of the moment, it is not his teammate who gives him the wheel to replace the punctured one but Simon Clark, ex pink jersey, a kangaroo from Oceania like Porte, a continental solidarity from the book "Heart" but not allowed according to the laws of the Giro and therefore punishable: the leader of the Sky team gets back on the saddle, four teammates await him, he tries to reconnect the group but can't make it because we are now inside the municipality of Forlì. When Porte crosses the finish line in 150th place, 47” have passed since the arrival of the peloton with Contador, Aru, Uran and all the others.
A delay that would be acceptable, given the circumstances in which it occurred, but which becomes an abyss when the jury examines his case by sanctioning Porte (and also Clark) with a 2-minute penalty for "non-regulatory assistance to a runner of a other team".
The Giro per Porte is not lost, but winning it seems ever more difficult since yesterday. From him there is the prosecco time trial in Valdobbiadene in which the Tasmanian could take advantage of Contador and Aru, but three minutes is an abyss in a Giro which so far has been fought on the edge of seconds.
Porte's misadventure ended up overshadowing the beautiful victory of Nicola Boem of Team Bardiani who in an all-Italian sprint burned his three breakaway companions at the finish line in Forlì: in that order Matteo Busato, Alessandro Malaguti and Alan Marangoni.
All four were good at not being caught up by the big group, where the great sprinters were lurking. The three super favorites for the stage victory had to settle for the dispute for fifth place with Nizzolo who preceded Modolo and Greipel, the German winner in Castiglione della Pescaia but who yesterday in Forlì, the city of a great past like Ercole Baldini, seemed a Gorilla rather downcast yesterday.
