The 2010 Giro d'Italia began on 8 May, and stage 11 occurred on 19 May. The race began in Amsterdam in the Netherlands with an individual time trial and two flat stages before transferring to Italy. The transfer made an uncommonly early rest day in a Grand Tour, coming just three days into the three-week race. Many crashes occurred in the stages in the Netherlands, leading to some unexpected big time gaps before the transfer to Italy. Three different riders led the race after the three days in the Netherlands.
The first stage in Italy was a team time trial, the fifth successive year the discipline has featured in the Giro. This stage transferred the race lead to a fourth rider in as many stages, Vincenzo Nibali. Though many of the stages in the first half of the Giro were flat or undulating, and theoretically fairly straightforward, there were repeated large time gaps from day to day. The first mountain stage was stage 8, which concluded with a long climb to Monte Terminillo.
Stage 11 was the longest in the race, and featured another surprise, a 50-strong breakaway which greatly shook up the overall standings before the more mountainous second half of the Giro. Alexander Vinokourov had held the race lead prior to that stage, but lost it to Richie Porte, who figured into the winning break.
LegendJerseys appearing in the table on the left of the page indicate those worn by the cyclist during the particular stage, while those appearing in the table on the right of the page indicate those awarded to the cyclist after the stage. Denotes the leader of the General classification Denotes the leader of the Mountains classification Denotes the leader of the Points classification Denotes the leader of the Young rider classification s.t. indicates that the rider crossed the finish line in the same group as the one receiving the time above him, and was therefore credited with the same finishing time.
Stage 1 8 May 2010 — Amsterdam (Netherlands), (individual time trial)
The Giro opened with a short, flat time trial in Amsterdam, the ninth time that the Giro has begun outside Italy. There were a number of tight turns in the course, which began at the Museumplein and ended at the Olympic Stadium, making for a stage that favored time trial specialists.
Intermittent rain made the time trial difficult for various riders throughout the day. 's Andriy Hryvko, the five-time defending Ukrainian national time trial champion, set the first real time to beat early on the day, clocking in at 10'31". Hryvko was the 14th man to leave the starthouse, and his time held up until the 60th man, 's Gustav Larsson, time trial silver medalist from the most recent world championships and Olympics, was six seconds better at 10'25".
An hour and a half later, the day's biggest surprise came when Brent Bookwalter from Cadel Evans' , riding in his first Grand Tour, put up 10'20" as the day's new best time. The only man to do better on the day was captain and time trial specialist Bradley Wiggins, stopping the clock in 10'18" to earn the first pink jersey. Of the Giro's overall favorites, Evans finished best-placed, on the same time as Bookwalter for third place.
Stage 1 result and general classification after stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 10' 18" 2 + 2" 3 + 2" 4 + 5" 5 + 5" 6 + 5" 7 + 6" 8 + 7" 9 + 9" 10 + 9"
Stage 2 9 May 2010 — Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Utrecht (Netherlands),
The first road race of the 2010 Giro was flat, starting in Amsterdam and ending in Utrecht. Two very small climbs occurred shortly before the midpoint of the stage, to decide the first wearer of the green jersey. The roads leading into the finish in Utrecht twist and turn repeatedly.
There were a large number of crashes during the stage, which commentators and team managers alike described as unprecedented. The course was noted to have a lot of street furniture on it, which compounded with riders' nerves as the number of crashes mounted higher and higher to make the day of racing more perilous.
The day's breakaway numbered four – Paul Voss, Rick Flens, Stefano Pirazzi, and Mauro Facci. , at the head of the peloton, allowed them a little over 5 minutes' advantage before they set to making the chase. One of the day's massive crashes occurred with for the peloton, bringing down around 30 riders, including race leader Bradley Wiggins. Around this time, Flens tried to solo from the leading group, but the peloton caught him with left to race. Another huge crash took place from the finish line, depleting the leading group to only 58 riders and leaving Wiggins and Carlos Sastre, among others, 37 seconds back at the finish. The stage ended in a sprint finish, as expected, which was won by Tyler Farrar. Cadel Evans took over the leaders jersey.
Stage 2 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 Colnago-CSF Inox s.t.General classification after stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 1" 3 + 3" 4 + 3" 5 + 4" 6 + 7" 7 + 8" 8 + 9" 9 + 10" 10 + 13"
Stage 3 10 May 2010 — Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Middelburg (Netherlands),
Starting again from Amsterdam, stage 3 included portions dipping below sea level. The route headed south from Amsterdam along the North Sea, crossing through the islands of Zeeland before ending in Middelburg on Walcheren.
Crosswinds blowing from the coast fractured the peloton early on. The day's breakaway, comprising Olivier Kaisen, Jérôme Pineau, and Tom Stamsnijder was caught well before the end of the stage. It appeared for much of the day that Damiano Cunego would lose over a minute to the race's overall favorites after he missed a selection early on and rode much of the stage behind them. His group also contained André Greipel and Greg Henderson, however, and their teams made an effective chase to catch back up to race leader Cadel Evans' group.
With left to race, a major crash occurred, taking down most of , including Henderson and former race leader Bradley Wiggins. The crash also brought down Christian Vande Velde, who was forced to retire. It made for a crucial selection, as 29 riders at the head of the peloton were able to avoid it and finished 46 seconds better than Evans' group. Greipel was present in the leading group for the sprint finish, but he was unable to respond to the sprint kick from 's Wouter Weylandt, who easily took the stage win. The best-placed rider in the general classification in the leading group was Alexander Vinokourov, who became the third rider in as many days to pull on the pink jersey.
Despite the course's extremely flat profile, large time gaps resulted from the stage. Alessandro Petacchi and darkhorse overall contender Domenico Pozzovivo missed an early selection and never recovered, finishing eight minutes back along with riders like Marzio Bruseghin, Filippo Pozzato, and Gilberto Simoni. Five riders including Wiggins lost four minutes, and the last group on the road lost nearly 15 minutes. Stage 3 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 1" 4 + 5" 5 + 7" 6 + 10" 7 + 10" 8 + 12" 9 + 15" 10 + 16"
Stage 4 12 May 2010 — Savigliano to Cuneo, (team time trial)
After the transfer to Italy, which took the riders to Savigliano in the Piedmont, the first stage on Italian soil was, as it had been since 2006, a team time trial. The route was on a slight uphill for its duration, which was atypical for a team time trial. The course headed south on mainly straight roads from Savigliano to Cuneo, with intermediate time checks in Genola and Centallo.
The fourth team to leave the starthouse, Cadel Evans' , set the early time to beat, bettering the teams before them by nearly a minute. Their time of 37'58" stood for close to an hour, with the teams that followed them failing to beat provisional second place team 's time of 38'40". The first team faster than BMC was , with Mikhail Ignatiev pulling his teammates to a time of 37'04", eventually fourth at the end of the day. Stage favorites took the course just after the Russian team and brought five riders home in 36'50" to take over the top spot. After and both turned in solid rides, at 37'23" and 37'15" respectively, another favorite in was next on the road. The team rode without one of its captains, Christian Vande Velde, who had been forced to retire from the Giro in the last stage in the Netherlands after crashing. His remaining teammates had wanted to dedicate their prospective victory to him, but Vandevelde's presence proved sorely missed as the team managed only 37'26" and eighth on the day.
The last four teams to start were , , , and , with the pink jersey hanging in the balance as the four teams had riders tightly bunched in the overall standings from the previous stage. Liquigas-Doimo had all nine riders together as they entered Cuneo, while other teams lost riders early and often in the stage. Six crossed the finish line together in 36'37", supplanting Team Sky for best on the day. Team HTC-Columbia and Team Saxo Bank both failed to top Liquigas-Doimo in their rides, meaning Vincenzo Nibali stood to be the fourth new race leader in a row pending current race leader Alexander Vinokourov and team Astana's ride. The Kazakh team lost Alexsandr Dyachenko, Valentin Iglinskiy, and Enrico Gasparotto early in their ride, having only six riders together for most of the stage. Roman Kireyev fell off with 3 kilometers left, and Gorazd Štangelj also lost the pace well before the finish line. Štangelj rode back to his teammates the first time he came off the back, but he lost the pace again in the final kilometer. A visibly upset Vinokourov had to sit up and wait for him, costing the team the seconds they needed to keep Vinokourov in the pink jersey. Nibali became the new race leader.
Stage 4 result TeamTime 1 36' 37" 2 + 13" 3 + 21" 4 + 27" 5 + 38" 6 + 38" 7 + 46" 8 + 49" 9 + 50" 10 + 57"General classification after stage 4 RiderTeamTime 1 10h 44' 00" 2 + 13" 3 + 20" 4 + 26" 5 + 26" 6 + 33" 7 + 39" 8 + 45" 9 + 45" 10 + 59"
Stage 5 13 May 2010 — Novara to Novi Ligure,
After another transfer, the fifth stage was flat, entering Liguria, with two short climbs occurring about two-thirds of the way into the stage. The stage paid tribute to Fausto Coppi, passing through his hometown of Castellania and ending in Novi Ligure, where he lived later in his life. Novi Ligure was also the hometown of Costante Girardengo, also honored in this stage. The riders saw the finish line in Novi Ligure twice, taking a finishing circuit in the town.
A four-man breakaway distinguished themselves after . The group consisted of Yukiya Arashiro, Jérôme Pineau, Julien Fouchard, and mountains classification leader Paul Voss, after a move instigated by Arashiro. Voss sat up after the second small climb on the course, having taken first-place points on both. The group's maximum time gap was four minutes, at the Passo Coppi in Castellania. set to making the chase, but for a while they were the only team chasing, meaning the time gap did not fall very fast – it was still 2'50" by the to go mark.
The teams of the race's other premier sprinters joined the chase in the finishing circuit in Novi Ligure. With to go, Arashiro, Pineau, and Fouchard held a tenuous lead of under one minute. The chase continued into the final kilometer, and the three managed to stay away by a margin of 4 seconds over the hard-charging sprinters at the head of the peloton. Pineau was the winner, over Fouchard in second. Reactions to the failure to catch the breakaway varied, from finger-pointing to complaints over the Giro directors' descriptions of the finishing circuit to simply crediting the leading trio for their combativity. With the win, Pineau took over the lead in the points classification, earning the red jersey for stage six. There was no significant change to the race's overall standings.
Stage 5 result