Stannard exhausted as tour finishes
Ian's epic Italian journey is finally over
Ian Stannard, riding for his Italian-Ukrainian ISD-NERI squad, has completed his first three-week Grand Tour in Italy as this year's Giro D'Italia came to a finish in Rome.
The final 15.5km of action consisted of a time trial around some of the famous sites of the Eternal City and finished in the shadows of the Colosseum.
But after nearly 3500km of riding throughout the tour, few of the riders were looking at the views.
Having worked hard for his team leader and former Italian road race champion, Giovanni Visconti, for the last 21 days, Castlethorpe rider Stannard had only his own overall placing to think of as he started the final test of the race.
Despite the weather gods playing a cruel card with a short downpour just after the time trial had started – making the cobbled Roman roads like an ice-rink in places – the 22-year-old set an amazing time of 19m 36s for the short course.
And Stannard's super-fast time was under a second slower than that of pre-race favourite Levi Leipheimer, and was some 25 seconds faster than that posted by fellow Giro debutant, Lance Armstrong!
Stannard told the Citizen: "I am very pleased with the ride.
"The course included lots of short, sharp turns but my speedo still registered more than 30mph on a number of occasions."
In what was a celebration of the Giro in its centennial year, last Monday's 237km stage was typical of what the riders had been facing throughout the three week race.
Stannard said: "It was just too hot.
"The temperature topped 42 degrees C and the tarmac was even hotter.
"Many riders said they'd never ridden in anything like it before."
That stage was the third successive day in which the riders had to compete along a route with a profile like a saw – all the way to the top and then long, plunging, twisting descents – before another vicious climb.
Stannard added: "I was in the final group on the road that day and it took us around eight hours to complete it."
The Italian press reported that on average, the riders went through over 17 litres of liquid stage during that stage.
And the excitement and drama of the Giro continued until the last moments of the near 3500km race.
Leader Denis Menchov started the final day with just a 20 second lead ahead of his nearest rival, but as he started the last kilometre his front wheel slipped out from underneath him on the damp cobbled road.
But despite crashing to the ground, the Russian was able to quickly mount his replacement bike and hold on to take the win.
Meanwhile, Stannard was just pleased to have finished the tour in one piece.
He said: "It's just been so hard and so hot throughout the whole race.
"Clearly this has been one of the hardest things I've every done on my bike.
"But just finishing this race is going to be a major boost for my two-wheeled career."
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
