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We haven’t seen much of a battle for the GC so far, the hunt for the polka dot jersey is really taken off by now. Just like in the last edition there is no clear favorite in the KOM-classification, but a few riders have been announcing their interest. Last year Bernard Kohl finally made sure he went for that jersey, albeit that we now know how he did that.
After the Pyrenees the GC is completely open. Some riders, Kern, Pellizotti and Martinez, have made it clear that they want to make that extra effort, yet they can still be caught quite easily. Today’s stage might just prove that, all the cards needs to be open here. The three mentioned riders might have a good lead, the number of available points today and next week are more than sufficient. Pellizotti and Martinez have gone for peanuts, where they could have made a big step today. In relation to last year: Kohl wasn’t really challenged either by the riders that took points on early climbs as he took the big points on the last climb behind GC-leader Sastre and Frank Schleck.
This Tour is governed by Astana, so GC-riders that have already lost a few minutes could easily switch objective, a good initiative indeed. It is however a pity that those riders, like Menchov, are completely focused on the GC and they won’t attack therefore. The end result being that they won’t get anywhere in the GC, although Pellizotti is the exception as number three in the Giro.
