Sastre Causes Mt. Vesuvius Eruption on Giro Stage 19

"Today is my last chance to do something in this Giro.  I am here to try to win, and I will fight to the end."

The 2008 Tour de France champion, Carlos Sastre (Cervelo), meant business today on the summit of Mount Vesuvius, the still-active volcano that famously erupted in 79 A.D. and buried the high-status Roman city of Pompeii.  Although inactive since 1944, the volcano's next eruption might come soon due to Sastre's dominant performance today.

Before the arrival at the bottom of the climb, two men, Mauro Facci (Quick Step) and Yuriy Krivtsov (AG2R), made their way ahead of the peloton through the hilly countryside, passing the famous lemon-crop terraced land overhanging the Mediterranean coastline.

The two breakaway men, though, had no chance whatsoever of outpacing the peloton on today's pivotal stage. Danilo DiLuca's LPR-Brakes team reeled in the breakaway riders by the bottom of the Vesuvius.

The 13-kilometer, 7.5-percent average gradient climb was where the race quickly unfolded. It was the last mountain for the GC men to make their moves, the last chance after 18 days of brutal racing.

Race leader Denis Menchov (Rabobank) said before the stage that he needed to keep the wheel of DiLuca within his grasp at all times, and said that he did not fear the Italian nor the volcano. 

Outside contenders such as Franco Pellizotti and Ivan Basso (Liquigas), and Carlos Sastre had to make their bids as well to put themselves in contention for the final spot on the podium in Rome.

The race began to heat up. Ivan Basso was the first of the favorites to make his move.  He opened up a 20-second gap on the pink jersey group and quickly caught the Lampre rider, Paolo Tiralongo, who had also tried an escape half a kilometer before.

Basso plowed his way up the early slopes. Then Sastre made his trademark attack. The Tour champion was proving once again his mountain assault on the Alpe d'Huez last year and his win a few days ago on Monte Petrano were no flukes. 

He quickly bridged the gap to Basso and took the Italian with him. 

Not satisfied with having Basso on his wheel, the Spaniard attacked Basso no fewer than five times to try and rid himself of his companion, finally succeeding and showing his dominance on the long climbs.

Behind, Pellizotti shot out of the group, bridged the gap up to his teammate Basso and the Liquigas pair worked together to simultaneously catch Sastre and distance themselves from DiLuca and Menchov.

DiLuca and Menchov were having a battle of their own. DiLuca put in storming attacks nearly once every kilometer of the climb to rid himself of his Russian opponent.  Menchov, true to his word and confident in his form, marked DiLuca with every attack he made. DiLuca was putting himself into the hurt-zone very quickly.

Their blistering performance up the climb managed to quickly catch Basso. Basso had slipped back after his teammate Pellizotti went up the road himself looking for Sastre. 

Up the last kilometer of the climb, no one could catch Sastre. The Cervelo team captain took his second stage of this year's Giro on the summit of Vesuvius.

Pellizotti came in 21 seconds later. He managed to hold off the ravaging DiLuca and Menchov.

DiLuca put in one final attack for the line, but Menchov marked him perfectly, finishing in the same time as the Italian.  However, DiLuca, for finishing in third place, was awarded the eight-second time bonus. 

In the overall classification today, Menchov retains his lead, now looking more and more comfortable as the race finishes in Rome on Sunday.  DiLuca, with his time bonus today, has managed to close his overall deficit to just 18 seconds. 

Pellizotti retains third place overall and managed to close some distance on the leaders.  He now sits 1:39 behind. Sastre, with his stage win, leapfrogs Basso to come in fourth place at 2:40 adrift.

To show how important this climb really was to the overall race, the top six finishers on Vesuvius today are also the riders in the top six overall, albeit in a slightly rearranged order, containing Menchov, DiLuca, Pellizotti, Sastre, Basso, and Levi Leipheimer (Astana).

Much of the work in the 2009 Giro d'Italia is done, but the excitement is going to continue until the last day. 

DiLuca has promised fans to take every advantage he can get. Tomorrow's mainly flat 203-kilometer run into Anagni looks to be fairly innocuous and suited to a breakaway as the GC men prepare themselves for the time-trial around Rome on Sunday, but DiLuca has said to the press that, if necessary, he would sprint for the line in Anagni on the slightly uphill finish to grab valuable seconds.

With the Italian only 18 seconds behind, he may very well do that. 

This Giro will not be decided until Menchov crosses the finish line after the final time trial in Rome.