TRIESTE, Italy, 23 May 2004 — Ukrainian riders Serhiy Honchar and Yaroslav Popovych took control of the Giro d’Italia after the 13th stage yesterday.
Honchar won the rain-soaked 52km individual time trial, while Popovych took the overall race lead to give the Ukraine a special cycling double.
“I’m very happy to have taken the race lead. It was a great day for me, for Honchar and for Ukraine,” said Popovych.
Honchar set a time of one hour, six minutes and 45 seconds, beating Australia’s Bradley McGee by 18 seconds and third-placed Popovych by 34 seconds.
But Popovych did enough to overhaul Italian Damiano Cunego and take the race lead — along with the distinctive pink jersey — and leads Honchar by three seconds with McGee now third 1:02 off the pace.
As had been expected, the time trial caused major changes to the overall standings before the decisive final week of racing in the Dolomite mountains.
Gilberto Simoni, the Giro winner last year, was 15th in the time trial and is now fourth overall 1:27 behind Popovych.
Franco Pellizotti finished ninth on the stage more than two minutes behind Honchar and is fifth overall, five seconds behind his compatriot Simoni. Former leader Cunego is now sixth a further 16 seconds back.
Popovych finished third in the 2003 Giro last year at the age of 23 and now hopes to do even better.
“The rain made it very dangerous and I almost crashed twice but my sporting director told me I was gaining time on Cunego and Simoni and so I pushed as hard as I could,” he said.
“Now we’ll see what happens in the final week of the Giro. The race is still wide open but the three mountain stages in the Dolomites are very difficult especially stage 16 to Falzes on Tuesday — it’s very long and has four tough climbs in it.
“Simoni is still the favorite for the Giro but I’m determined to do well.”
Honchar was delighted for his compatriot.
“I’m really happy for Yaroslav, he was very good today and stopped me getting the leader’s pink jersey by three seconds but I’m pleased two Ukraine riders have done so well,” Honchar said.
“Time trials are what I do best and I proved it yet again today.
“It’ll be difficult for me to win the Giro because there are a lot of steep climbs in the final stages but I just hope I lose as little time as possible.”
Today’s 175km 14th stage from Trieste to Pula in Croatia includes several short climbs as the race leaves Italy and passes through Slovenia. That could spark attacks but Alessandro Petacchi is favorite to win a record-equaling seventh stage of this year’s race.
