Denis Menchov of Russia wins 5th stage of Giro; Lance Armstrong loses nearly 3 minutes

Menchov wins 5th stage of Giro; Armstrong back

ALPI DI SIUSI, Italy — Denis Menchov of Russia won the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia in a grueling uphill finish Wednesday, while Lance Armstrong lost nearly three minutes despite getting help from his Astana teammates.

Danilo Di Luca of Italy crossed second and took the overall leader’s pink jersey from Thomas Lovkvist of Sweden, who was third.

Menchov covered the 77.68-mile leg that began in San Martino di Castrozza in 3 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds. The stage ended with a 15.5-mile climb, and Armstrong finished 2:58 behind Menchov and dropped to 22nd overall, 3:34 behind the leader.

“I’m definitely a little tired. It was a hard grind,” Armstrong said. “I knew that we would be behind, and we tried to limit our losses. I thought it would be two minutes, but three minutes is OK.”

The toughest part of the climb came in the final 6.2 miles, and Armstrong lost contact with the leaders 3.7 miles from the finish.

Three Astana teammates — Janez Brajkovic, Daniel Navarro Garcia and Jose Luis Rubiera — stayed with the Texan and helped him avoid losing even more time.

“Like I said in the beginning, the first half (of the race) is not going to be my half,” said Armstrong, who is recovering from a broken collarbone. “I have to get my condition back, and I’m not going to be in the front.”

The stage began with a short climb over the Rolle pass, where a group of six riders broke away after 3.7 miles.

Giovanni Visconti, the leader of the ISD team, joined the breakaway on a downhill section, and the seven riders gained an advantage of 4 minutes, 43 seconds at one point. The breakaway riders were caught with 6.2 miles to go.

With 1.2 miles left, Ivan Basso set the pace in a select leader’s group with six other riders — Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner, Di Luca, defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre, Lovkvist and Menchov, a Russian rider for the Rabobank team.

In the end, it was Di Luca and Menchov sprinting for the finish.

“The last 300 meters were very hard, everyone was just as tired and I just didn’t have fear,” said Menchov, a two-time Spanish Vuelta champion. “I’m in better form than last year.”

Basso, one of the race favorites, finished five seconds back in fourth. Leipheimer and Horner finished fifth and sixth, both nine seconds back.

In the overall standings, Di Luca has a five-second lead on Lovkvist. Michael Rogers, an Australian who rides with Lovkvist for Team Columbia-High Road, is 36 seconds behind. Leipheimer is fourth, 43 seconds back, followed by Menchov (50 seconds), Basso (1:06) and defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre (1:16).

The next several stages go through rolling terrain without much climbing, beginning with stage six on Thursday covering 154 miles from Bressanone to Brixen Mayrhofen in Austria. The race ends May 31 in Rome.