Fabio Sabatini, gritting his teeth while on the cobbles during the 2008 Paris-Roubaix, via Wikipedia. Sabatini finished dead middle of the 2012 Giro d’Italia.
Fabio Sabatini, riding for Liquigas-Cannondale, finished in the fulcrum position at the end of the Giro d’Italia, giving Italy some comfort after missing the podium while a Canadian won the race and a Spaniard took the Lanterne Rouge.
Sabatini finished in 79th place, 2:59:14 behind the leader.
Canadian Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin won the 21-stage race with a time of 91:39:02, and Spaniard Miguel Minguez Ayala of Eusktel finished the race in the last position, 5:27:06 behind Hesjedal and nearly two and a half hours behind Sabatini, who, by the way, was the Lanterne Rouge at the 2011 Tour de France.
The point d’appui for general classification after each stage:
- Stage 1-6: No fulcrum
- Stage 7: Francisco J. Ventoso Alberdi
- Stage 8: Matteo Monteguti
- Stage 9: Luke Roberts
- Stage 10: No fulcrum
- Stage 11: Matthias Frank
- Stage 12: No fulcrum
- Stage 13: Matthias Brandle
- Stage 14: No fulcrum
- Stage 15: Francesco Failli
- Stage 16: No fulcrum
- Stage 17: Simon Ponzi
- Stage 18: Simon Ponzi
- Stage 19: Francisco J. Ventoso Alberdi
- Stage 20: Fabio Sabatini
- Stage 21: Fabio Sabatini
Simon Ponzi, who finished in the fulcrum position in Stages 17 and 18 backed off the pace during Stage 19 and fell 10 places back of Sabatini by the end of the race.
The point d’appui for each stage:
- Stage 1-6: No fulcrum
- Stage 7: Fabio Sabatini
- Stage 8: Cristiano Salerno
- Stage 9: Dominico Pozzovivo
- Stage 10: No fulcrum
- Stage 11: Frank Schleck
- Stage 12: No fulcrum
- Stage 13: Taylor Phinney
- Stage 14: No fulcrum
- Stage 15: Jens Keukeleire
- Stage 16: No fulcrum
- Stage 17: Matthias Frank (who also hit point d’appui in general classification during Stage 11)
- Stage 18: Marco Pinotti (winner of Stage 21)
- Stage 19: Guillaume Bonnafond
- Stage 20: Victor Cabedo
- Stage 21: Matthias Brandle (who also hit point d’appui in general classification during Stage 13)
Point d'Appui 