page_title: 2010 Caisse d'Epargne season
section_title: Giro d'Italia
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 Caisse d'Epargne season / Grand Tours / Giro d'Italia
caption_attribution_description: Español: david arroyo
context_page_description: The 2010 season for the Caisse d'Epargne cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTour team, they were automatically invited and obliged to attend every event in the ProTour. The team's manager was Eusebio Unzue, who had led it since the Banesto days.
  Though an offseason attempt to sign reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador was ultimately unsuccessful, the team added noteworthy riders for the 2010 season, including former Tour de France King of the Mountains Mauricio Soler and Marzio Bruseghin, who finished in the top ten in three Grand Tours over the previous two seasons.
  The French banking group Caisse d'Epargne departed sponsorship after the 2010 season, preferring to sponsor the French Olympic teams. Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica, S.A. has stepped in to sponsor the team from 2011, giving the team the name of one its brands as it races as Team Movistar in 2011.
  After lengthy legal proceedings, the team's top rider Alejandro Valverde was given a global two-year ban on May 31, backdated to January 1.
context_section_description: Caisse d'Epargne was one of 22 teams in the Giro d'Italia. The team was not competitive in the opening to the Giro in the Netherlands. They did not have riders contesting the finishes to either of the first two road race stages, and their best-placed rider in the overall standings before the transfer to Italy was Arroyo in 38th. Several team members were brought down in a big crash, which also claimed then-race leader Cadel Evans among its victims, in stage 3. Bruseghin, an outside favorite for overall success in the Giro, was thus put over eight minutes off the leading pace. The team's fortunes changed little in the stage 4 team time trial. They came in 18th, 2'21" off the pace of stage winners Liquigas–Doimo. In stage 6, a two-man breakaway survived to the finish of the stage. A depleted group sprint at the head of the peloton then fought for the remaining placings a minute behind the winner. Kiryienka took eighth in this stage.
  Stage 7 was one of the major days in the Giro. The course was long and incorporated unpaved roads. The day on which the stage was run happened to have heavy rainfall, making for muddy riding in the unpaved sectors. After then-race leader Vincenzo Nibali sustained a mechanical issue which necessitated a bike change, Arroyo was one of a handful of riders to follow a timely attack from Alexander Vinokourov. Arroyo could not stay with the leaders (Vinokourov, Evans, and Damiano Cunego) but took fifth on the stage 12 seconds back of Evans. The result moved him up 11 places in the overall standings, from 25th to 14th. The Giro's 11th stage was another big one. An enormous breakaway group formed in this stage, near 50 riders at its most populous. Arroyo, Kiryienka, Amador, and Losada all made this selection. With Arroyo in 11th place in the overall standings, the other three worked hard to try to drive the break to its biggest advantage. Arroyo took eighth on the stage, 7 seconds back of the stage winner, as he did not contest the sprint for the stage win. His 13-minute time gap over the peloton moved him up to second in the overall standings.
  Arroyo was a far stronger climber than Richie Porte, the man who had taken the race leadership on this stage. In the Giro's next mountain stage, stage 14 to Asolo incorporating Monte Grappa, Arroyo finished only 12th, over two minutes behind stage winner Vincenzo Nibali, but took the pink jersey as Porte was a further two minutes back in 24th. This was the first time the team, then known as Banesto, had held the pink jersey since Miguel Indurain won the race overall in 1993. In stage 15, the Monte Zoncolan stage, Arroyo finished nearly four minutes behind stage winner Ivan Basso, but he still retained the pink jersey because of how much time he had in hand to the race's overall favorites. Arroyo was another two minutes off the winning time in the climbing time trial to Plan de Corones in the next stage, but still held more than two minutes' advantage over Basso in second place after the stage.
  The next two stages were flat and won by breakaways and sprinters, meaning they did not alter the overall standings. Arroyo was in the pink jersey with two minutes on Basso and three stages left to race, and was at this point entertaining the idea that he could win the Giro. In stage 19, Basso, his teammate Nibali, and Michele Scarponi easily dropped Arroyo on the climb of the Passo del Mortirolo. Basso then rode the descent very conservatively, with the other two needing to wait for him several times. Arroyo rode a very aggressive descent, and caught Carlos Sastre, John Gadret, Evans, and Vinokourov, who had been between him and the leading Italian trio. The five coalesced into a chase group on the day's final climb, to Aprica. Despite having only a few seconds' advantage at the start of a relatively easy climb, Basso's group gained time all throughout the climb and finished sufficiently ahead of Arroyo's to put the pink jersey on him. Arroyo stayed with Basso on the descent of the Passo di Gavia the next day instead of trying to regain the jersey. Though he conceded a li
caption: David Arroyo held the pink jersey for five days in the Giro.
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