PASSO DELLO STELVIO, Italy -- Joaquin Rodriguez increased his lead over Ryder Hesjedal at the Giro dItalia, but he still thinks the Canadian is the favourite to win the race. Thomas De Gendt won the gruelling penultimate stage of the Giro dItalia on Saturday while Rodriguez increased his overall lead over Victorias Hesjedal from 17 to 31 seconds. However, the last stage in Milan is a 30-kilometre individual time trial. Hesjedal is known to be extremely strong in those type of races. "Im happy with todays performance," Rodriguez said. "I managed to gain some precious seconds over Hesjedal but I think hes still the favourite, because 31 seconds is not such a great gap and hes better than me in races against the clock. I need a miracle! Still, anything can happen, especially after two such difficult stages, where both Hesjedal and I spent a lot of energy. Thats the reason why I believe I still have a chance. "For sure Ill do my best in order to make this dream come true, also because I think I have no other rivals: The others are quite far behind. De Gendt put on a great performance today and hes an ITT specialist, but hes 2:18 behind, which should be enough." With a superb climb on the Passo dello Stelvio, De Gendt finished the so-called queen stage of the Giro in six hours 54 minutes, 41 seconds. He finished 56 seconds ahead of Damiano Cunego, with third-placed Mikel Nieve 2:50 behind. De Gendt, who started the day five minutes, 40 seconds behind Rodriguez in the overall standings, closed the gap to 2:18 and was in fourth place. The Belgian was briefly just 10 seconds off the pink jersey but Rodriguez managed to make up 1:30 in the final kilometre. "I thought that if the favourites didnt start chasing soon, the pink jersey was a possibility as well as the stage," De Gendt said. "But I knew the other favourites would go full gas in the last four kilometres and eat into the margin I had built up. I dont think I can win the Giro now, with this gap. But maybe I can get to the podium, if I recover well enough from todays effort. "I didnt expect to win, I went away on the Mortirolo because I just thought it was better to get some time on the favourites before the Stelvio. Then Nieve started going really fast and was giving everything so we extended our gap to over three minutes. On the Stelvio, I felt really good, also thanks to the training Ive done on climbs, and I went for it. The last few kilometres were very hard, I was dying!" Saturdays stage was the toughest of this years edition, with the 219-kilometre trek from Caldes culminating in a 23-kilometre ascent on the snow-covered Stelvio, which has a maximum gradient of 12 per cent and, at nearly 3,000 metres above sea level, is the highest finish of any Grand Tour stage. It also has 48 hairpin bends, 27 more than the infamous Alpe dHuez on the Tour de France. The route also included the legendary Mortirolo climb, described by the seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong as the hardest climb hes ever ridden, with an average gradient of 10.5 per cent. Last August, organizers created a tennis-like draw of potential climbs on the Giro Facebook page and gave fans a chance to vote for their favourite. The Mortirolo and the Stelvio reached the final and race officials decided to use both. Oliver Zaugg broke clear of a pack of 14 escapees with 60 kilometres to go and built a lead of 30 seconds over a chasing group of Christian Vande Velde, Damiano Caruso, Andrey Amador, Alberto Losada and Jose Serpa at the top of the Mortirolo. He swiftly extended that to nearly two minutes. However, De Gendt made his move a short time later, and caught Zaugg with 30 kilometres to go, along with Nieve, Cunego, Amador, Jon Izaguirre and Tanel Kangert. The gap to the pink jersey group was four minutes at the start of the Stelvio as De Gendt and Nieve attacked with Cunego bravely chasing. De Gendt broke clear with 12 kilometres to go and an astonishing climb saw him claim the biggest and most memorable victory of his career. Defending champion Michele Scarponi attacked with 1,500 metres to go but, after initially letting the Italian go, Rodriguez followed and managed to finish in fourth to gain some valuable seconds ahead of his rivals. Scarponi was fifth, and Hesjedal sixth. Rodriguezs fourth-place also secures him the red jersey as the Spaniard moved a point ahead of Mark Cavendish in the points classification. Italys Matteo Rabottini secured the blue jersey as he took maximum points over the opening classified climbs to win the mountains classification in his debut Giro. Andrea Guardini, who memorably beat world champion Cavendish in a sprint finish to win stage 18, was disqualified for riding in the slipstream of his team car. Robert Hunter, Ivan Velasco and another unconfirmed rider were also disqualified. Jack Bobridge and Timon Seubert dropped out of the race. wholesale jerseys .C. - Watching the British capture 22 gold medals and counting at the London Olympics has inspired Luke Donald. cheap jerseys . Overall, more than 1.5 million Canadians tuned in to watch some or all of the broadcast on TSN. Canadians were also engaged on Twitter, with #13thMan and #EngravedOnANation trending nationally throughout the broadcast. CTV2 will air The 13th Man at 7pm on Saturday. http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnf... . - There wont be a Beijing repeat in London. [url=http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnfl.com/]cheap jerseys from china . -- The Memphis Grizzlies turned up the defensive pressure, and turned a close game into a rout. nfl jerseys china . The 21-year-old Chan, who is known for his rocky starts to the season, has new choreographers, new programs and a new lead coach in Kathy Johnson this season, and said he wasnt dismayed by the result.LONDON -- Martin Johnson resigned as England manager on Wednesday, unwilling to recommit to the team in the wake of a shambolic Rugby World Cup campaign overshadowed by indiscretions on and off the pitch. "Its in the best interests of myself and the England team that I dont carry on into next year," Johnson said at a news conference at Twickenham. Appointed without any coaching experience in 2008, he didnt want to renew his contract which expires in December. A series of lurid headlines followed England around New Zealand before a limp quarterfinal exit against France in October. "Ive tried to take emotion out of a lot of (the decision) and the disappointment," Johnson said. "The off-the-field things during the World Cup didnt help. They portray the team in a bad light, and not an accurate light. "This is my call, and if I hadnt made it someone might have made it for me." Johnson was referring to two reviews by the Rugby Football Union into the World Cup campaign, which included his debrief last week with his assistants. The first findings are to be revealed on Thursday, and they arent expected to be kind to Johnson. He didnt act decisively on the indiscretions in New Zealand even though he said he would before the tournament. On Wednesday he said he didnt feel let down by the players in New Zealand and believed the off-field issues didnt affect their game preparations. He did everything on his terms, he said, and had no interference from the RFU throughout his tenure and at the World Cup. He said hed considered his options before the World Cup, so this was "not a knee-jerk decision, but a considerate, thoughtful decision." Still, he took more than five weeks to make up his mind, leaving RFU elite rugby director Rob Andrew little time to find a replacement who will have to pick an elite squad in the first week of January for the Six Nations starting in February. Former South Africa coach Nick Mallett said he was approached by the RFU this week about the prospect of taking charge but decided against taking the job. "I will not be making myself available for the position and I have disclosed this to the RFU," he said. But former Australia coach Eddie Jones is keen on the job. "Youd always be interested in coaching England," he told the BBC. "Over the last period of time England rugby has lost its way and youd have to question the people in place now. That is the challenge of getting it right. If you get it riight, the benefits are absolutely enormous.ddddddddddddquot; Andrew admitted he was also accountable for Englands World Cup debacle but said he wasnt resigning. Johnson, he added, "did a terrific job in pretty difficult circumstances." Andrew said Johnson rebuilt almost the entire team into Six Nations champions. Johnson added he was excited for the teams future, and they would be better off for what they went through at the World Cup. "Part of me regrets leaving the job in these circumstances," he said. "There is unfinished business and a feeling to put things right. But I wont leave with any regrets." The 6-foot-8 (2.03 metre) Johnson made 84 appearances for England, 39 of them as captain, before replacing Brian Ashton, who led England to the 2007 World Cup final. "Johnno didnt have the CV to do the job but the RFU backed him and he backed himself and unfortunately and regrettably he came up short," Johnsons former England teammate Jeremy Guscott told the BBC. Johnson had hoped a relaxed regime for his squad would help them emulate his 2003 World Cup triumph, but it spectacularly backfired. Johnsons team lost 19-12 to the French in the quarterfinals after struggling to narrow pool victories over Argentina and Scotland. Mike Tindall, Chris Ashton, James Haskell and Manu Tuilagi were all disciplined for incidents that undermined Johnsons leadership. The first major incident to be exposed came early in the tournament when captain Tindall was captured on security footage holding a womans hand and receiving a kiss on top of his head at a Queenstown bar. That made front-page news because the 2003 World Cup-winning centre had just married Zara Phillips, Queen Elizabeth IIs granddaughter. He has since been dropped from the national squad and fined 25,000 pounds ($40,000). Three players were also reprimanded for making sexist comments to a Dunedin hotel worker on the trip that culminated in Tuilagi being detained by police after jumping off a ferry into Auckland harbour the day after the France loss. England also narrowly avoided being punished by World Cup organizers when the RFU voluntarily stood down two assistant coaches amid a ball-switching scandal in the 67-3 win against Romania. The highlight of Johnsons 38-test tenure as manager came earlier this year with Englands first Six Nations title since 2003. His overall record since he took control for the 2008 autumn internationals was 21 victories, 16 defeats and one draw. ' ' '