A hilly classic in Italy. There are going to be 10 laps, 2 hills per lap, the lap ending with the steeper climb. Valverde seems to be settled to win his 4th race in less than 20 days, but there are a lot of other good puncheurs in this race, especially the Italians who are on their home ground here
There are 13 riders in today’s main breakaway, but at the end of the third lap they were split into 2 groups. Colorado, Eastmen, Mourey, Nogaledo, Stybar, Vital, Belmokhtar and Duran were in the first group
Reihs, Bole, Diggle, Duggan and Duran, this Duran is riding for Santander and he is a Spanish rider, were in the second group
In the fourth lap Eastmen crashed. He lost the contact with the leading group and he was even passed by the second group
At the end of the fourth lap 2 of the chasers, Diggle and Duggan, managed to joined the leaders
A few moments later behind them Proni attacked from the pack and soon joined Eastmen. But he still has some work to do if he wants to join the leading group
Meanwhile in front Duran joined the main group, with Bole also very close to do the same thing
And at the end of the lap we had 14 riders in the leading group as Proni, Reihs and Eastmen managed to join/rejoined the leading group
Colorado leads the race at the end of the 5th lap, which means we are halfway through
Reihs is clearly not a very good climber and he couldn’t stay too much with the others and he was left behind
Valverde has a nice position in the pack at this moment of the race, being protected by 3 team – mates who are also chasing down the breakaway
Before the end of the 7th lap Reihs was brought back in the pack while other 4 riders lost the contact with the leading group: Eastmen, Bole, Diggle and Duran
And they were caught only a few kilometers later by a pack lead by Sony Ericsson and Santander. The other 9 escapes have an advantage of 1 minute and a half with less than 40 kilometers left from the race
Duran is leading the race at the end of the 8th lap. And somehow the escapes managed to gain 30 seconds over the pack in the last kilometers
But there’s a still long way to go and it’s going to be quite hard to fool Santander, Sony Ericsson and Wiggle, who are leading the pack at the moment
Very close to the end of the 9th lap, with just 20 kilometers left from today’s ride, we had the first big attacks made by Colom and Wegmann
And they soon managed to join the escapes
Well sort of as the escapes were spread at that moment. Colom managed to join the leading group with Vital, Duran, Proni, Nogaledo, Belmokhtar, Colorado
While Wegmann was stuck with the others and eventually brought back in the pack
10 kilometers Belmokhtar had lost the contact with the leading group while there we have some new attacks
Nogaledo, Proni and Colorado made those attacks and left the other 3 behind
But behind them the big names are coming. Valverde attacked, with Trofimov and Nocentini coming behind him
Valverde soon joined the chasing group, but he has a few seconds to gain back on the current leaders
And 5 kilometers before the finish he launches himself in their chasing
Colorado is leading followed by Proni and Nogaledo but Valverde is coming faster and faster
While Nocentini and Trofimov managed to joined the chasing group
Even though he looked to be stronger Colorado is passed by Proni before the start of the final ascent
But Valverde and Nogaledo are right behind them
Valverde takes the lead of the race with just 2 kilometers left but the chasers and the pack aren’t far away at all
Before the last kilometer Trofimov and Nocentini came from the chasing group to jump into Valverde’s wheel. This might be quite interesting as Trofimov is a better sprinter than the Santander rider
Still the Spaniard’s climbing abilities seem to be more than enough to hang on, while Trofimov has some difficulties beating Nocentini, a weaker sprinter than him
Inside the last kilometer Trofimov looked like he secured the second place, but Valverde probably secure the win a while ago
Last corner and nothing can stop the Spanish Champion now
And Valverde does it! 4 races won from 4 in August, just impressive
Noncetini looked like a threat for Trofimov’s second place in the last meters but the Russian managed to hang on
Ghisalberti came from the pack to take the fourth place in front of Colorado and another late attacked, Tonti
Great performance by Belda today to attack on the final ascent and take the 7th place in front of riders like Wegmann, Kessler and Fedrigo
