And now welcome to Italia for the eighth round of the Criterium Series. Another hilly course awaits the riders.
With what is on paper one of the weakest fields of the series, the race is anyone's game. The favorites though are Kangert of Pearl, Serrano of Santander, and home boy Zaini of LEGO.
As the field rolled across the start, Hirschlein of Milka started the attacks.
He was followed by Ziegler of Yamaha, Girardi of Intesa, Allain of LEGO, and Claerebout of Vesuvio.
Shortly after more attacks followed, in this case Lechuga of Pearl, Balloni of Vespa, and Tanguy of Wiggle.
Santander apparently thought highly of the break's chances, as joining the attack came first Allonca (joined by Vigano of Energie)...
And then Gallego Martin.
The eleven would form up into the BOTD.
The pack was very reluctant to let the break go, and kept up a consistent, but not blistering, pace, with Tinkoff, the only team without a man in the break, at the front. Despite the pace being driven, the break, partly because of its size and partly because of the peloton's weakness, was able to gain an inital gap of around 50".
And would later get it up into the low 2'00" range.
With 35.5km to go Pires of Energie took a flyer off of the front.
Although it got nowhere, it did awaken the pack. As LEGO and Pearl, apparently more trusting in their team leaders then their outnumbered breakaway artists, joined Tinkoff at the front for the chase.
By the time the riders hit 20 km to go, the gap was back down to 50".
With just under 13km to go though, and with around a 30" gap from the peloton to the break, the race really took off. First, Allonca attacked off the front of the break.
While behind, in a likely coordinated move, his teammate Serrano took a flyer as well.
(lost the pic)
Serrano was followed by Gastauer of Vesuvio, Howard of Milka, Rensburg of Yamaha, and his teammate Valls off the front of the pack.
Although Rensburg's attacked died quickly, the rest bridged to the front group, and with four Santander men off the front, it was clearly the move of the race. As such, Kunshin of Tinkoff and Kangert attacked right after.
With Zaini and Kritskiy of Tinkoff following just after the aforementioned two.
The members of the breakaway joined in the attacking fun as they were caught up to by the attackers from the pack, and as the riders crested the final big rise with 10km to go, the situation was anything but defined.
However, things cleared up on the descent, with 7.5km to go, here is the situation.
Needless to say, Santander's sparking of events turned out not so well, with only Valls making the front group.
However, with 5km to go as the riders crested the final little bump before the descent into the finish, Kangert, Valls, Kunshin, and Gastauer all made a move to get across to Zaini, and all were successful.
On the descent down though, the group split by the tiniest margin, with Kangert and Zaini pulling ahead of Valls and then the other two. Problem is, the descent led right into the last 1.5km of flat roads, and as the sprint started, it looked like a two man race.
Sprinting shoulder to shoulder, Zaini got the better jump off the bat, and had a half-a-spoke-length lead against Kangert with .5km to go. However the Estonian was moving up fast...
...And took it at the line.
redeeming himself for Portugal it seems...
Valls comfortably cleaned up in third, with Kunshin out-sprinting the Luxembourger Gastauer for fourth.
Tanguy won the sprint for sixth, followed by Howard, Hirschlein, Kritskiy and Serrano, who all scored points. The rest of the riders out in front (Girardi, Claerebout, Gallego Martin, Ziegler, Allonca, Allain) were frozen out of the standings.
Results:
1 Tanel Kangert Pearl Adidas 1h40'21
2 Tommy Zaini Team LEGO s.t.
3 Rafael Valls Santander s.t.
4 Aleksej Kunshin Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
5 Ben Gastauer Vesuvio-Accumalux s.t.
6 Richard Tanguy Wiggle - San Pellegrino + 23
7 Leigh Howard Milka s.t.
8 Ole Hirschlein Milka s.t.
9 Timofey Kritskiy Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
10 Ricardo Serrano Santander s.t.
11 Edoardo Girardi Intesa s.t.
12 David Claerebout Vesuvio-Accumalux s.t.
13 Daniel Allonca Santander + 55
14 Jeremie Allain Team LEGO s.t.
15 Pablo Lechuga Pearl Adidas s.t.
16 Thomas Ziegler Yamaha - Greenpeace + 1'48
17 Davide ViganÚ Energie - Diesel s.t.
18 Juan Abenhamar Gallego Martin Santander s.t.
19 Alfredo Balloni Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
20 Maxim Belkov Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft + 3'01
21 Salvatore Mancuso Pearl Adidas s.t.
22 Jaroslaw Marycz Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
23 Sebastien Einsle Vesuvio-Accumalux s.t.
24 Jonathan Castroviejo Santander s.t.
25 Stijn Joseph Pearl Adidas s.t.
26 Artemio Moschella Team LEGO s.t.
27 Valeri Valinin Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
28 Andreas Stauff Team LEGO s.t.
29 Chiaffredo Grippo Wiggle - San Pellegrino s.t.
30 Bruno Pires Energie - Diesel s.t.
31 Paolo Scarponi Wiggle - San Pellegrino s.t.
32 Teodoro Costagli Vesuvio-Accumalux s.t.
33 Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy Milka s.t.
34 Adam Petrie-Armstrong Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
35 Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
36 David Lelay Intesa s.t.
37 Alberigo Passalacqua Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
38 Thibaut Pinot Intesa s.t.
39 Nico Schinker Vesuvio-Accumalux s.t.
40 Davide Cimolai Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
41 Francisco Javier Echarri Energie - Diesel s.t.
42 HipÛlito ElÌas Martino Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
43 Elia Viviani Energie - Diesel s.t.
44 Richie Porte Milka s.t.
45 Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha Energie - Diesel s.t.
46 Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy Milka s.t.
47 Jude Libert Team LEGO s.t.
48 Albert Torres Pearl Adidas s.t.
49 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke Wiggle - San Pellegrino s.t.
50 Gracjan Lejman Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
51 Benedetto Monterastelli Intesa s.t.
52 Nico Gauer Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
53 Andrei Nechita Intesa s.t.
54 Nizan Margalit EL AL - IDF s.t.
55 Daniel Eliad EL AL - IDF s.t.
56 Maxim Burlutsky EL AL - IDF s.t.
57 Russell Hampton Wiggle - San Pellegrino s.t.
58 Egon Luzi Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
59 Shlomi Haimy EL AL - IDF s.t.
Edited by Deadpool on 06-02-2011 22:49
