THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Freire wins Milan-San Remo
This time there won’t be an asterisk next to his victory.
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) unleashed a masterful sprint to win Saturday’s centenary celebration of Milan-San Remo ahead of Allan Davis to claim victory in emphatic style to erase the memories of 2004 when he won by a whisker ahead of the celebrating Erik Zabel.
Freire, 31, came off Alessandro Petacchi’s wheel with about 100 meters to go in the season’s longest classic and swept up the left side of the Via Roma to surge across the line clear by a bike length ahead of Davis (Discovery Channel) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic).
“I felt good and I was on the wheel of Petacchi and I had good legs,” the smiling Freire said at the line. “In the end it’s only the victory that counts and I am very happy for myself and the team. What would make me happy now? To win the world’s a fourth time.”
Full Results
A daring attack by Italian phenom Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Prodir) and Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) over the Poggio was reeled in with under 2km to go to set up the mass sprint in the centenary edition of La Primavera.
Strong tailwinds along the final 50km helped the peloton keep a tight rein on any would-be escapees to assure a sprint finish.
The three-time world champion won Milan-San Remo three years ago when Zabel celebrated what he thought was his fifth victory too early and the cagey Freire stabbed his bike across the line to win.
This time around, Freire was sure he was safely across the line before throwing both arms up into the cloudy Italian sky in delight. Three Aussies finished in the top 5 with Davis second, Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) fourth and Stuart O’Grady (CSC) fifth.
Milram had Zabel and another Milram rider to catapult 2005 winner Alessandro Petacchi, but “Ale-Jet” stalled with 100 meters to go and coasted across the line eighth without contesting the sprint.
“Everything was perfect, until the last 150 meters,” Petacchi said. “I don’t have any real excuse. The team was perfect and the only one who wasn’t was me. I felt good on the final climbs and in the sprint, well, it shouldn’t be forgotten that I broke my kneecap seven months and perhaps I’m still paying for that.”
Just how good is Freire on the Via Roma? In seven consecutive starts, he’s never finished worse than seventh (in 2003), won twice (2004, 2007) and finished third in 2000.
The oft-injured Spaniard has an uncanny nose for big-time results.
He hardly raced after winning the Vattenfall Cyclassics last July, suffering from headaches and dizziness from complications of a neck treatment. The Rabobank captain returned to racing in style this spring, winning his first race at the Challenge Mallorca and then two stages and the overall at the Ruta del Sol in Spain.
“My secret for overcoming all of these troubles is my head,” Freire told reporters. “I always think positively. I know my body and I know when to listen to myself. This morning, before the race, I believed I could win even more. I knew I was ready.”
On Saturday, he was among the five-star favorites and he read the race perfectly. After coming off the torturous Poggio descent, he snagged the ideal position of being on Petacchi’s wheel, with Boonen, McEwen and O’Grady stacked up behind him in the final 300 meters.
“I decided to get behind Petacchi in the final kilometer because I knew his team would lead him out and that it was the best position,” Freire told Eurosport. “I had the legs, the position and even had the space to get past Petacchi, so it was a perfect sprint.”
Freire has one of the best finishing sprints in the business and made easy work of the dying Petacchi and easily stayed ahead of the surging Boonen. The surprising Davis came off the sixth wheel to power into second.
The victory marks the fourth win on the Via Roma by Spanish riders. Freire owns two and Miguel Poblet the other two with wins in 1957 and 1959, respectively. There was another Spaniard in the top-10 in the form of Vicente Reynes of Caisse d’Epargne with ninth.
“I was in good position with 400-300 meters to go when McEwen tried to pass me on the left and it closed me off,” Reynes said. “I had to brake and as a result I couldn’t make the sprint as I wanted. It’s too bad because I felt really good and I believe I could have finished third or fourth on the Via Roma. Now I just have to forget it and think about the upcoming classics. I have big hopes for Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgem and Roubaix, where I hope to be at the front with all the favorites.”
Early breaks
The race started in downtown Milan with a good-sized crowd of enthusiastic fans to cheer on Milan-San Remo’s centenary celebration. José Joaquín Rojas (Caisse d’Epargne), Thor Hushovd and Francesco Belloti (both Crédit Agricole) didn’t take the start, but some 197 riders did.
There were some early stabs at breakaways but finally six riders extracted themselves to mark the day’s main action. In the group were: Andrei Kunitski (Acqua e Sapone), Koen De Kort (astana), Emanuele Sella (Panaria-Navigare), Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel), Roberto Traficante (LPR) and Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff).
Following a script typical of Milan-San Remo, the peloton enjoyed a Saturday morning siesta while the sextet chugged away, building up a lead of nearly eight minutes at 120km. Frédéric Guesdon (FDJ) and José Enrique Gutierrez (LPR) both crashed in the feed zone, but continued in the race.
The day’s main obstacle came on the Cat. 1 Passo di Turchino over a sharp spine of mountains that separates the Mediterranean Coast from the interior valley of northern Italy.
Sella led the way up the climb as the peloton remained at about seven minutes back. Three riders – Guennadi Mikhailov (Astana), Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff) and Marco Fertonani (Caisse d’Epargne) – crashed on the descent with the last two abandoning.
There was another crash involving Iban Mayoz (Euskaltel) and Paolo Longo Borghini (Barloworld) without serious consequence as the leaders – down to five after Traficante became unglued over the Tirchino – still held a considerable lead of more than seven minutes as it hit the Med coast. Rabobank, Liquigas and Milram led the peloton.
Lampre and Milram upped the pace and trimmed the lead to 3:24 at Alassio. Several riders crashed, including Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) and Axel Merckx (T-Mobile), as the peloton zeroed in on the breakaway.
At Capo Mele – one of the spectacular headlands that juts into the Mediterranean Sea – saw De Kort lose contact with the berakaway. Brutt and Sella were caught after sweeping down the Capo Cervo at 247km while Gerolsteiner suffered more crashes with, Heinrich Haussler, Fabian Wegmann and David Kopp all going down hard, with Kopp being transported away in an ambulance with a neck brace.
Marco Zanotti (Unibet.com) crashed coming through Imperia. The final three - Kunitski, Hernandez and Brutt – are swept up with about 30km to go.
Cipressa and Poggio
The Cipressa and Poggio presented the last chance for the head-bangers to spoil the chances for the sprinters.
First to try their luck were Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas) and Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom), but that move was quickly reeled in. About midway up the Cipressa, Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), fresh off a stage-win at Paris-Nice, darted away, quickly marked by Andrea Moletta (Gerolsteiner). Chasing too was Yaroslov Popovych (Discovery Channel), another stage-winner at Paris-Nice.
The trio held a slender lead over the summit and went snaking down the descent when Moletta misjudged a corner and skidded off the road, slamming his bike into a cement wall and light post. Moletta twisted and flipped into light post and was KO’d for the race.
Mirko Celestino (Milram) and Patxi Vila (Lampre) chased out of the main pack at 10 seconds with the main bunch at 18 seconds back on the flats heading toward the Poggio.
Quick Step-Innergetic with some help from Team CSC helped neutralize the Celestino/Vila move on the flats between the two climbs while Pellizotti and Popovych held a 28-second gap.
With 10km to go, Popovych was taking his last sip of water as CSC and Quick Step revved up the chase heading toward the base of the Poggio to snuff the move just as the peloton turned onto the final climb.
CSC’s Karsten Kroon and Quick Step’s Carlos Barredo led the way to reel in Popovych and Pellizotti when Gilbert, Riccò and Matthias Kessler (Astana) attacked. Popovych tried to hang on, but Riccò punched the accelerator once more to drop everyone except Gilbert.
Gilbert was following Ricco’s wheel with 3km to go with 10 seconds while world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) was leading the chase in the main pack on the serpentine descent.
The leading pair hit the flats coming into San Remo with a slender gap of seven seconds, but they were swarmed by the lead pack with just under two kilometers to go to set up the sprint.
Lampre and Milram were in good position, but it was Freire without the help of teammates who sprang away for the win.
The 98th Milan-San Remo
1. Oscar Freire (Rabobank)
2. Allan Davis (Discovery Channel)
3. Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic)
4. Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto)
5. Stuart O'Grady (CSC)
6. Erik Zabel (Milram)
7. Gabriele Balducci (Acqua e Sapone)
8. Alessandro Petacchi (Milram)
Full Results
