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Pozzato grabs HEW win in Hamburg
QuickStep dominates podium in German classic
Quick Step won Sunday’s HEW Cyclassics race in rainy Germany, but it wasn’t sprinter ace Tom Boonen taking the honors. Instead, it was Italian superstar-in-waiting Filippo Pozzato winning the rainy, hard-fought 250.5km race in and around Hamburg. Luca Paolini grabbed second to give Quick Step the double while Aussie Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros) rounded out the podium. “I’ve done a lot of work over the past few weeks to get myself in top condition, even doing some intense altitude training in the mountains surrounding Livigno,” said Pozzato, who took his first win of the season. “At last it seems like all of my hard work is starting to pay off.”FullResults Pre-race favorites Boonen and Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) were both out of the picture when 15 riders pulled clear on the final passage over the short, but steep Waseberg climb. No one was looking to Pozzato as the man to beat for the start of the 10th HEW Cyclassics held under rainy skies in northern Germany. That pressure fell to Petacchi, Boonen and Erik Zabel, who announced he’d be leaving German powerhouse T-Mobile after 13 seasons. Petacchi was making his first big race appearance since the Giro d’Italia, but his chances were spoiled when he crashed on the descent off the final passage at the Waseberg climb. Boonen, meanwhile, admitted he still hasn’t fully recovered from crashes that prompted his early departure from the Tour de France. The Flanders-Roubaix champion pulled out at 215km. “My knee wasn’t giving me any problems, but I just didn’t feel on good form,” he said. “After pulling out of the Tour I had to rest for awhile, therefore I wasn’t able to do the intense training required to be at the front of a race as hard as Hamburg.” Two riders – Jörg Ludewig (Domina Vacanze) and Leif Hoste (Discovery Channel) – were in the spotlight for most of the day, attacking just 25km into the hilly course. The pair carved a lead of more than 15 minutes before the main bunch awakened from its slumber. The pace picked up in the final hour of the race and the leading duo’s lead quickly started to dwindle.
Hoste held on as long as he could, but he was swallowed up on the final lap heading toward the Waseberg. The final passage over the Waseberg in the final 20km caused the decisive split in the main bunch. Making it through were about 15 riders, including Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), Juan Antonio Flecha, Marco Velo, Tour stage-winner Lorenzo Bernucci and Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo), Salvatore Commesso (Lampre-Caffita), Davis, Paolini, Bram Tankink and Pozzato (Quick Step), Vladimir Gusev (CSC) and Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner). Gusev, the promising young Russian on Team CSC, actually had shot out of the peloton ahead of the Waseberg to chase down Hoste. He hung on to finish 8th in the bunch sprint. “Gusev has good eyes for a race like this and was excellent all day, so he was actually a bit disappointed with his result,” said Team CSC sport director Scott Sunderland. “However, in a finish like this with 15 riders in the sprint, we can’t really ask for more. He did well in the spring classics and seems to continue in the fall.” A chase group including Zabel, defending champion Stuart O’Grady (Cofidis) and Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) couldn’t get the necessary cooperation in numbers to close down the gap and came through 28 seconds back. It looked to be a showdown between Fassa Bortolo and Quick Step, but Davis tried to surprise the favorites with an early sprint. Pozzato and Paolini were obviously in top form, finishing 1-2 in last week’s Tour of the Wallone Region with Paolini taking the flowers ahead of his teammate. The pair took it straight to the line, with Pozzato just pipping his teammate to score the win. “I was feeling really good throughout the race, (Pozzato) and I were riding the race in parallel and we were able to rely on the help of all of our team, especially Paolo Bettini who did everything possible to keep himself as near to us as possible,” Paolini said. For Pozzato, 23, the victory confirms his status as one of Italy’s rising stars. A winner of a stage in last year’s Tour de France and Tirreno-Adriatico in 2003, it was his first win of 2005. Di Luca retained his overall lead in the ProTour standings. The ProTour continues next week with the Tour of Benelux and the Clásica San Sebastian.
Results-10th HEW Cyclassics
Hamburg, Germany, July 31, 2005
1. Filippo Pozzato (I), QuickStep, 250.5km in 6:00:59 (41.611kph)
2. Luca Paolini (I), QuickStep
3. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros
4. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo
5. Davide Rebellin (I), Gerolsteiner
6. Martin Elmiger (Swi), Phonak
7. Salvatore Commesso (I), Lampre
8. Vladimir Gusev (Rus) , CSC
9. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo
10. Bert Grabsch (G), Phonak
FullResults
