|
October 17, 2009: 102nd Giro di Lombardia
|
| |
17.10.2009 Varese - Como (242 km)
Gilbert, who else ?
Results:
| 
|
Philippe Gilbert
|
|
| |
|
34th at 2'01"
|
| | |
Who else than Philippe Gilbert could have won this Giro di Lombardia, in this final part of the season where the Silence-Lotto rider eventually seems unbeatable. The big favourite of the day attacked on the last climb of the day, the San Fermo della Battaglia and nobody was able to follow him. Only Samuel Sanchez managed to bridge up a little bit later on the small and steep streets above the Como lake and rode with him downhill to the finish line. But the Olympic champion didn't have any chance against the man from the Ardennes in the two-men sprint to the line, finishing second behind the dominating rider of the moment. For his last race with the jersey of team Columbia, Kim Kirchen did a fine race and remained in contact with the best riders in the climb of Madonna del Ghisallo, before missing the good break by little on the penultimate ascent of the day, the Civiglio, when world champion Cadel Evans exploded the peloton. Kim finished the race of the falling leaves in a second group in 34th position, two minutes down on the winner of the day. 4 riders were part of the early break, attacking after only 40 kilometres for another 150 ones at the head of the race. But Roche, Velo, Klimov and Honig were caught on the Madonna del Ghisallo, at one of the most strategic points of this Giro di Lombardia. Hoogerland, Santambrogio, Martin, Devenyns, Carrara and Larsson were the next ones to break away from the peloton and they crossed the summit ahead of a group with all the big names in it. But on the Civiglio climb, the accelerations of Cadel Evans and Samuel Sanchez annihilated the chances of the leading group and only 20 riders were still in contention for the win, among them most of the favourites but not Kim Kirchen, who was chasing a few meters behind with riders like Botcharov, Wegmann and Montfort, without ever being able to bridge up. The decision fell on the last climb of the day, with less than 10 kilometres to go, when Philippe Gilbert and Samuel Sanchez took off for the victory, with Kolobnev, Paolini, Hoogerland, Gesink, Vinokourov, Basso, Cunego and the others battling only for third place.
|
October 15, 2009: 95th Gran Piemonte
|
| |
15.10.2009 Novi Ligure - Fossano (184 km)
Another one for Philippe Gilbert
Results:
|
|
Philippe Gilbert
|
|
| |
|
26th at 4"
|
| | |
Since finishing sixth at the World Championships in late September, Philippe Gilbert has won every single race in which he participated: first Coppa Sabatini, then Paris-Tours and now the Gran Piemonte, formerly known as Giro del Piemonte. The Belgian seems to appreciate beating the sprinters on their favourite ground by anticipating their action and today, he attacked on a slight uphill with one kilometre to go and took the victory with narrow margin over Moreno, Gavazzi and Paolinim, with the rest of the field being several seconds behind. Kim Kirchen was present at the front in the final and at the finish, he was inside the first bigger group of around 40 riders that finished within 4 seconds of Gilbert. Together with riders like Ballan, Gasparotto, Montfort or Lars Boom, Kim crossed the finish line in 26th position. The race was marked by a long solo break from Alessandro Donati, who got away at kilometre 27 and was joined Olek Kvatchuk only a long way after mid-race. With their long solo rides, the two contenders of course had wasted lots of energy and they were swallowed up after 170 kilometres of efforts. Several attempts from Marzoli and Stangelj as well as from Patour didn’t bring anything and the Vacansoleil and Silence-Lotto led peloton was compact under the red flag, before being thorn apart by the strong attack of Philippe Gilbert.
|
October 11, 2009: 13th Gran Premio Beghelli
|
| |
11.10.2009 Monteveglio - Monteveglio (195 km)
Ventoso wins bunch sprint
Results:
|
|
Francisco Ventoso
|
|
| |
|
16th at 0"
|
| | |
Despite its hilly profile, the 13th edition of the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli was decided in a bunch sprint, won by Francisco Ventoso ahead of Giovanni Visconti. Five riders had tried their chance with an early break and on the last local circuits around Monteveglio, Alexsandr Dyachenko, Dries Devenyns, Ermanno Capelli, Emanuele Sella and Edwin Jaramillo were joined at the head of the race by Enrico Gasparotto, Murilo Fischer, Giovanni Visconti, Luca Paolini, Mauro Santambrogio, Francesco Ginanni and Daryl Impey. But with 30 kilometres to go, their advantage was less than a minute and it was only a matter of time before the peloton would come back on them. This happened on the last climb of Zappolino when Alexander Vinokourov jumped out of the peloton and passed the riders of the break. But the next chasers were led by Damiano Cunego, a group that contained also Kim Kirchen and bridged up to the rider from Astana a little bit later. At the end, more than 50 riders arrived together at the finish in Monteveglio for a sprint decision and, while Ventoso won ahead of Visconti, Rossi and Paolini, Kim Kirchen took a nice 16th position on the line.
|
October 10, 2009: 92nd Giro dell'Emilia
|
| |
10.10.2009 Sassuola - San Luca (198 km)
Gesink lucky for once
Results:
|
|
Robert Gesink
|
|
| |
|
DNF
|
| | |
Robert Gesink certainly is one of the most unlucky riders of the season, since he was victim of a crash in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta Espana, forcing him to withdraw from the second race and give up his chances for overall win in the second one. But tody, he had his revenge by taking the win in the tough Giro dell Emilia at the top of the San Luca wall, ahead of Fulgsang and Lövqvist. Just like around one hundred other riders, Kim Kirchen didn't finish this elimination race on the difficult course, even though he showed himself a lot at the head of the peloton until they reached Bologna, when he tackled the first climb on the local circuit in the wheel of world champion Cadel Evans. Four contenders didn't hesitate to go for an early break, namely Vladimir Duma, Vitaliy Kondrut, Aristide Ratti et Alain Van der Velde. The two Ukranians, the Italian and the Dutch rider had up to 9 minutes of advantage, but Liquigas and Silence-Lotto of the world champion brought back the pack with about three laps to go. On the penultimate lap, Thomas Lövqvist, Robert Gesink, Jakob Fulgsang and Alexandre Vinokourov were able to break away on the steep ramp in the suburbs of Bologna and despite the hard chase of Kolobnev, Evans or Cunego, the three young riders made it to the finish line, with only Vinokourov being dropped on the last ascent of the wall. Gesink took the victory on the line, while Cadel Evans was the best of the rest and took a fourth place that is very rewarding for his world champion jersey.
Month of October
Season end
At the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro, Jempy Drucker has maybe shown his best performance of the season by finishing in 10th position against the absolute German top-riders, meaning the likes of Gerdemann, Ciolek, Wegmann, Greipel and Co.
Results:
|
| Münsterland-Giro
|
|
|
Aleksejs Saramotins
10th at 9"
|
| Paris-Bourges
|
|
|
André Greipel
DNF
|
| Nationale Sluitingsprijs
|
|
|
Denis Flahaut
121st at 0"
|
| | | | | | | |
The line-up of the big teams like Columbia, Saxo-Bank, Milram and Rabobank however hasn't prevented a group of riders from relatively modest teams to dominate the race from the beginning to the end: Aleksejs Saramotins (Team Designa Køkken), Wouter Mol (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Thierry Hupont (Skil-Shimano), Dirk Müller (Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse) and Jean Zen (Palmans Cras) broke away after only 22 kilometres and they managed to keep a few seconds advantage until the finish line. In front of estimated 250.000 spectators, the five battled hard until the very end and it was Saramotins from Lettland who took the flowers after a powerfull attack with two kilometres to go. Wouter Mol finished in second place, whereas André Greipel won the sprint of the peloton for 6th position. Despite a very tough final, where the peloton nearly busted into pieces, despite being alone against several more experienced riders, Jempy Drucker crossed the finish lin in excellent 5th position of this sprint, thus finishing 10th overall behind Saramontis, Mol, Hupond, Müller, Zen, Greipel, Goddaert, Van Hummel and Baumann in this German end-of-season race. At the 59th edition of Paris-Bourges however, things didn't turn out as well for Drucker. Against some of the big names in world cycling, Jempy wasn't able to do as well as in Germany and he didn't make it to the finish line. André Greipel took the win in a bunch sprint, grabbing his 20th win of the season ahead of Juan-José Haedo, Usov and Hammond. At the Nationale Sluitingsprijs in Putte-Kappellen, another race of very high level that is ending the road season in Belgium, Jempy Drucker finished inside the peloton, but he didn't match up in the bunch sprint that decided for the victory. Whereas Frenchman Denis Flahaut took the flowers ahead of Van Dijk, Van Landschoot and Napolitano, Jempy crossed the line in 121st position, one place behind Kevin Van Impe from Quick-Step.
Note: "This site contains links to other Internet pages, on which content and presentation we don't have any influence. These refences are indicated merely for your information and and we can't be made reliable for any of the content of any of the Internet pages our links may take you to."
|
Schleck
Schleck
Drucker
