With the one day classic Milan-Sanremo just 9 days away the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico yesterday was analyzed looking ahead to the "Classicissima". This is how the Gazzetta dello Sport saw it:
"Nine days away from the Milan-Sanremo which starts on Saturday 20 March, who were the winners and losers after the first stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico? Cadel Evans and Alessandro Petacchi were definitely winners, while Mark Cavendish was a loser.
Evans, the world champion, was never out of the first twenty places in the peloton, well protected by the jersey of the American champion Hincapie. The Australian BMC rider even picked up a second of handicap time in the intermediate sprint at Rosignano-Marittimo, when the peloton was pushing to catch Grabovskyy. A sign that Cadel is feeling good.
Looking ahead to the Classicissima, there were also some very positive signals from Petacchi: he had fallen in Sardinia, and again in Monday while training, needing 5 stitches for a cut on his forehead and injuring a tibia. Especially on the climb, Ale-jet was never out of the group of the best riders.
Near the end of the stage Vincenzo Nibali also appeared at the front of the bunch, riding in support of Bennati. Mark Cavendish, however, gets a negative report. The winner of the 2009 Sanremo dropped off the peloton on the second climb up Rosignano, and his team mate Eisel had to slow down and wait for him because Mark could not keep up with his pace. His other teammates Bak and Grabsch also escorted "Cav" to the finish line: the Englishman was 4'59" behind (stage winner) Gerdemann."
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Just booked a hotel near/in San Remo so we'll be there on the Poggio along with thousands of other tifosi! We'll hope the weather is more spring-like than it's been lately too.
ReplyDeleteCav's clearly had a tough start to the year - his dental problems seem to have taken more out of him than I think anyone expected. Having said that, I've seen people saying that it might ultimately be a good thing, delaying the start of his season which might see him come into top form at the Tour de France. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update though! It's all Paris-Nice over here in France...
Its been wonderful to watch Tirreno-Adriatico on the UniversalSports(dot)com website and even more wonderful to know that Milan-San Remo will be shown on Universal Sports too! Yay!
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