The planned rider protest at the start in Milan was minimal with only a few riders wearing the "Io corro con il cuore" ("I race with my heart") stickers on their helmets.
The race started under dry conditions but became cold and wet at Lake Como making for absolutely dreadful riding conditions. How bad was it? 195 riders started but only 34 arrived at the finish in Como.
Proving to be best suited for these conditions, and coming off a victory in the Giro del Piemonte only 3 days before, was Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto). Gilbert won his second consecutive Giro di Lombardia by 12 seconds over Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli).
"Today was a really, really hard day. It was cold and there was a lot of rain. It was a tough race but I always go pretty well with the wet and cold. I'm from Belgium, I'm used to it," said Gilbert.
Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) crashed on the technical descent of the new Colma di Sormano and could never catch back on to the leaders. Scarponi missed a shift at a critical point on the final climb of the race, the San Fermo di Battaglia, when he and Gilbert were riding shoulder to shoulder...literally. Gilbert gained a small gap which Scarponi was not able to close in the remaining few kilometers. No matter, Gilbert was clearly the strongest rider.
Top 10 results:
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 6:46:32
2 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli 0:00:12
3 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:55
4 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:08
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
6 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:01:12
7 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:02:07
8 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:03:01
9 Carlos Barredo Llamazales (Spa) Quick Step 0:03:25
10 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Team Katusha 0:03:50
Photos: by Bettini
Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,500 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.
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