"We knew three years ago when this course was announced, that it could be good for us," said Cavendish, "We put a plan together to come with the best group of guys to this race and to come away from it with the rainbow jersey. It's been three years in the making. The guys have worked so hard throughout the season to get points so that we could have eight riders here and, as you just saw, they rode incredibly. I feel so, so proud."
Daniele Bennati, the sprinter for Italy, finished 14th. That is the worst placement since 1983. Bennati's teammates were separated from him in one of the final roundabouts, leaving Bennati behind and forcing him to ride the last 2km without them. "I was bottled up," said Bennati. "We were unable to organize ourselves. It's a sin since I had the legs." C.T. Paolo Bettini's analysis: "Great Britain had the strongest team and won with a great sprinter. It is useless to deny it. They knew the route perfectly and built a team in which they believed in."
Bettini is likely to once again going to come under criticisim as the Italian national team only came away from the championships with one medal, the gold medal for Giorgia Bronzini. The medal results:
Great Britain: Gold (2), Silver (2), Bronze (2) = 6
Australia: Gold (2), Silver (1), Bronze (2) = 5
France: Gold (2), Silver (1) = 3
Germany: Gold (2), Bronze (3) = 5
Denmark: Gold (1), Silver (1), Bronze (1) = 3
Italy: Gold (1) = 1
New Zealand: Silver (2) = 2
Switzerland: Bronze (1) = 1
Belgium: Silver (2) = 2
Netherlands: Silver (1), Bronze (1) = 2
Switzerland: Bronze (1) = 1
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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,100 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.
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