Giovanni Visconti, Men's Italian Road Race Champion

Sicilian Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini) won his third road race title among professionals at the end of a thrilling sprint in Acicatena, Sicily. After 208.8 km race (5h34m46s, average of 37.423 km/h), Visconti won the sprint at the end of the straight on Via Vittorio Emanuele proceeding Mauro Santambrogio (BMC Racing Team) and Simone Ponzi (Liquigas Cannondale).

"I can’t believe I’ve won at home and that I’ve kept hold of the jersey I love so much," said an elated Visconti. "At the start I was doubtful I’d win again because of the heat and the course but my teammates helped me. This win pays me back for allhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the disappointments of the last few months. It’s my third jersey and so it’s a good season. If I hadn’t been relegated in the sprint at the Giro d’Italia it would have been even better but now I’ve put all of that behind me.”

Damiano Cunego, one of the favorites, lost contact with the lead group on the penultimate lap. "Very tough race, I could not be competitive when things began to become important," Cunego explained. "I suffered due to the heat and the long climb, suddenly I had no more energies".

The last 9 minutes of the race as seen on RAI:


Top 10:
1. Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Neri)
2. Mauro Santambrogio (BMC)
3. Simone Ponzi (Liquigas Cannondale)
4. Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha)
5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago CSF)
6. Paolo Bailetti (De Rosa Flaminia)
7. Ivan Santaromita at 13"
8. Alessandro Ballan at 32"
9. Fortunato Baliani at 2'36"
10. Luca Paolini at 3'22"

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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 2,000 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.

Giovanni Visconti's Bike Stolen

Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti's "Cipollini RB1000", in the one-off Italian championship colors, was stolen out of his car today in Vicenza. The precautions to park the car in front of the reception of the hotel and to cover the bike that was in the trunk were not enough to deter the thieves that broke through the glass to get in.

It's (another) reminder that you do have to be careful about your bike. Bikes do get stolen in Italy.

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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,800 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.

Giovanni Visconti and His MCipollini RB1000

Giovanni Visconti of Farnese-Neri (known as ISD-Neri in 2010) has been been training on his new, matte black, MCipollini RB1000. Visconti is the current Italian national road champion.

You can read a review, from French magazine CycleSport with English translation, of the RB1000 here.

"Giovanni Visconti will be at the start of the 2011 Giro d’Italia, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy,” Zomegnan has said. “We could not be without the tricolour jersey in this edition of the corsa rosa. It will be in Sicily on May 15 for a beautiful stage, and it is only right that Visconti be there, as together with [Vincenzo] Nibali and the other 15 professionals from the region, he is doing Italy’s largest island proud.”

The Farnese-Neri team will use Shimano Di2 and "Lightweight" brand wheels.

ICJ Reader contribution contest will run 1 January to 15 February, 2011. Details here.

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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 1,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also an Italian weather widget along the right side and a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.