Giro di Sardegna

Stage 1:  Olbia to Bornorva,  144.2km/90mi

By Cathy Mehl

It was a day for the Italians in the opening stage of the Giro di Sardegna with Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre) taking the victory, followed by fellow countrymen Oscar Gatto and Giovanni Visconti of  ISD taking 2^nd and 3^rd.  Gavazzi took the first leader’s jersey as well. Team RadioShack’s Chris Horner put in a late attack but was caught with the finish line just ahead.

Horner explained with, “I went with 1.2km to go.  The race profile showed a solid uphill finish but it wasn’t correct and I was caught with 400m to go.  Tomorrow is an uphill finish so I’ll look to that.”

“We had five guys in the first group of 45 riders or so,” commented team Director Alain Gallopin. “ Horner attacked near the 1km mark but he got caught near the end.  Dima worked hard all day and was only dropped on the last climb.  Markel worked well too and came in with the grupetto.  Tomorrow the finish is on top, a category one climb.”

The stage started with a long breakaway of four riders going away after 2km of racing: Simon Clarke (Isd – Neri), Didac Ortega (Acqua & Sapone), Freddy Bichot (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Leonardo Giordani (Ceramica Flaminia). Later Giairo Ermeti (De Rosa – Stac Plastic) made the jump from peloton to the break. The five had a maximum advantage of 4:06 after 20 K.

Liquigas started to chase and the five were caught at km 112, just after the first climb of the Monte Rasu. There were a lot of attacks and counterattacks in the final, but nobody could stay in the front.

Jani Brajkovic put in a strong performance too, taking 20^th on the stage.  “After 18 hours of travel yesterday I had amazing support of the team today. They took really good care of me.The stage itself was not super hard, but hard enough to make a  selection with only a small group coming to the last short finishing  climb.
There were five riders away and our guys Markel and Dmitry helped to bring them back.”

Brajkovic continued saying, “After the climb of Monte Rasu a group of 18 riders went away with Geoffrey included but they were caught after some 10km. On the final hill Chris tried to get away inside a km to go, but the climb profile in the race book was totally wrong and he was caught 300m to the line.  Overall I think we did great and we have at least three guys who can do well on tomorrow’s finishing climb.”

Stage 2 is 172.6km from Macomber to Nuoro with an uphill finish that should make for bigger time gaps on the general classification.  Team RadioShack riders are prepared for the challenge as the Giro di Sardegna continues.

Beyond the Finish Line:  D. H. Lawrence once wrote that Sardegna was “left outside of time and history.”  Indeed time seems to stand still on the island and traditions are kept alive with many festivals.  Several languages and dialects are heard here, including Catalan, Ligurian and even remnants of ancient Phoenician. 

Top Ten Results

1        Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre – Farnese Vini  4:16:50        

2        Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD – Neri              

3        Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD – Neri              

4        Francesco Failli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone                  

5        Przemyslaw Niemec (Pol) Miche                  

6        Damiano Caruso (Ita) De Rosa – Stac Plastic                 

7        Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                    

8        Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Team Katusha              

9        Massimi Giunti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli               

10      Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia.

Team RadioShack on Stage 1

12      Ben Hermans (Bel)

18      Christopher Horner (USA)

20      Jani Brajkovic (Slo)

36      Ivan Rovny (Rus)

39      Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)

54      Dimitriy Muravyev (Rus) 0:02:07

60      Matthew Busche (USA) 0:08:14

98      Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) 0:15:57

General Classification after Stage 1

1        Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini     4:16:40        

2        Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD - Neri    0:00:04        

3        Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD - Neri    0:00:06        

4        Francesco Failli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone       0:00:10        

5        Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Miche                 

6        Damiano Caruso (Ita) De Rosa - Stac Plastic                  

7        Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                    

8        Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Team Katusha              

9        Massimo Giunti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli              

10      Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia

Team RadioShack on General Classification

12      Ben Hermans (Bel) 0:00:10

18      Christopher Horner (USA)

20      Jani Brajkovic (Slo)

36      Ivan Rovny (Rus)

39      Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)

54      Dimitriy Muravyev (Rus) 0:02:17

60      Matthew Busche (USA) 0:08:24

98      Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) 0:16:17

Photo courtesy of Graham Watson