Settimana Coppi e Bartali ends with Firsanov win
The entertaining week of racing in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy has come to an end yesterday, March 27th. The race featured two sprint stages, two mountain stages and a Team Time Trial as well.
Yesterdays` stage had three climbs and was the last chance for Italians Mauro Finetto (Unieuro Wilier) and Gianni Moscon (SKY) to overcome Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom).
Gianni Moscon attacked late on in a valiant attempt to secure the overall win, having started the day 19 seconds behind leader Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom RusVelo).
However, Firsanov marked Moscon’s moves in the closing stages and the Russian came home sixth to secure the win, while Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani – CSF) launched an attack five Kilometers from the line to take a fine solo victory. Meanwhile, Sebastian Henao finished fifth overall, having come home in the reduced bunch with Moscon.
Another SKY rider was part of the action as Mikel Landa has hit out 40 Km from the finish and formed a four-man break with team-mate David Lopez, Pirazzi and Rodolfo Torres (Androni).
The break did not hold and in the end Pirazzi launched his decisive solo attack to win the stage ahead of Clemens Frankhauser (Tirol Cycling Team) and Mauro Finetto.
SKY Team Sport Director, Kurt Arvesen, said that the team went all in on the final stage:
“We went all in today, from early in the stage. Halfway through the day we put Xabi [Zandio] and Philip [Deignan] on the front, they rode hard, and we got time back on the break. Then on the penultimate big climb we attacked with Sebastian, tried to isolate the leader, and we attacked again with Landa going away. He was very good for a long time, but we just got beaten by stronger bike riders today. Everybody was involved in the day’s tactics and work and it shows that the guys are on track.”
In the end, Kurt Arvesen was content about the performance of his young riders throughout the week:
“It’s very nice to see the young guys up there, with Gianni third and Sebastian fifth. From the beginning in Valencia and in every race since Gianni has been up there. I’m super impressed with him.
