Feb 15, 2006
Petacchi V Boonen Round 2
The Ruta Del Sol is giving Petacchi and Boonen a few chances to duke out the sprints after a few days of successful breakaways. Alessandro Petacchi is taking a two win lead in the battle of the sprinters. Petacchi won a second sprint victory finishing ahead of the gold and diamond wearing world champion Boonen.
This was a much harder sprint than yesterday, so I wanted to prove that I could do well. My team did a great deal of the work in the finale today. I thought it would be best to stay on Boonen’s wheel going into the finale. When he started sprinting I was behind by one bike length. I caught back onto Boonen’s wheel and once he saw that he was beaten, he stopped pedaling. –Petacchi
1. Petacchi (Ita-Milram), 162,1 km in 4h07′11″; 2. Boonen (Bel) s.t.; 3. Brown (Aus) s.t.; 4. C. Garcia Quesada (Spa) s.t.; 5. Trenti (Ita) a 3″.
BiciRace has a good writeup from yesterday’s sprint. Petacchi says that he and Boonen are different types of sprinters. Boonen is more of a Classics style rider that does well in tough sprint situations, while Petacchi is more of a pure sprinter. This sprinting battle will go on all season and will probably take a turn during Milan San Remo and the Tour of Flanders where both of these riders want to figure prominently.
08turtuffa27 I just don’t have anything to say right now.