Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Paolo Bettini finally grabbed a long sought after victory in the World Championships in Salzburg, Austria. The Cricket used his sprinting ability to beat a surprising Erik Zabel in a race that turned out to be a sprinter’s duel. Former World Champ Tom Boonen just missed out on contesting the final sprint to get a back to back victory and had to settle for ninth place. Boonen can now loan out his World Champ kit and other goodies to teammate Bettini. “Il Grillo” will have quite the colorful combo when the “Maglia arcobaleno” is paired up with his gold shoes and helmet which commemorate his Olympic Gold Medal win in Athens.

The shiny gold shoes were one thing, but now combine that with wearing the rainbow jersey and you might as well have Paolo riding with a trophy on his handle bars. yeah, we get it Paolo you won the Olympic gold medal, now tone down the flashy shoes and wear some white SiDi Genius HT 5.5s with the carbon sole like all of CSC (and velochimp) wears.

Franco Ballerini can now look back and a farily good track record as National team director for the Italians. Thanks to Cippolini’s victory in 2002, Bettini’s Olympic Gold in 2004 and now the World Championship in 2006. It seems that Ballerini will succeed somehow every even numbered year. This victory is also sweet for Italy as it goes along with a World Cup crown earlier this year.

For a race that promised to be a climber’s delight, the top finishers would say a different story.
The top 20 is littered with guys who would not call long climbs their friends. This is probably a case of the Italian team putting in some chasing and keeping things together for Paolo. Rebellin provided a good teammate as he worked with Bettini to lauch counter attacks that helped to split up the field a bit.

1 Paolo Bettini (Italy) in 6.15.36
2 Erik Zabel (Germany)
3 Alessandro Valverde (Spain)
4 Samuel Sanchez (Spain) a 2″
5 Robbie McEwen (Australia)
6 Stuart O’Grady (Australia)
7 Uros Murn (Slovenia)
8 Botcharov Alexandre (Russian Federation)
9 Tom Boonen (Belgium)
10 Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation)
11 Bernhard Eisel (Austria)
12 Nicki Sorensen (Denmark)
13 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Norway)
14 Martin Elmiger (Switzerland)
15 Freddie Rodriguez (United States Of America)
16 Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
17 Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden)
18 Rene Haselbacher (Austria)
19 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary)
20 Gerben Löwik (Netherlands)

Congratulations Paolo and Forza Italia!