Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Milan San Remo was returned to the domain of the field sprint Saturday as Oscar Friere ripped the field of top sprinters to take a convincing second overall victory. There was no photo finish and now bike throw to beat a guy who thought he won (Zabel). This time the victory was pretty clear. Friere took advantage of the Milram sprint train and a fast fading Alessandro Petacchi. Staying on Petacchi’s wheel for the sprint down the Via Roma is probably the best spot in the peloton. Especially this year as Petacchi does not seem to have the extra speed he usually does. He is perhaps still suffering from the knee injury incurred at the Giro D’Italia last year. Petacchi has managed a few victories, but he does not have the same form that puts the Jet in AleJet.

The sprinter teams of Lampre (Bennati), Milram (Petacchi) and Quick Step(Boonen) did a great deal of work to bring back the escapes and manage to keep a large pack together for the final run in to the Via Roma. Riccardo Ricco’s brilliant attack with Phillippe Gilbert looked very threatening especially after Ricco’s two stage victories at Tirreno Adriatico. Ricco promised to do well in San Remo, and it looked like he was going for a very impressive victory when he was able to get a gap with Gilbert after the top of the Poggio heading down to San Remo. Ricco was so detemined to attack that he slipped through a small gap between Gilbert and a wall to get ahead and attack. His attack dropped a third breakaway companion in Mattiaus Kessler.
With only two kilometers to go the break was swept up, but not before Ricco provided his much promised fireworks.

Paolo Bettini performed well working for Tom Boonen. Betting was riding with pain after several crashes at Tirreno Adriatico left him in less than ideal form. But Bettini rides with his heart and he was very instrumental in working for Boonen, helping bring down the gaps. This paid off in a second place for Boonen. Does this mean that Boonen will now help Paolo at Flanders? Hmmm.

Liquigas sent a few attacks up the road with Manuel Quinzato and Oscar Pellizotti. Those two showed good form and could have been paving the way for Pozzatto. Pozzatto never launched any serious attack and did not repeat.

Yaroslav Popovych looked like he was feeling good after launching repeated attacks. Popovych is on form after a stage win at Paris-Nice and looked to do some damage at San Remo. His wok eventually paid off with a third place for Disco sprinter Allan Davis.

Gerolsteiner received some publicity, but not from an attack, but from riders writhing in pain in the middle of the road. Gerolsteiner guys had a few crashes that left them smarting form the pain for a while. Milan San Remo is know for bad crashes, but the poor Gerolsteiner team seems to have had more than their fair share of men on the pavement. David Kopp and Andrea Moletta suffered a broken thigh which could be the end of his season. His misjudging of a corner and crash into a lamppost was caught perfectly by the RAI coverage. David Kopp got away with a broken nose and facial injuries from a crash scene that looked much worse. Not moving much and blood on the pavement was a scary site to see. Luckily he came away with mere flesh wounds.

Now Oscar Friere can enjoy his great form and great victory at San Remo. The finish line pic is now focusing on Friere instead of a bewildered Zabel realizing he threw his hands up too soon.