Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Daniele Bennati sprinted to his final season win over Luca Paolini in the semi-Classic Giro del Piemonte. This is a flat race that finished up in a bunch sprint.

(AFP/Damien Meyer)

Rain Sicilian roads made for a slick crash filled stage. The processional pace must have been a result of the crashes and recovery from the previous two stages. Passing from Catania to Messina there were many crashes highlighting the Giro coverage. Bradley McGee is the latest early exit from a nasty crash. That is two TT expert racers in two days.

Meanwhile Liquigas had a busy day controlling the tempo as team of race leader Franco Pellizotti and later on setting a high pace for the aspiring Sprint King Daniele Bennati. Benna

Vincenzo Nibali made a brief flyer to make the locals happy. The Sicilian cyclist riding on home roads got some cheers as he attacked 9 km from the finish. The Nibali attack which was more for show since he is a hometown kid, helped to setup the Liquigas train for Bennati.

The Liquigas train will never be mistaken for Petacchi’s Milram trains since attacks were able to get off the front and only a few Liquigas men were able to stay at the front. The front was a mix of Milram, High Road and other teams. Bennati was on Zabel’s wheels and other Milram riders. Going into the final 500 meters Bennati used the Milram train meant for Zabel to launch his final attack. Zabel was well placed but could not get around Bennati.

OSE LUIS ROCA/AFP/Getty Images

Team Milram is in a groove at the Vuelta. They have the big train rolling along and some of the pesky train breaking sprinters such as Oscar Friere are gone. So that just leaves new Italian Sprinting Alpha Male Daniele Bennati to contend with. His Lampre team is good, but not Milram good. That is why Alessandro Petacchi is on his second win in a row. The stage 12 gives Petacchi 19 stage victories in the Tour of Spain for his career. Impressive number, but way behind

Today’s stage finish was the perfect setup for Petacchi with a long straightaway that could allow him to reach top speeds. According to Velonews speeds reached up to 59kph and many non sprinter types joined in the action making for some interesting results. The final was still the top two sprinters left in the Vuelta in Petacchi and Bennati. Tomorrow looks like another sprint stage but Petacchi is shy about asking his team to chase down the breaks as it did today. Maybe after a few kilometers they might change their minds.

(AFP/Jose Luis Roca)

Oh, AleJet. Your afterburners have not roared in a while. Not since the ban from the Tour de France for Sabutimol has AleJet been able to show the rest of the peloton the backside of his shorts. Not until today. After being involved in a doping issue that combined with Zabel’s EPO admission sent the Milram team in a tailspin, Petacchi is racing and winning stages in Grand Tours. Early on in the Vuelta Petacchi was only a spectator with a good seat. Lampre Sprinter Daniele Bennati was coming into his own with two stage wins in the Tour and one the the early stages of the Vuelta in front of Petacchi himself.

Now it looks like Petacchi is getting back the form with a big win in a Grand Tour. This could help ease some of the pain of the doping issues faced during the summer.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

With all of the stress both on and off the bike it seems like a great day to let a breakaway go for the win. Eight men moved clear of the peloton and gained a big lead that ended up with Daniele Bennati easily taking the win over the remaining three breakaway companions. Included in the break was Jens Voight who missed out on a win yet again.

The big news of the day was the lack of Yellow Jersey in the Peloton. With the sacking of Rasmussen for lies about his whereabouts during missed UCI drug tests, the Tour was missing its lead racer. Alberto Contador assumed the Yellow Jersey at the end of the stage, but he too is not squeaky clean as his name was mentioned in the Operation Puerto investigation. Contador is cleared at the moment, but his name is somewhat stained.

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Alessandro Petacchi took his first win of 2006 with the sprint victory in the GP delle Costa Etruschi. AleJet responded in the “Battle of Sprint Kings” with a convincing win on home turf.

(photo from Grande Ciclismo)

The win was not easy as the race was hard from the start with several attacks. Team Milram and Lampre then took control of the race for their respective sprinters. Petacchi took the wrapping off his new team, while Lampre were setting up for their new sprint man Daniele Bennati.

A break involving two riders-Pietropolli (Tenax) and Cuesta (Endeka)-had a lead of 3 minutes going into the final circuit, but the gap was brought back down in time to allow Petacchi and Bennati to place 1,2 respectively.

“My teammates did a great job to keep the race together. I took off too early in the sprint because I saw Napolitano breaking away at 250 meters. I thought that he was trying to contest the sprint, so I started sprinting. He was actually working for Bennati, but it was too late for me to do anything about it. I can now say that I am happy with my form after a 200km race. I am not as good on the climbs, but in the sprints I am going well. I will now train very intensively this week and then head out to the Ruta del Sol.” — Petacchi

“Today Petacchi showed a great deal of strength. There was nothing anyone could do, so I am satisfied with the result and how we raced. The team worked perfectly. My next goal is the Giro del Mediterraneo” — Bennati

Grande Ciclismo