Bartoli Tops In Turin
– By Gordon Cameron – Michele Bartoli has put any frustration over missing out on the World Championships behind him by winning the 87th edition of the prestigious Milano-Torino race. Bartoli came home ahead of Oscar Camenzind (Phonak) and Lampre’s Gabriele Missaglia.
Milan-Turin is a warm-up race for the Giro di Lombardia (Tour of Lombardy) and is the first of 3 season-ending races, with the Giro del Piedmonte following Thursday, and Lombardy (the final round of the World Cup) on Saturday. Many of the legends of Italian cycling have taken Milan-Turin, including the first great ‘Campianissimo’ Costante Girardengo who won 5 times between 1914 and 1923, Fiorenzo Magni, Giuseppe Saronni and Francesco Moser.
This year’s event was held over 199km. The first half of the race was relatively flat, with the second half containing a number of climbs in a more rolling course profile.
A strong line-up left Novate Milanese, a little town which lies just north-west of Milan itself this morning. A number of those who took part in the Worlds faced up to those who’d missed out, including Gilberto Simoni and the in-form Fabiano Fontanelli.
Rabobank’s Bram de Groot was the key animator of today’s race with a 148km effort which saw him leading by over 11 minutes at one point, until Saeco and Fassa Bortolo got the chase going.
After he was caught, Juan Antonio Flecha and David Millar had a go, but a 30 rider selection chased them down, featuring Casagrande, Bartoli, Beloki and Frigo. By the time the leaders headed downhill into Turin, Fabiano Fontanelli had made a solo bid which looked to be heading for success.
Sadly for Fontanelli, he crashed as he sped towards the finish at the ‘Velodromo Fausto Coppi’, allowing a star-studded group of almost 30 riders to fight it out. Bartoli was the strongest seeing off Camenzind and Missaglia at the finish. This win was Bartoli’s 3rd in a matter of weeks after the Giro dell’Emilia and a stage of Giro della Provincia di Lucca, giving him a total of 6 wins for the 2002 season.
Milano-Torino (1.1) 199km
1 Michele Bartoli (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 4.37.44 (42.99 km/h)
2 Oskar Camenzind (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems
3 Gabriele Missaglia (Ita) Lampre-Daikin
4 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
5 Marco Serpellini (Ita) Lampre-Daikin
6 Gerhard Trampusch (Aut) Mapei-Quick Step
7 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Coast
8 Peter Luttenberger (Aut) Tacconi Sport-Emmegi
9 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Index Alexia
10 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis all same time
Comments are closed.