Saturday, March 18, 2006
Pozzatissimo!
Perhaps as expected, Alessandro Pettachi showed today that he was the fastest man on the Via Roma. Less expected was that today that was about as good as being the tallest of the seven dwarves.
Instead, the day’s honors went to Filippo Pozzato, whose split second advantage over the second-placed Pettachi typified what has lately become a successful breakaway at the Classicissima: a perfectly timed move to just beat the charging sprinters to the line.
Pozzato was actually with the long break the left well before the Turchino Pass, but although a modern day Coppi wasn’t found in that group, he managed to get himself into a six-man break that went just before the summit of the Poggio – the false flat near the summit of which had been the secret to San Remo success in the years before the sprinters reclaimed the race. Feeling the peloton bearing down on him, Pozzato launched himself free of his break companions with about 300 meters to go, just holding off Ale-Jet, who had ridden Zabel’s wheel to near victory.
(Pozzato may have stolen the next to the last chance for the sprinters. Thursday, Velo News had a great write up on the latest rumors – complete with the conspiratorial details that must surround contemplations of Italian racing routes – of adding an additional climb between the Cipressa and the Poggio for the 2008 edition.)
Pozzato was the beneficiary of Quick Step’s curious – curious, but successful – tactics on Saturday. Naturally they seemed to focus exclusively on Pettachi and his Milram squad, and noting the absence of their classics rider Mirko Celestino sought to cover all the breaks, forcing Pettachi, Zabel and company to chase.
The curious aspect of Quick Step’s race was not that they did not use Bettini in the mix – who knows just how dodgy his knee really is – but instead that ex-Pettachi leadout man Guido Trenti was sent to cover the break that left at the base of the Poggio (if memory serves, Fignon was the last rider to win San Remo with an attack from the base of the Poggio in 1989). In this case, Quick Step was not merely playing an additional card, they were also somewhat compromising their Boonen-card. Perhaps Trenti was the only Quick Step rider able to respond, or perhaps Quick Step team management was hoping to avoid a sprint showdown with Pettachi. In any event, the wondering is left for writers of cycling blogs and the likes, while Quick Step enjoys a great victory in the season’s first Monument.
As the classics head north, the young Pozzato seems content to reprise his role as a domestique in the services of Bettini and Boonen. Although great things have been expected of him since his breakthrough at Tirreno-Adriatico in 2003, he’s had health and other problems. With La Primavera now in his palmares, Pozzato, however, seems to recognize that experience is what he’ll need in the other Classics, and thus seems content to apprentice this year behind the World and Olympic champions and playing a even a bit part in the dominating machine that is the 2006 Quick Step team.
Instead, the day’s honors went to Filippo Pozzato, whose split second advantage over the second-placed Pettachi typified what has lately become a successful breakaway at the Classicissima: a perfectly timed move to just beat the charging sprinters to the line.
Pozzato was actually with the long break the left well before the Turchino Pass, but although a modern day Coppi wasn’t found in that group, he managed to get himself into a six-man break that went just before the summit of the Poggio – the false flat near the summit of which had been the secret to San Remo success in the years before the sprinters reclaimed the race. Feeling the peloton bearing down on him, Pozzato launched himself free of his break companions with about 300 meters to go, just holding off Ale-Jet, who had ridden Zabel’s wheel to near victory.
(Pozzato may have stolen the next to the last chance for the sprinters. Thursday, Velo News had a great write up on the latest rumors – complete with the conspiratorial details that must surround contemplations of Italian racing routes – of adding an additional climb between the Cipressa and the Poggio for the 2008 edition.)
Pozzato was the beneficiary of Quick Step’s curious – curious, but successful – tactics on Saturday. Naturally they seemed to focus exclusively on Pettachi and his Milram squad, and noting the absence of their classics rider Mirko Celestino sought to cover all the breaks, forcing Pettachi, Zabel and company to chase.
The curious aspect of Quick Step’s race was not that they did not use Bettini in the mix – who knows just how dodgy his knee really is – but instead that ex-Pettachi leadout man Guido Trenti was sent to cover the break that left at the base of the Poggio (if memory serves, Fignon was the last rider to win San Remo with an attack from the base of the Poggio in 1989). In this case, Quick Step was not merely playing an additional card, they were also somewhat compromising their Boonen-card. Perhaps Trenti was the only Quick Step rider able to respond, or perhaps Quick Step team management was hoping to avoid a sprint showdown with Pettachi. In any event, the wondering is left for writers of cycling blogs and the likes, while Quick Step enjoys a great victory in the season’s first Monument.
As the classics head north, the young Pozzato seems content to reprise his role as a domestique in the services of Bettini and Boonen. Although great things have been expected of him since his breakthrough at Tirreno-Adriatico in 2003, he’s had health and other problems. With La Primavera now in his palmares, Pozzato, however, seems to recognize that experience is what he’ll need in the other Classics, and thus seems content to apprentice this year behind the World and Olympic champions and playing a even a bit part in the dominating machine that is the 2006 Quick Step team.
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