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GP Costa degli Etruschi, Italy

4 February, 193K

Ale-Jet Soars to Victory in New Milram Colors

Main

Ale-Jet soared to victory in his first outing for 2006, the 11th GP Costa degli Etruschi. Alessandro Petacchi gave the new Milram squadra their first win of the season in the Italian season opener. A crash with less than two kilometers did not stop the Milram train from forming and launching their leader to the line. Ale-Jet took his victory by holding off a dangerous Lampre-Fondital duo, Bennati and Napolitano.

"The team formed well with 2K to go ... It went great with the new group of guys," said Petacchi after the finish. But it was his old lead out cronies doing the finishing work in the final 2K: It was first Alberto Ongarato, then Fabio Sacchi, before Marco Velo gave the final punch. Velo perhaps left Petacchi a little far from the line but the Italian speedster held on for a long final sprint.

"I was surprised by Napolitano, he anticipated the sprint," continued Petacchi. Napolitano finished in third behind Bennati, who is the sprinter on the rise and should be watched for Milano-Sanremo. The rider from Arezzo started his 2006 season like he finished 2005, behind a renounced sprinter (In 2005 he was 2nd behind Zabel in Paris-Tours).

"It was clear from the sprint that I went well," said Petacchi of his form. "I am coming on well, in December I had a virus that completely knocked me out ... I am still a little tired on the climbs. The season has started off good and now I will go to Andalucia ["Ruta del Sol", 12 - 16 February]."

In the finale there were three squads of note: Milram, Lampre-Fondital and Saunier Duval-Prodir. The yellow Spanish-Swiss team did some handy work for their new Brazilian sprinter Luciano Pagliarini, but unfortunately it did not pay off directly. The team had Rubens Bertogliati and Manuele Mori on the front with under 5K to go and then Lampre took control.

Lampre and Milram were key in the final march home but also in shuttling down the day's fruitless escapes. The blue-pink Italian squadra look well-oiled in their delivery but could not provide an answer for the faster legs of Ale-Jet. His Treno Azzurro out muscled the Lampre boys with under 2K and made way for their leader. It was the first win of the year for Petacchi and his newly formed Italian-German Milram squadra, and the win came in Italy's season opener. Bravo al Treno Azzurro!

Results: 4:39'40", 41.381 K/h
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Milram 4:39'40", 41.381 K/h
2 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
3 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
4 Andrus Aug (Est) Acqua & Sapone
5 Krzysztof Szczawinski (Pol) Ceramica Flaminia
6 Domenico Loria (Ita) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare
7 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
8 Daniele Colli (Ita) Liquigas
9 Gabriele Bosisio (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
10 Giosuè Bonomi (Ita) Barloworld
11 Daniele Di Nucci (Ita) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare
12 Marco Marcato (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
13 Roman Luhovyy (Ukr) OTC Doors-Lauretana
14 Werner Riebenbauer (Aut) Vorarlberg
15 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas
16 Luciano Pagliarini (Bra) Saunier Duval-Prodir
17 Emanuele Rizza (Ita) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare
18 Francesco Failli (Ita) Liquigas
19 Marco Velo (Ita) Milram
20 Graziano Gasparre (Ita) Amore & Vita-McDonald's 0.04
21 Gianluca Geremia (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia 0.07
22 Mauro Da Dalto (Ita) Liquigas 0.08
23 Enrico Degano (Ita) Barloworld
24 Crescenzo D'Amore (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
25 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) Milram 0.13
26 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Milram 0.14
27 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
28 Daniele Callegarin (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
29 Ivan De Nobile (Ita) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare 0.17
30 Claudio Corioni (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
31 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone 0.18
32 Manuele Mori (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 0.29
33 Hugo Sabido (Por) Barloworld
34 Blazej Janiaczyk (Pol) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
35 Cristian Bonfanti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
36 Roberto Petito (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
37 Paolo Fornaciari (Ita) Lampre-Fondital 0.34
38 Aníbal Andres Borrajo (Arg) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare 0.43
39 Javier Saez Jiménez (Spa) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare
40 Alessio Signego (Ita) OTC Doors-Lauretana
41 Mauro Facci (Ita) Barloworld
42 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Blr) Ceramica Flaminia
43 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare 0.48
44 Donato Cannone (Ita) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare
45 Armando Rupa (Ita) Miche
46 Jakub Lorek (Pol) Amore & Vita-McDonald's
47 Alessandro Cortinovis (Ita) Milram 1.01
48 Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukr) Milram
49 Luigi Sestili (Ita) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare 1.06
50 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Ceramica Flaminia
51 Leonardo Giordani (Ita) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare
52 Davide Bragazzi (Ita) Team Endeka
53 Matteo Lasurdi (Ita) OTC Doors-Lauretana
54 Artur Krol (Pol) Amore & Vita-McDonald's
55 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
56 Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukr) Tenax-Salmilano
57 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
58 Denis Shkarpeta (Uzb) Miche
59 Devis Miorin (Ita) Team Endeka
60 Daniele Migliorati (Ita) Team Endeka
61 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-McDonald's
62 Dainius Kairelis (Ltu) Amore & Vita-McDonald's
63 Juan Pablo Magallanes (Mex) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
64 Matteo Carrara (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
65 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
66 Cristiano Salerno (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
67 Massimo Mazzanti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
68 Maurizio Bellin (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
69 Simone Bruson (Ita) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare
70 Przemyslaw Niemec (Pol) Miche
71 Davide Torosantucci (Ita) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare
72 Jure Zrimsek (Slo) Acqua & Sapone
73 Diego Genovesi (Ita) OTC Doors-Lauretana
74 Harald Morscher (Aut) Vorarlberg
75 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Lampre-Fondital
76 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
77 Francisco José Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
78 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Saunier Duval-Prodir
79 Giancarlo Ginestri (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
80 Tiaan Kannemeyer (RSA) Barloworld
81 Alessio Ricciardi (Ita) OTC Doors-Lauretana
82 Christian Murro (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
83 Antonio Quadranti (Ita) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare
84 Eddy Ratti (Ita) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare
85 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Saunier Duval-Prodir
86 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Milram
87 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Barloworld
88 Tom Southam (GBr) Barloworld
89 Maxim Rudenko (Ukr) Ceramica Flaminia
90 Alexander Efimkin (Rus) Barloworld
91 Andreas Matzbacher (Aut) Vorarlberg 1.43
92 Alexandre Bazhenov (Rus) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare 1.47
93 Raivis Belohvosciks (Lat) Universal Caffè-CB Immobiliare 2.04
94 David Loosli (Swi) Lampre-Fondital
95 Christian Lener (Aut) Vorarlberg 2.07
96 Patrick Riedesser (Aut) Vorarlberg
97 Raffaele Ferrara (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
98 Paolo Bailetti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
99 Luca Pierfelici (Ita) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare
100 Arkadiusz Wojtas (Pol) Miche
101 Daniele Righi (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
102 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi 2.23
103 Leonardo Caneschi (Ita) Miche 3.21
104 Alessandro Donati (Ita) Acqua & Sapone 3.23
105 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano 3.44
106 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Milram 4.16
107 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Tenax-Salmilano
108 Elia Rigotto (Ita) Milram 5.09
109 Fabio Borghesi (Ita) OTC Doors-Lauretana 5.11
110 Emanuele Bindi (Ita) OTC Doors-Lauretana
111 Andrea Noè (Ita) Liquigas 6.29
112 Charles Wegelius (GBr) Liquigas
113 Sergio Cuesta (Spa) Team Endeka