31st Giro Ciclistico d'Italia Internazionale U26 - 2.6Italy, June 12- 24, 2001Main page Results Previous stage Stage 3 - June 14: Sandrigo-Breganze, 144.8 km
Frattini unbeatable in Breganze
The Giro d'Italia Elite U26 produced another exciting day's racing for the Italian tifosi, happy that the Giro Elite had not been stopped by the national level Italian racing ban (The Giro is an international race and so is not affected). The third stage produced the third new pink jersey wearer, as Davide Frattini won the third stage from the Sirmec factory to Breganze over 144.8 km in the Veneto region. The Varese rider the brother of former professional Francesco Frattini, who is still an under 23 rider, won a hard fought stage, forcing race leader Luca Solari to chase for most of the day. Frattini made his winning attack with 30 km to go, going clear on the climb of the Ca' della Ore, the only hill of the 11.5 km circuit which was crossed 12 times. The Sintofarm rider held off the chase by the main field under a sudden downpour, finishing 58 seconds ahead of Ezio Casagrande (Ita, Site Frezza) and 1:13 on Andrea Moletta (Ita, Zalf Euromobil Fior). It was Frattini's second win of the season. He recently won the second stage of the Vuelta a Navarra in Spain. By winning the stage Frattini also took the race leader's pink jersey the first of his career, from Luca Solari, who finished 1:41 behind. In the overall standings, Frattini leads Ezio Casagrande (ita, Site Frezza) by 58 seconds and Andrea Moletta (Ita, Zalf Euromobil Fior) by 1:13. Solari is now fourth at 1:18. "I want to dedicate this win to my brother Francesco who always enourages me," Frattini said after the finish. "I was racing to help my team mates Reiss and Krushevski but when I realised I wasn.t losing time I dug in and kept going, making it to the finish." Tomorrow the Giro heads into Lombardy with the Calvisano to Crema stage. In the town famous for being the home of several famous sprinters, everybody will be expecting the first sprint finish of this year's Giro Elite. The 153 km stage does not include any hills. Results1 Davide Frattini (Ita) Sintofarm Feralpi 3.46.16 (38.397 km/h) 2 Ezio Casagrande (Ita) Site-Frezza- Mattiuzzo -Saf 0.59 3 Andrea Moletta (Ita) Zalf Euromobil Fior 1.14 4 Ondrej Fadrny (Cze) MG Boy's Aqua 5 Salvatore Cirasola (Ita) Podenzano Italfine- Juvenes Sterilton 1.19 6 Alessandro Rastelli (Ita) Podenzano Italfine- Juvenes Sterilton 1.24 7 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Zalf Euromobil Fior 1.42 8 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Trevigiani Mapei Cassamarca 9 Wolodimir Starchik (Ukr) Team Parolin Fis Uniconfort 10 Daniele Balestri (Ita) Grassi Mapei Las 11 Alexandr Arekeev (Rus) Russian National Team 12 Andrei Karpatchev (Rus) Luigi Maserati Synclean 13 Federico Berta (Ita) Resine Ragnoli Garda Rifra P. 14 Lorenzo Cardellini (Ita) Reda Baggioni Mulinari 15 Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukr) Site-Frezza- Mattiuzzo -Saf 16 Santo Anza' (Ita) Zoccorinese Vellutex/Team Casini 17 Maurizio Varini (Ita) Sintofarm Feralpi 18 Balazs Rohtmer (Hun) S. Paolo Saeco Colzi Pratesi 19 Frederik Willems (Bel) Eddy Merckx Boys 20 Francesco Magni (Ita) Cycling Team Eternedile 21 Andris Reiss (Lat) Sintofarm Feralpi 22 Emil Arnel (Swe) Podenzano Italfine- Juvenes Sterilton General classification after stage 3 1 Davide Frattini (Ita) Sintofarm 10.40.02 (41.936 km/h) 2 Ezio Casagrande (Ita) Site Frezza 0.58 3 Luca Solari (Ita) S. Pellegrino 1.18 4 Andris Reiss (Lat) Sintofarm Feralpi 1.22 5 Sergey Kushevskiy (Uzb) Uzbekistan 1.22 6 Gianluca Cavalli (Ita) Vezza Brunero 1.33 7 Francesco Magni (Ita) Eternedile 8 Damiano Giannini (Ita) Pagnoncelli 9 Emil Arnel (Swe) Podenzana Italfine 1.42 10 Andrea Moletta (Ita) Zalf Euromobil Fior 1.51 |