Gian Luca Donato won the seventh edition of the Saeco Press Trophy, the race for journalists which was contested today at Gaggio Montano, the home of Saeco in the hills near Bologna. Donato, a journalist with the Italian magazine "La Bicicletta" won the highly competitive race which was raced on a hilly 2.3 km circuit around the Saeco factory covered eight times.
An early break by Alessandro Brambilla was quickly caught after the two tourist paced laps and Donato attacked on theclimb. He was joined by Luigi Scarfagna (Rai Sport) and they opened a a good lead. Davide Cassani (Rai Sport) and Maurizio Coccia (Vitesse) got across but were dropped again after just a few hundred metres during the sixth lap.
Donato attacked 500m from the finish and won alone by 30 seconds ahead of Scarfagna. Angelo Costa (Resto del Carlino) finished third ahead of Giovanni Bruno (RaiSport), Cassani, Coccia and Stephen Farrand (Reuters).
1 Gian Luca Donato (La Bicicletta) 35.42 (30.91 km/h) 2 Gigi Scarfagna (Rai Sport) 0.30 3 Angelo Costa (Il Resto del Carlino) 2.55 4 Giovanni Bruno (Rai Sport) 5 Davide Cassani (Rai Sport) 6 Maurizio Coccia (Vitesse) 7 Stephen Farrand (Reuters) 3.18 8 Claudio Ghisalberti (La Gazzetta dello Sport) 4.50 9 Duccio Moschella (La Nazione) 10 Ugo Cennamo (Bologna Sport) 5.35 11 Alberto Paoli (La Gazzetta dello Sport) 1 lap 12 Luigi Benati (La Prealpina) 13 Giacomo Farolfi (Rai TG3 Emilia) 2 laps 14 Alessandro Brambilla (Antenna 3) DNF Roberto Bettini (Olympia) DNF Fabio Provera (Ansa) DNF Flavio Lombardi (Bike2it)