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Fassa Bortolo captain Fabio Baldato has taken the stage win and the overall lead in the Giro di Liguria Ponente. The vastly experienced 33 year old led the bunch home at the end of the 158 kilometre stage from Pietra Ligurian to Alassio, in front of Alberto Ongarato (De Nardi) and Fabio Sacchi (Saeco). Baldato kept the jersey within the Fassa Bortolo team, taking over from yesterday's winner Nicola Loda who did not make the front group.
Today's stage was aggressive and saw an attack by Paolo Bettini on the climb of Corecetta di Moglia, who took 15 riders with him including Paolo Savoldelli (Index-Alexia), Ivan Gotti (Alessio), Giuliano Figueras (Panaria) and Cadel Evans (Mapei). However, the main peloton caught this group with three kilometres to go and a mass sprint ensued.
"It was another team win", said Fassa Bortolo's Fabio Baldato, the 33 year old from Vicenza, taking his 29th pro win. "We had Tiralongo, Kirchen and Valjavec in the front group of 20 riders, and Pozzi and Petito rode hard tempo behind to bring us together and put me in a perfect position to win the sprint."
"At the Tour of the Med, I worked hard for Bartoli who won there, so now I earned some space of my own to grab a win."
Baldato went on to explain that "our (Fassa Bortolo's) secret for all these wins by so many different riders so far this year (6 wins in two weeks of racing) is the atmosphere created by (DS Giancarlo) Ferretti. In this team, if you give, you get. Once in a while, even the top riders make sacrifices so others can win."
1 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 4.00.46 (37.032 km/h) 2 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) De Nardi - Pasta Montegrappa 3 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Saeco Longoni Sport 4 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 5 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Mercatone Uno 6 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Saeco Longoni Sport 7 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Tacconi Sport-Vini Caldirola 8 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Acqua e Sapone 9 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) Ceramiche-Panaria 10 Oscar Cavagnis (Ita) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago .... 157 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saeco Longoni Sport 17.19 General classification after stage 2 1 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 7.34.09 (38.419 km/h) 2 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) De Nardi - Pasta Montegrappa 0.04 3 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Saeco Longoni Sport 0.06 4 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 0.10 5 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Tacconi Sport-Vini Caldirola 6 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Acqua e Sapone 7 Gerhard Trampusch (Aut) Mapei-Quick Step 8 Sebastien Talabardon (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 9 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Collstrop-Palmans 10 Ruber Marin (Col) Colombia-Selle Italia