Race distance - 208 km:1. Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei 5.18.54 (39,134 km/h) 2. Daniele Nardello (Ita) Mapei + 0.11 3. Massimo Podenzana (Ita) Mercatone + 0.13 4. Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Saeco + 0.19 5. Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Asics s.t. 6. Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Refin s.t. 7. Giorgio Furlan (Ita) Saeco + 0.23 8. Fausto Dotti (Ita) Ros Mary 9. Angelo Citracca (Ita) Kross 10. Philip Buschor (Sch) Saeco all s.t. ReportRussian Pavel Tonkov, from Team Mapei, was the winner of the prestigious Italian classic, the Giro di Apeninos disputed over 208km when he easily beat the rest of the participants. Tonkov, who finished second at the recent Giro'97, finished like a champion at the finish line in Genova, with an advantage of more than 12 seconds over his teammate Daniele Nardello. The Russian cyclist finished off well the work done by his team, when they launched a tremendous attack on the last climbs of the race. Although the victory went to Tonkov, the attention was focused on Italians Alessandro Petacchi & Dario Piero for a long part of the race, when they were in an escape which lasted 144km, with a gap of up to 7 minutes. |