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42nd Trofeo Laigueglia - 1.1

Italy, February 15, 2005

2004 Results    Results    Past Winners

Kirchen sprints home in Laigueglia for third consecutive Fassa Bortolo win

By Tim Maloney, European Editor

Kim Kirchen (Fassa Bortolo)
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On a perfect springlike day on the Italian Riviera, Fassa Bortolo flexed their muscles in the 42nd Trofeo Laigueglia, the Italian season opener and it was 26 year old Kim Kirchen who took the winner's bouquet from a breakaway of four riders with a perfect leadout from Fassa teammate Dario Frigo. It was the third consecutive win for Fassa, and their man today was the talented Kirchen.

"Today we rode perfectly," said the Luxembourg champion, who notched his 7th career win in Laigueglia. "Frigo and I were in the break and we agreed to attack in the finale and see what happened."

"He's an outgoing rider with a big talent," said his Fassa Bortolo directeur sportif Alberto Volpi, "and when he finds more continuity in his form, he'll do some big things." Kirchen comes from a cycling family; his father and grandfather Jean were both riders before him and Kirchen's grandpa was twice fifth in the Tour de France in the 1930's.

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)
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A frustrated Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), runner-up today in Laigueglia blamed his bike for the loss, saying he couldn't get into his 11 sprocket for the sprint. "It's a result, but I'm looking for some wins," said Pellizotti. Third today was Ceramiche Panaria-Navigare's Paolo Tiralongo with Frigo in fourth.

The day at Trofeo Laigueglia began without two time champion Filippo Pozatto (Quick.Step), who was a non-starter due to sickness. Another non-starter was 2003 World Champ Igor Astarloa of Barloworld-Valsir, who wasn't allowed to start Trofeo Laigueglia due to irregularities in his racing license.

From the outset, Fassa Bortolo controlled the pace with strong riding by neo-pro Vincenzo Nibali and Juan-Antonio Flecha. On the first ascent of Trofeo Laigueglia after 35km, Florent Brard (Agritubel) went on a solo attack and eventually built his lead to almost nine minutes. Brard was away for 100km, winning two of the day's three KOM's but he was finally pulled back after the 135km mark. Meanwhile, just after the halfway point today as the race passed through Laigueglia, Luca Paolini (Quick.Step) crashed hard on his right thigh and abandoned.

The podium (L to R):
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On the final ascent of the day, the Passo de Balestro, Fassa took control, riding hard at the front and made the selection with their fast tempo, splitting the group into several chunks. Pellizotti tried to escape the Fassa vice grip by attacking with two kilometers to the KOM. Only Tiralongo, Frigo and Kirchen could follow and after the wild twisting descent back down to the via Aurelia that lined the Ligurian coastline, the quartet maintained a 30 second advantage. Frigo gave Kirchen a perfect leadout, while Marzoli (Acqua & Sapone-Adria Mobil) led in former European U23 champ Gobbi (Domina Vacanze), Flecha (Fassa Bortolo) and Swedish talent Lovkvist (Française des Jeux) at 37 seconds.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Fotoreporter Sirotti

Results - 183.3 km

1 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Fassa Bortolo                                  4.50.00 (37.924 km/h)
2 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi                                
3 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare                       
4 Dario Frigo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                                         
5 Ruggero Marzoli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil                  0.37
6 Michele Gobbi (Ita) Domina Vacanze                                      
7 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Fassa Bortolo                        
8 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Française Des Jeux                                
9 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Team L.P.R.                                0.51
10 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir                          
11 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                                       
12 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze                                   
13 Pasquale Muto (Ita) Miche                                              
14 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Tenax                                        
15 Crescenzo D'amore (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil                   
16 Moises Aldape Chavez (Mex) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare                 
17 Alessandro Cortinovis (Ita) Domina Vacanze                             
18 Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) Colombia - Selle Italia               
19 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra) Agritubel                                         
20 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française Des Jeux                              
21 Giairo Ermeti (Ita) Miche                                              
22 Marco Serpellini (Ita) Gerolsteiner                                    
23 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Team Barloworld                             
24 Alejandro Alberto Borrajo (Arg) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare            
25 Maarten Wynants (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim                    
26 Jef Peeters (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim                        
27 Ian Mcleod (RSA) Française Des Jeux                                    
28 Christopher Baldwin (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team            
29 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Domina Vacanze                                   
30 Serhiy Honchar (Ukr) Domina Vacanze                                    
31 Armando Rupa (Ita) Miche                                               
32 Angel Gomez Gomez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir                         
33 Oliver Zaugg (Swi) Saunier Duval - Prodir                              
34 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Naturino - Sapore Di Mare                         
35 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                                    
36 Rémy Di Gregorio (Fra) Française Des Jeux                              
37 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                                         
38 Bo Hamburger (Den) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil                        
39 Marc Lotz (Ned) Quickstep                                              
40 Michele Scotto D'abusco (Ita) Lampre - Caffita                         
41 Ryan Cox (RSA) Team Barloworld                                         
42 Elio Aggiano (Ita) Team L.P.R.                                         
43 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Colombia - Selle Italia                      
44 Kyrylo Pospyeyev (Ukr) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil                    
45 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre - Caffita                                 
46 Mauro Facci (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                                        
47 Jure Golcer (Slo) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil                         
48 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare                       
49 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Team L.P.R.                                         
50 Ruslan Ivanov (Mda) Domina Vacanze                                     
51 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) Quickstep                                       
52 Nicola Scattolin (Ita) Team Androni Giocattoli                         
53 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare                        
54 Cristian Gasperoni (Ita) Naturino - Sapore Di Mare                     
55 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quickstep                                         
56 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir                         8.20
57 Marco Osella (Ita) Team Androni Giocattoli                             
58 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska              9.00
59 Krzysztof Szczawinski (Pol) Ceramica Flaminia                          
60 Manuele Spadi (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                                  
61 Cristiano Frattini (Ita) Tenax                                         
62 Mauro Gerosa (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi                                    
63 Michal Precechtel (Cze) Ed' System - Zvvz                              
64 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska                    
65 Milan Kadlec (Cze) Ed' System - Zvvz                                   
66 Gianluca Tonetti (Ita) Tenax                                           
67 Jan Svorada (Cze) Ed' System - Zvvz                                    
68 Andreas Dietziker (Swi) Ed' System - Zvvz                              
69 Jan Valach (Svk) Ed' System - Zvvz                                     
70 Roman Bronis (Svk) Ed' System - Zvvz                                   
73 Freddy Excelino Gonzalez Martinez (Col) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare    
72 Alexandr Arekeev (Rus) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil                    
73 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Agritubel                                   
74 Konstantin Klyuev (Rus) Team Androni Giocattoli                        
75 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel                                          
76 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare                        
77 Simone Cadamuro (Ita) Domina Vacanze                                   
78 Pieter Mertens (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim                     
79 Raffaele Illiano (Ita) Colombia - Selle Italia                         
80 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team                   
81 Benny De Schrooder (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim                 
82 Patrick Calcagni (Swi) Liquigas-Bianchi                                
83 Benny De Schrooder (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim                 
84 Patrick Calcagni (Swi) Liquigas-Bianchi                                
85 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Naturino - Sapore Di Mare                         
86 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre - Caffita                               
87 David Loosli (Swi) Lampre - Caffita                                    
88 Andrea Tafi (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir                               
89 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Naturino - Sapore Di Mare                      
90 Giancarlo Ginestri (Ita) Tenax                                         
91 Alessio Galletti (Ita) Naturino - Sapore Di Mare                       
92 Massimo Iannetti (Ita) Naturino - Sapore Di Mare                       
93 Matej Mugerli (Slo) Liquigas-Bianchi                                   
94 Juan Pablo Magallanes Aranda (Mex) Team Androni Giocattoli             
95 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi                                     
96 Gianluca Bortolami (Ita) Lampre - Caffita                              
97 Giuseppe Muraglia (Ita) Team L.P.R.                                    
98 Paolo Bailetti (Ita) Team Androni Giocattoli                           
99 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quickstep                                          
100 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Lampre - Caffita                             
101 Cristian Moreni (Ita) Quickstep                                       
102 Raffaele Ferrara (Ita) Team Androni Giocattoli                        
103 Ivan Ravaioli (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir                            
104 Michele Maccanti (Ita) Team L.P.R.                                    
105 Massimo Mazzanti (Ita) Team Androni Giocattoli                        
106 Davide Vigano (Ita) Team Androni Giocattoli                           
107 Claudio Corioni (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                                   
108 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Domina Vacanze                                    
109 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim                  
110 Addy Engels (Ned) Quickstep                                           
111 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis Le Credit Par Telephone                   
112 Jeremy Maartens (RSA) Team Barloworld                                 
113 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Gerolsteiner                                       
114 Mads Christensen (Den) Quickstep 

Courtesy of Stephane David                              

Past winners

2004 Filippo Pozzato (Ita)
2003 Filippo Pozzato (Ita)
2002 Danilo Di Luca (Ita)
2001 Mirko Celestino (Ita)
2000 Daniele Nardello (Ita)
1999 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita)
1998 Pascal Chanteur (Fra)
1997 Michele Bartoli (Ita)
1996 Frank Vandenbroucke (Bel)
1995 Johan Museeuw (Bel)
1994 Rolf Sorensen (Den)
1993 Lance Armstrong (USA)
1992 Sammy Moreels (Bel)
1991 Pascal Richard (Swi)
1990 Rolf Sorensen (Den)
1989 Pierino Gavazzi (Ita)
1988 Paolo Cimini (Ita)
1987 Gilbert Glaus (Sui)
1986 Mauro Longo (Ita)
1985 Ron Kiefel (USA)
1984 Giuseppe Petito (Ita)
1983 Claudio Torelli (Ita)
1982 Teo De Rooy (Ned)
1981 Giuseppe Saronni (Ita)
1980 Roger De Vlaeminck (Bel)
1979 Pierino Gavazzi (Ita)
1978 Knut Knudsen (Nor)
1977 Freddy Maertens (Bel)
1976 Franco Bitossi (Ita)
1975 Giambattista Baronchelli (Ita)
1974 Eddy Merckx (Bel)
1973 Eddy Merckx (Bel)
1972 Wilmo Francioni (Ita)
1971 Italo Zilioli (Ita)
1970 Michele Dancelli (Ita)
1969 Claudio Michelotto (Ita)
1968 Michele Dancelli (Ita)
1967 Franco Bitossi (Ita)
1966 Antonio Bailetti (Ita)
1965 Marino Vigna (Ita)
1964 Guido Neri (Ita)