Photo ©: Sirotti
2004 Results Results Past Winners
By Tim Maloney, European Editor
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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.
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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.
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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.
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
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)