2004 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners
By Shane Stokes, Irishcycling.com
The Settimana Internazionale Coppi Bartali gets under way in Riccione, a seaside town on the Adriatic featuring kilometre after kilometre of smooth, fine sand. In the summer the town is thronged by sun-worshipping holiday makers, but in Spring and Autumn it is bike riders at Riccione's many training camps who pad out the local economy; perfect, then, for the staging of the start of this 2.1 ranked five day race.
A strong field has been amassed by the organisers, with those such as 2004 Giro d'Italia winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Caffita), Olympic champ Paolo Bettini (Quickstep), his team-mates Michael Rogers and Filippo Pozzato, Stefano Garzelli (Liquigas-Bianchi), Cadel Evans (Davitamon-Lotto), Francesco Casagrande (Naturino Saporte di Mare) and Dmitri Konyshev (Team LPR) amongst the biggest names. Sprinters such as Ivan Quaranta (Domina Vacanze), Luciano Pagliarini (Liquigas-Bianchi), Guillermo Ruben Bongiorno, Graeme Brown (both Ceramica Panaria-Navigare), Jan Svorada (Ed'System-ZWZ) and Kirk O'Bee (Navigators Insurance) are also present, and will cross swords this week.
Things get under way today with two stages, the first a 95.2 kilometre circuit race based around Riccione. The riders will scrap it out on a rolling 10.6 kilometre course, rounding the circuit eight times before the final flat out, lung busting effort to the line. After a flat start in Riccione, the peloton will tear up a climb 800 metres long, the first 600 metres of which are at 9% and the remainder at 12%. The circuit then sweeps through the town of Misano Adriatico before returning to Riccione and the start of the next lap.
In the afternoon of day one a 12 kilometre time trial follows, starting in Misano Adriatico's Piazza Roma and taking the riders on a flat, technical course back to Misano's Via Dante. While this will undoubtedly favour the fast, well-drilled squads, the distance is short enough to keep things tight and interesting.
The race's shortest stage is followed by the longest on day two, March 23rd. Riccione's Piazza Roma is the start point for the rolling 206.9 kilometre road stage, which offers the first real chance to shake things up. The peloton will roll through the neighbouring town of Rimini, where the tragic local hero Marco Pantani spent his last few days, then complete a mainly flat 92.1 kilometres before entering the finishing circuit. The 494 metre climb of Monte Casale and the 429 metre GPM of Monte Trebbio will be tackled twice before the pancake-flat final three kilometres and the finishing sprint on Faenza's Piazza Popolo.
Stage three both starts and finishes in Finale Emilia, a 184.1 kilometre race along flat, fast roads. After 59.6 kilometres the riders reach Rio Saliceto, where they will do four laps of a 7.8 kilometre circuit, then swing round and speed back to Finale Emilia and do three laps of a 12 kilometre finishing loop there.
Stage four is seen as the hardest of the race and is where the climbers must make their bid for overall success. The parcours is saw toothed, but with the highest points all under 800 meters, it's not one which is exclusively for the mountain goats. Just over 27 kilometres after the start in Fiorano Modenese the climb of Montericco begins, an elevation of 550 metres in 23.6 kilometres. A short descent then a ramp up to the GPM point of Baiso follows, before the riders race on to next hill in Prignano. From there the peloton climbs to Serramazzoni (791 m) and the first passage through the finish line. The 8.1 kilometre finishing circuit there sees them descend and climb repeatedly, dropping and gaining 200 metres in height on each lap.
The final, 170.3 kilometre stage of the race begins on Saturday in Castellarano. Two laps of a 45 .6 kilometre circuit get things under way, with the climb of Montebabbio providing the ideal springboard for early attacks. From there the riders move on to three laps of a 23.8 finishing circuit in Sassuolo, which includes the 1.9 kilometre, 16-18% ramp up to Via Fazzano. It should be an exciting finale to five days of good, hard Italian racing.
Lampre-Caffita Fassa Bortolo
1 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) 11 Massimo Codol (Ita)
2 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) 12 Francesco Chicchi (Ita)
3 Damiano Cunego (Ita) 13 Mauro Facci (Ita)
4 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) 14 Kim Kirchen (Lux)
5 Andrea Tonti (Ita) 15 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita)
6 Marco Marzano (Ita) 16 Fabio Sacchi (Ita)
7 Gorazd Stangelj (Slo) 17 Kensichtsin Siutsou (Blr)
8 Alessandro Spezialetti (Ita) 18 Marco Velo (Ita)
Domina Vacanze Quick Step
21 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) 31 Paolo Bettini (Ita)
22 Cristian Bonfanti (Ita) 32 Antonio Garrido Lima (Spa)
23 Ruggero Borghi (Ita) 33 Ad Engels (Ned)
24 Marco Fertonani (Ita) 34 Antonio Pecharroman Fabian (Spa)
25 Ruslan Ivanov (Mda) 35 Filippo Pozzato (Ita)
26 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) 36 Michael Rogers (Aus)
27 Ivan Quaranta (Ita) 37 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger)
28 Paolo Valoti (Ita) 38 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel)
Gerolsteiner Liquigas-Bianchi
41 Ronny Scholz (Ger) 51 Dario David Cioni (Ita)
42 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) 52 Stefano Garzelli (Ita)
43 Marco Serpellini (Ita) 53 Devis Miorin (Ita)
44 Sven Montgomery (Swi) 54 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro)
45 Georg Totschnig (Aut) 55 Andrea Noe' (Ita)
46 Uwe Peschel (Ger) 56 Luciano Pagliarini (Bra)
47 Michael Rich (Ger) 57 Franco Pellizotti (Ita)
48 Matthias Russ (Ger) 58 Charly Wegelius (GBr)
Davitamon-Lotto Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
61 Mario Aerts (Bel) 71 Guillermo Ruben Bongiorno (Arg)
62 Christophe Brandt (Bel) 72 Brett Lancaster (Aus)
63 Bart Dockx (Bel) 73 Sergiy Matveyev (Ukr)
64 Cadel Evans (Aus) 74 Luca Mazzanti (Ita)
65 Björn Leukemans (Bel) 75 Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio (Mex)
66 Serge Baguet (Bel) 76 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita)
67 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) 77 Graeme Brown (Aus)
68 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) 78 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita)
Team Barloworld-Valsir Acqua & Sapone-Adria Mobil
81 Roger Beuchat (Swi) 91 Alexandr Arekeev (Rus)
82 Jeremy Maartens (RSA) 92 Ondrej Sosenka (Cze)
83 Matteo Carrara (Ita) 93 Bone Hamburger (Den)
84 Stefano Cavallari (Ita) 94 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita)
85 Luca Celli (Ita) 95 Andrea Masciarelli (Ita)
86 Eddy Serri (Ita) 96 Simone Masciarelli (Ita)
87 Enrico Degano (Ita) 97 Leonardo Moser (Ita)
98 Kyrylo Pospyeyev (Ukr)
Ed' System-Zvvz Miche
101 Jan Svorada (Cze) 111 Seweryn Kohut (Pol)
102 Andreas Dietziker (Swi) 112 Slawomir Kohut (Pol)
103 Milan Kadlec (Cze) 113 Przemyslaw Niemec (Pol)
104 Florian Stalder (Swi) 114 Maurizio Carta (Ita)
105 Jan Valach (Svk) 115 Antonio D'aniello (Ita)
106 Martin Mares (Cze) 116 Pasquale Muto (Ita)
107 Pavel Zerzan (Cze) 117 Giairo Ermetti (Ita)
108 Petr Bencik (Cze) 118 Fabio Borghesi (Ita)
Colombia-Selle Italia Tenax-Nobili Rubinetterie
121 Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) 131 Timothy Jones (Zim)
122 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) 132 Scott Davis (Aus)
123 Raffaele Illiano (Ita) 133 Christian Murro (Ita)
124 Luca De Angeli (Ita) 134 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita)
125 Moreno Di Biase (Ita) 135 Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukr)
126 Russel Van Hout (Aus) 136 Corrado Serina (Ita)
127 Leonardo Scarselli (Ita) 137 Radoslav Rogina (Cro)
128 Philippe Schnyder (Swi) 138 Gianluca Tonetti (Ita)
Navigators Insurance Cycling Team Naturino-Sapore di Mare
141 Christopher Baldwin (USA) 151 Valerio Agnoli (Ita)
142 Siro Camponogara (Ita) 152 Francesco Casagrande (Ita)
143 Ciaran Power (Irl) 153 Cristian Gasperoni (Ita)
144 Kirk O'bee (USA) 154 Sergio Marinangeli (Ita)
146 Jeff Louder (USA) 155 Alessio Galletti (Ita)
147 David O'loughlin (Irl) 156 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita)
148 Nathan O'neill (Aus) 157 Massimo Iannetti (Ita)
149 Phil Zajicek (USA) 158 Filippo Simeoni (Ita)
Team L.P.R. Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska
161 Daniele Contrini (Ita) 171 Artur Krzeszowiec (Pol)
162 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) 172 Domenico Passuello (Ita)
163 Michele Maccanti (Ita) 173 Jamie Burrow (GBr)
164 Dmitri Konyshev (Rus) 174 Jonas Holmkvist (Swe)
165 Daniele De Paoli (Ita) 175 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe)
166 Elia Aggiano (Ita) 176 Aleksandr Kychinski (Blr)
167 Giuseppe Muraglia (Ita) 177 Dainius Kairelis (Ltu)
168 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) 178 Kimmo Kananen (Fin)
Ceramica Flaminia Team Androni Giocattoli-3C Casalinghi
181 Stefano Boggia (Ita) 191 Paolo Bailetti (Ita)
182 Dmitri Gaynitdinov (Rus) 192 Raffaele Ferrara (Ita)
183 Stefano Guerrini (Ita) 193 Juan Pablo Magallanes Aranda (Mex)
184 Massimiliano Martella (Ita) 194 Davide Vigano' (Ita)
185 Manuele Spadi (Ita) 195 Marco Marcato (Ita)
186 Krzysztof Szczawinski (Pol) 196 Massimo Mazzanti (Ita)
187 Guido Trombetta (Ita) 197 Marco Osella (Ita)
188 Maurizio Varini (Ita) 198 Nicola Scattolin (Ita)
2004 Giuliano Figueras (Ita) Ceramiche Panaria-Margres 2003 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Team Saeco 2002 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 2001 Ruslan Ivanov (Mda) Alessio Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com