Giro Del Canavese - 1.7.2

Italy, September 29, 2002

Results

Australian Team Report

By Brian Stephens, AIS U23 Manager

The AIS Mapei Aqua Australian team raced one of the final events in preparation for the World Championships, next week. The Trofeo Sportivi Valperghesi, also known as the Giro del Canavese, is held at the base of the Alps west of Milan. The course consists of a 50km fairly flat loop followed by 3 laps of a 40km loop with a pretty solid climb in it.

The main break of the day went clear after only 2km and consisted of about 25 riders. Their cause was helped when the chase was disrupted by a big crash in the front of the pursuing bunch. With the gap at one and a half minutes the main field split on two over the climb with us having Pell and McPartland in the front group and Laidler, Bates and Gerrans in the first chase group.

When the break was at 30 seconds, Dave McPartland broke a spoke and needed a wheel, costing him his place in the front group which was now down to 9 riders. Over the last climb there were 6 left on the front group when David Pell lost contact and came back to the chase group. Now the Australians had to chase the remaining 5 but could not close the gap in time so, despite getting a workout in preparation for the Worlds, came away without a result.

Ivan Ravaoli won the race from the Italian National team. Next week is the Piccolo Giro Lombardia, then the World Championships in Belgium.

Results - 170 km

1 Ivan Ravaioli (Italian National Team)          3.42.21 (45.064 km/h)
2 Enrico Franzoi (Trevigiana)                       0.09
3 Alexander Arekeev (Russian National Team)
4 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Koèstal Sidi Colnago)
5 Pasquale Muto (Italian National Team)
6 Alexander Balenov (Impruneta)                     0.14
7 Antonio Bucciero (Italian National Team)          0.21
8 Claudio Corioni (Egidio Unidelta)
9 Daniele Pietropolli (Italian National Team)
10 Fabrizio Amerighi (Dal Fiume)