CSC’s Fabian Cancellara held on to win the 43rd edition of the Tirreno-Adriatico following Tuesday’s seventh and final stage.
Italian Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas won the 176km run around San Benedetto del Tronto.
But the 26-year-old Swiss, the current double world time-trial champion, kept hold of the leader’s blue jersey and set himself up as one of the hot favorites for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo.
Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) survived a flurry of attacks to win the 66th edition of Paris-Nice on Sunday after Luis-León Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) took the slimmest of victories in the final stage around Nice.
The stage, which featured three cat. 1 climbs, was trimmed by 6.5km to 115km due to a landslide on the descent of the cat. 1 La Turbie. A small detour took the peloton to the final climb up Col d’Eze.
Riders in the Paris-Nice stage race protested Sunday against a doping test control for Belgian colleague Kevin Van Impe, who was asked for a urine sample just as he was grieving at a
crematorium following the death of his new-born son.
The protest delayed the start of the final stage of the race as Van Impe’s compatriot Philippe Gilbert, a member of the international riders association CPA, took to the rostrum to say that while the riders were not against doping tests they wanted more respect shown.
Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) seized the lead in Paris-Nice on Saturday as Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) outfought a seven-man breakaway in the final kilometer to win the sixth stage.
The 206km stage was another tough one, the longest of the race. It featured seven rated climbs, including the decisive cat. 2 Col du Tanneron with 20km to go.
Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) leapt away from a disintegrating breakaway to win stage 5 of Paris-Nice on Friday.
The 172.5km fifth stage from Althen-des-Paluds to Sisteron, across the heart of Provence, opened with a challenging Cat. 2 in the first 30km and traversed three more Cat. 3s before concluding with an 18km loop around Sisteron.
A 17-man break including danger man Barredo, 12th overall at 4:07, formed up and took a substantial lead on the bunch before first Rabobank, then Gerolsteiner queued up at the front and began a furious chase.
UCI chief pat McQuaid on Friday promised to back reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador should he decide to take legal action over his exclusion from this year’s race.
The tour’s organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), ruled on February 13 that Contador’s Astana team would be barred from competing in this year’s race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years.
But International Cycling Union (UCI) president McQuaid said the decision is unfair.
Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) won Thursday’s fourth stage of Paris-Nice, a 176km grind from Montelimar to Mont Ventoux.
The course covered four Cat. 3 climbs before tackling Ventoux’s “undiscovered” north face — a 17km final Cat. 1 climb finishing at the Mont Serein ski station, about 5km short of the observatory summit featured in the Tour de France.
As has been the tradition here this year, the racing got under way early with CSC’s Jens Voigt taking a flyer at the 11km mark, joined by three others — Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Bernhard Eisel (High Road) and Dutchman Niki Terpstra of Milram.
Come the foot of Ventoux, the foursome still held some three and a half minutes over the chasing peloton. And that’s when Voigt made his move, chuggling alone solo toward the ski station.
First Gerolsteiner, then Quick Step drove the pursuit. It proved too much for young race leader Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), who fell off the pace at midclimb. Teammate Maxime Monfort stuck by him.
Up front, Voigt’s margin was less than two minutes with 5km to go. Behind, Robert Gesink (Rabobank) attacked out of the chase, marked by Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner), Evans and Yaroslav Popovych (Silence-Lotto) and Frank Schleck (CSC).
But only Evans could stick with the Rabobank man as he chased and eventually caught Voigt with just over 2km to go, and in the finale, it was the Aussie taking the stage win ahead of Gesink, with Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R) third.
Stay tuned for a race report from VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood, photos from Graham Watson and complete results.
Paris-Nice: Stage 5
1. Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto)
2. Robert Gesink (Ned), Rabobank
3. Rinaldo Nocentini (I), AG2R
4. Davide Rebellin (I), Gerolsteiner
5. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC
